What an amazing novella! Trent's story goes from deep loss when his grandmother dies, through his grief, all the way to reconnecting with his roots (that's where Hummingbird House comes in), and finding out what his life is all about. It's an emotional journey, and one that touched me deeply. His feelings of loss, the way he deals with his past, and how he finally rediscovers a love he thought lost are all very real.

Trent knows about being abandoned and left behind. Rejection has always been a part of his life, but his one fixed star was his grandmother Astrid. She took him in when his mother cruelly abandoned him at age fourteen, and she loved him unconditionally. When she dies after years of him taking care of her while she suffered from Alzheimer's, Trent is truly lost. But she has left him Hummingbird house, the family home in England, and when he travels there, his healing begins. It was magical to watch the effect that meeting the people he thought he left behind had on him. As painful as it was to meet Callum again, a man who had dealt Trent a cruel blow when he rejected him, it was exactly what Trent needed.

Another very special part of this story is Astrid, Trenton's grandmother, even though she has passed away before the book begins. But she is very much alive in Trenton's mind, and her letters, handed to him by various people she left them with, make her come alive almost like a third main character. I loved that!

If you like stories about characters on a meaningful emotional journey, if you believe in the hope and magic a Christmas setting can give, and if you're looking for a read that will probably cry before causing a deep sigh of relief and a smile from you at the end, then you should give this book a try. It moved me deeply and its characters will remain with me for quite a while.


NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review.
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Hummingbird House is a delightful novella by Kenzie Cade.

Trent Appleton lives with and cares for his grandmother, Astrid Appleton, as she slowly succumbs to Alzheimer’s during the last eight years of her life. Astrid leaves her estate to Trent. It includes Hummingbird House, the ancestral Appleton home (since 1443) in Shere, a village in Surrey, England.

Now Trent must travel to England and decide what to do with Hummingbird House. He does so with trepidation. His last visit there was with Astrid during the summer when he was eighteen, she told him she had Alzheimer’s, and her decline began.

That summer was also the last time Trent saw Callum Eason, his boyhood friend in Shere. The colorful Eason family owns The Crooked Cottage, a tavern and inn. Trent had let Callum know he wished to pursue a gay relationship with him. Callum let Trent know he was straight.

And yet, swimming naked in a pond with Trent their last day together, Callum had allowed him a kiss as prolonged as it was passionate for both of them.

What I especially like about Hummingbird House are the roles played by Trent’s grandmother, Astrid, and Callum’s mother, Moira. They see through the nonsense keeping Trent and Callum apart.

“Don’t be afraid of love,” Astrid tells Trent. “Because in the end, love is all we have.” ( )