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Summary
Summary
Part voyeur, part dreamer, Nina Shepard, a Manhattan dog walker, has been around the block, so to speak, a few times and yearns to find that something -- or someone -- she can be passionate about. She may not have a boyfriend or a real purpose in life, but she does have a job that offers her one great opportunity: the keys to her clients' apartments. And with these keys, Nina has the freedom to cross several foyers -- and a moral boundary -- and gain access to their lives...where she just might find the things that are missing in her own.Enter Daniel, a man she thinks she knows from snooping far past his doorway when she comes to pick up Sid, his Weimaraner. Except for owning a designer dog (rather than a stray from the pound), he seems perfect in every way. Now if only she could meet him.For anyone else that might seem simple, but for Nina life is complicated. Claire, her best friend, is an actress who loses every audition due to nervous sweats. Bono, a sullen and sarcastic eight-year-old, is neglected by his U2 groupie mom, one of Nina's clients. Mrs. Chandler, her eccentric neighbor, would rather discuss Barry Bonds than why the IRS is hounding her. And Isaiah, Nina's ex-con dog-walking colleague, champions the rights of pit bulls. And, of course, there are the dogs themselves: Wallis and Edward, the spoiled dachsunds; Che, the stone-deaf beagle; Safire, the bulldog who stares at walls; and Nina's own beloved mutt Sam. But it is Daniel who holds the key to Nina's heart. One moonlit night on a pier overlooking the Hudson River they are pulled into the treacherous waters of love. What she doesn't know is that Daniel is an imposter, pretending to be what he is not. And by the time she learns who he really is, after mishaps and mistaken identities, deception and lost dogs, it's too late. She's fallen for someone she never would have expected.The Dog Walker is the hilarious and heartwarming story about one woman's quest for fulfillment. It is about city life -- any city, all cities -- and the struggle to make real connections. It is about allowing oneself to love fully while being fully oneself. And finally, it is about life itself: unpredictable, joyful, and not to be missed.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
As Schnur's titular protagonist is well aware, being dragged at the end of a leash is hard work. Readers will find this labored first novel equally tough going, despite its cute premise and full complement of romantic comedy tropes. Nina Shepard's life isn't proceesing quite as planned. After leaving a thankless publishing job, she takes up what she intends to be a temporary dog-walking gig catering to rich and busy New York dog owners, feeling clueless about the direction of her life and even who she is: "When, at the age of thirty-five, you find out you've been wearing the wrong-sized bra for how many years, you realize one thing: you don't know much about anything." Given the keys to her trusting clients' homes, she develops a serious snooping habit. Of particular interest is 32-year-old Daniel Maguire, a hot lawyer, or so she thinks. When she finally meets him, he's not at all what she expected (in fact, he's Daniel's twin brother, Billy), but she falls head over heels anyway. Billy likes her, too, but will they be able to forgive each other's secrets? Former Delacorte editor-in-chief Schnur strives for breeziness but belabors the obvious ("then she chewed a nourishing breakfast"), and the twins plot device is creaky and superfluous. The dog-walking conceit will appeal to dog owners and city dwellers, but the novel lacks bite. Agent, Richard Pine. 6-city author tour. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Awkward foray into romantic comedy depicting a dog walker on New York's Upper West Side falling in love with one of her (human) clients based on the contents of his apartment. Nina, an erstwhile copywriter at Random House who burned out on the nasty antics of the publishing world, takes over her friend Claire's dog-walking business when the aspiring actress gets a part in a TV show. First-timer Schnur, the former editor-in-chief of Dell Publishing and Delacorte Press, provides plenty of cute scenes showing Nina walking her charges en masse and displaying her moral superiority over the pooches' actual owners, whose apartments she checks out (despite her moral superiority) while picking up the pets. One of Nina's favorite dogs, Siddhartha, belongs to a lawyer named Daniel. Without meeting him, Nina develops a crush on Daniel based on what she learns from snooping in his apartment. Of course, readers know right off from the description of the apartment that Daniel is actually a shallow yuppie, not worthy of our witty, pretty, and artistically gifted heroine. They might well wonder why Nina doesn't pick up on this, but that's okay because the "Daniel" she eventually meets is his identical twin Billy, an IRS agent using the apartment to stake out a suspect: a charming, mysteriously wealthy older woman who happens to be another of Nina's clients. Billy/Daniel and Nina have immediate chemistry, for no better reason than he's the sensitive romantic lead Schnur wants us to believe Nina deserves. Although the road to happiness can be rocky when one lover is not whom he claims and the other is a snoop, don't be surprised when Nina, Billy, and all the supporting characters (except chauvinist pig Daniel) reap love and success. Schnur's attempts at humor, alas, are gratingly obvious and annoyingly self-congratulatory, especially when praising Nina and Manhattan. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
New Yorker Nina Shephard is a thirty-something divorcee who quits her job in publishing and becomes a dog walker, a move that greatly disappoints her mother. While it isn't Nina's ideal job, either, it does allow her a chance to feed her need to snoop around some very swanky homes, especially in the apartment of one Daniel Maguire--bachelor, lawyer, and total cutie. Nina, though she has never met him, is madly in love with Daniel. But things are not as they appear, and when the dust settles and the truth is revealed, Nina and Daniel find they each have to come clean about who they really are and how they really feel. This first novel is an enjoyable comedy-of-errors yarn, filled with mistaken identities, eccentric characters, and lots and lots of dogs. The author takes these familiar plot elements and gives them an updated twist. --Carolyn Kubisz Copyright 2004 Booklist
Library Journal Review
This debut by the former editor in chief of Delacorte Press/Dell Publishing will delight and entertain both dog lovers and romance readers. Nina has left a secure job in the corporate world for the satisfying and surprisingly well-paid occupation of a New York City dog walker. Through her eyes, readers get to know the absentee dog owners as well as their pampered or not-so-pampered pooches. One client in particular holds a fascination for Nina: Daniel is a rich and handsome lawyer, and Nina cannot help snooping around his empty apartment when she comes to pick up his dog. When they finally do run into each other, they are smitten. Of course, that's only the beginning, because a case of mistaken identity, a sweet little boy neglected by his mother, an old woman with some suspicious ties to the IRS, and a cast of canine characters even more appealing than their owners seamlessly blend in this page-turner, which moves toward a satisfying conclusion. A good purchase for public libraries.-Margaret Hanes, Sterling Heights P.L., MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.