Dog Days by Elsa Watson

Jessica is struggling to keep her cafe running in Madrona. Unfortunately, Madrona is a dog-loving city, and Jessica is morbidly afraid of dogs. Her fear of dogs has led to Madronians thinking that she's an unfriendly person and her cafe's business is starting to go downhill. As a means to get back in the good books, she volunteers to be part of the city council and makes preparation for the annual dog show. One dark and stormy night (literally), she bumps into a dog at the city square and gets hit by lightning. She wakes up and finds that she's switched bodies with the dog and the dog is now in her body. It's a pet version of freaky friday, and of course, there's plenty of opportunities throughout the book for some funny moments where the dog has no idea how to act human. Surprisingly, along the way, the author even manages to slip in a love story. Jessica manages to continue her infatuation with the city's vet while she's in dog form, haha. May I note that the vet, according to his last name and physical description, is Asian, whoohoo.
A light, fluffy read that was enjoyable. It might not be something I would pick up again any time soon, but I can envision myself reading this again on a rainy day in the future.

The Tailor's Daughter by Janice Graham

The Tailor's Daughter

I picked up this book because I was searching up books for sign language and the word "deaf" made this book pop up on the catalogue.
The story is of Veda, the daughter of a tailor, who is talented in his father's art but is destined only for marriage due to the restrictions of society at the time. By a twist of fate, she lost her hearing due to illness in her teens. Not marketable for marriage any longer, she got to work at her father's workshop. Throughout the book, Veda had a  few suitors, each with their pros and cons.
I loved the book in the beginning because Veda was a strong, female character and was opposed to marriage just so she can keep her family's business running. (One of the tailors who worked for her father pursued her and left with most of the workers after she turned him down). Veda's personality would probably be of a typical female protagonist in a book that's set in today's time, but set in (I think) the Victorian times, she was a huge feminist. Her father was also very supportive of her, which I'm glad. I can totally imagine the author purposefully creating more societal restrains on her, but she didn't. The story could easily have been transferred to the twentieth century and it would still work.
My only disappointment was the ending. Veda was a strong character up until she meets this broody, rich guy with a mysterious past (cue eye roll please). The infatuation was cute in the beginning because she was deaf by then and wasn't really thinking of marriage any more. But the latter half of the book, oh my goodness, had me cringing. I almost didn't make it through the book. Veda started getting a little obsessive of her boyfriend whom I don't even remember the name of (after losing her son at birth) and I hate how the author creates a whole story about a women struggling against societal restrictions just to have her happily married in the end. I would accept it if she had struggled and failed, but no. She happily accepted marriage and secretly tailors clothes for her husband and son. She doesn't even get credit for her work. Society thinks that her father tailors for the family. I was looking forward to her continuing to run her father's tailoring business, or at least get recognition for being a talented tailor (not seamstress, but a tailor!) But nooooooo, she happily settles in her role as an invisible housewife -- a role she had rejected for 1/4 of the book. Disappointing, to say the least.

Ruby Oliver Quartet by Emily Lockhart

 

The Boyfriend List: 15 Guys, 11 Shrink Appointments, 4 Ceramic Frogs and Me, Ruby Oliver

 
The Boy Book: A Study of Habits and Behaviors, Plus Techniques for Taming Them

 
The Treasure Map of Boys: Noel, Jackson, Finn, Hutch, Gideon—and me, Ruby Oliver

Real Live Boyfriends: Yes. Boyfriends, Plural. If My Life Weren't Complicated, I Wouldn't Be Ruby Oliver

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I actually read The Boy Book first because of the attractive cover on the library shelf. The penguin reminded my of Pengu. It's too bad the last book of the quartet doesn't have the animal/creature covers, I would hate to have a book collection with different covers, imagine that! *shudders*

The quartet starts off with Ruby seeing a shrink (I've forgotten the details as to why she ended up there) and the shrink suggesting that she write a list of boys she sees potential in as a boyfriend (don't ask me what this is supposed to solve). She writes the list, but following a fallout with one of her (supposedly) best friends, her list is photocopied and spread around. The rumour mill eventually runs wild and people think that Ruby's boyfriend list is a list of boys she's bedded with!
The rest of the series tells the tales of how Ruby navigates her way through high school hell and find out who her true friends (and boyfriend) are etc. etc.

The story, despite sounding like a lot of teenage angst, was actually a fairly good read. Though it did have some cheesy aspects -- like several suitors at the same time, oh my, such dilemma -- but I'm such a sucker for those kind of plots. The boy she does end up with (no spoilers! But it's easy to figure out earlier on) was so sweet. There's just such appeal to those sweet puppy love sorts.
My favourite of the quartet was The Treasure Map of Boys. I love the will they-won't they even more than when they actually become a couple, and that's what this book has to offer -- all the sweet little gestures that eventually deem this guy as THE ONE.
My least favourite was actually the last of the series, Real Live Boyfriends. The sub-plot where Ruby and boyfriend stopped talking to each other dragged on for too long and the final revelation as to why her boyfriend was suddenly so cold felt like the author was jumping a shark.

The quartet is a nice, easy read. Narrated in first person, Ruby was witty and, I think, voices many of those ridiculous thoughts that girls sometimes has (deadly sick in bed and boy comes to visit? That's right, throw on some make up, cause God forbid you look pale and colourless). The only downer was that the mean girls, and even Ruby's controlling mother, didn't really get any payback for the horrible things they've done. I guess that's life sometimes.