A stunning debut that truly shows the importance of the complex relationship between dogs and humans by Holly B. Gutwillinger
Released this February in e-book and paperback format by Ramblings From The Little Shed Publishing.
Renley Nelson is struggling with midlife melancholy and fractured family bonds. Her marriage is crumbling, her sons are distant, and her mother’s mind is slipping into places Renley can’t follow. When her best friend begs her to join a dog rescue mission in Ontario’s northern wilderness, Renley sees a chance to escape her failing life.
As she helps the dogs heal and adopts not one, but two high-needs dogs, she finds the strength to mend her relationships and reclaim her place in the world.
In this dual narrative between woman and dog, both must learn that healing requires the bravery to stay—even when everything inside you wants to run.
Holly B. Gutwillinger is an author and podcaster from a small northern Ontario town. Her debut novel, North of Broken & Furever Home, launches February 14, 2026, exploring a woman’s complex relationship with her rescue dogs.
Holly’s writing is shaped by her deep love of family—she is the proud mother of two adult sons—and her commitment to the animals who enrich our lives.
She holds a certificate in creative writing from the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies and is currently completing her MFA in fiction at the University of King’s College. Holly serves on the board of her local writers’ guild and volunteers with the Women’s Fiction Writers Association.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.
Readers are shown how a young girl and her puppy came together in author Maureen Devlin’s “Let’s Go Backer and Backer: The Playful Puppy.”
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The Synopsis
In this heartwarming, rhythmic tale, a young girl adopts a playful puppy she loves with all her heart. Starting from the kindness of strangers who rescued the puppy, to the caring staff and veterinarian at the shelter, each page takes readers one step further back in the story. With each repeated refrain, children see the chain of compassion and care that brought the girl and her puppy together. From puppy park adventures to the puppy’s safe arrival at the shelter, this cumulative story celebrates love, community, and the joy of adoption.
Why This Book Benefits Children
Teaches empathy and kindness – By tracing the puppy’s journey from rescue to adoption, children learn how many caring people play a role in helping animals.
Builds sequencing and memory skills – The repetitive, cumulative structure helps children anticipate what comes next, reinforcing comprehension and recall.
Encourages a sense of community – The story shows how teamwork and compassion create happy endings.
Fosters a love of animals – It naturally introduces the concepts of pet adoption and responsible pet care in a gentle, engaging way.
How Parents Can Use This Book
Read aloud for rhythm and repetition – The patterned text invites children to join in, making reading interactive and fun.
Discuss each role in the story – Ask questions like, “What did the veterinarian do?” or “Who found the puppy first?” to build understanding of cause and effect.
Connect to real-life experiences – If you have a pet, talk about its adoption story, or consider visiting a local animal shelter together.
Encourage kindness projects – Use the story as a starting point for discussing ways to help animals or people in need in your community.
The Review
This was a fast-paced yet engaging children’s book. The author did an incredible job of utilizing bright and colorful imagery with heartfelt and sentimental storytelling. The writing speaks to young children and parents alike, and creates an emotional connection between the two that makes for a unique reading experience.
What stood out to me was the theme and story behind The Playful Puppy. The author did an incredible job of walking readers through the process of what puppies go through when they are adopted, from the discovery of the puppy by good Samaritans to the vets and custodians who care for the puppy and their environment in the shelter, and finally, the person who gives them a forever home. The backwards style of storytelling, going back in time essentially to show this process, was very creative as well.
The Verdict
Heartfelt, engaging, and thoughtfully curated, author Maureen Devlin’s “Let’s Go Backer and Backer: The Playful Puppy” is a must-read children’s book. The heart and passion for pet adoption this story brings to life, and the way the book’s imagery and emotional connection bring parents and children together will keep readers coming back to this book time and time again. If you haven’t yet, be sure to grab your copy today!
Rating: 10/10
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About the Author
Maureen Devlin is a Seattle-based author. She is a former lawyer and social worker and a forever Mom, Aunt, and Grand-Aunt. Her mission now is to spread the joy of reading and learning to young children. She strives to provide factual information to young minds in fun and fresh ways. When her own twins were small, she spent countless hours curled up on the couch with them, reading and talking about what they read. These “book fests” prompted seemingly endless questions about the origins of everyday things. Thus, the idea of going “backer and backer” to find the origins was born.
I have never been dogless. When I was a child, my family had a succession of pooches of various breeds. As an adult, my kids and I adopted a string of dogs, including two incorrigible beagles and a lovely golden retriever named Juliet.
After my children were grown, I decided to trade the cold winters of upstate New York for the endless summer of coastal Florida, where I could enjoy the sunshine and write more books. There was a hitch, though—faithful Juliet disliked hot weather, so my son gladly took her in.
Being dogless gave me the freedom to pursue new pastimes in my new home: paddling my kayak, exploring the beaches, and planning my next novel. But then, an emptiness hit me. No damp doggy nose nudging me awake in the morning, nobody wagging their fanny off in greeting when I arrived home. My beach walks were solitary, and the space next to me on the couch was sadly vacant when I curled up to read in the evening. My writing suffered, too. With all the disruption of moving, the daily writing routine I’d worked so hard to cultivate was in danger of falling apart.
What to do? I wasn’t sure at first. Then one day, while sorting through my boxes, I came across a photo of a house I’d lived in twenty years ago. I recalled the wintry day when my young family moved in. The driveway was so long and narrow that the moving van had to park on the road, and the crew schlepped our belongings up to the house by hand. The cheerful driver wasn’t fazed though, because he had a secret power hidden inside his truck. “Mind if I let my dog out to play with yours?” he asked, and of course I agreed.
Next thing, a little dude named Edgar came bounding through the gate. He had short, stumpy legs, a ridiculously long back, and tall, pointy ears like satellite dishes. Where his tail should have been, there was only a fluffy pair of buns that resembled oven-browned loaves of bread. Edgar launched himself across the snowy backyard like a ping pong ball on steroids. “He’s a corgi,” his owner informed me, and I was instantly smitten.
As I sat there with my memories, a realization dawned: I need to get a dog. A month later, I acquired Pekoe, a 10-week-old Pembroke Welsh Corgi, and all heck broke loose. Having a puppy forced me to rise with the birds in the morning, for urgent potty and walkies. The vet had warned me that corgis tend to think they’re the boss of the world, so I worked diligently on Pekoe’s obedience training. Needless to say, she wasn’t too psyched about the whole doing-what-you’re-told thing, but I persevered. I developed a daily routine with a healthy blend of play time, training and naps, and structured my writing time around it.
The discipline of a daily schedule worked wonders with my pup, and it also jump-started my stalled writing life. The four basic commands I taught Pekoe—COME, SIT, STAY, FETCH—were essential to her training; and in a happy coincidence, I found they could be applied to my writing as well.
Take COME, for instance. When the muse knocks, the writer must come to greet her, or risk her disappearing into the dreaded maw of writer’s block. Then there’s SIT. Your book won’t get written if your butt is traipsing around town, instead of at home in that desk chair where it belongs. And once you’re seated at the keyboard, you must STAY. Silence those pesky notifications and close the door, because it’s writin’ time! The last command you must master is FETCH. Your book ain’t gonna write itself, so let’s get after it! Clamp those needle-like puppy teeth around your story, give the muse a ferocious growl, and don’t let go until it’s done.
I’m happy to report that Pekoe has grown into a happy, healthy, and reasonably obedient corgi who only occasionally indulges her fantasy of being the supreme leader of the universe. With plenty of loving care, I hope to have Her Royal Corginess by my side for many more years and books to come. If you’d like a glimpse of Pekoe’s life of leisure, she’d be delighted to have you follow her on Instagram at #pekoecorgi.
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About the Author
Regina is a registered nurse-turned-writer who was raised in beautiful upstate New York, where she spent many happy years exploring the winding back roads and scenic hiking trails of the Adirondack mountain region. She recently traded the snowy northern winters for the tropical breezes of the Sunshine State, where her favorite pastimes are kayaking among the mangroves, strolling the gorgeous beaches, and attempting to teach tricks to her boisterous corgi.
Join us as we celebrate the blog tour launch of Down a Bad Road by Regina Buttner. You’ll have the chance to read an interview with the author and win a copy of the book.
Return to A Lit Life to read a guest post from Regina Buttner about how a visit to the Stillwater Hotel in Upstate New York inspired the setting for Down a Bad Road.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.
Author and dog trainer Jesse Sternberg offers advice, teachings, and instruction in how pet parents and owners can strengthen their bond with their beloved pets and gain a better understanding of the animal kingdom’s language in order to become the alpha your dog needs in life in the book “Enlightened Dog Training: Become the Peaceful Alpha Your Dog Needs and Respects”.
The Synopsis
A complete guide to raising and relating to your pet in a mindful way that leads to calm, intuitively-obedient dogs
• Reveals the principles of the secret language of the animal kingdom to help you communicate with your pet and read their signals
• Offers cutting-edge, unique solutions to everyday canine problems by looking at behavioral issues through the lens of your pet’s emotions
• Shares training exercises and powerful meditative practices to do with your pet as well as on your own to help soothe anxiety, overcome aggression issues, and transform tension into harmony
Are you aware of the body signals through which your dog shares his or her perspective of the world with you? Understanding the language of your pet allows you to communicate better and naturally transform your dog into a calm, relaxed companion for life.
In this guide, meditation teacher and dog trainer Jesse Sternberg reveals the principles of the secret language of the animal kingdom and offers commonsense yet unique solutions to everyday canine behavioral problems. Using case studies that resonate with every pet owner and dog lover, he explains how most of our pets’ issues arise from intense feelings caused by the environment, ourselves, or prior conditioning and how these emotions are acted out by the dog.
Combining mindfulness teachings with animal psychology, Jesse suggests training exercises and powerful meditative practices to do with your pet as well as on your own to help build a calm and peaceful mindset for both your dog and yourself, so eventually you will find yourselves aligned and able to gracefully master even unexpected situations. Enlightened Dog Training offers unique training techniques for soothing anxiety, healing neuroses, overcoming aggression issues, and transforming tension into harmony. Communicate nonverbally with your dog using the signals dogs use with each other and address problems with leash training and guarding resources and territory.
Helping you cultivate empathy, awareness, and confidence to become the peaceful alpha your dog craves, this guide shows how to strengthen your human-animal bond, communicate with actions, and command with respect and love.
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The Review
This was a truly thought-provoking and engaging read. The author perfectly balanced the book with memoir-style storytelling of his personal experiences with his own pet with the teachings and instructions that these experiences gained him and that he has imparted onto the reader. The descriptive nature of the author’s writing really helped visualize the steps the author mentions in this read and helps illustrate the mindset that readers should take with this subject.
What was so fascinating to me was the genre of this nonfiction read overall. As a lifelong pet parent and lover of animals in general, it was incredible to listen to the author’s insights into the relationship between humanity and their canine companions, as well as the way these majestic creatures communicate with each other and us as well.
The Verdict
A brilliant, thoughtful, and highly educational read, author Jesse Sternberg’s “Enlightened Dog Training” is a must-read nonfiction book for pet parents and animal enthusiasts this fall. With the pandemic forcing many people to stay home far more often than before, and the everyday routine with our pets changing along with it, it is so insightful to see the author’s perspective on dog training, parenting, and developing that bond between each other in this quick and engaging read. If you haven’t yet, preorder or grab your copy today!
Rating: 10/10
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About the Author
Jesse Sternberg is a mindfulness teacher, meditation instructor, and master dog trainer. The founder of the Peaceful Alpha Project, he has been working with animals for more than 30 years. Jesse lives in Toronto, Canada.
