Book Review: The Last Husky by Hannah Gold

 

This one I was looking forward to a lot! Spoilers ahead!

When April is separated from Bear temporarily, she decides to focus on something else: dog racing. She helps her mentor train for the next big race in Svalbard, and along the way befriends a husky named Blaze. But then her mentor turns out to be unable to race. April will now have to participate in the difficult race herself.

A really touching next installment in the April and Bear series. Bear isn't as much the central focus here, but that was okay to me as April is still a very solid protagonist and her journey of becoming a musher was fun to see.

If I do have one criticism, it's that I think that the friendship between Blaze and April maybe goes just a tad too easily and smoothly. Like, this husky is clearly traumatized and not used to working in a dog team at all, but April manages to befriend him really fast, gets him over his trauma, and makes him into the perfect sled dog in what feels like a very short amount of time, and without many hiccups. I think it'd have been a bit more interesting if there'd been just a few more hurdles in her and Blaze's relationship. 

That said, the race itself was rather interesting to read. And of course the eventual return of Bear was really heartfelt.

It's a solid next chapter in the April and Bear story, though do keep in mind that Bear feels more like an afterthought in this book.

Rating: 4/5