"University of Texas senior David Hess doesn’t know what’s wrong with him. He’s been skipping school, getting into fights, his grades slip to barely passing, and he has broken up with his fiancée. After he rescues an abandoned dog on a lonely stretch of country back road, things start to look up–that is until he is blindsided by a crippling tragedy. Along his journey to recovery, a girl he met by chance keeps haunting his dreams and his thoughts.
But there’s a problem–he doesn’t even know her name.
Emma Mendoza is lamenting her turn in life: almost divorced, lousy job, no family, and no one to share her life with. She sits alone in her apartment thinking about her upcoming deployment, and about a boy she met. Who is he? Where is he? Why can’t she stop thinking about him?
And so begins a story about the love of two people transcending time and tragedy, and about the love of a dog that will never be forgotten…
“Smooth, fluid prose, with a strong emotional hook,” says a judge of a major metropolitan writing contest. Unspoken Bond is an award-winning, heart-warming story about how one unselfish act can have far reaching and lifelong consequences. It’s a celebration of the unspoken bond between a man and his dog, and the timeless bond between two people, held together by a whisper of a touch."
When I first started reading this book I was preparing myself for a heart wrenching story of man and dog that would involve a lot of tears and tissues. I almost talked myself out of reading it due to how close it might hit home. I am so glad I let myself take this journey with the author as he wrote a wonderful story about human love and lose, and canine love and lose.
This book was formatted with three parts, which I think was a great way to show the different times of David's life. The way the author set up the story starting out in the present, then going back in time, helps to take you through the most important and life changing moments of the characters. This also allowed for the reader to feel as if they we reliving the story right there in the living room with David telling the story. Reminds me of the times my Grandpa tells stories that take us back in to WWII.
I would recommend this book to any one that has a dog who has impacted their lives in some form or fashion. Along with a wonderful story about David and his pooch, you get to experience a once in a life time and unquie story about "love at first site". The ups and downs of this story come at just the right time to keep a reader engaged all the way to the end.
Thank you Blake for giving your readers the chance to enjoy such a wonderful book.
Rating: 4 stars
