BooksChatter: ☀ Starting Over: Trina Ryan’s Dogs in Training [2]

Thank you for joining us on the Virtual Book Tour for Starting Over, a Contemporary Young Adult Novel by Sheri S. Levy (1 August 2017, Barking Rain Press, 206 pages).

This is the second book in the Trina Ryan’s Dogs in Training series.

Don't miss our latest interview with author Sheri S. Levy.

PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis and the Preview below.

Author Sheri S. Levy will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Please do take part: comment on our post and follow the tour where you will be able to read other excerpts (☀), interviews (ℚ), and guest blog posts (✉).

|| Synopsis || Teaser: Excerpt || The Series || Author Q&A || About the Author || Giveaway & Tour Stops ||

Synopsis

Trina Ryan’s challenging summer starts off with puppy-fueled energy burst as she takes on another service dog for training-an eight-week-old black Labrador named Colton. And to help explore another dream, she’s taken a job at the barn next door in exchange for riding lessons with the barn’s schooling horse. It doesn’t take long for Trina to butt heads with Morgan Hart, an award winning rider with a gorgeous thoroughbred named Knight- and a demanding, nasty demeanor with both people and her horse.

Adding to the list of frustrations is the difficulty in maintaining a long distance relationship with Chase, her first boyfriend from last summer, while trying to deal with unwanted attention from a new boy in her puppy training class.

At least best friend Sarah still has her back, but Trina wearies of Morgan’s constant insults and her heartless treatment of Knight, she decides to use her dog training skills to look underneath Morgan’s hostile attitude and develop a sense of trust.

Slowly, Morgan’s angry shield cracks enough to where she’s able to share a troubling family secret. Can Trina help Morgan confront her family problems and make a fresh start?

Teaser: Excerpt

At three o’clock in the morning, I sat with my butt squished against the wall on the hard tile floor, my forehead resting on bent knees. I’d given up going back to bed and waited for Colton’s next outburst.
     Seconds later he whined. I lifted my head as his nose poked out of the crate, sniffing. He tilted his head and toddled toward me. His tail beat back and forth. After a quick pee on the clean newspapers, he crawled onto my lap.
     He put his front paws on my shoulders, and his dark eyes flirted mischief.
     I smiled. “Ms. Jennifer and Mom warned me you’d be waking up all night.”
     Colton’s ears drooped, and I stroked his velvety fur. Cradling his plump body, I buried my face in his fuzz. I inhaled his toasty puppy smell, trying hard not to think about Sydney, the first service dog I trained.
     Sydney had come to me when his family moved away from South Carolina. At six-months-old, he was trained in his basic needs. He even slept through the night.
     During our beach vacation, Sydney had worked his special magic with Logan, a young boy with autism. My best friend Sarah and I had met his cute older brothers, Peyton and Chase.
     Sydney and I had snuggled on our last night and I’d told him about my memories of our year together.
     In the morning, I’d clenched my teeth behind a fake smile and returned him to be matched to his forever companion.
     Minutes before leaving the facility empty-handed, large, brown puppy eyes from the nursery had connected with mine. I’d decided to train another.
     Eight-week-old Colton was a blank slate. I would be his first and only foster momma until he turned eighteen months old.
     Colton nosed me again. He lifted his chocolate brown eyes to mine, and warmed the achy parts of my heart.

Starting Over
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The Series: Trina Ryan’s Dogs in Training

Click on the book cover to Look Inside the book on Amazon and read an excerpt.

Seven Days to Goodbye [1]

After Trina’s beloved dog dies, she swears she’ll never get another one. But then she learns about service dogs, and realizes that if she becomes a puppy raiser, she could train puppy after puppy and never worry about them dying. But like all great ideas, this one has a serious flaw: her first service puppy must be returned to his kennel at the end of their week-long summer vacation. And saying goodbye to Sydney is going to be much tougher than she ever imagined.

Trina’s last week with Sydney is made that much harder by her newly strained friendship with her best friend, Sarah, who’s become so over-the-top boy crazy that she’s almost like a stranger. Sarah is determined to have them hang out with every boy at the beach, but when a boy named Chase takes an interest in Sydney and Trina, it puts an even bigger strain on the friendship.

It’s hard enough to deal with losing Sydney, but now she may lose her best friend, too. And even if she manages to patch things up with Sarah—and figures out what to do about Chase—she still must face a daunting decision: is she strong enough to take on another service puppy?

[Published 25 August 2014, 212 pages]

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About the Author

Sheri S. Levy is the author of an award-winning debut novel in her series, Trina Ryan’s Dogs in Training. Seven Days to Goodbye, won in 2015, and her magazine article, Scent with Love, won in 2011, with the Dog Writers Association in the Special Interest category. She is an active member of SCBWI and SIBA.

After a twenty-five-year teaching career in special needs, Sheri remains active with tutoring teens in reading and writing. PAALS, (Palmetto Animal Assisted Living Services), has helped with her research on writing about service dogs and how they change lives. Sheri, in turn, shares her book proceeds to support PAALS.

Sheri enjoys doing author visits and teaching writing workshops. When she is not writing, she reads, plays with her two dogs, listens to music, and hangs out with her husband and family.

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