SEARCHING FOR THAT SPECIAL FEELING -- A REVIEW

Even as Holly Golightly's special place was Tiffany's, Hope McNeill's is definitely Pug Hill.

Before we get very far into this story, we learn how much Hope loves pugs—and the pugs that congregate on their own special place in Central Park.

Hope is an art restorer at the Met...in New York, of course; she is also a thirty-something single who is in a not-very-satisfying relationship with Evan at the beginning of this story. We also learn early on that Hope's older sister Darcy is the "pretty one," the one she, Hope, is always compared to and found wanting. Or so she believes.

Hope's parents are about to celebrate their fortieth wedding anniversary, and her mother has asked Hope to make the speech. Now if there's anything Hope hates more than a life without Pug Hill, it would be making speeches.

Which is why we find her signing up for a class in Overcoming Presentation Anxiety at the New School.

I loved the character of Hope—both in this story and the one that follows, A Pug's Tale—so for me, this one was a great journey we can take, along with Hope, as she explores her life, her career, and the men she has met along the way.

While preparing for a speech about that very topic in class, she remembers Benji Brown from high school. And in deconstructing what she loved most about that relationship, she discovers the necessary ingredients to what would make a happy relationship for her.

Funny, sometimes sad, and always captivating, Pug Hill is a story I won't soon forget. I loved how Hope, as the first-person narrator, seemed to invite the reader into her head and her heart. You can't help rooting for her, as she ambles along, hoping to find that special feeling we all seek in our lives. Someone who loves us just as we are. Five stars.

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