Aunty

She's thirteen. She's an aunty. And she's about to discover that family is a lot more complicated than she ever imagined. When Emily Thompson loses both her parents in a tragic accident, the only life she has ever known disappears overnight. Her future lies hundreds of kilometres from Auckland, in the small coastal community of Te Kaha, with Mereana, an older half sister she barely knows. But Mereana comes with a husband, five children, a house bursting with noise, and absolutely no understanding of personal space. To make matters worse, Emily discovers she's technically an aunty to all five children, including two boys older than herself. Naturally, the family finds this hilarious. Emily doesn't. Between chaotic family dinners, bedroom battles, disastrous fishing trips, a spectacularly uncooperative goat and a little nephew who believes aunties are responsible for locating missing socks, Emily begins navigating a world that is entirely unfamiliar. Yet beneath the laughter lie deeper questions. Can two sisters separated by thirty years truly become family? Can Emily reconcile the father she adored with the man Mereana remembers so differently? And is it possible to find happiness again without leaving the people you've lost behind? As friendships develop, old hurts surface and a fierce coastal storm tests the household, Emily discovers that belonging isn't something given to you overnight. Sometimes, it's something built through shared laughter, ordinary kindness and people who refuse to let you face life alone. Warm, funny and deeply moving, Aunty is a heartfelt New Zealand novel about grief, family, forgiveness and the unexpected places we find love. Because sometimes the family you never expected becomes the family you cannot imagine living without.