Book Two in the Hedgehog Hollow series, this warm and wonderful story is as magical and uplifting as each of Book One and Four (both of which this reader devoured, on the path to delightedly working a way through the entire series).
A warmhearted and tenderly-crafted character, our main protagonist, Samantha Wishaw – now proud owner of a Hedgehog Rescue Center, occupying an inherited farmhouse and acreage in the Yorkshire Wolds – is both blossoming and worrying under the strain of caring for and providing emergency lodging for wounded, diseased and starving rural hedgehogs, as well as maintaining her full-time job as a teaching nurse at a local technical college.
Vulnerable, kind, clear-eyed and guileless, Sam is the friend every reader wishes they had; a woman who will always put her loved ones front and center, and is only lately learning to respect and protect her own soft heart in the process.
With the help of her gorgeous “true-north” partner, Josh, a veterinary surgeon impeccably aligned with both her heart and her rescue-center mission, Sam’s world, (and her cozily reconstructed farm-house) is never too full to expand to those in need, as circumstances, trials and tragedies befell her circle of charming, quirky, colorful, spiteful and even nasty characters (each of them now regular visitors to this series).
Through alternating first-person POV narrative streams, Samantha and Josh, each candid and compassionate in the telling of their stories, strike the perfect balance between the heady misery of family trauma, interpersonal grief and betrayal, and the soul-stirring joy of finding their forever-footing, (perhaps, along the way, only tentatively, finding peace with other significants and their trappings, but time, and the furtherance of this series, will certainly tell …)
Do not be surprised, if before you know it, this lovely cheering book (and indeed, the entire series) has found its way deep into the melty center of your heart, as these characters firmly settle themselves down, – quietly, decidedly, taking up root, – a sure and welcome sign that you will be back to visit with them again soon.
A great big thank you to the author, and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.
