The Patron Saint of Lost Dogs (Cyrus Mills, #1) by Nick Trout

The Patron Saint of Lost Dogs (Cyrus Mills, #1) Reviews

• 
  Sharon

  This is the second book I’ve read by this author and once again he did not disappoint his readers. This was a feel good story which centres around Dr Cyrus Mills who returns to home to Eden Falls Vermont after his estranged father passes away. Cyrus knew of his fathers veterinarian practice, but what he didn’t know was how badly it was doing financially.
  
  Cyrus was now faced with saving the practise from going under all together then he planned to sell it. It all seemed simple enough to Cyrus at first, but this would turn out to be harder to do than he first thought. Cyrus was use to dealing with cold clinical facts, so when it came to dealing with pets and their owners on a daily basis he finds it to be a challenge.
  
  I’m so glad I stumbled across this author he really knows how to keep his readers entertained. The Patron Saint of Lost Dogs was an enjoyable read which had me laughing out loud and it also had me reaching for the tissues. If you love reading animal stories like I do then make sure you grab a copy of this book. Highly recommended.
  
• 
  Literary Redhead

  Charm, pathos and a collection of small-town odd balls and heart-tugging pets make this a feel-good winner. The kind of read that illuminates any dark winter night. Thank you, Nick Trout!
• 
  Ian

  Cyrus Mills has a lot going on.
  
  He's inherited a failing Veterinary Practise, his license to practise Vet Medicine has been suspended and he doesn't have any money to fight to have his license reinstated. And to top it off he's never actually treated animals. His career has been in pathology where all he has had to deal with is samples and dead animals.
  
  He hopes to sell the business and make enough money to fight his legal battles but the pets and their people have another plan.
  
  
  There is a lot to like about this book and I only have one or two complaints.
  
  What I loved is Dr Mills the investigator, the vet, the man struggling to deal with squirming animals. Honestly, that's enough. If the author wrote a story about a small town vet and just stuck to that I probably would have rated this book 4 or 5 stars.
  
  There is enough drama in that to carry the story. There was no need to contrive the added drama of the bank foreclosing on the practise and the extortionist. So an entertaining book loses a star for cluttering up the story with unnecessary drama.
• 
  Barb

  I only picked this book up because it had a dog on the cover. I absolutely loved this book. This is my favorite kind of book - a book you just want to read and read and never put down. Highly recommended for any animal lovers or anyone who just loves a good story! I was sorry to see this one end!
• 
  Kat Warren

  The good news: charming.
  The bad news: charming.
• 
  Ashly Lynne

  I checked this book out at the Library a few weeks back (thank god I didn’t buy it) since it had been on my to-read for so long. I was so excited because, like I said, I’ve been wanting to read it for such a long time. I was like, a story about a patron saint of lost dogs…dogs…rescuing lost dogs. Needless to say, I had to read this story. Unfortunately, it was not what I was expecting and my hopes came crashing down like a wave fizzling out when it hits the beach.
  
  This is a story about Dr. Cyrus Mills. He was practicing a career as a veterinary pathologist for years up until he lost his license over a technicality and has been suspended from practice until after the court hearing. But, lucky for him, the father he has been estranged from for the last 10 years has just passed away and left him his failing veterinary business, Bedside Manor. Cyrus, reluctantly, travels back to small town Vermont where he grew up in hopes of flipping the business and selling it quickly in order to pay for his lawyer expenses. The Veterinarian who worked alongside his father is going to let Cyrus practice in the clinic without a license so Cyrus can get back on his feet.
  
  Okay, now that I’m done trying to explain the concept of this book (which was actually really hard to do), I have no idea where I want to start with my complaints. I think I’ll start nice and basic with the writing. The writing of this book is so bland and drawn out I was bored from page 1. I kept reading in hopes that it would get better, but it never did. The writing is so bland I almost, and probably should have, put this book down. (But, I was already too far and I wanted to push through so I could write a decent review and count the book as read instead of DNF – I know, lame reasons.)
  
  Trout’s writing is unrealistic and is at the same time lacking and overdosed. What I mean by this is that it lacks in so much – feeling, dynamics, characterization, plot progression, tension – but that there is also way to much. He goes into details about minuscule and unnecessary things that do absolutely nothing for the plot, including bounteous amounts of unnecessary dialogue (on of my favorite things…). All this with it’s lack of tension makes not only the writing fall flat, but also the entire story wilt in general.
  
  The plot of this story takes eons to develop and when what little of it finally does it’s predictable, boring, and lacks good story. I honestly knew what was going to happen in this story right from the very beginning. It’s a fluffy cozy mystery love story, but not a good one. It’s not a nice little story that’s a quick, feel-good read; it’s a boring, mundane, predictable, nothing-knew-here, will-make-you-feel-nothing-but-annoyance story. There’s barely any rising action. There’s barely a climax. And it’s, worst of all, built through repetitive writing.
  
  What I mean by repetitive writing is that Trout doesn’t trust his audience. He feels the need to repeat things over and over and over so that you, as a reader, fully understand the points that he’s trying to make. This takes away from the tension and makes the story even more predicable. The more you ensure something isn’t going to happen, the more you know it’s going to happen by the end. Two of the biggest instances of this is that Cyrus continuously says that he hates his father and their relationship is beyond irreparable and that Cyrus is going to sell the business as soon as he can. You know from the start those are going to reverse. And, of course, they do.
  
  I also find this story (plot) way too unbelievable. Like, is Cyrus actually going to be able to start a practice with a suspended license? Like, is this actually plausible that nobody is going to investigate this and believe this? And, I can’t believe that the lawyers and court that is on his case is going to let this slip through? Also, I hate the fact that the backstory is barely set up. We literally never find out why Cyrus’ license was suspended in the first place. No idea, no clue, not a thing said about it. But of course, by the end, the charges are dropped. Even though we have no idea what the charges even were. Alright, fine, whatever.
  
  Another thing I really, really hated was that Cyrus literally has no idea what he’s doing. He says over and over again that he doesn’t know anything about being a vet. He can’t even diagnose anything without running to Lewis (the guy who’s letting him practice without a license and with literally no knowledge about how to be a vet and help animals), so why is he trying? Why is he helping animals when he could do way more harm than good? This is some scary bullshit in my opinion. Plus, I also find this super unbelievable since working on dead animals for 10 years should at least give you some knowledge about the diseases they might have. I’m baffled by how stupid this whole plot was.
  
  The final instance that really bothered me was that he delivered a woman he barely knows’ baby. Like he delivers her baby in the freaking vet clinic because the closest hospital is too far away to get to. And how it’s described is (because he also helped this woman’s cat deliver a baby just before this happened) that Trout writes (in Cyrus’ thought process/story telling voice) something like, “He delivered the cat’s baby and then he delivered hers.” That’s literally it. What? And then next thing you know everyone knows and he’s famous and going to be interviewed by the news and everything. Like her water broke and he didn’t even know what that meant. So the girl’s all like, “I’m gonna have my baby now.” And Cyrus is all like oh shit. And then he just delivers it. The end. I’m pretty sure Trout knows nothing about how this whole baby delivering almost always having time to get the hospital business works. Like women are usually in labor for hours. You could have gotten her to the hospital bro. Okay, I need to stop. I’m getting worked up.
  
  But one final point. The characters were awful. Like the writing and plot, they fell completely flat. None had personalities or dimension. They were literally so boring I almost fell asleep on multiple occasions. Trout tries to make them diverse, but they are all exactly the same with only stereotypical differences. None of them were individuals. None of them were actually interesting. I couldn’t bring myself to care about a single one. And he tried to make them so “unique” that he just ended up making them utterly ridiculous. Plus, he tried to give some of them accents and failed entirely. Trout should have done his research before trying to write accents. He tries to write a British accent and makes it so grossly stereotypical (not even accurately stereotypical) that I vomited in my mouth a little. Plus, Cyrus has a southern accent, but instead of writing that accent, Trout only constantly reassures us by telling us that Cyrus has a Southern accent. It’s not actually written, just told. But the British accent is (attempted) written. Hello inconsistencies.
  
  Okay, time to wrap this super long review up. Sorry this was so negative and longwinded everyone. I don’t blame you if you didn’t finish. I barely finished the book, so I can’t hold anything against you all. Anyway, the final verdict: I DO NOT recommend this book to anyone. It was boring, unrealistic, and undeveloped. Don’t waste your time reading this one. I almost didn’t finish. I found myself skimming large chunks by the end. And, if you need further proof that this plot is flowery and drawn out, I never missed anything important or anything that I felt was an important point. It was that bad. Trout needs to stick to his work and leave the writing to people who are actually willing to do some fact checking and learn how to write decent accents.
• 
  Rebecca

  To me there was a Shakespearean feel to this, a comedy of errors as Cyrus tries to acclimate himself to Vermont, small town life and being a veterinarian. He seems so hapless as he stumbles through that week trying to get the practice on solid ground so he can sell it. Once he does that he can return to SC and his life, fighting those battles. But first he will have to have a reckoning with his past in Eden Falls.
• 
  Sherri Bryant

  The Patron Saint Of Lost Dogs by new to me author, Nick Trout, is a very good story about coming home again, forgiveness and making peace with your past. Cyrus Mills returns to his hometown to take over his deceased father’s veterinary practice that is on the brink of failure. To further complicate matters, Cyrus is not a veterinarian in practice as he has never treated living animals. Instead, his expertise lies in veterinary pathology. Cyrus intends to sell the practice and return to South Carolina as quickly as he can. However, he does not anticipate how his arrival affects the numerous quirky characters he meets, both animal and human.
  
  I really enjoy books that feature animals prominently throughout the story and this book did not disappoint. Mr. Trout does an excellent job of bringing the animals to life with individual personalities and traits that enabled me to feel a profound connection with each one. I was intrigued and worried at the same time whether or not Cyrus would figure out in time what was wrong with each of his patients. A couple of the animals really got to me on an emotional level and a box of Kleenex was necessary. In addition to the animals, the human characters of Eden Falls, Vermont are just as interesting and intriguing.
  
  The story flows smoothly as Cyrus tries to acclimate himself to his new surroundings that are filled with painful memories and ghosts from his past. I enjoyed how he handled the stress of being out of his element interacting with living animals for the first time while meeting new people. Cyrus is very much a loner who has done a remarkable job of hiding his feelings and not getting close to people. Seeing him open up to both animals and people was uplifting.
  
  If you enjoy heartwarming stories that feature animals in leading and supporting roles or enjoy stories that have likable characters who tug on your emotions, I highly recommend The Patron Saint Of Lost Dogs as a very good choice. This is the first book of the series and I am looking forward to reading the next book, Dog Gone, Back Soon.
• 
  Linda

  I kept waiting for this to become compelling and to become as involved with the two footed characters the way I loved the four pawed ones. It didn't happen, this book seemed much longer because I couldn't get close to the characters.
  
  The main character Cyrus Miles (I kept thinking Miley Cyrus, bad character naming) nee Cyrus Cobb is a veterinary pathologist on the run from South Carolina where he lost his license and ran afoul of a drug company. He inherits his father's New England veterinary practice and hopes to sell it for cash but finds it's going broke.
  
  From here we live through a week with Miles nee Cobb, it just seems like a year.
  
  This is the first time I've read this author and found the writing dry. He only seemed excited about his work when he got to dazzle us with medical terminology. I was disappointed in this book. It's really a 1.5, I won't be seeking out his other work.
  
  Moving on....
• 
  Dawn Emsen-Hough

  Oh I LOVED this book, the story didn't centre around a dog as I thought it might, but rather a vetinarian but the story is filled with such animal loving, heart-warming stories, it has to be one of my favourite canine books. A wonderful "feel good" story.
• 
  Lucy Burdette

  I so enjoyed this--a sweet story just right for in-between-the-holidays reading.
• 
  Stephanie

  Quarantine might be making me overly sappy, but this was a fun and heartwarming read.
• 
  Bailey Knopf

  any story involving a dog and a vet 🥰😭
• 
  Julie

  A light summer read. The people relationships were ok, but the people/pet relationships were portrayed very tenderly and lovingly.
• 
  Connie G

  After his estranged father dies, Dr Cyrus Mills inherits a run-down veterinary office in Vermont. He had always been a loner, working in the laboratory as a veterinary pathologist. It was a new experience getting involved with the animals and their owners. As he interacts with the people, he feels like he's a part of the community, understands his deceased father better, and wants to save the clinic. Although the book was a bit predictable, the author told the story with humor, warmth, and a great love for animals.
• 
  Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin

  I thought this was a sweet book about, not only wonderful animals, but about finding yourself.
  
  I didn't like that Dr. Cyrus was doing things by guessing, but he eventually got it all figured out.
  
  I love when he finally opened up to all of the people and animals. I fell in love with the characters and their animals. They cared so much, as all good animal mom and dads should about their furbabies. Some of these people pulled at the heart strings.
  
  It was a very good ending when Dr. Cyrus finally gets to the truth, forgives and makes the clinic his home.
• 
  Bob

  I'd easily give this six or more stars if I could! This is one of the most wonderful books I've ever read! It's extremely well written; filled with genuine, well-rendered characters you'll wish you could meet in person; and tightly woven with intriguing plots, twists and sub-plots that will keep you hooked right from the first page. Did I say that I loved it? You betcha! Highly recommended.
• 
  Ken Heard

  This one was outside my normal reading zone, but I enjoyed reading Nick Trout's tale of a veterinarian returning home with a secret. It's cute animals and heartfelt realizations of life and the past: Think James Herroit meets It's a Wonderful Life.
  
  
• 
  Linda

  This book was great! I loved it and I'm glad to hear there's now a second in the series.
• 
  Jane Night

  Synopsis: Cyrus has inherited his father's veterinary practice. He had a complicated relationship with his father and he hasn't worked on a live animal since vet school. Still, he's in real trouble and if he can turn his father's practice around and sell it to the highest bidder he just might be able to get his life back together.
  
  My rating:
  4/5
  
  This book just is everything I love. Animals. Veterinarians. Small towns.
  
  I love this author though this wasn't my favorite book from him.
  
  The book takes place in the course of a week and that caused things to feel a bit rushed. It made sense in the context of the story but I wish we hadn't had a metaphorical ticking time bomb so that things could have unfolded more slowly and Cyrus had more time for growth.
  
  The first chapter was rough to read because I was really worried Cyrus was going to do something so awful I couldn't forgive him. He didn't, thankfully but I did not at all enjoy the first chapter because things just got too close to disaster for my comfort.
  
  I didn't really like Cyrus and that was the biggest issue I had with this book and the main reason it wasn't a 5 star read. He is judgmental of the people around him and it isn't just that they are from a small town. He is just a judgmental person and that isn't fully redeemed by the end of the book. I did like that Cyrus has almost a Dr. House ability to detect weird illnesses in animals. In fact, Cyrus and his actions as a veterinarian were my favorite part of the book.
  
  Despite not loving Cyrus I did absolutely love the resolution of his family issues and learning more about who his parents were and why they did the things they did. He comes to see the rift between him and his father differently by the end of the book and it was very warm and fuzzy.
  
  If you like Hallmark movies featuring veterinarians you will probably really enjoy this book.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Wendy Em

  I truly enjoyed this book and give it a 5 star based on how it made me feel. It was a light read with a touch of everything and stirred a lot of emotions; laughter, tears, frustration ... all the stuff that makes you keep reading.
  The main character is a Veterinarian from the Carolinas who is suddenly called back to his childhood home in Vermont following the death of his estranged father, another Veterinarian. With intent to sell his father's practice and return to home, Dr Cyrus Mills, finds that things are not as simple as he hoped and he encounters several hurdles. He must come to terms with his feelings for his late parents, his own life and perhaps a new life.
  Fans of James Herriot will enjoy this story of a modern times Vet and his struggles with being true to himself and others. I look forward to reading more books of Cyrus's adventures.
• 
  Deane

  This is the book that got me back into reading again....with two cataract surgeries within a 6 week period, my vision was poor for reading....couldn't concentrate but this sweet story rekindled my yen. Loved this story about a man who has been estranged from his recently-deceased father for many years because of his father's neglect of him as a child. But as he takes over his father's veterinary practice, he learns things about his father which make him regret his actions. Since Cyrus worked in vet pathology, he had no real experience with dealing with live animals so he has much to learn.
• 
  Mark Scioli

  I like the author’s writing style. He makes the characters real and portrays our furry children and what they mean to us as real.
  The main character Dr. Cyrus Mills goes through a metamorphosis right from the get go as he arrives in this small town in Vermont for what he thinks is going to be a short stay. He really discovers who he really is as the story unfolds. Of course a dog plays a big role in his journey of discovery about his father who also was a beloved Veterinarian in the town. Very good story line.
• 
  Kathi

  Thank you to Audible for adding this title to your "free for members" collection -- neither of my libraries carries it.
  
  This story is not at all what I expected -- although it is set in a veterinary practice, it is more about people than pets. (Although the client 's pets do play a role in the plot.) It's about relationships: family and townspeople. And it's about forgiveness.
  
  Trigger warning: the opening scene upset me and I almost stopped listening, but the tone quickly changes and I'm glad that I powered through that chapter.