This is a sweet story about a little girl named Gale who finds magical heart stones. I think my 9 year old would enjoy this book.

Gale lives in a small fishing town in Maine. It seems like one of those towns where everyone knows everyone. She talks briefly about how her parents split up. Considering so many kids have parents that split up, I think it’s important that children’s books include different types of family structures. I love Gale’s sister, Emma, who seems to have a scientific explanation for everything.

Gale and her friend, Celia, find heart stones that give them warm tingling feelings when they rub them. Strange magical things start to happen around the stones. Gale and Celia set out to discover the mystery of the stones, and who is leaving them all over town.

While her family is skeptical at first, they then witness the power of the stones for themselves. They all set out on adventure at sea to solve the mystery of the heart stones, and figure out if they are some way connected to the two men who went missing at sea a month ago.

Thank you NetGalley and McSea Books for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is an early chapter book or middle grade novel about a girl named Gale Hope who was born in a blizzard and whose name symbolizes the hope that her town needed at the time. Together with her friend Celia, the girls piece together clues and discover the power of friendship and belief. The book has some black and white pictures, approximately 1 per chapter, and includes features like texting and solving a mystery which are intriguing to children in the middle grade age range. The book is recommended for children in the 8-12 age range and I think that's a pretty good estimate. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this great book!

I really like the front cover I was drawn by the coloured and the picture of the lady and the two girls. I liked the chapters had illustrations on each one they where lovely just wish they were in colour I think this would have brought the pictures out more. The chapters where quite short but this is good.
I really enjoyed the story. Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this book.

What a very sweet chapter book. I really liked the illustrations (I wished there were more!), even though they were in black and white. I loved Gale's story and solving the mystery of the heart stones. Would be great for a middleschooler.