Just such a beautiful book, as a rabbit owner to a free roam rabbit, I loved everything about this book! Not only is the story just adorable and heartfelt, but I also loved learning more about The European Hare and its fascinating history/ folklore. Anyone who loves nature and animals would love to read this book. The journey is amazing, as the author raises an abandoned hare to adulthood not as a pet but wild animal so it can return to its home in the wild. But the hare returns again and again, even having litters of her own, and raises them around the author's home, as if it's her safe place. So many times I found myself smiling and the hare reminds me of my own experience as a rabbit owner trying to keep a rabbit healthy, happy, and completely cage-free. I was greatly inspired and fell in love with this book. I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy!
Thank you to the author and publishing house for this arc.

Chloe Dalton sounded like a workaholic before the COVID shutdown. She was the type of person who went outside during social gatherings to take work related cell phone calls. What really altered her life, however, was she found a motherless baby hare that she decided to take home and try to save. The wildlife person she contacted told her the chance of the hare surviving was slight, but she gave it a go and succeeded. The female hare would then be free to go outside and stay there when it was grown, but it decided to come and go, staying in the house whenever she wanted.

That did make her a semi-pet, even though the author repeatedly claimed she was not a pet, and that's why she didn't name her. She also didn't get into the matter of if the hare was housebroken, as well as the matter of fleas and ticks. Even litter box trained house rabbits aren't always totally housebroken. Plus, I've rescued baby bunnies from cats in the past and all had tiny ticks all over them. Instead, Ms. Dalton focuses on how profoundly the hare changed her life and made her appreciate nature in ways she never did before.

She starts to notice things in the outdoor world in a way a hare would notice things, from vegetation to field plowing to artifical light at night. Some readers will possibly think she goes too far in all of her observations and recommendations of ways humans can better coexist with the animal world. They may see her as becoming a nature workaholic. I personally found the book enjoyable and educational. I've had pet rabbits and have watched wild rabbits for decades. Hares aren't exactly the same as rabbits, but all lagomorphs are interesting, and very hard not to love and not to want to protect.

This is really stirring nonfiction about how a singular hare changed the author’s life for the better.

When Dalton found a leveret, a newborn hare, chased out of its hide into the open, she first waited to see if its mother would find it and hide it away safely once again. When that doesn’t happen, she sets herself to learning how to raise a wild hare. After caring for the animal through its infancy, she ensures it is free to make its own choices. The hare comes and goes, roaming the English countryside at nighttime and returning to the author’s garden and even into her home to rest, eat, and play. Dalton tries her best to not anthropomorphize the wild animal, or to make it into a pet. Regardless, the hare is so comfortable with her human associate, she even gives birth to one of her litters inside her home, and keeps her babies hidden away safely there while she forages at night.

A focus of this book, besides the story of the interactions and relationship between woman and hare, is how changing her life to accommodate this animal and watching it thrive led the author to learn a new appreciation for nature and life itself. She slowed down, observed more, lived in the moment, and developed mindfulness that allowed her to take more joy in the small realities of life. Additionally, she became more conscious of how human endeavors affect the habitat around them, as well as the wildlife that depends on it. She was able to effect some change to help alleviate some of these environmental harms.

Beyond being educational about hares, their behaviors and natural habitats (a subject that has apparently historically been somewhat neglected), this was an emotional, meditative and reflective book that was a pleasure to read.

I have posted my review on Goodreads, but will add it to my blog (jessicacrawfordwrites.com) and Bookstagram account (@ShelfEsteem101) at the time of publication.