2.75 stars rounded up
I'm on the fence for this one... I've read a lot of romances with martyr/self-guilt attitude and Simon's was pretty believable that I didn't end up being annoyed at him at all. But the whole relationship built felt a bit forced and not flowing smoothly. The change from reclusive Simon to "I am sorry for everything, I don't want to hurt you, here's my grand gesture" Simon failed to convince me. I just didn't get their chemistry. Maybe if the author adds more pages to this, it will make more sense to me.
I did like the dogs... and Stella ... and the dogs. Oh, and the way that Simon called Adam, "Librarian", was cute.
Noticed a couple of typos that were a bit annoying.
Guess it has potential but the execution is not 'there' yet. However, I was not completely feeling meh about it either, thus the rounded up to 3-stars.