Hope lives in New York City in a small apartment, has a boyfriend, a slightly dysfunctional family, and a big crush on a co-worker. She is facing several difficult and unsettling issues in her life at the moment. For one thing, she is deathly afraid of public speaking, and her parents have asked her to make a speech at their 40th wedding anniversary party. Then there is the boyfriend, Evan, who is obviously a mismatch in almost every way. And the crush on Elliott, the co-worker who hardly knows she exists.
When Hope finds herself single again after an extended relationship with Rick, her friend Pamela tells her to "embrace being single!" Pamela encourages Hope to go on JDate, a jewish match making web site. Eventually Hope does just that, and meets Evan who at first seems so perfect for her. But, of course, he isn't, and Hope has to decide how to end the relationship.
As far as the speech is concerned, Hope is absolutely terrified, but has stumbled upon a bulletin for a class titled "Overcoming Presentation Anxiety." Of course, the first thing she has to overcome is the anxiety of signing up for a speech making class in the first place.
Throughout the book Hope works to solve her dilemmas sensibly, but things just don’t seem to be going the way she would like. When she gets upset or depressed, it is her habit to visit a place in Central Park called Pug Hill. This comforting place is where pug owners from all over New York collect with their pugs to socialize and exercise their pets. Hope adores pugs and although she doesn’t have one of her own, she enjoys visiting the pugs at Pug Hill. But, even this fails her when one day she visits and there is not one single pug.
Hope is devastated when she learns there are not always pugs at Pug Hill. “For Holly Golightly, there was always Tiffany’s. No matter what was going wrong in her life, she always had Tiffany’s. For me, there’s always Pug Hill. For as long as I’ve lived in New York, whenever I’ve wanted to think, or relax, or be happy, or even sad, my destination of choice has been, without fail, Pug Hill.”
The reader follows Hope through her days, struggling with her issues in a humorous narrative that will make you smile, and even laugh out loud. It is obvious Alison Pace knows her character well, and she shares her knowledge with her readers. She also must have a love of dogs in general, and pugs in particular, as she describes the dog characters as vividly as the humans.
I would recommend this book to anyone who loves dogs and loveable, dysfunctional heroines. You will laugh through book and hope to visit Pug Hill yourself someday!