A hilarious and heartfelt year following one woman and her puppy – from chaos and tears to healing and new beginnings. It’s a love story, but not as you know it.

Raising a puppy is simple: feed them, walk them, love them. Right? Wrong.

Armed with Pinterest-perfect plans and firm ideas about training, Sophia brings Dennis – a scruffy and defiant Parson terrier – into her life. But just as the puppy pads hit the floor, the rest of her world falls apart.

Suddenly single and quietly unravelling, Sophia finds herself solo parenting a tiny, gleeful agent of chaos who devours foam earplugs, destroys her shoes, and has an alarming taste for spiders. He’s also the only thing keeping her afloat.

As the months roll by in a haze of dodgy first dates, sleepless nights and meltdowns in the park, Sophia begins to make sense of it all: the grief of a life that didn’t go to plan, the weirdness of being single in your late thirties, and the surprising ways love shows up when you least expect it.

By the end of their first year together, Dennis hasn’t just wrecked the furniture — he’s quietly rebuilt her life.

For anyone who’s ever been through shattering heartbreak, this is a story of quiet resilience, unpredictable joy, and the quiet wonder of a small body curled beside you when it matters most.

'Absolute heaven.' Jilly Cooper

‘The Year of the Dog is SUCH a gorgeous book, I can’t imagine anyone reading this and not loving it. By turns hilarious, entertaining and heartbreakingly honest, it’s an unforgettable love story you’ll want to buy for all your friends. I’m already waiting for the sequel!’ Jill Mansell

‘Tender, hilarious and moving.’ Daisy Buchanan

‘This made me laugh like a drain on a packed Underground commute, and I haven’t even got a dog.’ Andrew Hunter Murray

‘Extremely funny, deeply charming.’ India Knight

Sophia Money-Coutts is a journalist and author who spent five years working as Features Director at Tatler. Prior to that she worked as a writer and an editor for the Evening Standard and the Daily Mail in London, and The National in Abu Dhabi. She writes the Modern Manners column for The Sunday Telegraph.