ATTICUS

by S. Bennett

If you are looking for something different, then look no further but Atticus is just that, it is different…and for all the right reasons.
I was intrigued when I picked this up an initially got my head around the fact that one of the main characters was a dog. I know from the blurb and the cover you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know the part he plays but it took me a while to realise just how significant that part would be…you see not being a dog person I wasn’t exactly sure how much of an integral part of his owner’s life he was…I know now!
Life for Hazel wasn’t how she had hoped it would be but the day she stumbled across Atticus, she met a soul that she understood, a fellow creature that she could relate too. He may have needed her help to free himself from the predicament that he was in but their connection was more than that and Hazel knew it because, at that time, she needed him almost as much as he needed her.
Together they faced a journey to not only happiness but also salvation, as she set out to try to remedy all the issues in this poor dog’s life, it ran parallel with all the issues in her life and gave an opportunity for her to re-evaluate not only her life but who was in it.
A life of fear and hopelessness is no life at all and Atticus was the catalyst to her finding more and in the long run to rediscovering who she really was. I like that the secondary characters that came into play were challenging, that they were integral to her stepping out of the shadow of who she used to be and becoming the woman, she needed to be. I especially liked Charmin, her friend she was good for Hazel in so many ways.

A fantastically well-written story of who and what we all experience every day and how e work to use those experiences no matter how they make us feel. Life isn’t all sunshine and roses but it doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom either and this book is the perfect poster child for the fact that we are all a product of our environment, of the experiences, that we share, of the events that leave an impression and of the people that not only stay in our lives but also the ones that pass through and this brought that to the fore beautifully.
Written with more than a hint of humour, this has everything you need for a lazy read on a Sunday afternoon …but be warned you could very well need a tis