Book Review: Stay

By Melissa Amster

I had been wanting to read "Stay" for a while, as Allie Larkin was the first author I interviewed for Chick Lit Central. I finally obtained a copy of it this past month and once I picked it up, I did not want to put it down!

"Stay" is about Savannah "Van" Leone, who gets drunk one night after the guy she is in love with gets married to her best friend. While she is drunk, she watches "Rin Tin Tin" and ends up ordering a German Shepard puppy over the Internet. When the puppy arrives, he is the size of a grown dog and only answers to Slovakian commands. However, he leads her to a handsome vet and her life then becomes another series of complications, especially when the married couple returns from their honeymoon.

I absolutely loved this novel from start to finish. Even when I wasn't reading it, I was still thinking of Van and everything that was going on in her life. Now that I'm finished, I can't stop thinking about this story. It even made me want to adopt a dog (not that I will get to anytime soon, but maybe I can convince my husband to read this novel...) The only critique I had was that I felt there was too much swearing going on. It may have emphasized Van's emotional state from time to time, but I also didn't feel that it was necessary in order to carry along a wonderful story. If this were a movie, it would have received an adult rating for the language alone, even though the concept was family-friendly (at least for age pre-teen and above).

As I was reading "Stay," I was already recommending it to friends before I even finished the story. I definitely want to recommend it to anyone who wants a heartfelt story with genuine dialogue and a sympathetic and lovable main character (and I'm not just talking about the dog here). For a first novel, Ms. Larkin did an amazing job. I hope she continues to write stories as great as this one!