The Dogfather is a contemporary romance series from New York Times bestselling author Roxanne St. Claire celebrating what she loves most: hot guys, great dogs, big families…and true love. And a portion of the proceeds from every book in the series will be donated to the Alaqua Animal Refuge in the author’s home state of Florida!
U.S Army Night Stalker Major Aidan Kilcannon leaves Afghanistan … Aidan Kilcannon leaves Afghanistan after his best friend, Charlie, is killed in action. Aidan’s only consolation is the knowledge that he’s now solely responsible for Charlie’s dog, Ruff, a rambunctious boxer they’d found in a bombed-out hospital in Kabul. With the help of Aidan’s father, the Dogfather himself, they transport Ruff back to the States. He arrives shortly after Aidan, and both dog and man are suffering from loss, trauma, and sudden change. Aidan is certain his only hope is the comfort and love he gets from Ruff, and that this dog will help him adjust to the staggeringly difficult transition from battlefield to Bitter Bark.
But the day Ruff arrives, Daniel Kilcannon informs his son that Rebecca Spencer, Charlie’s younger sister, has a hard and fast claim on Ruff and she intends to honor her brother’s wishes. Aidan has to relinquish the dog to her, no matter how impossible that is.
Beck Spencer is in Bitter Bark temporarily to help the only living relatives she has left. After losing her parents as a child, and her brother six months ago, she, too, hopes that Ruff will offer the solace and companionship she needs. But when Ruff finally shows up at her door, the man holding the leash is obviously determined to talk her out of keeping the dog. In fact, Aidan uses every persuasive power he has to convince Beck to give up Ruff…and he’s as wild and unpredictable as the dog they both want.
Everything gets complicated by Ruff, who has his own idea of who should be his master, making it impossible for Beck to win him over. But she’ll do anything to succeed, even work closely with maddeningly sexy and relentlessly determined Aidan Kilcannon, who has some skills she desperately needs to save her uncle’s local pizza business.
With an uneasy truce, a restless dog, and an attraction that bubbles like one of Slice of Heaven’s award-winning pizzas, Aidan and Beck soon realize they can help each other heal. But as they fall deeply in love and discover the true meaning of family and home, they’ll have to face the pains of their past if they have any chance of a future.
The Dogfather Series
Daniel Kilcannon is known as “The Dogfather” for a reason. It’s not just his renowned skills as a veterinarian, his tremendous love of dogs, or the fact that he has turned his homestead in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains into a world class dog training and rescue facility. Just ask his six grown children who run Waterford Farm for him, and they’ll tell you that their father’s nickname is due to his uncanny ability to pull a few strings to get what he wants. And what he wants is for his four sons and two daughters to find the kind of life-changing love he had with his dearly departed wife, Annie. This old dog has a few new tricks…and he’ll use them to see his pack all settled into their happily ever afters!
SIT…STAY…BEG (Book 1)
NEW LEASH ON LIFE (Book 2)
LEADER OF THE PACK (Book 3)
SANTA PAWS IS COMING TO TOWN (Book 4 – A Holiday Novella)
BAD TO THE BONE (Book 5)
RUFF AROUND THE EDGES (Book 6)
DOUBLE DOG DARE (Book 7 – summer 2018)
OLD DOG NEW TRICKS (Book 8 – fall 2018)
And more in 2019!
more
great read & great series
The Dogfather is a fun, fresh series. I really enjoyed Aiden’s story. Feel-good, emotional romance with both light and more serious tones.
Aidan is a career Army man until the day his best friend, Charlie, is killed in action. Charlie asks him to take care of his dog, Ruff, an adorable high-energy boxer. Aidan feels that it’s only with Ruff that he can get through being back home.
Unfortunately, Beck, Charlie’s sister, also thinks that she’s responsible for Ruff and that only Ruff can help her overcome the grief of losing her brother.
As Aidan tries to find his place at Waterford Farm, he offers to help Beck at her family’s pizza parlor. Their attraction turns to feelings and romance and Ruff instigates lots of doggie antics. This book had a lot of laughs and a wonderful love story with a HEA.
I absolutely loved this book and the whole series
Loved it
I love this series. Strong family, a business based on dogs-rescuing, training, caring for, finding homes-so much fun. And developing relationships for each family member. Wonderfully told story lines with likeable, strong characters dealing with life’s challenges like grief, disappointment & their own experiences. Read the whole set from the beginning.
Enjoying this series. Can’t wait for the next book to come out.
This series just keeps getting better. I have loved this series from the first book, but along the way I have fallen more in love with the whole family. Have been waiting for Aidan’s story and I was not disappointed. I cried while reading the first chapter. Ruff is the best and he helped Aidan while he was grieving for his best friend. Aidan comes home and tries to put his life back together. His father helped to get Ruff out of Afghanistan but there is someone who wants to take Ruff away from him. Becks still mourns the loss of her parents and now she has to mourn her brother. The only thing that will help her is the dog her brother found in Afghanistan. The problem is that Aidan wants the dog too. Apparently her brother decided to tell both of them that they were to have Ruff. Neither wants to give in or give him up. Will they be able to get through their grief and come to an understanding?
What an emotional funny, fascinating story! Once again Roxanne St Clair hit us with a book that taps into our soul by exploring love, loss and how different people deal with the both.
Aidan Kilcannon has spent his entire adult life away from Bitter Bark, North Carolina. His military career has taken him to hot spots all over the world; when one of those spots gets too hot, Aidan losses his fellow soldier and best friend Charlie Spencer. Aiden comes back home to heal, but that healing is not occuring. Home is not the same without his late mother Annie, reinforcing the feeling of loss and of being lost in his own family. Rebecca Spencer could not wait to leave Bitter Bark, as her memories of the town is just of loss and sadness; when her parents died in a car accident, “Beck” and her brother Charlie were sent to live with their Uncle Mike and Aunt Sarah there . While Charlie embraced making pizza at the family pizza shop and becoming fast friends with Aidan Kilcannon, Beck just felt the bitter loss of her childhood . But Charlie’s death and Uncle Mike’s stroke forces her back home to help Uncle Mike heal. When Beck and Aidan’s paths collide thanks to Charlie’s adopted-in-the-war zone boxer, Ruff – who Charlie appears to have left to Aidan, no Beck, no Aidan……well, get your tissues and heart ready!
I loved every single part of this book! The characters, the dialog, the aching sorrow, even the pizza and it’s missing “secret” ingredient. Interestingly enough, the two characters whose presence impacts everyone the most are the two who cannot talk . Charlie Spencer’s final words and wishes are what drives the plot, for its those words and wishes that are always in Beck and Aidan’s thoughts and actions. And then there is Ruff – loyal, protective and rambunctious. It is these two that manage to bring healing to Beck, Aidan, Uncle Mike and even Aunt Sarah. And the way it was done was some pure Roxanne St. Claire magic, complete with humor, tenderness, angst and all the “feels.” I do not mean to disrespect the Dogfather himself, Daniel Kilcannon, who as always is a strong, yet gentle force in every book, but Charlie and Ruff are the heroes here.
Once again, you will leave Bitter (oops, Better) Bark with a smile on your face and one of Granny Finnie’s sayings in your mind. As the Kilcannon family expands by every book, so will your love of this series!!!
WOW!! How could one not love Ruff Around the Edges by Roxanne St. Claire, book five in her Dogfather series, despite tugging at my heartstrings. Aidan Kicannon is the youngest and most sensitive of the boys in this family. After losing his best friend, Charlie, while deployed, he leaves the Army to return home, along with Ruff, Charlie’s dog. Returning to Waterford Farm is difficult for Aidan. He is a lost soul, not feeling as if he fit in with his family, missing his mom at every turn, and truly not sure what he wanted to do other than fly. Upon Ruff’s arrival Aidan learns that Charlie also promised the dog to his sister Rebecca, or Beck as she is known. Beck has loss her parents as a preteen and now her brother; she needed Ruff to help deal with her aloneness. She left her photography business and returned to Bitter Bark after her uncle suffered a stroke and to help her aunt run their Pizza Parlor. Aidan steps in to help them out in the restaurant in order to spend time with Ruff and Beck. The more time they spend together, the greater their attraction grows. Beck is afraid of loving anyone after all those she loved has died. It takes time apart, a sad dog, a horrific fire and the warmth of the Kilcannon family before Beck finds peace and love for Aidan. After all, Beck helped Aidan discover his place in the family dog rescue and training business, flying dogs in and out as needed. These two were amazing together, a great addition to the Kilcannon family and business.
I truly loved reading this book. Ms. St. Claire is a talented story teller, being able to top each of her previous releases with another don’t put down story. This amazing story gives Aidan and Beck a chance at love and closure with their past losses. It was difficult to put down Ruff Around the Edges making me forget the world around me. I was drawn me into this book as Ms. St. Claire put my emotions on a rollercoaster with all its twists, turns, highs, and lows. This book is a standalone but includes characters from the previous books in this series. I highly recommend this book to other readers and am looking forward to the next entry in this series.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.