Review and Giveaway: Skies Like These by Tess Hilmo

I'm excited to share my review of Skies Like These today! Plus, you can win a copy below...

Skies Like These

by Tess Hilmo

July 15, 2014

Macmillan

A funny, friendship-filled novel with a cowboy twist 

Twelve-year-old Jade’s perfect summers have always been spent reading and watching TV reruns, so she’s not happy when her parents send her off to Wyoming to her aunt’s house. She meets a boy who calls himself Roy Parker—just like the real name of the legendary rebel cowboy Butch Cassidy. Roy’s dad’s hardware store has closed because a chain store has opened up in town, and Roy thinks it is just like the big cattle barons in Butch’s day who put the local ranchers out of business. He wants Jade to be his Sundance Kid and help him pull some stunts worthy of Butch Cassidy. Sabotage the big store? Outsmart the store’s owner by doing reconnaissance on his ranch? Jade wants to be a good friend, but she’s not so sure about Roy’s schemes.

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Tess Hilmo’s Skies Like These is a delightful and heart-warming middle-grade contemporary filled with laughs, unexpected adventure, and a whole lotta heart!

Twelve year old Jade is sent, by her parents, to her aunt’s house in Wyoming, in hopes she has as a real summer experience, not just one spent indoors or in front of the tv. In Wyoming, Jade helps her aunt around her dog ranch and meets a boy who calls himself Roy Parker. Roy is obsessed with the cowboy legend, Butch Cassidy and fancies himself a cowboy rebel. The hardware store owned by Roy’s father has gone out of business because of the new big box chain that opened up in town. Roy wants to thwart the new store’s owner and get his dad’s store back up...and he wants Jade as his partner in crime!

Skies Like These was a lot of fun to read and left me with such a happy heart! Tess Hilmo is so dang good at spinning relatable and realistic stories full of sweet friendships; inspiring self discovery; and endearing characters, and capturing small town life so perfectly! Lovely small town Wyoming and the doggie ranch make for a captivating setting full of possibilities and endless fun. And Jade and Roy definitely find fun...and mischief, hard truths, surprising people, poignant lessons, breathtaking beauty, and as much love as there are stars in the skies! Hilmo writes with such amusing charm and fills her pages with humor, heart, gorgeous descriptions, and a pitch-perfect middle-grade voice.

There are so many wonderful and engaging characters in Skies Like These! Jade and Roy make for an entertaining, fun duo, whose different personalities awesomely play off of each other. Like smart, logical Jade, I was wary at first of Roy’s wild shenanigan schemes and outlaw plans, but she and I both warmed up quickly to his infectious mischief making and grand ideas. While the plenty of laughs, adventure, and cowboy fun make Skies Like These exciting, it also explores family, friendship, love, sacrifice, and staying true to oneself in a quietly beautiful way.

My Final Thoughts: Skies Like These, with its lovely setting; charming writing; and terrific characters, is a sweet, fun book that will leave your heart feeling sunny and ready for your own cowboy adventure!

MY RATING

Tess Hilmo

website * goodreads * twitter 

Win a copy of Skies Like These!

The very awesome Tess Hilmo has offered to send one copy of her book to one of you lucky cupcakes.

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