If You Loved The Dogfather and Must Love Dogs, You Need These Romance Series Next
For every reader who absolutely must pet every dog that walks by on the street, for everyone who knows the dog’s name but not the neighbors… this is for you.
If you’ve finished every last page of Roxanne St. Claire’s Dogfather series (Waterford Farm, the Kilcannon family, and all those matchmaking rescue dogs) then you’re probably looking for your next doggy romance fix. Good news: your next romance read with dogs is out there, you just might not have heard of it yet.
Three series from big name romance authors will have us curling up with Fido in his comfy doggy bed while we read.
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1. Jill Shalvis – Animal Magnetism Series
Book 1: Animal Magnetism
Set in the small, sunlit town of Sunshine, Idaho, the series follows a rotating cast of characters connected to a kennel and an animal hospital – which means dogs, cats, and assorted critters are all part of the story. The hunky leads don’t hurt. This is one of Shalvis’ best series! The first book introduces Lilah Young, a junk-food-loving animal enthusiast who runs the local kennel, and Brady Miller, a drifter photographer who rear-ends her truck and accidentally wanders into her world. Shalvis’s signature does humor, heat, and emotional depth, all with equal skill. Later books in the series even feature rescue search-and-rescue dogs being placed with wounded veterans, in case you didn’t get enough happy tears with the first books.
2. Stefanie London – Paws in the City Series
Book 1: The Dachshund Wears Prada
This is a glamorous, witty, big-city kind of series. USA Today bestselling author London sets her stories in Manhattan, and the dogs are as high end as the characters. Think more “shopaholic” than colorado vet.
Isla Thompson is a social media consultant who’s gone viral for all the wrong reasons. Theo Garrison is a reclusive publishing heir known as “the Hermit of Fifth Avenue.” When Isla takes a job caring for doggy Camilla, the dachshund’s antics keep throwing the two of them together. It’s been praised as “the romcom Carrie Bradshaw would have written if she were a dog person,” and the book was even adapted into an original movie for The CW.
3. Nora Roberts – The Search
Standalone (not a series, but unmissable)
Okay, we’re bending the “series” rule here for one book, but it is for La Nora! And no dog-lover’s romance reading list is complete without it. Set in the San Juan Islands of Washington State, the story centers on Fiona, a search-and-rescue dog trainer who survived a serial killer’s attack, and Simon, a reclusive woodworker who needs her help training his newly adopted Lab. The dogs in this novel are vivid and central to the story, exactly as you would expect here. This book is equal parts romance and thriller, so it’s slightly different from the other contemporary romances on this list. But you’re going to love it. I did.
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4. Kelly Moran – Redwood Ridge Series
Book 1: Puppy Love
Kelly Moran is an international bestselling, RITA-finalist author who has built a loyal global readership. Her Redwood Ridge series is set in a small Oregon town and centers on a veterinary clinic teeming with rescued animals, which means dogs (and the occasional dramatic parrot) are all over these romances!
Puppy Love opens when the recently divorced Avery arrives in Redwood Ridge, cradling an injured puppy she finds in the snow. Add in one irresistible veterinarian, Cade O’Grady, and a he-falls-first scenario and we are off and running. What makes this series unique is the emotional generosity of Moran’s writing. Her characters deal with real, complicated life – my favorite! – and the animal clinic setting gives every story a natural warmth. This series has that same big-family-in-a-small-town feeling from the Dogfather books.
5. Savannah Kade – Jade River Sanctuary Series
Book 1: Hidden Hearts
Savannah’s own words describe her as always having an open door for a stray. Inspired by a real beta test of a diabetic support dog, she built the Sanctuary in the Blue Ridge mountains to train a variety of support animals. The founder is floundering–she might have to close before they even open. The main trainer learned his skills in prison. The chemistry between them is sizzling and they aren’t even the main storyline!
Hidden Hearts is a bride on the run and wounded hero story that crosses the fuzzy gray line into women’s fiction. Ash Cooper has decided he’s done with family that scapegoats him, jobs that aren’t what they should be, and women who can’t love him back. His history is filled with bad choices. Brandy has a loving family, but she flees her own wedding when she overhears something that will destroy all of them. Once she convinces sanctuary owner Roz to hire her, Brandy becomes part of the ragtag family. The reader is invited along for the sense of struggle and pride of building something from the ground up…even if Ash and Brandy clash like fire and whiskey.
6. Roxanne Snopek – Wild Sky Series
Book 1: Montana Dawn
USA Today bestselling Canadian author Roxanne Snopek is, by her own description, someone who writes “with a dog or two” but look out, this series also features horses. This series is the kind of Montana ranch country feel we all dream of. This, like Kade above, also leans into the growth and story depth of women’s fiction.
Montana Dawn is the book that launched Snopek onto bestseller lists. A modern day marriage-of-convenience is hard to pull off, but Snopek does it and does it well! she also manages to have the cast of animals also have their own emotional arcs. But wait, Snopek was a veterinary technician herself, and that shows in the books. Our hero in book one is Carson Granger, who runs his family’s Three River Ranch. As a true romance cowboy, he wants to turn the family home into a mustang sanctuary. Enter therapy dog worker Aurora McAllister. Unfortunately, no one told her about the ranch’s estranged son, or the grim Granger history. Snopek also builds heroines that are fiercely independent (something close to my own reader’s heart!)
One More Thing Before You Go…
All six of these authors are still writing, which means your TBR list just got considerably longer. If you haven’t started Roxanne St. Claire’s Dogfather companion series, The Dogmothers – where two scheming grandmothers take over the matchmaking from Daniel Kilcannon – consider this your official sign.