Gracie and the Preachery by T.L. Peters

About the book:
Young Brent Everett and his feisty Rottweiler Gracie hook up with a good-natured but ethically challenged street preacher with a roving romantic eye. Although Brent isn't entirely sold on the preacher's various money raising sidelines, he comes to love the raucous crowds flocking to the revivals. All goes well until Gracie bites a heckler and is thrown into the pound. After Brent rescues the dog the two vagabonds enlist the aid of a gorgeous bodybuilder with a brutal left hook to ward off a bounty hunter on their tail. The subsequent chase takes them to the harsh high country of Bolivia, where Brent discovers that there are limits to what even the preacher can get away with.

My Review:
3 STARS

This was a very interesting story to read. It is from the perspective of a young boy named Brent who has a mom that doesn't pay much attention to him and has numerous boyfriends. The biggest element of the story is about the boy and his love of his Rottweiler Gracie.  One day when Brent's mom was having a big fight with her current boyfriend, he left with his dog and went to a revival and met a Preacher.  The preacher ended up agreeing to let Brent and his dog stay with him and they started traveling and putting on revivals all over.  This is where all the adventure begins because the preacher has all these other sideline things he does that are mostly illegal.  Due to the love of this boy and his dog the preacher does start to change some of his bad habits and things improve.

I received a copy of this book to read and review from the author. My review is not biased by the fact that I was given this book. I HONESTLY read and review any book whether bought or given to me. That being said, the reason I agreed to read this book was because it was about dogs and I happen to have 2 dogs myself and enjoy reading about people and their relationships with dogs.  However, I struggled with enjoying this story.  First off, I had a hard time with the story being written in a young boy's perspective, it was slow and he didn't go in to depth in anything, which I guess would be true to the age.  I was so aggravated with the boy's mother and then with the preacher that I just wanted to scream.  I kept waiting for some huge turn around in the book and some life changing moment when things would improve but it just really never happened for me.  I was disappointed in the ending and conclusion of the story and wished things were more life changing or that it showed what long term affect all of this had on Brent.

Although I didn't quite enjoy the story, I do think there are others out there that would enjoy it.  It would be suitable for a younger age group, 12yrs and up or so, and also for dog lovers.  The strongest element of the story was about love. Love that the boy had for his dog and the preacher and how having a strong love could conquer all the bad in your life. I just really had a hard time with connecting to the story.

About the Author:

I am an ex-lawyer who has slept on the shores of Lake Titicaca, plays Bluegrass fiddle (although not nearly as well as I would like) and loves to give my dog long walks in the woods. In between I write novels.