It's time for the wedding we've all been waiting for...
Life at Hedgehog Hollow is never dull, although Samantha hopes that the new year ahead will be a little less chaotic as she prepares to marry the love of her life, Josh. But disaster strikes when she checks the rescue centre's bank account after the festive season and discovers it has been emptied. Who would do such a thing, and why? With the future of Hedgehog Hollow now in jeopardy, planning a wedding has lost its shine.
Phoebe is desperate to escape the shadow of her family, infamously known for their attacks on Samantha's beloved rescue centre. Could the kindness of the Hedgehog Hollow team be the chance she needs for a fresh start, or will her family's secrets continue to drag her back?
Review: This is the fourth book in Jessica Redland’s Hedgehog Hollow series, which follows the fortunes of Samantha Wishaw and the hedgehog rescue centre she has established at Hedgehog Hollow farm in the Yorkshire Wolds. As a fan of Jessica Redland, I have been following this series from book one and looking forward to the next instalment as soon as I have finished the last. The cast of recurring characters grows with every book and I am enjoying watching each of them develop. All of the books, including this one, can be read as a standalone, but they make a wonderful continuing saga if read in sequence. If you haven’t read the earlier books, or can’t remember what has gone before, the author has helpfully started this book with a recap and some character details.
This story brings to the fore Phoebe, a student who has been helping out with the accounts for Hedgehog Hollow. Samantha and the other volunteers at the rescue centre know little about her, but the secrets she has tried to keep hidden slowly emerge after money is stolen from the charity’s account. Samantha has been looking forward to her upcoming wedding to Josh, but all thoughts of those plans have to be put to one side as she tries to help Phoebe escape the clutches of her no-good family and work out how to keep the rescue centre running with no funds. Meanwhile, Samantha is wondering whether her strained relationships with her mother and cousin might be easing as her wedding day approaches.
I really enjoyed this latest book in this series, and can highly recommend it to other readers. It is certainly a fast moving and emotional story, with never a dull moment for the characters and scary situations for some of them. The storyline contains many serious topics including fraud, drug dealing and abuse; some of the descriptions were hard to read and left me feeling anxious for the characters. However, these dark episodes are balanced by the lighter moments where friendship and love shine through. The story had me in tears many times, sometimes happy ones and other times sad. Through all of this, the story always returns to the peaceful surroundings of Hedgehog Hollow with its many spiny lodgers, and, in this case, the promise of a grand wedding. At the end of the book, the author has added some useful facts about hedgehogs and what to do if you encounter one.
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