*I was given a free copy of A Right to Live in exchange for my honest review.
A Right to Live’s Back-of-Book Description
Born in a quiet neighbourhood in Mexico, Rusty is the only female in a litter of five puppies. Unwanted, Rusty finds herself and her fatally ill brother dumped at a garbage site. Struggling to survive at only six weeks old, Rusty finds herself befriending two dogs, Ayla and Lucky. Teaming up, they leave the garbage dump, trying desperately to find food, water and solace.
Fearing she’ll have to face the dangers and terrors of a world without an owner, Rusty luckily finds refuge with Lety, a woman who adopts Rusty in her time of need. With her friends disappearing, and a happy ending seemingly always out of reach, can Rusty overcome her tough start and find a place where she belongs?
My Thoughts
It’s incredible the amount of stories out there in the world just waiting to be discovered!
And A Right to Live is the perfect example of this – I never would have found it if the author hadn’t found me on Twitter! Christine told me what her book was about and being the animal lover I am, I couldn’t resist giving it a read.
It’s an endearing tale from the perspective of a down-on-her-luck dog, Rusty. The story starts out with Rusty being abandoned and continues to follow her through ups and downs, two litters of puppies, and a couple of different owners.
I personally cannot imagine the kind of life choices people could make that would put a dog in those situations. But unfortunately, this book is based on a multitude of true, awful scenarios. Aside from the characters and the emotion that went into the story, that might be one of the most interesting parts – the author actually witnessed real tragedy and put it into a book.
The story is a good reminder of the fact that life can sometimes be extremely rough for our furry friends. But, thankfully, there were some positive and funny moments in the story, which made for a nice well-rounded tale.
This book wasn’t very long – less than 300 pages – so it was a pretty quick read. I found it interesting, as I was continuously wondering what was going to happen next for the main character. However, I did think the writing was a little “juvenile” in the academic sense of the word – it was easy enough for a younger person to understand.
The author seemed to have an aversion to contractions, so there was a lot of “I am not…” “I did not…” “You do not…” and so on, instead of “I’m not” and “you don’t”. (I should note that this could just as easily be due to the editing as the writing, but nevertheless, it irked me.)
And while that didn’t really take away from the story as a whole, it did make me feel like I was reading a book that was written for a younger audience. Not that that’s a bad thing – perhaps this would make a wonderful YA book.
But I continued reading it, and I’m still happy to recommend it for its overall message of love and endurance in the face of overwhelming hardship. Plus, I love dogs!
But, unfortunately, I didn’t find that many stand out quotes.
Buy it now!
Favorite Quotes from A Right to Live
“When you lose something you learn to live without it after a while.”
“Tied together in hardship and kept together by love.”
*Love that last one!
In Conclusion
A Right to Live was a pretty easy, quick read. I’d recommend it to anyone who loves animals and especially those with a soft spot for rescue puppies. If you don’t mind your kids reading about abuse and natural dog antics – like humping – then I think it’s really suitable for all ages, like eleven and up.
Additionally, I so admire the authors intentions and goals: Christine Duts volunteers for an animal rescue and often fosters dogs in her home. Her dream is to run and animal sanctuary from her land in Los Cabos and hopes that she can one day support this dream with her writing.
A Right to Live is only available in eBook format. But it’s also only $1.99 on Amazon right now – so for less than a Starbucks coffee you could be helping an aspiring dog rescue and getting a cute “tail” to boot!
Thanks so much for checking out the review! Please consider sharing it with your animal-loving friends and/or pinning these quotes on Pinterest!
This post was proofread by Grammarly
Thank you for this wonderful review. The lack of contractions (do not instead of don’t) was applied in the editing process. The writing was purposefully made easy and it may perhaps appear “juvenile”, because the dog is telling the story and naturally it cannot have access to a large vocabulary. So, I tried to keep that in mind while writing the story.