Prickly Company by Kitty Johnson Blog Tour

 I do love a feel-good novel sometimes, something to sit down and get cosy with and surround yourself with a cuddle from a book. And that's exactly what you get with Kitty Johnson's novel Prickly Company.

Frances Mathews doesn’t get out much since her husband died, but her fondness for the hedgehogs who pass through her garden prompts her to start a campaign to create a hedgehog highway in Hilltop Place―feeding stations, holes at the bottoms of gates and fences, and wild garden areas for hibernation. To Frances’s delight, her neighbours are on board. Mostly.

There are Jess and Michael, whose marriage is cracking under the unanticipated strain of a recent adoption. And Ryan, a wounded war reporter struggling to connect with his son after a divorce and forced to return to live with his mother. Then there’s the glamourous Tara and her daughter Hermie, new to the neighbourhood and already ruffling feathers. Finally, there’s Justin and Helen, a houseproud couple who are not keen to upend their picture-perfect garden for prickly nuisances.

Before long, the Hilltop Place hedgehog highway is thriving, and new friendships are springing up all over the neighbourhood. But with new friendships, secrets are revealed. What Frances and her charitable neighbours soon discover about themselves, and each other, is hardly what any of them expected. The peaceful neighbourhood will find itself threatened in ways that affect them all … hedgehogs included.

This is actually the first book I've read from this author but, I will definitely be reading more in the future.

A story designed to make you feel.

The people in Hilltop village are all realistic. They each have their own lives that all come with flaws, real life! There's no such thing as perfect right.

Community.

That's what this novel was all about.

And as Frances, who is a recluse, leads her street on the journey to building a hedgehog highway, we get an insight into a neighbourhood that is filled with genuine difficulties that many of us have faced in our own daily lives. Abuse, neglect, disability, PTSD, adultery, divorce, death, adoption to name a few.

Along with our friendly hedgehog narration, we are treated to a bunch of residents who all come together to achieve something amazing. And along this fulfilling journey, there are also some much needed positive moments for the inhabitants of this neighbourhood.

Brilliantly heartwarming.

I was charmed by it all and I do believe that many people will be looking to help out their local neighbourhood hedgehogs now. 

Prickly Company provided me with a book that is both thought provoking and entertaining whilst also giving me a much needed happy ending too.

Do check out the rest of the blog tour (shown in the graphic above) to see just what company this book provides.