Ringing in the New Year by Clover Callahan and Kaitlin Collins

 

Published on January 31^st, 2025

61 pages

I read the paperback version

Back Cover

The countdown to midnight is on in this New Years Eve road trip novella.

Gavin Glengarry has a plan for this Scottish vacation, one that doesn’t include falling off castle ruins, knocking over ritual standing stones or getting locked in a giant metal horse’s head. But best laid plans go awry when Sabrina enlists her internet bestie (read: potential catfisher) and her Scottish boyfriend to be their tour guides for Hogmanay.

The itinerary is set for their friends’ visit, but for everything else in Lydia’s life, it’s more chaos than clarity. With time ticking away on her work visa, both Lydia and Alec are concerned not just about her job, but also the future of their relationship. She hopes a tarot reading from Sabrina will provide guidance, but what if it suggests a solution that she never allowed herself to consider?

Will they make it to Edinburgh Castle for the fireworks? Or will the Glengarry curse get the best of them once again? Find out what happens as the clock strikes midnight in what promises to be an unforgettable New Year’s Eve for all.

Ringing in the New Year: A Hogmanay Holiday Novella is a collaborative epilogue combining the characters from The Fate Date and Falling for Scotland. It can be read as a standalone, but the jokes hit better if you’ve had the chance to read one or both of the novels.

My review

You probably know by now that I am not a huge fan of holidays stuff, but I like road trip even though most of my trip are by train, I still can get an idea. If you ever watched the movie New Year or Valentine Day, you will notice some point in common with this novella. Each character is living a story and they are all inked in some ways.

I liked the fact that they are all happening in Scotland, since it’s a country I want to visit since I watched the first season of Outlander. You will find a few Scottish words in the book, but the authors put a glossary at the beginning, so you can go back if you have question while you are reading.

My favorite part of the novella it’s when the character did a tarot reading and talk about a family curse. It’s a contemporary story, but the authors added a few spiritual things in it to make it different. It worked for me, not only because I am interested to these things, but it changed for everything I read before and it’s not even a horror story or a thriller.

If like me, you have sometime trouble to follow who is doing what when there are too many characters, each chapter is named with the protagonist, so it’s help to solve that problem.

Excerpts

"I’ve had plenty of whisky in my life, but never Canadian. Ye’ve got me curious. Come into the kitchen and I’ll pour you folks a dram before we head out." (p.5)

"I don’t know how familiar you are with Scottish cuisine, if you will. My best advice is to go for stovies or cock-a-leekie soup and to stay away from anything form of black pudding." Lydia counselled. (p.15)

Alec couldn’t help but be exited despite the unnerving tale. How many families could claim having a poem written about a supposed generational curse placed on them? It was something straight out of a novel. (p.29)