Time To Return to Hedgehog Hollow – Jessica Redland
The hedgehogs are back! Yay! 
Following on from July 2020’s release of Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow, I’m excited to take readers back to Hedgehog Hollow with my new release: New Arrivals at Hedgehog Hollow.
What can readers expect from the second book in the series?
The story picks up exactly where the first book ended. It’s the day after the official press opening at Hedgehog Hollow Rescue Centre and Samantha and Josh are hosting a Family Fun Day to say thank you to the community for their amazing support in rebuilding the barn after the devastating arson attack.
Everything is going really well until Josh’s ex-girlfriend, Beth, turns up at the farm demanding to speak to him. He wants nothing to do with her or his dad after what they did, but Beth won’t accept no for an answer.
This is Josh’s story as much as Samantha’s and, as such, it’s told in a dual perspective with them each narrating different chapters. We find out a lot more about Josh’s back story and how his dad’s affair with Beth affected Josh and his mum. While Samantha supports him through this, she still has her own family issues to deal with as well as the nagging worry that she may have been way too ambitious thinking she could run the rescue centre and still hold down a full-time teaching job.
You see, word has spread and the hedgehogs keep arriving. For anyone who reviewed book 1 and said they’d have loved more hedgehogs (as they really only start appearing towards the end of the story when the centre has been set up), they should be delighted with book 2 because there is an abundance of hedgehogs and hoglets (babies) needing care and attention.
It was fascinating reading blogs and social media posts from hedgehog rescue centres nationwide, understanding the most common reasons for admissions and how to treat these. These gorgeous little creatures are so incredibly vulnerable but there’s so much we can do to help them. The last thing I’d ever want to do is come across as preachy but I did want to provide a few snippets of information in among the family drama that may increase awareness of the difference we can all make.
Making up hedgehog names was great fun but my favourite name in the whole book has to be the one from our ‘name a hedgehog’ competition winner, Sarah. As announced at the back end of last year, she came up with Snoop Hoggy Hog. Isn’t that fabulous? You’ll have to watch out for his debut appearance.
As well as all the hedgehogs, we meet a few new characters in New Arrivals at Hedgehog Hollow. Readers get to know Paul and Beth. They’ll meet Josh’s mum, Connie, who is an inspiring woman who I’d love to meet in real life. And there’s a new character called Fizz who I hadn’t given any thought to but she suddenly arrived on the page full of life and I adored her immediately. I think we all need a Fizz in our lives!
I hope you love your return to Hedgehog Hollow in New Arrivals at Hedgehog Hollow. If you haven’t already read Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow, I would very much recommend pausing to read that story first to really understand the main characters and how Hedgehog Hollow evolved.
And there’s more still to come! Family Secrets at Hedgehog Hollow will be out on 4th May 2021 and available for pre-order soon, with a fourth book in the series due early next year.
Big hugs
Jessica xx
Photo credit: Sarah Howell
Illustration by: Mark Heslington
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