It's A Vets Life by Cathy Woodman: A Review

It's A Vets Life by Cathy Woodman

When Was It Released?:  10th November 2011

Where Did I Get It From?: From the publishers in exchange for a review. Thankyou!
Who Published It?: Arrow
Number Of Pages: 400 pages

When I was younger, growing up in the countryside, I always wanted to be a vet. I love animals and constantly begged my mum and dad for a pet. Sadly one never came and my dream of being a vet quickly diminished when I realised I can't handle the sight of blood. My love of animals, however has continued, and upon finding a set of books about, you guessed it, a vet living in the countryside, I just could not pass up on reading them.

Maz Harwood loves her job as a vet, even if it does mean long hours and dirty conditions. She is planning to marry fellow vet, Alex, at Christmas and already had a gorgeous baby boy George. Lately though, things for Maz have been stressful with having to juggle her plans for the weddng and her family. Maz decides to try and improve the situation and take matters into her own hands, which doesn't go quite as well as she had hoped. Maz begins to think she will need to miracle in order to rekindle the love her and Alex once shared.

While It's A Vets Life is part of a series of books by Cathy Woodman, you do not need to have read any of the previous books to enjoy the latest installment. While it is always best to read all the previous books, I found it reassuring that no important parts of the story would be missed. Anything mentioned from previous novels is described in detail so you don't become lost at any point. Cathy Woodman's insight into the world of being a vet, as she herself was once a practicing vet, adds an extra layer to really bringing the clinics in the book to life. I really enjoyed that she was able to add this realism to the world that she has created in It's A Vets Life. Creating this quaint countryside village and community had me wanting to move to there immediatly. The way in which she is able to deal with writing about a rocky relationship, as well as other emotional incidents that occur while creating empathy yet not making the story too sombre with the witty humour she adds, had me hooked.

Many of the characters from the previous novels were brought back in It's A Vets Life, which added the familiarity of reading about characters you already know. Maz is a character you will begin to really care for as you get to know more about her and her life, being a really compassionate and generous character. I did find that my feelings towards the character of Alex changed during the course of It's A Vets Life. In the previous novels I found that I really liked Alex and the relationship that he has with Maz. However, through the course of this novels my feelings towards him changed, as his selfish actions towards Maz became more promient. As for Old Fox Gifford, I still found myself disliking him with a passion. He is selfish, sexist and set in his ways, unable to listen to anyone elses views or opinions.

I found the actions that Old Fox Gifford, takes about half way through the novel, to be quite disturbing. It was definatly not something that I saw coming, nor did I expect it to happen. While I knew that it was an integrial part of the storyline and a turning point for some of the characters, the incident was not something I particularly enjoyed reading about. Nor did I really fully understand why it happened as it did. The actions taken, however, did not take away from my overall enjoyment of It's A Vets Life.

It's A Vets Life has both characters you will find yourself caring about, and a storyline that will have you laughing and crying throughout. The Otter House books are a great series and I cannot wait to see if Cathy Woodman will continue on with these books. I really hope so. If you haven't picked any of these books up yet then I would highly reccomend that you do.