But with the welfare of a teenager at stake, she must put aside rocky first impressions and work with a man who needs her as much as she’ll come to need him.
A Change of Pace is not without its drama, let’s just start by saying that. New Tobias is now in charge of a daughter who has her own set of problems, which includes coping with the loss of her mother. Newt and Millie have dealt with a lot in the time they’ve been a full time family and neither of them have quite gotten used to life.
Enter Freddy. Animal lover. Fighter of the downtrodden and all around superstar. Freddy uses her animal magic on Millie and a fast friendship is born. When Freddy and Newt meet it isn’t what either of them expects since they’d already met…to disastrous results.
A Change of Pace is a good story, filled with heartache and drama. At times the drama felt never ending but there is an emotional depth to this story that keeps you engaged until the end.
“Fine.” It’s the same answer Millie gave me yesterday and it doesn’t tell me anything. I read somewhere once that when a woman says ‘fine,’ it means she’s everything but.
“Anything exciting?” I try again, which earns me an eye-roll, and I turn my eyes back to the road.
“Actually,” she suddenly says, surprising me. “I met a dog today.”
“At school?” I’m confused; I didn’t know they let dogs in the school.
“Yeah. Dad, can we get a dog?”
“Wait. Is that even allowed? Bringing a dog into school?”
“I guess so. He’s some kind of service dog. But, Dad, can we have a dog?”
“What—like a Seeing Eye dog?”
“No, he belonged to a therapist visiting the school. So can we?”
“You saw a therapist?”
“It was just some kind of welcome thing they do with new kids.”
“That’s pretty neat.”
“Whatever, it wasn’t a big deal. Can we pick up a donut at Tim Hortons?” she asks, changing tracks at lightning speed. We’re coming up to Nobel and Timmies is just down the road. “I just really liked the dog. So?”
“Sure, we can.”
The screaming that follows almost has me running the damn Jeep off the road.
“Yes! Thanks so much, Dad,” she says with more enthusiasm than I’ve heard her express in the past four years. “Can we get one this weekend?”
Now I’m confused. Does she not want me to stop now?
“You want your donut this weekend?”
“Donut I want now.” She turns to me with big wide innocent eyes. “But we can shop for the dog this weekend?”
Wait. What?
Freya Barker inspires with her stories about ‘real’ people, perhaps less than perfect, each struggling to find their own slice of happy. She is the author of the Cedar Tree Series and the Portland, ME, novels.
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Awesome review! Thank you.
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You’re welcome!
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