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: The Nowhere Child - Christian White - June 2018 There’s something extra special about receiving a book as a gift , especially a birthday Bookstagram surprise and The Nowhere Child by Christian White felt like exactly that kind of treat: one that invites you to curl up, get cosy, and disappear into its pages for a few blissful hours. A couple of years ago, I read The Ledge by Christian White and was instantly hooked by his knack for tension and twists. Since then, I’ve slowly been working my way through his backlist, and this one had been sitting on my radar for a while particularly because it features one of my absolute favourite tropes: missing children who are later found as teenagers or adults. Think Finding Carter vibes or Angie Stanton’s Don’t Call Me Greta , stories where identity, truth, and memory all collide in the most compelling ways. In The Nowhere Child, we begin in a small, cult-like town in the US, where a baby named Sammy Went disappears without a trace. It’...

VBT# Review - Dr. Marsha and the Case of the Missing Hot Dogs and Marshmallows - Dr. Rachel Wellner MD - June 2021 This cute little indie read Dr. Marsha and the Case of the Missing Hot Dogs and Marshmallows by Dr. Rachel Wellner MD was not only great as an introduction to the genre of mystery stories for preschoolers/ early primary school-aged children as this book is perfect for children aged 4-8 years old. It also introduces children to a mixture of animals that can only be found in Australia and also only in the US. The book starts in Australia with Dr. Marsha and her friends, she has received a letter from her cousin who is the Mayor of Washington DC in America. It is the 4th July festival coming up which is a major holiday in the US and someone has stolen their Hot Dogs and Marshmallows and now the animals are worried as this is the main part of their festival. Now Dr. Marsha and her friends are on a plane to the US to help solve the mystery and not only do their help solve th...

Shopping for a Turkey Julia Kent Publication date: November 2nd 2021 Genres: Adult, Comedy, Contemporary, Romance I don’t understand Americans. Or, as we say in Scotland, I dinna understand ye eedjits. And I definitely dinna understand the crazy mother-in-law of my cousin Declan. Who in their right mind names a wee dog Chuffy? I’m stuck in New York after ma agent makes a bloody mess of an otherwise good endorsement contract for a sports towel company, and this crazy American holiday–Thanksgiving–is in two days. The invitation to spend it in Mendon, Massachusetts, with the Jacoby family is about as appealing as rotten haggis. As far as I can tell, Thanksgiving is about stuffing yerself silly, watching pathetic American “football,” while fighting with relatives ye only see once a year. If I wanted that last one, I’d head back to Scotland, where we dinna need a holiday to be salty to each other. Ma firm answer is nae. Until I remember Amy is part of the family. Suddenly, ...

Never Fall for Your Back-Up Guy Kate O’Keeffe (It’s Complicated, #1) Publication date: August 3rd 2021 Genres: Adult, Comedy, Women’s Fiction Three things I’ve learned this week: 1) Never fall for a client 2) Never fall for your best friend 3) And most importantly, never fall for your back-up guy …especially if they’re all the same person. I’m the queen of dating disasters—I’ve had more rotten dates than you can shake a long stemmed rose at. After years of one disappointment after another, I’m beginning to feel like I’ll never say “I do.” So after being dumped one too many times I do something stupid: I make a pact with my best friend Asher. If neither of us are married by 35, we tie the knot. That’s five full years of searching for The One. I’ve got to meet Mr. Right by then, don’t I? Except when I take a job redecorating Asher’s bachelor pad, I realize he’s a lot different from the guy I thought he was. Against all odds, I find myself falling for my best friend. M...

Review: Every Step She Takes - Kelley Armstrong - June 2020 For the past ten years, Genevieve has been living in France as she was part of a celebrity scandal in the States and though she was the innocent party, she was blamed for everything and her reputation was shredded - she needed to escape from the spotlight and keep a low profile. Here in France, she could be whoever she wanted and no-one was judging her for her past. Now ten years later she has arrived home and sat on her kitchen table as a parcel addressed to Lucy Callahan. A name that she has not used or spoken of since she left the states ten years ago. It turns out the parcel is from celebrity Isabella Morales and she wants to meet Lucy back in the States and talk about the scandal and apologize and hear Lucy's side finally. Lucy is reluctant but she goes as Isabella is persistent. She turns up and Lucy is transported back to the Summer of 2005 when she became a music tutor for Isabella Morales and Action star Colt Gord...