The Blessings Of The Animals by Katrina Kittle

Veterinarian Cami Anderson returns from a horse rescue to find her husband of eighteen years packing.  To her shock, he tells her he is moving out.  Even more shocking, within a week she discovers that he is living with a girl not much older than their daughter, a young woman that Cami had employed at her practice.

The Blessings Of The Animals follows Cami's life after this door slams shut on a big piece of her life.  Readers get a viseral sense of what this kind of betrayal feels like.  The book explores the depths of her shock, anger and despair, and how she begins to move beyond the nightmare to carve out a new life that expands her horizons and brings her contentment, love and even joy.

Kittle fills the book with vibrant characters.  There is Gabrielle, the couple's smart, vivacious teenage daughter who reacts by breaking up with her longtime boyfriend and refusing to let anyone get close.  Cami's birth family is introduced.  Her patrician mother and father, who raised her in the horse-racing and training business, show up in stark contrast to her ex-inlaws, who are a extroverted, noisy and nosy bunch.  Her brother is gay and in a relationship that seems very stable.  Friends surround Cami, from her best female friend to a male doctor friend who has been in her life since childhood, and who now wants to make the friendship something more serious.

Then there are the animals.  There is Moonshot, the horribly abused stallion she rescued that day, who comes back to life and health under Cami's care, all the while restoring her own sense of well-being.  There is a comic goat, a rescued three-legged ginger tom, and various other dogs and horses and donkeys.  The animals unfreeze her heart and help her remember what she loved about her career.

What a joy it is to find a book that you can't wait to pick back up!  Kittle's deft portrayal of this common situation and her insight into how life can start over will strike a chord in readers.  This book is highly recommended for all readers.