Hopping to Happiness

This was a short easy read. Boy wants a pet, pet turns out to be a shapeshifter and love ensues. What’s not to love really. Unfortunately the book felt a little too simple at some points. I read it twice before writing my review and had the same response to it. The first two chapters seemed a little slow and very repetitive. Especially the one were Bryce continuously found multiple ways of saying being gay was not his fault in his introductory section. It was written like a hard sell when it didn’t need to be said that much. I don’t know why, cause I’d definitely go to a shelter first myself for a pet, but the idea of shelter versus pet store also came through like a hard sell mostly for it’s repetitiveness as well.

I did start to enjoy it come the third chapter though. The book flowed fairly well and had a few laughs, mostly due to Bryce in rabbit form. That’s when he and the writing seemed to be at its best. His reaction to things as a rabbit knowing he was indeed human was by far my favourite parts to read.

Taylor was adorable. Not much to say about him. The perfect child who just wanted a pet rabbit. Jess, his father, was harder to get into. Something about his thought processes on things seemed a little off in some spots. Like not quite adult. Almost like he just woke up one day and had a kid versus having had one for 8 years. Otherwise, he was well written.

The repetitive theme goes throughout the novel however. When the book drops out of dialogue into the narrative it seemed to explain things in circles almost as if it had to explain the same idea in multiple ways to be understood and in some instances the character speaking would use the exact same sentence they said before the narration to bring the dialogue back in. It happened a few times where a character would say something, that thought would be explained just a teeny bit too long and they’d come out of the exposition with the character saying the same line or something similar to begin the dialogue again. Pretty much like what I’ve just done twice, now three times if you include this sentence. It was a mild annoyance mostly cause it made me feel the author thought readers weren’t smart enough to understand what was being said. So it was similar to the overselling I’ve mentioned already.

Lastly, the two coming out scenes bugged me a lot. This is probably a plot spoiler but if you can shapeshift and you’ve been caught naked in another man’s home being scared enough to wait until he turns away to call the police the first time to shift is fine, but more than once? The only way to prove you’re not some stalker is for him to witness a change. But he did this multiple times, even letting him cuddle and talk to you about how he thinks he’s losing his mind. I didn’t feel Bryce was unintelligent enough to not just shift while he was looking at him. He was already raving if anything that would’ve stumped him into silence, that’s some good dramatic tension that would’ve been more believable instead of the multiple disappearing acts compounded with the fact Bryce, knowing he’s the rabbit, let him cuddle and talk to him about it like it wasn’t him.

The second coming out was more of the same. Children nine times out of ten will find something like this cool. The author even has Jess say Taylor finds the fact that Bryce is a rabbit cool and probably likes him more because of it. Stumbling their way through it like the previous moment gave off more annoyance than dramatic tension. Just shift already and then let the reaction dictate the tension. It didn’t really work as-is.

This book was a fun light read. I definitely enjoyed it. But, again, a lot of the drama/tension seemed a bit too simplified even for a lighthearted book. It was just long enough to dig in a teeny bit deeper but never quite went there. If you’re looking for a light fun romance very low on the angst these things sometimes have this is the book for you. It doesn’t disappoint but personally, I wish it got more in-depth so the relationship would be more rewarding as a reader. There’s no real meat here so it left me with an underdeveloped feeling.