Dog Days by Elsa Watson

I read about this book online, and I was curious - even though I don't care for paranormals, I have a weakness for "Freaky Friday" stories, especially if they aren't taken too seriously.  So I ended up buying this both in paper and in eBook form - happily Amazon takes returns.

Dog Days by Elsa Watson
(2012, Contemporary)  6/22/12
Grade: 3.5

Jessica Sheldon lives in a town full of dog lovers, but she’s branded as a “dog hater” after her dog phobia got out of control at her local restaurant.  When she finds a stray dog just before Woofinstock, she decides it will be good publicity for the restaurant - but something strange is going on.  When she wakes up in Zoe’s body and Zoe wakes up in hers, she has to find a way to switch them back - and still save the restaurant.

I was looking for a light and cute book to read at the doctor’s office, and this seemed to fit the bill.  It had a cute premise and some of the situations with Jessica the person-turned-dog and Zoe the dog-turned-person were very funny.  But the book just didn’t gel in the first half.  I kept getting confused about which character was talking, and the whole thing just seemed overly cute and not that fun.  But the book finally started to gel in the second half (either that or the drugs kicked in) and I ended up enjoying it.  I’m not sure I can really recommend it - the romance is quite limited and you need to have a high tolerance for cute small towns - but it was a decent way to spend a couple of hours.