A review by evefaith
Summer at Hope Meadows by Lucy Daniels

3.0

It felt really comforting and nostalgic to be back with Mandy, James and the animal ark crew. I think if I didn’t have an invested interest in the characters from reading the animal ark series as a child I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed this book or even stuck with it. It was an easy read with a cute storyline, although touching on some darker issues, and was quite heartbreaking at a point. I related to Mandy’s situation of being torn between her childhood village and the excitement of a bigger city she more recently called home. However I read a few reviews before reading which mentioned the dialogue being unrealistic, I am afraid I have to agree! Simon referring to his girlfriend as his ‘long legged girl’ and then answering her call with ‘What can I do for you?’ seemed a bit odd and not very believable. Another point I read in another review was the overly repetitive use of ‘Vet’ terminology and practices. At first I thought this was unfair, this is a book about a family of vets after all! However by halfway through I couldn’t help agreeing with this. It seemed to describe the vetinary procedures in minute detail which could alienate the regular reader. Don’t get me wrong I did enjoy learning a bit more about how a vetinary practice is run and understand this is a big theme of the book but it was just a bit too much, and knowing it was actually written by a vet, I understand how this has happened. Another thing was there were quite a few characters mentioned that I did struggle to keep up of who was who a couple of times! I am not sure if I will continue with the series, I do have some unanswered questions and would like to continue with Mandy and James on their journey into adulthood but I don’t feel overly excited about the prospect of several more books like this! Having said all this I did devour it in two days so it wasn’t all bad and I did like the fact it felt like I was reuniting with some old friends. Overall I would recommend this to people who, like me, grew up with the animal ark series or have a particular interest in animals or vetinary practice otherwise I can’t promise you will love it.