REVIEW: What a Dog Knows by Susan Wilson

Title: What a Dog Knows
Author: Susan Wilson
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication Date: June 2021
Genre: General Fiction
Buy The Book: Amazon | BN | Audible

Description: From New York Times bestselling author Susan Wilson comes What a Dog Knows, another heartwarming novel about humans and the dogs that change our lives.

Ruby Heartwood has always lived a life on the move. As a traveling psychic, she makes her living working at carnivals and festivals and circuses around New England. It's a life Ruby has made peace with--settling in one place has never been for her. She needs no one, and no one needs her.

Until one night, when she is camped by the side of the road in her trusty Volkswagen Westie van, a fierce thunder and lightning storm erupts. In the middle of the downpour, she hears a distinct voice telling her to let me in. In jumps a little black and white dog, and to Ruby's astonishment, she can hear the dog's thoughts. Has she been struck by lightning? Did the storm do this? Is she losing her mind?

It turns out, Ruby can hear many dogs' thoughts. She decides to set up semi-permanent residency in the town of Harmony Farms, until she can sort out what is going on, and who the little dog, Hitch, belongs to. But some people in Harmony Farms don't want her there. And it seems that events keep preventing Ruby from leaving. What secrets is this town keeping? Why was she meant to find this dog? And what has Ruby really been running from, all these years?

My Thoughts: New to me author Susan Wilson pens a delightful and heartwarming tale about two lost souls who find their way to one another. One is traveling psychic, Ruby Heartwood and the other is a stray dog she calls The Hitchhiker, or Hitch for short. What makes this story all the more interesting and intriguing is Ruby and Hitch can communicate. Ruby hears the dog’s thoughts as clearly as she can hear her own and this opens a door for Ruby to communicate with other animals. Ruby decides to stick around the small town of Harmony Farms for a while longer than she normally would to explore this new addition to her psychic abilities and soon learns that home is much closer to her heart than the physical geography of the location.

I really liked Ruby and felt great empathy for the life she has lived, starting as an abandoned baby growing up in a convent, trying to come to terms with the ability to foresee future events and trying to help those these events affect, even though it isn’t always accepted or received by everyone around her. As a result, Ruby runs away and makes her way in the world surviving horrific events and struggling to raise a child on her own. This woman is a survivor in every sense of the word and having to rely on herself for her entire life has not hardened or embittered Ruby. She has a heart of gold that is shown in how she treats the people she meets in Harmony Farms.

The locale of this book is nearly as engaging as Ruby was. There are several secondary characters that bring a lot of vibrancy and charm to the story, both animal and human. Ruby doesn’t stay long in one place and though the reader has full disclosure of Ruby’s reasons for wanting to move on, I secretly harbored Hitch’s desire that they stay. I especially enjoyed the scenes where Ruby is giving a reading to help an animal’s owner identify a behavioral problem and hearing it from the animal’s point of view was equal parts refreshing and entertaining.

I listened to the audiobook and very much enjoyed the pace of the narration and the various voices and accents she used for both the human and animal characters.

My Final Verdict: Readers who enjoy stories that are relationship driven will enjoy this book quite a bit as this story abounds with relationships. Friendships, adversarial relationships, romantic relationships, family relationships and the special relationships we have with our pets and animals are all present in this book. I highly recommend this book to all readers who enjoy stories that feature animals and the lessons they teach us.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of What a Dog Knows from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.