Pug Actually

By: Matt Dunn

Narrated by: Joel Froomkin

POPSUGAR'S BEST BOOKS OF JUNE

PARADE'S BEST CANINE BOOKS SUMMER 2021

Not all heroes wear capes. Some of them wear collars.

A Dog’s Purpose meets The Happy Ever After Playlist in this charming, pitch-perfect take on relationships as seen through the eyes of a wise pug named Doug, who is determined to play cupid to fix his owner’s love life with his own four paws.

Doug wants his rescuer, Julie, to be happy. He is loyal and loves her unconditionally—two things that can’t be said about Julie’s married boss and lover, Luke. Yet Julie is reluctant to break up, afraid to end up like her eccentric cat-owning neighbor. It’s a prospect that horrifies Doug, too.

Newly divorced Tom, on the other hand, is perfect for Julie. Everyone can see it—except for Julie and Tom. Doug is confident that with his help they will get over their initial animosity toward each other.

As Doug humorously navigates the quirks of human relationships, he knows he can’t give up on Julie—after all, being a “rescue” works both ways.

A delightful romantic romp!

Told from the point of view by Doug,who is a dog...Pug,Actually. Doug is a very wise and resourceful little chap whose only motivation is the happiness of Julie,his owner. This requires a lot of ingenuity because Julie is in a toxic relationship with Luke, a married man. Read on for a delightful account of how Doug leads Julie to her happily ever after. I guarantee you will enjoy the ride!!

Great narration… really annoying story.

The premise of the story is cute and I love the narrator, but the MC’s were really annoying. They were both so insecure, l can just see them passive aggressively hurting each other for the rest of their lives. I guess the HEA here is that they don’t subject two other people to their inane silent treatments.

Fantastic performance, awesome pug, terrible MC

OK, the good news: Joel Froomkin is even better than his usual excellent performing Doug the pug. Doug is a wonderful character and Joel just makes him shine. Joel is always a brilliant narrator, possessed of every voice you can imagine - his women are particularly wonderful - and his characterizations of the side characters here, especially Julie's father and BFF, are nuanced and distinctive and clever and funny and memorable.

The bad news: my god, the female lead is awful. Whiny, annoying, and endlessly obsessed with her married lover who is playing her as obviously as humanly possible, self-righteously justifying her affair with him, Julie's the kind of person whose calls I'd stop taking after a while. She doesn't deserve Doug, or her smart, loyal best friend, and lord knows I cannot figure out what on earth Tom sees in her. I kept waiting for her to experience some growth, or for her positive qualities to emerge, and it never happened. Her relationship with Tom is hard to believe in a number of respects. He has a strong reason to dislike her and why he instead starts courting her is inexplicable. Their banter feels strange, as she pokes at him when barely knowing him and it's not as cute as she thinks it is. I finished this book annoyed that I'd wasted time on it, and wishing Doug had an owner who wasn't an oblivious, self-deluding idiot.