Stella 🐶

Author: McCall Hoyle

My rating: 4.8 stars

Release date: March 2nd, ’21

A dog’s tale of overcoming trauma, being brave, and finding a new family.

Stella, a beagle, used her strong scent skills in her job as a chemical sniffing dog at airports until a mistake cost the life of her handler and best friend. Traumatized and suffering from ptsd, Stella is moved between different foster families as they try to help and rehabilitate her. Given a last chance on a farm with a mother and daughter, Stella must try her best to be a good dog, despite the fears that keep tripping her up.

Told from the perspective of the dog herself, Stella is a curious, friendly beagle who blames herself for her human’s death. It’s fascinating to read the book from Stella’s perspective. She views the world through her strong nose and through her attachments to the humans she loves. Stella also drops tips throughout the book on the best ways to communicate with, interact with, and train dogs. Life is simpler for dogs, but Stella needs to overcome her fears, find a new purpose in life, and try to communicate with humans who don’t understand her.

Stella’s new human is a young girl with epilepsy. Chloe doesn’t have any friends, but has lots of time to spend training, playing with, and loving Stella. Given all her help, perhaps Stella can do the impossible and help Chloe in return.

There were some parts in this book that had me near tears. They were really good emotional moments. Stella is so sweet and innocent and needs such a big hug. This is a book for dog lovers of all ages. The story touched on some sensitive topics, like death, euthanizing, and epilepsy. Not in too much detail on any topic, but enough to bring up the topics on a children’s (and dog’s) level.

I highly recommend this book for everyone. It’s a perfect, sweet, heartwarming read.
I received a copy in exchange for an honest review.