Here in New Zealand, Thanksgiving doesn't exist. There are no turkeys on supermarket shelves in November, no Black Friday frenzy (well, mostly), and absolutely no cultural pressure to go around a table listing the things you're grateful for. The Fourth of July is just a Wednesday, or whatever day it lands on, and Memorial Day passes without so much as a barbecue in sight. I've always watched American holidays from the outside, the way you watch a parade through a rainy window  aware of the noise and colour, but not quite part of it. That changed when I went down the Ancestry.com rabbit hole. It started innocently enough, the way all great reading adventures do. One link led to another, one census record to a ship manifest, one name to a date that made my jaw drop. Because there, nestled in my family tree like a well-worn bookmark, was a name I recognised from every American history textbook I'd ever read as a book nerd obsessed with the colonial era: Edward Doty. Th...

Review : A Rosewood ThAnksgiving - Christina Sky - October 2013 I am normally not a fanfiction reader but when it comes to Pretty Little Liars and the world it is set in Rosewood, this is my jam. This would have to be one of my all-time favorite series and the world/books have just stayed with me for all these years reading the Kindle Worlds which were published between 2012-2015 brings me joy as I get to relive the memories and characters. It's that time of year again, Thanksgiving in the town of Rosewood and the Hastings are hosting their big annual dinner party, Ashley and Hanna Marin are helping Ted in the soup kitchen as Caleb is away visiting his mother, Emily is hanging with her mum as her girlfriend Paige is away with family, Aria gets a surprise as her mum is back in town and Ezra is spending time with Maggie and Malcolm. However, things are about to hit a point as with any PLL novel -- the trouble hits the fan and nothing is ever easy when you are being stalked by A and...

Review: Baby Gravy - Second Helpings Series - Frankie Love - November 2018 Continuing on my reading spree of clearing books off my devices and focusing on quick reads,  I next decided to read Baby Gravy by Frankie Love. Frankie Love happens to be an author I really enjoy as more often than not her book characters have this genuine feel about them and you know they really love and care for one another and are nice people that you as the reader can't help but cheer on. In Baby Gravy, Russett is home from the Marines and it has been four years since he was last here. Four years ago he was a bad boy on the wrong track and decided to straighten himself out. In the process, though that meant leaving behind Autumn - his best friend's younger sister and the only girl he ever loved. Now he's back and ready to settle down and will do anything to win back the girl of his dreams. Autumn though is in a relationship and has brought him home for Thanksgiving dinner,...