Max, Bestfriend, Hero, Marine is a captivating book. It captures the fun loving relationship of a troubled teen boy and a unique, hard working protective dog. Max is a heartfelt read following the story of a retired marine dog that found a “second home” at home with his handler's brother.  Max engages the reader by being easy to comprehend, being fun and exciting, and relatable. 

I like Max because it's very easy to read; originally the book was made for grades 3-5. A lot of this book uses easy wording and nothing you will have to pause and look up. Realistic fiction books can be kind of unsettling at times so it is probably better for older kids and adults to read. For example at the start of the book you get slammed in the face with Kyle getting killed and 2 marine men bearing the news to his family. Although this isn't graphic, it can be unsettling knowing that this can happen to any military family at any point. 

Max is a very captivating book as well. It starts with a young teen boy (Justin) that has hated the military throughout his life due to family conflicts and a stern father figure and ex marine. It takes awhile to get to Kyle’s perspective since we start in a third person perspective following Justin but it is very captivating because it is heartfelt and has a strong emphasis on family values. Another reason the book is captivating is because of the flashbacks, so far throughout every chapter near the end there has been some sort of flashback that digs deeper into the family's life and shows you better who Kyle, Justin (Kyle's brother) and the whole family are. 

As you can say with 99.99% of books it has a little bit of a slow start, we start off with Kyle's brother selling copied video games from his room and overall just family life without Kyle but that's not what the reader may want. you expect a fast paced packed book but it doesn't quite start out that way. But Once the book gets going it goes fairly fast and its “action packed” continuing to use the flashbacks to tell us more about Max’s story and uses the overall theme of family to keep you engaged, for example when Justin first met Max, Max immediately knew he wanted Justin just by picking up his scent and recognizing Kyle.

All in all the book Max, Bestfriend. Hero. Marine. Is a very captivating book that although it is at an entry reading level it is a very captivating book and a good read for all ages, every young boy would love to read; boys, teens, men this book is a book everyone will like. If you want a good thoughtful and heartfelt read this is the book for you, especially if you like dogs!