Antonia Bernardin

My 44th read of the year was Easy Tiger by Ali K Mulford, the second book in the Prickle Island Zoo series.

Ali K Mulford is the romance book pen name for the author of one of my favourite fantasy series’: The Five Crowns of Okrith, so I won’t lie, I’m pre-disposed to love anything she writes because I love them as author and all her books.

You can read my review for the first book in the series, She’s a keeper, here.

A vague plot summary

Hawk’s one year to save his family zoo is almost up, he has just the summer left to save their home and his father’s legacy. In walk’s chaos on legs: Hannah, the pretty new summer front of house worker.

Hannah is the only child of a mom who had her late in life, whose now putting off her retirement plan because Hannah just can’t seem to get her life together. So when the boss at the ‘journalist’, which is mostly puff pieces, job she hates, offers her a huge pay check in exchange for getting some information about Prickle Island zoo on behalf of an ‘interested party’

When she arrives at the zoo she finds out that A: she’s really bad at snooping, B: this is a really nice family, an amazing zoo and she can’t possibly spy on them. Also, the brooding zoo keeper is really hot and nice… but what about giving her mom the retirement she deserves?

What did I think?

I really loved this book, I loved how chaotic Hannah is and all her big feelings. I liked Hawks’ character development and how their relationship grows. The ending made me cry but just because I’m a wimp when it comes to stories about animals (which these books have a lot of) and then the resolution of the third act miscommunication hit me very much in my feels. A lot of the story focused on Hannah’s struggle with finding work she enjoyed and keeping on top of things because of her ADHD. As someone with *suspicions* about herself, the way everyone at the zoo loves her as is, without her having to feel any shame or mask around them, also made me have a lot of feelings.

I am very much in love with this series and can’t wait for the third book to come out!