Chez Stinky

An Alpine Grove Romantic Comedy #1

by Susan C. Daffron

Kat Stevens is a slightly insecure, mostly bored technical writer who likes her cat a lot more than her boss. She hasn't laid eyes on her great aunt Abigail since she was eight, so she’s stumped when she inherits Abgail's house in the small hamlet of Alpine Grove.

Kat's uncomplicated life gets decidedly less so when she discovers the inheritance comes with some hairy conditions: four dogs and five cats that her aunt wanted her to love as her own. Of course, the house smells like a barn--with a touch of antique skunk--and, naturally, has serious roof issues. And that's before the three-legged cat gets stuck in the wall and the shower goes kablooey.

When Kat meets Joel, an unemployed techie type with no love lost for his sister, Kat looks past his obvious flaws, given his timely and desirable skill set: a talent for fixing things (and his own tools).

Despite out-of-control dogs, cat fights, dust dinosaurs, massive spiders and an old grizzled hippie passed out in the yard, Kat discovers the tranquility of the forests of Alpine Grove starting to seep into her soul.

And why she can't she stop thinking about Joel?

Genres: Romance, Chick Lit, Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Ebooks, Amazon

300 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 18, 2013

About the author

Susan Daffron is the author of the Alpine Grove Romantic Comedies and a number of award-winning nonfiction books, including several about pet care and animal rescue. She lives in a small town in northern Idaho and shares her life with her husband and two very furry dogs.

When she's not writing novels, Susan works as the president of Logical Expressions, Inc. You can read more about her at her website SusanDaffron.com.

Susan was the President and Founder of the National Association of Pet Rescue Professionals (NAPRP) and the president of the Small Publishers Artists and Writers Network.

Reviews

[Carol [Goodreads Addict] · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chez Stinky is book one in the series, An Alpine Grove Romantic Comedy by Susan C. Daffron. This is my first book by this author and I chose it from the adorable cover alone.

Katherine “Kat” Stevens is living a pretty boring, hum-drum life. She lives in her little apartment with her cat and works as a technical writer/editor. She always wanted to be a writer but never thought she’d end up writing technical books. But she had to pay the rent somehow. Her boss has always been somewhat weird but lately his weird level seems to be getting weirder. And then, she got the phone call that changed everything. Her Great Aunt Abigail died. An Aunt she hadn’t seen since she was a little girl. It seems her Aunt left her house and a crazy assortment of dogs and cats to Kat. But the stipulations of the will were that Kat had to move back to Alpine Grove to live in the house full time and care for the pets. Her care of the animals also had to be approved of by her Aunt’s friend, Louise.

“Her quiet and slightly boring life was about to get a lot more complicated.”

“Within the last three days, Kat had gone from a quiet and more-or-less worry-free, flexible existence to being essentially homeless with a bunch of tough grown-up decisions to make.”



Kat is faced with a house that is badly in need of repairs, has a mysterious and very unpleasant odor, dogs (and cats) that each have their own challenges to overcome, and a very handsome neighbor who also has some skills as a handyman.



Kat, though, considers herself a city girl. Can she really be happy in the tiny town of Alpine Grove? And what is up with Louise? It seems like she hates her and is just trying to find a reason not to approve the inheritance.

Whenever Joel, the very easy to look at neighbor, is around, Kat’s heart does that little fluttery thing. It might be worth hanging around for awhile just to get to know him better.

Kat’s life continues to get more complicated. Things at work go from bad to worse. The more time she spends in Alpine Grove, the more she falls in love with the dogs. She actually takes the time to get books on canine problem behavior and comes up with some pretty innovative ideas on how to help them. The attraction between she and Joel get stronger as well.

But Louise isn’t the only road block Kat will have in trying to follow her Aunt’s wishes.



This is a cute story with lots of tail wagging and awesome general cuteness where the dogs are concerned. And poor Kat. Her life just gets more and more crazy and complicated. This is a complete story. Book two, Fuzzy Logic, centers on the town librarian.

[Sam Parsons · Rating 1 out of 5]

I actually kinda liked the idea behind the story, but I could not get into the book. It was horribly written and edited. For example, When Kat set up a dinner 'date' with Larry to go over the will, the phone call ended with Larry saying "I'll pick you up at seven".(Pg. 177; Kindle). And then she goes to the restaurant by herself " Thank goodness she had driven her own car to the restaurant, thus averting a long uncomfortable drive back out to Chez Stinky..."(Pg. 192; Kindle).

There were quite a few instances where it looks like a thesaurus was used to expand the vocabulary of the novel, this made reading extremely difficult as the words were not used in the proper context.

Also, what was with the hating on girls whose names were spelt with an 'i' at the end.

To top it off the book just ends. No cliffhanger, no conclusion, just ends. I mean, there was an Epilogue, but it wasn't really.

Overall, I would not recommend anyone read this unless the want to get a headache.

[Joan]

Dnf'd at 27% when it seemed to be little more than slapstick humour involving animals.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was very flat, I don't know how else to explain it. Nothing ever got exciting throughout the plot, just kept on truckin' and ended very neatly with everything all in place a little too easily for my taste... It was kind of blah... I had higher hopes for it to be more funny and more exciting of a plot, there definitely was opportunity throughout the plot for more excitement, it just never took off like that.

For example, She finds out that her life long mother isn't her real Mother and that she was adopted, kind of close to the end of the book, and nothing happens with that, it was like she didn't care too much. That is just so unrealistic to me... And that right there was an opportunity for the book to take off and become more and it just fell flat.

[Lola Karns · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute throwback story.

[Bea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute and sweet, loved the animals.

[Kelly Mccurdy · Rating 4 out of 5]

~~I was gifted this book in exchange for an honest review~~

This is the first book that I have read by Susan. It isn't going to be the last. I would call this book a romantic comedy, or at least I think it is. I laughed at some of the antics that the dogs were doing because it is something that my dog would do.

Kat Stevens gets some news that is going to change her life either for the better or for the worse. The only thing that she has to decide is if she is going to take care of her late aunts cats and dogs. Kat is all about the city, so she isn't sure if she can live 2 hours away from the city in the forest. Can she leave her big city life with her apartment and job to take care of some animals?

This book will have to laughing as you can visualize what the animals are doing. The animals are great in this book, they have their own personality, and I love that! Susan has made each animal a people. And if you are an animal lover, then your pets are people.

[Carole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the Secondary Characters - her friend, her boss, her colleague, the Property Manager, Louise for most of the story (meanies in book) were caricatures or archetypes.

Some of the information about her and his job rang false and the office environment was so inappropriate it was unbelievable and her understanding of allergies and allergic reactions were just silly.

I was engaged and interested in the first third of the book (3 Star) but the more I read, the less I was interested.

Some of the dialogue was inane (in the guise of being witty) and some of the conversations between the hero and heroine I found boring.

Showed promise, but did not deliver for me. Final Rating: 2 Stars

[Dallass · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, but dated

I quite enjoyed this story. It feels like a light romance, but it does have a slight element of cosy mystery as the inheritance issues unfold. It’s not fast paced, but the characters, both human and four (and three) footed, make up for the slower pace.

Chez Stinky, appropriately named by the way, can be read as a stand alone if you don’t feel inspired to continue on, so don’t worry about that dreaded cliffhanger ending to drag you down.

3 stars ⭐️

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cute story. I enjoyed reading it and reading about the character growing. I love the way the author explained the animals, the smells, the hair, etc. I would read more in this series.

[Annette Dahl "Old Vicarious Reader" · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four Dogs and Five Cats

As an animal lover I really enjoyed this very cute story. I guess I never really knew what the Chick Lit genre is… If it’s always like this one I’m good with it. Because, this sweet tale was like Goldilocks’ porridge, not too hot, not too cold, it was just right. It had a lot of heavy Canoodling, but No Coitus...LOL

This was my first read by this author, and I thought the writing was excellent.

Great Story – Excellent Writing  – Great Read

[C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read. I really liked the MC- Kat and her love interest-Joel, and the dogs and cats. I didn't much like Kat's raunchy best friend and co-worker back in the city...Maria.

I deducted one star because there was just too much fade-to-black sex scenes, and too much sexual banter and lusting. All that took away from it being a "clean" read.

[Jasmin Jace · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

[ScarlettReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chez Stinky is a good reminder to find the life that is important to you and live that life. Kat Stevens is a technical writer who doesn't care for her boss but likes her job and lifestyle. Her life is thrown for a loop when she inherits her great-aunt’s estate. Her great-aunt lived in a log cabin near the small town of Alpine Grove. Kat has not seen her great-aunt or the property since she was a child so she is surprised to see how run down the cabin is. In order to get the money and the property, Kat has to agree to move into the log cabin and adopt her great-aunt’s four dogs and cats.

When Kat arrives at the log cabin, she is hit with a terrible stench thanks to a varmint dying in the wall which leads her to nickname the house “Chez Stinky”. The cabin is in need of major repairs and extermination service.

Kat discovers, as with people, each of her great-aunt's dogs and cats has a distinct personality that she must work around. While living with the animals, she learns to love the house and the animals, plus a handsome neighbor, Joel, who comes to her rescue as a handyman.

Through the story we learn Kat will lose her comfortable city lifestyle if she decides to permanently move to the cabin and take on the role of caretaker to the animals. Kat has to make the decision to stay in her comfort zone with city life or take a chance on uprooting her life by following her heart to the cabin.

The story was slow in places, but overall I enjoyed getting to know Kat and watching her reach the right decision for herself.

[Nila · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book awhile ago but didn't realize that I had not did reviews here and now the author came out with the second book in the series that I just got and want to read. This was a laugh out loud sometimes romance, good enough to be a standalone but I am glad to get to read more set in a small town.
Technical writer Kat Stevens inherits an aunts old house, and finds out it includes 4 dogs and 5 cats! The house smells like them too! But she takes in all in stride. Meeting the neighbor the local unemployed techie that has a knack for fixing things. Which of course comes in handy with Kat's' new/old house.
A must read for lovers of quirky, animal antic romance stories!

[Juuli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wouldn't say it's a comedy but I really liked the main character Kat. She was brave and smart. And the animals were so cute. But there were a few mistakes in the flow of the story and the ending was just so sudden. The story got so interesting and I wanted to know what happens next with Joel and Kat (their business, family secrets and so on). There are more books in the series but if I'm not mistaken book two has another couple as main characters. So, are Kat and Joel in their story as well? If so, I'm ready to continue with the series. If not, then it's goodbye, Alpine Grove.

[Nila · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very funny cute contemporary romantic read! crazy funny tittle is because the main character Kat inherits her aunts house only if she agrees to live there full time and take of all the cats and dogs her aunt left behind. The house is falling apart and there is a dead animal somewhere in a wall found during her 1st visit. with all the house repairs needing done she calls the dog walker and is introduced to her brother and sparks fly!

[Debra Hahn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fur & soggy doggy kisses

This is a heart warming book to any and all animal lovers.
Along with the feline antics too. Then all you add is love between
Mankind as well. Along with spicing it up with some good old mystery.
A great story that will have you laughing and cheering on the good guys,
as well as the loveable dogs & cats. A must read book and I can't wait to read
All the rest of the books in this series.

[Deb · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got this book free on B & N. It was awful. The writing was very stiff and formal. And it was obviously written in the 90's but not published until 2013. Why? There are no cell phones, only land lines. She was in high school in the 80's but she's only in her 20's? She calls the internet the "World Wide Web". Etc, Etc, Etc. Awful.

[Carolyn Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious

My favorite character in this comedic book is the dog Linus who looks like a bear and has no trouble figuring out who trust and who not to trust add to that a cat with gender identity problems and a heroine and hero who become besotted with each other along the bumpy road of inheritance and you have a five star winner

[LitLifeLove · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 8% because ... so boring. So, so, so boring. I opened my reader 5 times to continue reading and only had the energie to read a couple sentences before I stopped again, suddenly no longer in the mood to read.

It's telling when something like that happens, my precious time should be saved for stories I actually enjoy reading.

[Renate Deutsche Oma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amusing romantic pet tale

Quirky romantic comedy about five dogs, three cats, girl meets boy, and home maintenance in a small country community. New author for this avid reader, definitely will read more of her well written amusing romantic pet tales.

[Trish · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only good thing I can think to write about this book is that is was free. Extremely disappointing.

[Cindi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute story with a definite Evanovich bent.

[CD {Boulder Blvd}]

Free e-book. I remember that I read it but can't remember much else.

[Julie Guay-de la ronde · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @ 34%.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute and funny

The book takes place in the 1990s, so for those of you who were not yet born...getting online involved using your hardwired-into-the-house landline phone. Mobile phones were rare and did nothing but make and receive calls at a charge of so much per minute. Almost every call was roaming. Cell phones had no cameras, no Internet, just batteries that needed charged so frequently that most people had 2 or 3 extra batteries. Calls, unless you were a billionaire, were short, and the earliest phones were the size of a briefcase and weighed a ton. These bag phones could be used as long as they were plugged in, which meant that when smaller ones with the ability to swap out multiple batteries came around, more people were willing to make the purchases. By the mid 1990s, phones were smaller and you could buy plans that made calls cheaper. Back to computers - laptops were prohibitively expensive. Desktops weren't much better. Internet service providers weren't telecoms but separate companies, because, since you used your land line to access the web, access was charged through your landline. A wire ran from the modem jackto an internal or external modem to the phone jack. At the time of this book, if you had a 14 mbps modem, you were living the good life. The software provided by companies like AOL, CompuServe. Prodigy, etc., allowed you to enter chat rooms and post on message boards, look up information, and send and receive email. There was talk about some cable TV companies introducing "cable modems" that increased the speed of access drastically. DSL lines were becooming more popular; initially very expensive add ons to your phone bill, as the wealthy bought more of them, the price crept down to where, by the late 1990s/early 2000s, most middle class people coild afford them. The bonus was a DSL line carried your phone line and gave you a dedicated line for Internet access, so the family could make calls and be online at the same time. The avreage desktop set you back almost $3K; adding a printer was at least $500 more, and that didn't include the fax machine that soon became a staple in the home. Most people either purchased reference books or spent a lot of time in the library - usually both. Technical documents were saved to floppy discs, and large files in companies were saved to servers as multiple sequential files on hard drives. Most documents were printed out and technical writers edited, simplified, included information that helped connect the dots, and generally made the documents more readable.
In this world, a young female technical writer finds out she is inheriting her great aunt's home - IF she can please her aunt's bestie's sxrutiny and gain her approval in how she cares for the departed's many dogs and cats. She has a cat of her own to consider; her annoying job and jerk of a boss; her nice cozy apartment; and she isn't sure about staying in a house that reeks of something decidedly foul, is covered in shedded pet hair, hasn't been cleaned in far too long, and has a roof that's falling apart. The initial description of the largest dog is too funny! But even as she has looked up ways to deal with the hyper dog that pees when you pet her, the almost agorophobic dog that hides under a table, the cats which seem to be without number initially, plus cleaning up an epic mess, her aont's friend makes a lot of horrid and inappropriate assumptions/ accusations, and swears she will make sure the protagonist never inherits - until the man who abandoned her aunt shows up to lay claim to the property under the assumption that she never divorced him, despite his having abandoned her more than 30 years earlier, and that she had to be senile and incompetent to make a will. The aunt's friend hears about this, tells the young woman the truth of her heritage, and fights to keep the lumberjack - as her aunt called her ne'er do well ex spouse - from getting his hands on the land, selling the lumber, killing off or otherwise getting rid of the animals, then selling the land to a developer for the highest price he can get. In the process, the young lady meets a young man, an engineer, who had worked construction to pay for college, and he helps her fix up the house. He is different with her than with others, and they get along quite well.
So, how will it all end? Does her friendship with the young engoneer become something more? Does she get the house or does the ne'er do well ex? Can they prove attempts were made to locate him and tell him she wanted to divorce him? Are the animals safe after he arrives? Read and find out.
There is premarital sex but thankfully, the excrutiating details on how this is accomplished (as if it was a "color" sportscaster observing and commenting on the bed (or wherever) performance), this one simply describes a few melt-into-a-puddle kisses & some serious shoulder action as the guy works, and blessedly leaves the rest to your inagination (which IMO makes it even sexier).

[Kenya Starflight · Rating 3 out of 5]

I normally don't read romances, but this one looked to be funny and cute. Plus it looked like it heavily featured animals, and being a sucker for cats and dogs I couldn't help but check it out. And honestly... it's a fairly predictable, run-of-the-mill romantic comedy, with some cringeworthy dialogue and flat characters. But despite those flaws... it's hard to hate on it too much, as it's honestly a cute story and a nice bit of fluff to read between more serious books.

Kat is a technical writer who feels stuck in both her job and her love life... so when she learns her great-aunt has died and she's inherited her house and land in the small town of Alpine Grove, she's stumped but grateful for a change. Unfortunately, her aunt's will comes with a catch -- to inherit the house, she must also take care of her aunt's slew of dogs and cats, each with their own quirks and neuroses. As Kat struggles to take care of the animals, keep the house from falling down around her, and finds herself falling for Joel, an unemployed tech guy who also has a knack for home repairs, she realizes she may enjoy life in Alpine Grove after all.

"Chez Stinky" is fairly predictable, and doesn't offer much in the way of conflict -- problems brought up in one chapter will generally be resolved in the next chapter without much struggle. The characters are pretty flat, and the romance feels quite sudden -- Kat and Joel go from meeting to falling into bed with each other within a couple weeks. And some of the dialogue is trying to be cute and charming but comes across as forced and stilted.

All these complaints probably make it sound like I hated this book... but the story, despite being predictable, was still cute and entertaining. The characters aren't terribly developed, but their interactions are still fun, and the animal shenanigans provide plenty of humor and entertainment as well. The writing isn't masterful but is capable enough for a book of this type, and fans of rom-coms will be delighted by a story that may not be terribly original but is still fun to read.

"Chez Stinky" is a pretty bog-standard romantic comedy... but that doesn't mean it's still not enjoyable to read. And sometimes one just needs a bit of brain candy in between heavier reads. If you're a fan of Hallmark movies or fluffy romances in general, "Chez Stinky" is right up your alley.

[Libs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was this book good? No. Was it enjoyable to read? Yes.

📚The plot was so over the top that it wasn't even close to believable. Her boss literally rearranges the office based on attractiveness like come on. Oh and now her apartment building is getting sold. The plot was too convenient. Everything was wrapped up neatly in a matter of sentences. The main antagonist adds nothing to the story. Kay is apparently worried that Louise won't allow her to keep the house but there is no suspense surrounding the will she/won't she. In the end their conflict is resolved in like 2 sentences. The main twist of the book is that Kay was adopted and her Great Aunt was actually her Grandmother but she had literally no reaction to this. It adds nothing to the book in the end.

📚 The animals were adorable and were the real saving grace of the book. I loved the relationship between the dogs. However all the "conflict" with the animals is resolved immediately. She goes to the library, reads a book, and boom she's the dog whisperer. I would have loved for the animals to get into actual mischief and watch her bond with the animals slowly.

📚The MMC Joel is sweet. I thought an unemployed tech-y making ends meet as a handyman was an awesome premise but his character left a lot of be desired. He just didn't really have any personality. I'm also not a fan of insta-love which this basically was. Joel's girlfriend throws his computer out his window and throws a pan that caught on fire at him and he just goes to Kat's place like ok I'm moving in to be with you now. That brings me the my least favorite part of the book. Joel tells Kat early on that he kinda sorta has a girlfriend but he thinks they broke up. This apparently does not matter to Kat at all. She makes no effort to wait until he clears things up with his girlfriend before starting their relationship. She knows his girlfriend is coming to stay with him but still chooses to hook up with him. I will say their relationship was cute. They supported each other and none of the conflict in the book was relationship based.

Overall it was a wholesome book. Reading it made me happy even if it wasn't particularly exciting.

[Jessica Rugg · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book follows the common storyline of big-city gal moves to small town, fixes up rundown house and falls in love with the guy helping to fix up her house. From that perspective, it was a bit cliche.

Some of the animal antics were interesting, but I don't recommend this author due to content.

Content:

Language: the is vulgar language. Characters speak about their intimate lives in public places and with their friends, as if it was their business. They don't respect privacy or common decency.

Relationships: there are multiple couples who are together but unmarried. The main character lets a strange man move into her house and she starts sleeping with him even though she has only met him a few weeks before. The book promotes unhealthy relationships, promiscuous behavior, and indecent behavior. Teenagers get pregnant, runs away from home, and one of them is forced to give up her baby for adoption while the other dies in childbirth.

Substances: alcohol is heavily featured in the book

Violence: there is a small amount of violence towards both people and animals. A man's girlfriend throws dangerous objects at him and starts his cabin on fire, while they are both in it, I believe. Another man poisons someone's dog in an attempt to poison a bear. It was a sleeping pill, but he had a gun, with the intent to shoot.

Other issues: everyone seems to be a gossip in this small town. After the main character does things, she is often questioned by others about them, without there seeming to be enough time for anyone else to know unless someone leaves her presence and immediately calls others to gossip.