Wednesday, November 5, 2025

Lucky in Love

by Tanya Schleiden from the October 13, 2025 issue

Tagline: When Tara's pup leads her to a handsome stranger, she's surprised to find out he's her neighbor--and that her dog has a nose for love!

Off the Cuff Observations: While I admire Tara for rescuing a dog, it's a pet peeve of mine when people can't control their dogs. This is why I have tiny dogs. LOL

I get a little confused when he asks her "Do you two live in the complex?" I was under the impression that she was on a longish walk.

Swerving toward the right, Tara detoured over to the deserted playground. Lucky trotted beside her. Nearing the woods trail, Tara knelt... 

They walked down the dirt path. Tara was admiring the sun shining through colorful autumn leaves when Lucky began to walk faster.

To me, this seems like she's some distance from her apartment so when she encounters a man tying his shoes a little while later and he refers to her apartment complex, I think it's an odd assumption.

This is a classic misunderstanding in which a character sees the other character with someone and assumes he/she is married/taken. This is a tried and true trope you can adopt as your own. Usually, this is all the drama there is, but this author threw in a black moment for the dog too, which is so cute. We worry that Lucky will have a problem with Jason's dog, but then we discover it's a beagle and all is well for Tara and Lucky!

Photo by Marc Dalmulder via Flickr CC License