Thank you to everyone who emailed after my last newsletter asking if I was okay, or if I’d managed my 10 hours of sleep. Spoiler: I didn’t. I have two toddlers. I’m lucky if I get to pee alone without someone screaming at me like I’m ruining their entire existence.

If you’ve been cruising around the website this past week, you might have noticed some shiny new things. For those new here, I built this website myself with zero web design background. As an accountant, I love numbers… but this girl needs more than just 0’s and 1’s. I finally let actual professionals loose on the website and they’ve tidied everything up beautifully, so my twitching eye can finally relax.

Here’s what’s new:

• The Wishlist – you asked, we answered. Because apparently you like things you can’t have.

• ‘Back in Stock’ notifications – never miss out again (unless the universe hates you).

• Series now link together – YAY! (This drove me close to murder trying to fix myself).

• And other tiny tweaks you probably won’t notice, but I did, through gritted teeth and questionable language.

We’ll keep improving the site as the business grows. If you spot something missing, or something that looks like it was designed during a caffeine shortage, let me know. My brain works in mysterious ways, and what seems obvious to you might be clear as mud to me!

Outside of backend nonsense, we’re all about books and Christmas spirit. I Christmas HARD for exactly 25 days a year; from December 1 to December 25. On the 26th, Christmas is over, the tree is down before my husband even wakes, and all festive cheer is gone. Is anyone else the same?

This year, we’re road-tripping to Auckland to spend Christmas with my parents. We leave at 4am, hoping the toddlers sleep most of the way, so they survive Christmas and I survive without committing double, or maybe triple, homicide. (Yes, Mr George, I’m looking at you.) Like all Passenger Princesses, I promptly fall asleep in the car. But try changing the music and I’ll wake long enough to glare and say, “I was listening to that, dammit,” then promptly fall back asleep, snoring lightly. We even have a whole photo album dedicated to me asleep in the car in the same pose—mouth wide open, head back—which rotates on our family TV screensaver. Because apparently, we love humiliating me.

It took me a few years to admit I’m not a journey person, but a destination person. You can’t be a journey person if you spend the whole journey passed out. That said, we will listen to an audiobook for part of the trip, and I’m torn between:

• Harry Potter Full Cast Version

• Lights Out (a God-tier audiobook, but maybe not for toddlers)

• ‘Project Hail Mary’ as my Husband very much wants to listen to it.

I’ll be back at work on December 29, sending books and encouraging you to find a cosy spot, a frozen margarita, and a good book to fall into.

I hope you all have a wonderful festive season, however you celebrate. Thank you for being part of this chaos. Whether you’ve bought 1 book or 10, it’s always appreciated. Since opening The Grimoire and talking to so many of you, I’m constantly amazed at how wonderful New Zealand is, and how, despite our different paths, we all find joy and escape in books.

Side note: I read this aloud to my husband, and Lights Out was immediately vetoed because of the children… dammit.

Behind the Pages | Bookish Updates

Hollow Standard Edition: On its way! Limited global stock has slowed things down at the publisher’s end, but it will be arriving very soon.

That's a Wrap For 2025!