I'm a huge Jennifer Crusie fan. Huge. I got to hear her speak once, in 1994 or so, and a smarter, funnier, more supportive person you could not even imagine, much less a published author. I believe I said something to her about my being just a dilettante and she would have none of it, the message being essentially, to think positive, although I'm sure it was phrased far more originally and entertainingly.Given all that, it makes me feel bad to write this review, because OMG, this is a stinker. The premise is, there's this Mesopotamian goddess Kammani, who gets resurrected in Ohio by accident. She has 7 attendants who are demi-goddesses, I think, well, at least 3 of them are, the other 4 are more powerful than mortals but less than The Three Special ones, who together are another goddess, but apart only manifest their powers in uncontrollably wacky sorts of ways. Are you following this? Yeah, that's part of the problem.
Technically, this is a paranormal, but the "world-building," such as it is, is more of a series of punchlines, that strung together barely have any kind of coherence. There's a more serious turn of events in order to build tension for the book's climax, but IMO it falls flat because the authors at no time before that point take any of the characters or the world's rules seriously. I'm all down with humor, you know, but if you're going to make jokes out of your own characters, I'm not going to feel much empathy for them.
The goddesses tend to be interchangeable, with the possible exception of Mina, who's your basic Wednesday Addams, with a dog. The men in the story have zero character development. The dialog of the dogs is kind of funny, though if you like that sort of thing, Betsy's blog is far more entertaining.
(Edited to add)
What others say about Dogs and Goddesses:
Speed-Reading Book Nerd Reviews - liked it
Books, Books, and More Books - about the same reaction as me
A brief but positive mention from Charlene Teglia (an author that I totally love, BTW)
The Good, The Bad, and The Unread - lukewarm but polite
