An Act of Devotion

I received this book for free in exchange for a fair and honest review.

An Act of Devotion is written by T. A. Ashcroft and revolves around the life of Franklin (a 3-year-old chocolate lab) and the humans whose lives he becomes a part of.  

Admittedly, I don't care how many times I was told that Franklin was a Labrador, I kept picturing him as a Golden Retriever for some strange reason.  This book is told from many points of view, occasionally even from Franklin, although I would have liked to have been inside Franklin's mind a bit more.  Ashcroft does a superb job of setting the scene of the story and making the reader feel intimately connected to Franklin; likewise, it was easy to connect to the main characters in the story. 

In the beginning there is some getting used to the varying point of views, as it is a bit unique from most books.  Ashcroft does an excellent job of showing both the good and bad of humanity, especially in terms to the treatment of dogs.  I will warn the faint of heart that there is some detailed dog fighting in the story that was really hard to read, even she was good at steering away from it before too long.  It gave an intimate look at the training that left me feeling sick at heart. 

I took longer to read this novel as there were times that I needed to take a break away from the horrors of those who do not feel the same love and respect for dogs that I do, and felt dread at certain parts.  Luckily Ashcroft does a stupendous job of ending the story that left tears in my eyes and a wish that the same ending could be possible in reality. 

The negative aspects of the story for me were that this story is very obviously written in the UK style (given that the author is from England), and it was slightly distracting with the different colloquialisms that are not familiar in US English.  I actually was under the impression that this story was taking place in England until Colorado Springs and Denver were talked about as the location.  There also were typos throughout the story, but not enough to make me exasperated, yet still enough to cause as a slight distraction. 

Overall I give this book a 4/5 stars.  I must applaud Ashcroft for taking on the task of tacking such a painful subject and still providing a feel good ending for the reader.  If you are an animal lover, dog lover, humanitarian, lover of what feels like a small town story, fiction lover or just like a good book on the short end of length, than this book is for you.

Letter Writing: Old Fashioned Romantic Gestures

I have a few fairly old fashioned tastes when it comes to what I want from a man and a relationship. One of these things is that I want a man who will take the thought and time to send me an actual handwritten letter, and send it through the mail with *gasp* an actual stamp. I find that I can eliminate a LOT of suitors with this one simple request. Their response to this request tells me a LOT about them. I get a lot of excuses such as; "I hate writing" "I have bad handwriting" "I could do it in a couple of months when I have more free time" "I don't have time for stuff like that" "I don't have any stamps or envelopes", etc. If you can't take the time to do something as simple as write me a letter, than I must not mean very much to you. If you cannot take the time to some something so simple and thoughtful and personal than you aren't very serious about wanting to court me. There is only one person who has actually said that they would write to me.... I find this sad, but also hopeful that all is not lost in the hopes of real love.

Another reason why letters mean so much to me is that when my parents got divorced, my mother gave me all of the letters that my dad wrote to her when he was away at college before they got married talking about how much he loved her and me and I can't read them without crying. I also have her journals from when she was younger and those are some of my most priceless possessions, along with photos. I have boxes that I take with me everywhere of every letter that anyone has ever written to me from middle school until now. The written word is so amazing. Somehow you take more time to think when you actually wrote on paper than you do on a computer or through text. It takes that extra thought to know that what you are writing will be there on paper forever.

I know that I wrote more before being a mother and now I have sucked at it in the written form, I have been documenting a lot electronically, but that could all go away one day. I keep buying journals that I want to fill the pages of, I have them next to my bed, I used them for dream journals and late night thoughts but I bought a bunch of fun new colored pens so that I can have even more incentive to write more. I need to get on it myself. I need to print out more pictures for Liam to have and to post up around the house and to have actual REAL photo albums for Liam to look through.