I kind of had a feeling I wouldn't like this, and was somewhat glad when I ended up having to read other books for my challenges in between this. I feel like this book sacrificed plot and character development for the advancement of the poorly designed relationship, as well as for the backstory of way too many side characters.
It did have a lot of potential, but there was so much I would rather have seen from this than what it was. I like a good cozy mystery every now and then, especially where animals play key roles, but I found this did not fulfill my need.
I don't deny that the premise that Bizzy can read minds, as well as the way she got this power, was an interesting way to start this novel and series, but it ended up being overused in some places in the novel, and underused in others. While it was cute that she could read the minds of Fish and Sherlock Bones, it was also a little distracting to the plot, especially with the snippets of both relevant and irrelevant thoughts throughout the novel.
In my opinion, the use of this overshadowed the plot, although the haphazard romance and the backstories of the side characters also made the plot seem less important in the story's context. It was all a little complicated, and the only person I found myself rooting for was the detective, because all of the other characters, including and especially Bizzy, were annoying to say the least. (Although the relationship between Fish and Sherlock Bones was cute when it wasn't distracting.)
There's a lot I didn't like about this, but because I have an ebook omnibus of the first three books I do plan on reading at least the second one, probably also this month. I feel like this series has potential, it just hasn't reached it in its first novel.