3.5 Stars

The Vet's Shelter Surprise was a great read featuring a romance between a veterinarian and a volunteer at the shelter she runs.

Georgia O’Neill's professional life is in shambles when she learns her beloved aunt has passed away. Needing time away from LA, Georgia heads to Sunset County to deal with her aunt's estate. After she discovers some kittens under the porch of her aunt's cottage, Georgia takes them to the Sunset County Animal Shelter. Veterinarian Mel Carter hasn't met anyone like Georgia before and after Georgia begins volunteering at the shelter, it doesn't take long for Mel to start falling for the woman. But with Georgia's life being back in LA, will rural Canada be enough for her?

Georgia works in public relations and just prior to the events of the book she has a very public meltdown involving a client which leads to Georgia's boss strongly suggesting she take some time off. Her trip to Canada to deal with her aunt's estate is the perfect escape and gives her time to evaluate her life. Mel works as a veterinarian and helps out at the shelter which her uncle founded which is about to lose its' funding. Neither Mel nor her uncle can see a way out of the funding shortage which is actually something Georgia helps them with. I liked Georgia's ideas and how creative she was to drum up funding.

The romance in this book gets off to a fairly slow start although they're both attracted to one another right away. Mel had a relationship that went bad several years before the book which has led to her being wary of relationships. Mel's wariness definitely slows their relationship down as she isn't willing to open up and let Georgia in. As the two work together to save the shelter they grow closer and their romance develops from there. I was at times frustrated with Mel being so closed off which did hinder my enjoyment of their romance a bit. The two do work through their issues by the end of the book and I was ultimately happy with their romance.

Overall The Vet's Shelter Surprise was an enjoyable book and I would definitely recommend it if you're looking for a good contemporary romance.

I received this book for free for an honest review from netgalley. Thank you for the opportunity

Sweet with a tiny dab of spice and all the cute animals. So fun.

This book made me realize how much I love romance books where characters bond over a shared love of animals. So sweet!

Thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin Special Edition for this in exchange of my review.

This was a sweet, quick read. I loved seeing Mel and Georgia's relationship grow, it wasn't overly dramatic which was a nice change from some of the stories I've been reading.

Lovely and fun! As an erstwhile horse girl I really loved seeing this in a sapphic romance. Also wonderful to see a sapphic category romance.

This was a nice balance of light / cute / deeper emotional / community issues. Definitely a welcome addition to the cozy sapphic contemporary romance shelves!

I'm an absolute sucker for pet-based rom-coms, particularly if they're queer. So this sapphic book was pretty great for me, though I will admit that I found BOTH of the co-protagonists abrasive at points so it wasn't quite the perfect read. By the end I'd mostly come around to them, though.

A cottage country, small town romance with Mel and Georgia and a cast of various animals in a struggling animal shelter.
Douglas's storyline has touches of angst and teary moments and a sweet growing of emotion between the lead characters. One has shuttered her heart after a devastating loss coupled with deceit. The other has escaped to recover from a public meltdown and public relations fiasco - she's in the area to deal with her deceased Aunt's estate. The attraction is there, the connection the animal shelter but both women are cautious working through their emotions with a slight ripple in the plot before the HEA for all.
My first read of the author's work. This is a feel good romance with animals as the drawing card and shows the desperate need for animal shelters to help abused animals.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. For some reason,
I cannot access The Vet's Shelter Surprise. Given that it just released, I look forward to reading it out in the wild.

Classic romance with a sapphic twist. Can't say anything bad about this super sweet story. Puppies and kitten galore reallly add to the overall delight of this book.

Thank you to HARLEQUIN - Romance (U.S. & Canada), Harlequin Special Edition, and NetGalley for providing an eARC for a honest review.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
This is Harlequin’s first sapphic romance for their Special Edition line, so of course I had to read it! This book was cute and cozy, and I liked the small-town feel. Georgia is super sweet and big hearted, and it was impossible not to love her, while Mel was a little more guarded, but ended up winning me over too. Plus, the focus on animals was great.

got this arc from netgalley, thanks!

this was cute, but it didn't really grab me. i really loved that neither georgia or mel had any sort of "but is she even attracted to women?" moments. they just went straight to being queer at each other. and there was no homophobia at all. that was great. loved it, 100%.

however, i did absolutely skim the last 10% because i could see the last minute breakup/makeup coming, and i just didn't care for it. i didn't think it was necessary, to shatter and then have to rapidly rebuild a relationship that had slowly been growing for the entire book. i did appreciate the ending! i think it's meaningful that Georgia didn't just give it all up but is thinking more about what she wants and who she wants to be.

i don't have any major issues with this book, it just didn't keep my attention very well

anyways, there's my two cents. sweet, warm, and fuzzy until the last twenty pages or so. and then a sweet, warm, and fuzzy ending.

In this sapphic romance we get PR superstar Georgia and local vet Mel set in small town Canada. This starts out a bit slow while these two found their way to each other- Mel coming from hurt and Georgia from social media disaster. The animal shelter is a fun setting with all the animals they help along the way. Low steam once we get the slow burn.

Georgia O'Neill is in only visiting rural Canadian Ontario to help deal with her late aunt's estate. That, and to escape the PR nightmare that just blew up in her life. When she finds a new mama with a litter of newborn kittens under the porch, she takes them to the local animal shelter, where she meets Mel Carter, the vet who volunteers her time there. Mel has been hurt badly in the past, and is in no way looking for a relationship when a hottie Georgia brings in the stray kittens.

You really can't go wrong (with me, anyways) starting with little orange fluffballs. I loved watching the relationship between Georgia and Mel develop. This was more emotional than I expected, especially Mel's history. Super sweet sapphic romance with fluffy critters. Excellent writing, fun small town atmosphere, and two beautiful people falling in love and helping heal each other's past hurts. Great book!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced digital reader's copy (ARC) in exchange for an honest review!

This book was very middle of the road for me. It started strong; the writing style was fun and easy to digest and the animal names were adorable and amusing. I also found myself tearing up when Mel’s ex-fiancé was first mentioned and had high hopes that this would be an engaging story of two women overcoming their individual barriers to love.

However, as the book went on I didn’t find myself connecting to Georgia as much as I would have liked and just didn’t really get emotionally invested in the story. I also felt that the chemistry was lacking between the two leads and (for a Harlequin romance especially) the spice was almost nonexistent. There was a bit of a payoff at the end with Mel moving on from her past but it was pretty predictable at that point and it felt like the author (and I) was just ready for the book to end.

Overall a pleasant but forgettable read.

I enjoyed this sweet romance. It was my first female female romance and it won't be my last. And I look forward to more books by this author.

The Vet's Shelter Surprise was a mostly straightforward and predictable romance, which was honestly quite nice and cozy! This book had cute animals and a sweet sapphic romance, and kind of reminded me of a Hallmark movie set in fall!

It took me a little while to start rooting for the main pairing, but by about halfway I could see their chemistry start to come through. I feel like the start of the book was more of a 3 but closer to a 4 by the end so I landed on 3.5/5 stars for my rating (although I rounded to 4 for NetGalley).

Thank you to Harlequin and NetGalley for providing an eARC. All thoughts on the book are my own.

This was my first book from Elle and my first sapphic novel. I first wanted to applaud Harlequin for opening up their offerings to a different kind of romance.

I loved the shelter animals and all of their names that added a dash of lightness to the story of two people who are finding their way to love and away from their past.

I love the small town setting as well. It was the perfect backdrop for this story of healing and finding love. A perfect example of love is love.

This was a really cute read. I started and finished it in one sitting because I had to know what happened between Georgia and Mel.
I loved the real portrayal of grief both from Georgia’s perspective as well as Mel’s, both suffered losses but there were so different and left different scars on the characters. I really enjoyed this novel and will have to look at other works by the author.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this!

I finished this in a couple hours. I’m a huge fan sapphic romances in small towns! There wasn’t much character development or plot. Not a bad book overall. Cute and sweet.