Rating: 
Summary: Not bad, but not good either...
Review: Sarah Hurlihy is in her forties, divorced and lonely. She spends her nights making new recipes (macaroni and cheese mixed with wine) and watching reruns of the Brady Bunch.
She takes out a personal ad and tries to find someone to date. After her first failure where she unknowingly answers her father's ad, you would hope that she would give up...but she didn't.
She now tries to balance the new men in her life: John Anderson: who is sweet, but it doesn't always quite work out. She also likes a dad from the preschool where she teaches: but she doesn't know if he is dating her co-worker or he is just overly charming. All the while she is trying to deal with the old men in her life: her brother Michael, who keeps getting kicked out of the house by his wife. Also her dad: who is looking for a "slow bloom of affection," and is continually running away from one of his psycho girlfriends Dolly, who thinks he is a "no-good alley cat."
I found the whole personal ad--finding love thing something to hold my interest at first, but Sarah doesn't like anyone and jumps back and forth between not-very-entertaining characters. I kept getting the names mixed up and found myself reading quickly to find something worthwhile. The other part of the book, she spends her time being lonely and hating her life because she is not as pretty as her co-worker, she has never been the "good looking sister," and she just wants to be with someone again. I found myself feeling more and more sorry for this woman who wants to fill the void by "finding a man."
I was attracted to the book because the cover caught my eye: the title written in black curly handwriting, two cute puppies held on leashes by two pairs of legs, but maybe I shouldn't have judged the book by it's cover.
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Beach Bag Book
Review: "Must Love Dogs" is fun and light -- perfect to toss in your tote for a quiet read on the beach. The main character, Sarah Hurlihy, is a forty-something pre-school teacher who decides to drag herself out of her post-divorce depression and "get back out there." What Sarah finds "out there" is enough comic relief to fuel her through one disasterous encounter after another. With her large and colorful family trooping in and out of her life at inopportune times with troubles and demands of their own Sarah's challenges are huge and her privacy non-existant. Every failed encounter, foible and mis-step is grist for the family rumor mill. I thought the main character's sadness over the end of her marriage was very sensitively woven into the story and gave a nice counterpoint to the spirit and determination she showed to rediscover herself and find a new life and a new love. Nice and light -- an average reader could read this book start to finish in an afternoon or two.
Rating:
Summary: Romantic and funny!
Review: A friend of mine gave me this book to take with me camping. I started reading there and couldn't wait to come back and see what happens at the end!The story is not new but the narration and the description is absolutely amazing.. real life situations and feelings.. you could understand Sarah's feelings and her depression, laugh and cry with her.. she has a great family around her who actually cares.. friends and coworkers from every day life.. Sarah's ordeal was how to start all over again at 40 .. to find someone to love and share her time with after her divorce . . we know enough about each character to make us understand Sarah and what goes on around her.. which I think made the story interesting and an easy read! It is like watching a movie where you actually know what would happen at the end but because Cook is such a funny and creative writer, you don't give it a second thought. You read and turn the pages, laughing, cracking up, feeling sad for her sometimes and can't wait to see what'll happen next! Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: Must Love Dogs
Review: A funny story (I did laugh out loud thorough out the book)about Sarah Hurlihy's life as a divorced preschool teacher. The story revolves around her interferring family and their lives, her job, a personal ad, embarassing moments in Sarah's life, friendships, a handful of men, a puppy St. Bernard, and a navel piercing. Enjoyed every second of this book. If Claire Cook writes a second book about Sarah's life, which I recommend she does, I'll be sure to read it.
Rating:
Summary: cute, funny novel
Review: Claire Cook has created a novel with an accurate, humorous portrayal of a woman searching for the perfect man. This book had a very catchy opening and continued its humor untill the very end. There are actual times in the book where the reader will laugh out loud. It is so candid and sincere and very relatable. The only negative I would comment about is the ending. I felt there was not enough information about the status of Sarah's relationship with John Anderson. It was very random and open-ended. Overall though, a great read.
Rating:
Summary: This book changed my life!
Review: Claire Cook's Must Love Dogs was good book to read in the hammock, under the shade or on a cloudy day. Even the summer air will taste blue against your lips and the wind beneath your naked toes will make your skin jump with suprise. The sound of children playing in the streets splashes into the pits of your ears, ringing and constant. Taking a breath, you turn the page, and with each new word you will linger for the love of what the main character will endure. When the last page comes, you dig your toes into the dirt and clench your teeth while the plot unravles into a beautiful circus of love, loss, and lust.
Rating:
Summary: Must Love This Funny, Tender Book!
Review: I enjoyed MUST LOVE DOGS immensely.
Sarah is a divorced pre-school teacher who's too emotionally tired to do much more than eat macaroni-and-cheese (substituting wine for milk actually works) and watch Brady Bunch re-runs.
She has a wonderful, nosy family, including her widowed father, who must've kissed the Blarney Stone several hundred times. When Sarah finally decides to do something about her love life, she answers a personal ad. Too bad the ad she answered was her DAD'S. LOL. Her sister Carol decides Sarah should place her own personal ad and takes it upon herself to place the ad and record the phone calls (since Sarah immediately deletes them all and claims she got no responses).
Sarah is very likeable and even though she makes some mistakes along the way, she eventually finds the right guy. But even more important than opening her heart to new love, is how she finds the courage (and the energy) to get a new life.
Rating:
Summary: Fun To Read
Review: I thought this book was fun to read. Some of the things in the book remind me of some one else I know trying to date over 30. I think it could have been more developed, but overall it was a fun book.
Rating:
Summary: A book about nothing
Review: I tried to like this book, I really did. On the surface, it seemed to have all the elements I'd enjoy - dogs, big Irish family, single woman looking for love. I expected a funny, light "chick" book. Instead, I got a long rambling account with nothing really happening and no discernible plot line. The main character, Sarah, is a recently divorced, 40-year-old woman with a big, interfering Irish-American family. Her family being Irish-American added nothing to the story, except that now and then her father would say things like "Sarah, darlin'." Sarah's sister takes out a personal ad for Sarah in an attempt to get her out and dating again. From this ad, Sarah meets John, later she talks to George on the phone but does not go out with him, she subsequently meets Ray without the help of the ad, and also meets Bob, the father of one of her pre-school students. In the meantime, her widowed father is dating an obnoxious, tacky woman named Dolly. Sarah goes out with Bob, she goes out with Ray, she goes out John. Besides her family coming over to her house a lot, nothing especially funny or interesting happens to her. The Seinfeld TV show has been jokingly described as a show "about nothing." However, that show was full of wit, humor and an actual moving story line. Here, this book is basically about nothing, too, except it's REALLY about nothing with no engaging moments and no real final resolution. I found myself struggling through each chapter hoping that something, anything, of interest would occur. Finally, unable to stand the tedium, I skimmed through to the end to see if it would somehow miraculously redeem the rest of the book for me. It didn't.
Rating:
Summary: Great Summer Reading!
Review: I've had this book on my "to be read" pile for months, and I am so glad I finally picked it up! It's the perfect summer read! It's light, refreshing and really funny. The main character, Sarah, is extremely likeable and her family is even better! I have seen some reviews who say the characters were underdeveloped and I don't feel that way at all. I think their personalities were very dynamic and it was easy to get a quick perception of them. Sometimes things are better implied, instead of blatant. The best part of the book for me was Sarah Hurlihy's big irish american family. I wanted to be a part of it! All in all, this is a sweet, funny book by a very talented author.
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