Ember’s Secret by Catherine Peace
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ember Ngata is a young female shifter from New Zealand of Maori descent, she is in fact the direct descendent from their god Tane, an individual who was part god and part bird and Ember is also part bird, a Whakamanu, one of the only remnants of her tribe who were decimated and have been in Wyoming, hiding ever since. Embers passion is food, it connects her to things she has lost and so she has the dream of making the restaurant she owns and works in a success, but the more people who pass through and never return, the more lonely she feels, especially since her sisters had to leave, she misses them and just wants them home again.

Austin Garten is a television celebrity, he is best known and currently working as the host on the TV show Back Road Eats and has been travelling in an old RV with the rest of his crew sampling the cuisine of the US. However, there is only so much barbecue, pizza and pasta that he can take and he has become slowly more and more bored by the cuisine of Breadbasket America, so when their RV breaks down in Wyoming, they have to take an enforced break and it couldn’t be more welcome.

When Austin receives a recommendation for a Maori restaurant in the area called Kai, he is more then ready for a change of pace and so the crew go there the next day to see what this new kind of cuisine has to offer, however, when he encounters the hostess, he finds more than he bargained for. As soon as Ember sees some new faces who are not her regular clientele, she is happy and when she finds someone attractive as well as someone who enjoys his food, Ember finds a new sense of happiness, albeit tempered by worry and fear at the same time.

As the days pass and Ember and Austin spend more time together, the heat between them increases, but as the Maori New Year and the Solstice approaches, Ember struggles to hide her true nature from Austin, but what would happen if she finally let someone in on her secret, would it end in acceptance or disaster? This is a story of choices and consequences, risk and reward, as well as a sprinkling of magic where nothing is certain and is going all in a risk worth taking?

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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