McCall HoyleReseñas

I loved this book, told from a dogs point of view, and having had many dogs in my life, it was spot on.
Millie is a Border Terrier, and her start is very sad, and we are with this sweet dog as she tries to basically survive!
This book is geared at 8 to 11 year olds, but I think dog lovers of all ages will enjoy!
Millie is rescued from the shelter, and we follow her to see if they can rehabilitate, and we follow her at she misses the other dogs from her life that she loved.
I think that children are going to enjoy this, especially with the dog doing all the thinking! Her tail tight between her legs, or her tail wagging, the smells of food and those she loves! They will be wondering if she will survive, if she will find her forever home?
This is a heartwarming read, especially for those who love dogs!
I received this book through the Publisher Shadow Mountain, and was not required to give a positive review.

The story of a boy, Diego, and a dog, Gus. Now Gus is not an ordinary dog, sadly he was abused and rescued, and now he is a working dog. This read is told from a dog's point of view, which most children, and adults, appreciate.
Gus's job is taking care of sheep, and he takes his job very seriously! We quickly learn which scents he likes and which send him into a threat mode.
Now Gus is a big dog, he is a Great Pyrenees a working dog, a big white strong fellow. He is intimidating to most of the predators, and as we read he becomes injured by a bear.
This is the story of healing, both for Gus and a little boy named Diego. A story of bonding that will tug on your heart, making it a page turner for answers! Can a dog move from a farm to the beach?
I received this book through the Publisher Shadow Mountain, and was not required to give a positive review.

I really love this one and it didn’t disappoint. Emilie is a homeschooled teenager who has epilepsy .... until her mom decides that she needs to be enrolled in a real life in-person high school. There she meets Chatham, the all American boy who is the star of the basketball team. She struggles with fitting in and telling anyone about her epilepsy. The inevitable happens and she’s got to decide how she’s going to handle it. McCall Hoyle is a masterful storyteller and this book was a great read. Highly recommend it.

I cried while reading this. It’s told from Stella’s POV. Stella is a beagle who’s been trained to sniff out bombs by her trainer, Connie. But when an explosion at a local airport goes horrible wrong, Stella is out into a foster home. She is then taken in by Esperanza, a fellow trainer, who thinks she can help. There Stella finds her true calling. Esperanza’s daughter Chloe convinced her mom to let her start training Stella. The two form a bond much deeper than either realize. Great book and I highly enjoyed it!!

I love the way McCall Hoyle writes about characters with disabilities and serious medical issues. In “The Thing With Feathers” she chronicled the journey of a teen with a seizure disorder, and here, she writes about Sophie, whose family has been forever altered after an accident left her sister Mere with a traumatic brain injury (TBI.) Additionally, Finn’s life has also been changed by a serious medical event, and the way that their journeys intersect works really well together.

By extreme coincidence, this was being released just as a major hurricane was striking the Carolinas. I was impressed by the level of detail here in describing the disaster conditions, as well as the good pacing. A great mix of soft moments in between disaster!

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader.

I was so impressed with what a professional and sensitive job MCall Hoyle did in portraying a teen with epilepsy while keeping in mind that this was only one aspect of her life and she had all the other typical high school anxieties... does that cute boy like me... will people make fun of me if I am authentically myself? And it was really great that one theme running centrally throughout the book was that everyone, or nearly every character, had some sort of issue they were struggling with. Emilie at the start truly felt isolated, and that with the death of her father and the medical issue she faced, she had been dealt a hand worse than the rest, that all the other students surrounding her lived shallow and empty lives. It was rewarding to watch her character grow and realize that there was more to everyone around her than she had originally assumed.

I particularly loved the relationship between Emilie and Hitch, and also between Emilie and her mother. The second was flawed, and very painful to read at times, but so realistically portrayed. This novel was simply a delight to read.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the author.

It all started with the accident. The one that caused Sophie’s dad to walk out of her life. The one that left Sophie’s older sister, Meredith, barely able to walk at all.

With nothing but pain in her past, all Sophie wants is to plan for the future - keep the family business running, get accepted to veterinary school, and protect her mom and sister from another disaster. But when a hurricane forms off the coast of North Carolina’s Outer Banks and heads right toward their island, Sophie realizes nature is one thing she can’t control.

After she gets separated from her family during the evacuation, Sophie finds herself trapped on the island with the last person she’d have chosen - the reckless and wild Finn Sanders, who broke her heart freshman year. As they struggle to find safety, Sophie learns that Finn has suffered his own heartbreak; but instead of playing it safe, Finn’s become the kind of guy who goes surfing in the eye of the hurricane. He may be the perfect person to remind Sophie how to embrace life again, but only if their newfound friendship can survive the storm.

Listened to this, read superbly by Nora Hunter. I was in awe of the writing, which is why I'm giving this a generous score. Despite this, my one reservation was that it made epilepsy seem like a dreadful disability. From my exposure to it in my own family, this is an unnecessarily dire view, bearing on scare mongering.

I agree with Lifeofaliterarynerd below that the story between Emilie and Chatham was somewhat under-developed and I wondered if that was partly due to its following the strictures on novels that seek to be classified as YA.

I read this novel as part of my foray in to YA, and I continue to be impressed by the genre, which I didn't even know existed!

Here's a para taken from an article in The Independent: For a genre that's so popular among readers of all ages, young-adult (YA) lit is surprisingly young: the term was only coined in the 1960s, introducing an official way to describe books aimed at kids 12 to 18.

Likewise, I had not heard of NA - New Adults - until recently - and I'll have to explore that next.½

(free audiobook download from audiobooksync 2019)

teen romance during a hurricane.
narration was ok, but the boy character was so annoyingly jerky that I didn't care to find out what his redeeming qualities were.

This is such a heartfelt and beautiful book. There were quite a few tough topics handled in this book, but McCall Hoyle did such a wonderful job of showing that these adversities could be overcome. I really felt for Emilie and her struggles. Also, I LOVED HITCH SO MUCH!!!! Sorry. I have a sweet spot for wonderful dogs in books. One of my favorites of the year so far!

Decent YA novel dealing with loss & love using a pair of teens stranded in a hurricane. I thought that the hurricane aspect of the story was excellent - the YA aspect was fairly typical to my mind.

I can see why this one would be hit or miss for people. I am giving it a three stars, as it was ok. It kept my attention and was fast paced. It was a very exaggerated look into two teens stuck in a storm/hurricane. Some of the things they do along the way were so annoying and unrealistic. I just found myself rolling my eyes at certain things that happened.

Both Sophie and Finn have back stories that kept the story interesting. I wanted to know more about what previously happened in their lives even more than what happened during the storm. Finn makes some ridiculous decisions along the way and I just never really liked him.

Overall, this was ok but not something I would be recommending to many others.½

Sophie's life changed when her Dad and sister were in an auto accident. Her severely injured sister suffered a stroke during recovery and can do few things she used to find enjoyable. Her dad walked out leaving her mom to mind the family business and both daughters.

Before that Finn stood her up and left town. Now Finn is back, and a hurricane is headed their way. Sophie and her mom heed the mandatory evacuation, but Sophie's bald tire blows out on the highway before leaving the Outer Banks. Finn comes along, offering her a lift, but he needs to take supplies to an uncle who plans to ride out the storm in spite of the mandatory evacuation first. Finn also takes the opportunity to do a little surfing on oncoming hurricane waves. When they finally hit the road to get off the island, the winds are already high. A branch blows through the windshield, and the truck wrecks. The two teens find themselves in a game of survivor.

Woven into the narrative is the story of a wild horse who got away from the rest of the horses and became injured, and Sophie's efforts to help him.

This AudioSync Summer 2019 selection has all the elements of a good summer read for teen girls. Narrator Morgan Fairbanks did a good job portraying Sophie.½

A wholesome YA romance, with a nature theme when two young adults are caught on the NC barrier island during a hurricane.

This was such a light and fluffy contemporary, but there was so much heart! Emilie Day is an epileptic teen who’s nervous about leaving her life of homeschool behind as she starts attending her local high school. She decided to keep her epilepsy a secret.

I loved that we got to have a main character with epilepsy! I loved seeing Emilie talk about her seizure dog, her medicine, therapy, the different types of seizures she has - we really get to see her and I loved it. Emilie and Chatham, her english partner, were really adorable. I loved their dates and seeing them flirting. Plus, Chatham was such a great guy. I also liked seeing Emilie’s friendship begin to develop with Ayla. However, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Emilie’s mom. I really had problems with how she handled the whole dating again situation. I also found that the story was underdeveloped overall. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the story, most of the characters, and the relationships we see, but I wanted more. The Thing With Feathers really is a story of love and hope - it shows the heart and courage and bravery, and was a joy to read.

Emilie has been homeschooled due to her epilepsy seizures. Now, her father has passed away, and her therapist and her mother want her to register for public school so she is not at home grieving by herself so much. But Emilie doesn't want anybody at school to know about her epilepsy.