Taking the Lead

by Sarah Monk

[Leah]

Theodora is an artist with bright blue eyes and long chaotic hair which is supposed to be brown but gets attacked with colour as frequently as the canvasses she produces. Jonas is half Swedish, tall, with a halo of golden hair and jade green eyes and has channelled his mix of practicality and creativity into his own woodworking business. They are meant for each other. If only they knew each other. Their paths are tantalisingly close at times, but it will take something dramatic in both their lives to lead them in the right direction…

Up until I received a copy of Taking The Lead to review, I hadn’t yet read any of Sarah Monk’s novels. She’s written three Little Black Dress books but her most recent is my first. Sarah has also written under the name of Sarah Harvey previously, but, again, I have never picked up any of her books under that name either. So I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from Taking The Lead. I liked the sound of the novel, though, as I love books that feature dogs so I began it hoping for the best and, thankfully, I was not disappointed.

Taking The Lead is a very clever story, as there isn’t one story, but two. First, we meet Theo English whose boyfriend Michael persuaded her to move to Cornwall with him before dumping her unexpectedly. However, Theo falls in love with Cornwall and ends up buying Otter Cottage and finds herself a lodger in the shape of Dill. Then the second story introduces us to Jonas Larsson, a half-Swedish God who owns a woodwork business with best friend Wilko and is about to get married to girlfriend Natalie. When a dog named Dylan enters his life, he’s blown away by his love for this furry creature, but when Dylan goes missing, Jonas is distraught. It seems that Theo and Jonas could be perfect for each other… if only they could meet!

The book alternates between Theo and Jonas and as it’s told in third-person, it’s very easy for that to happen. I found it very interesting that the book was told in this way and although I found Theo’s story a little slow to start off with, I was immediately taken in with Jonas and his story. Theo’s story does eventually take off and I thought the balance between the two stories was fantastic. The plot of the two stories were very different but were still interlinked, if that even makes sense and I did wonder how Sarah Monk would pull off two separate stories but they didn’t seem like two separate stories at all.

I really liked Theo, she was a wonderful character and was very endearing as she found friendship with a homeless man named Geoffrey. There was just something about her that made her so lovely and likeable. I fell in love with Jonas the moment we met him, he seemed like the absolute perfect man and it made me sad that Natalie wasn’t jumping with joy to be with him! What made the book even better were the surrounding characters. On Theo’s side you have her best friend Imelda, her new friend Suze as well as Geoffrey and new lodger Dill. I loved them all and they all added to the story. On Jonas’ side we had his vibrant grandmother Blix, along with mum Stella, girlfriend Natalie, dog Dyland and best friend Wilko. Again, I found them all enchanting, except for Natalie whom I didn’t like at all. The cast of characters was so wonderful and they all had their own quirks that I found it very easy to keep up with them all. Even Dylan and Dill, the dogs, were enchanting!

Taking The Lead is very well written, and I found myself speeding through the pages wanting to see if Theo and Jonas’ paths would ever cross, and the hope that they would meet was palpable for me. Sarah Monk has written a very sweet and lovely story, one that will have people smiling as they read it and I adored the fact the book featured dogs. I’ll be certainly picking up Sarah’s other books as she’s a true storyteller. I was really taken in with this lovely doggy tale and it will warm hearts on the cold Winter’s nights!