Review: Heart on a Leash by Alanna Martin

Taylor Lipin has made it her life's mission to leave her hometown and its ridiculous, century-old feud with the Porters behind. But when her sister needs help running the family inn, Taylor agrees to return to Helen, Alaska on a temporary, definitely not longer than two weeks, basis. Or so she thinks until she's quite literally swept off her feet and into enemy territory by three happy huskies and their drool-worthy owner, Dr. Josh Krane.

Though Josh didn't grow up in Helen with the rest of his Porter cousins, he's heard the stories: Porters rescue huskies. The Lipins are cat people. Keep to your pack. But Taylor is too tempting to give up—plus, his dogs love her.

As Taylor and Josh grow closer, tensions in the town escalate and the need for secrecy starts taking a toll. Soon they'll need to decide whether their newfound love is just a summer fling or if they've found their forever home.

The reason I picked this one is the cover. I saw it and knew that I wanted it to try this story. Cover love is a real thing. Since this is a new author for me I couldn't wait to jump into this book. I hoped that the inside of this book fit the wonderful cover. 

To start off I really liked Taylor and Josh. I liked how they acted with each other. Right away you felt the ease that these two have with each other. I felt for Taylor and what she was dealing with. The shock of being laid off and then her parents is a lot to take. 

Right away I liked Josh too. I did feel like he really didn't know his Alaska family that well so I was kinda shocked when his cousin just gave him a bunch of dogs. He didn't seem to mind so I guess that works. 

The best part of this book is the two main characters which are good because the book is about them. What doesn't work for me is the "Hatfield-McCoy" relationship that the two families have. I really felt it took away from the romance of Taylor and Josh. I really didn't care for Josh's family the most. I felt Taylor's family is more understanding or at least some of them.  

I think I would have liked this much more without the families. Which for me is saying a lot. I always love a good small-town romance with tons of family and friends that I can wonder who will get their stories next. 

There are many moments of the story that I enjoyed. Most of what I didn't was the families. Take them out of the story and it would have been really good. The childish behavior of the families was a little too much for me. I'd almost want to try the next book in the series but I'm worried it will be more of the same bad behavior. This isn't a horrible story, the moments that I did like are good. If you don't mind fighting families then you'd enjoy this. For me, it was a little too much. 

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