Worst in Show is hampered by a meh hero and a too-typical plotline. I couldn’t help but love the spunky heroine who centers the fol-de-rol, but there’s so much overstuffed plotting it’s hard to find the forest for the trees.

Cora Lewis only wants to help her grandfather out, but what she’s doing for him is a bit of a tall order. Pops, who runs his own pet shop named Happy Paws, relies on Cora for help, especially now that he’s injured. Cora wants to establish herself as a fashionista and designer, but she’s running herself ragged between helping her grandfather, her workaday job, and her side business making custom outfits. On top of that, she has three rescue dogs to look after. And on top of that, Happy Paws is failing thanks to…

…Leo Sallinger, owner of Canine King and possessor of one big silver spoon. Canine King has been thrashing Happy Paws ever since it moved in across the street, and Happy Paws looks certain to close because of it. Leo is everything Cora hates, so when he enters a local pet show, she immediately enters too, needing the prize money to save the family business and her own dreams and ambitions.

Leo and Cora don’t know they’ve also been falling in love with one another on an anonymous word puzzle app. And as they spend time preparing their pups for the show, they start to fall for each other in real life. But what will they do when their worlds collide?

Worst in Show has some adorable points, and some very sweet scenes – the problem is that those scenes are somewhat bland – and yes, it’s another riff on The Shop Around the Corner.

What the book has going for it Cora’s sheer spirited spunkiness. You will root hard for her; she has so much going on and, to be frank, is suffering enough. I didn’t really like Leo; he’s a shade too smug. The romance does change him a bit, but not enough that I felt they were a good match. The romance is decent enough, but doesn’t have a spicy, sparkly zing.

The cute dog antics also factor in because the animals feel like real dogs, which is incredibly important when you’re writing about little furry beasts, because they can so often end up milled to literary syrup.

Worst in Show isn’t the worst contemporary romance ever, but it doesn’t stand out very much from the pack.