Home for the Holidays (The Mother-Daughter Book Club)

Emma, Jess, Cassidy, Megan, Becca and their mothers are all back for a new season of the Mother-Daughter book club. This season the girls and their mothers will be reading the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace. Since they will all be in different places for the Holidays they decide that they will celebrate together on New Year's Eve. The girls have picked names among themselves to be Secret Santa to. As each girl opens their gifts each day they are disappointed in their Secret Santa. It seems that their Secret Santa does not know them at all. When the "big reveal" on New Year's Eve comes around tempers are right under the surface. Becca and her family spend Christmas on a cruise with Megan and her family. Becca's family has a secret that they do not want to share with anyone until after the Holidays. Becca can only think of how this secret affects her. Megan's boyfriend has just broken up with her over email. She is heart-broken, but when she meets Phillipe the captains son she thinks that maybe life will go on. Jess is disappointed as she was going to spend the holidays in Switzerland. An unfortunate accident keeps her in the States. When her aunt and uncle invite her family to come to their hotel in New Hampshire they decide to go there. Emma is invited to go with Jess and her family. Her parents let her go, but she finds that it is not as fun as she thought it would be to be away from her family during The Holiday. Cassidy and her family go out to California. Her step-father Stanley has a job offer that could take them back to California(where they lived before moving to Concord). Cassidy had longed to go back to California, but now she has established her home in Concord and is not sure that she want to move again. Through all of the bumps and trials the girls' family and friendships stand the tests of time. I absolutely love The Mother-Daughter book Club series and recommend it as a great read for young girls. My daughter is 19 and when we got this new book in the mail she was so excited! She wanted to read it before I got to it, but was gracious enough to allow me first dibs! This 5th book was just as good as the 1st and I'm looking forward to future books in the series.

Cassidy, Emma, Becca, Megan, and Jess are back! After a fun thanksgiving get together, Megan's boyfriend Simon breaks up with her, which puts her in the dumps. Jess, meanwhile, suffers an injury from a sledding accident. Emma feels left out because her family is the only one who will be staying in Concord for the holidays. Cassidy's family might move back to California, which worries her. Emma's parents let her go with Jess to New Hampshire, so the girls decide to pick secret Santa's. In this book, each girl is going to be spending the holidays away from home, which doesn't relate to Mrs. Slone-Kinkad's Home For The Holidays special on her cooking show that they star in. The Wongs and the Chadwicks are going a vacation cruise, on an all-organic ship, which pleases Mrs. Wong. But tensions arise when boy troubles take their friendship by storm. The girls try not to talk or even acknowledge each other, but with the watchful eye off their parents, their plan is difficult. Jess and Emma, meanwhile, get in a different boy argument. Jess, with her injury, needs little help getting around. Their family farm hand's brother odds to help out, seeing he lives in the area. But Emma feels Jess is flirting with him and being disloyal to her boyfriend, who is Emma's brother. They go through the same procedure as Becca and Megan, although their disagreements lasts for different periods of time. As it is Emma's first Christmas away from home, she feels homesickness and hurt as Jess ignores her. Cassidy spends the holidays in her hometown, California, with some friends. But when they visit Courtney, her big sister, and her boyfriend, something happens that had Cass angry and feeling nothing will ever be the same again. She is also hurt because she thinks her mom expected, and she knows Cassidy hates surprises, like the Concord move. Becca has a family secret, and although she needs, or feels she needs support from her friends, especially Megan, she must be true to her word and not tell anyone. When she feels she needs more help getting boys, she decided to get a new ego, which backfires and causes her fight with Megan. She feels sorry for herself. But after a talk with her brother, she realizes that it was probably harder on the rest of the family than her. And then there is the secret Santa matter. All the gifts seem mean and not like them at all. All the girl suspect Becca, except Megan and Becca. Megan loves her gifts okay, and Becca thinks it's Jess. At their New Year's Eve progressive dinner, Becca exploded and tells all about the Secretary Santa gifts. Emma is mostly blamed, because she was Becca's secret Santa. This is a fun filled story, with chickens, tans, fights, and crutches that have you wanting too read more, even after already reading it. The shipment was quick, and Amazon deserves a thank-you for that. Summery: The girls take trips for the holidays. They get in fights. They make up for the New Year, and a fresh start for their party. Please check out Heather Vogel Fredrick on YouTube, doing a live chat with an actual MDBC! There is a surprise. (Spoiler alert! She might write another book!) There is a summery about this book on YouTube, but be warned. Not all is true. Just consider it. They read the Betsy-Tacy books. Hope you enjoy this great book all middle schoolers should read! GZ Gymnastics zebra

It’s Christmas… no one is home for the holidays.Becca and her family along with the Wongs are off on a cruise. Jess and her family along with Emma are visiting extended family of the Delaneys in New Hampshire. Cassidy and her family are off to California to investigate a possible job opportunity for her stepfather. Things happen. Relationships are threatened. The question looms. Will the Mother-Daughter Book Club survive? A great addition to an inspiring series.

As an English teacher, mom, and book lover--I adore the MDBC series. Home for the Holidays is the latest, and, I believe, the final installment in the series, though I wish it weren't so. Like another reviewer stated, don't believe the book blurb on this one--no one's reading Charles Dickens or getting stranded in a blizzard. However, the club does take on the Betsy-Tacy series and encounters all sorts of new tests to their relationships. Who will win Clementine's ugly Christmas sweater contest? Will Becca Chadwick ever become a true part of the group? Will Cassidy stay in Concord? Will Jess and Emma mar their lifelong friendship with a quarrel? Will Mrs. Wong convince everyone to go vegan? Of the five books in the series, though all are delightful, I would say this is the best and funniest, plus it interweaves the novels the club is reading a little bit more into the story than do the others. Also, count on lots of lovely food descriptions throughout--an essential for any good book. All in all, I will miss all the members of the Mother-Daughter Book Club so much, but Home for the Holidays is a perfect goodbye to the gang. Settle in for a cozy read with a cup of hot chocolate (mit schlag, of course!) and enjoy!

This was a gift for my granddaughter. Heather Vogel Frederick is one of her favorite authors. She loved the book She is 12 years old so most any girl in this age group would enjoy it.

What a delightful book! Don't let the book description fool you. Clearly whoever wrote it didn't actually read the book, or the description on Simon & Schuster's website, or the author's website, or even the book jacket. The Mother-Daughter Book Club, in Home for the Holidays, reads the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace, with the goal of finishing on New Year's Eve. Now sophomores, the girls are now having boy problems and experiences that threaten their friendships. I highly recommend this novel. Having already read the Betsy-Tacy books, I enjoyed seeing how the girls once again find things in their own lives that reflect what happens to the characters they are reading about. But as with all the MDBC books, it is not necessary to read the book club's book choices before reading about their lives. But once young readers read Home For the Holidays, they will want to read about Betsy and Tacy's high school adventures. (Meg Cabot is also a fan!) Each book in this series gets better and better. Let's hope that this will not be the final book! Heaven to Betsy/Betsy in Spite of Herself

Both my 13 going on 14 year old daughter and I read this book and LOVED it! We have read the whole series and this one is our favorite. We loved the way the author developed each of the characters and their storylines in this book- even Becca!! I love that they are basically nice girls with flaws. They make mistakes but they learn and grow from them. And they have strong relationships with their family, not just their friends. Neither of us has read the Betsy-Tacy series, but we think we will check them out soon. I truly commend the author for writing interesting and age-appropriate books for girls and moms to read together. I'm just sorry to see that this series has come to an end. I only hope Heather Vogel Frederick is writing something new and wonderful to read!!

Wow. That's all I have to say-wow. This is the best book I have ever read. The amazing details on every vacation was breathtaking making me believe I was on the vacations myself I especially loved the fabulous cruise. Praises to Heather Vogul Frederick for making this for all of us to enjoy. A hint of romance, a special plot, the forever amazing characters, and the trips- make an amazing book. Enjoy more reviews from Bubblicous11

I love this book it gives you a certain touch of happiness and it is especially good for young adults.