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Thanksgiving Day Parade: A Holiday Strangers-to-Lovers Romance
Julie Griffiths has been secretly in love with her hometown crush forever. When he dares her to sneak into the Thanksgiving Day Parade, she agrees—determined to impress him and prove she can take a risk.
But her plan goes sideways when she ends up on a bus to New York City next to Brian Moore—freshly heartbroken, broody, and absolutely not in the mood to play tour guide.
Reluctantly, Brian agrees to help Julie pull off her crazy scheme. As the two race through the city trying to make her Thanksgiving wish come true, sparks fly. Soon, Julie isn’t sure if she still cares about impressing her crush back home—or if her heart is already marching to a new tune.
Thanksgiving Day Parade is a sweet, feel-good romance full of small-town charm, big-city adventure, and the magic of unexpected love.
But her plan goes sideways when she ends up on a bus to New York City next to Brian Moore—freshly heartbroken, broody, and absolutely not in the mood to play tour guide.
Reluctantly, Brian agrees to help Julie pull off her crazy scheme. As the two race through the city trying to make her Thanksgiving wish come true, sparks fly. Soon, Julie isn’t sure if she still cares about impressing her crush back home—or if her heart is already marching to a new tune.
Thanksgiving Day Parade is a sweet, feel-good romance full of small-town charm, big-city adventure, and the magic of unexpected love.
134 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 7, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 9, 2024
This is set mostly at the Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. It was an easy, sweet read with good NYC and Thanksgiving vibes. I really enjoyed it.
November 16, 2025
Julie avoids her family functions like the plague. Her mom is controlling and honestly not very nice, so when her friend Erik dares her (after a few drinks and some bowling) to go to NYC and sneak onto a parade float, she actually does it.
On the bus to New York she meets Brian, who is immediately grumpy and annoyed by her bubbly energy. He’s fresh off finding out his girlfriend cheated on him and is heading home from Canada to regroup with his family for Thanksgiving.
Watching these two total opposites navigate the city together to pull off this ridiculous dare is half the fun. It’s a little cheesy and predictable, but in that cozy holiday-movie way that just works. And yes, of course Julie ends up winning Brian’s heart along with the dare.
Overall, it’s a sweet, quick Thanksgiving read that delivers exactly what you want: charm, warmth, and a little bit of holiday magic. 🦃
On the bus to New York she meets Brian, who is immediately grumpy and annoyed by her bubbly energy. He’s fresh off finding out his girlfriend cheated on him and is heading home from Canada to regroup with his family for Thanksgiving.
Watching these two total opposites navigate the city together to pull off this ridiculous dare is half the fun. It’s a little cheesy and predictable, but in that cozy holiday-movie way that just works. And yes, of course Julie ends up winning Brian’s heart along with the dare.
Overall, it’s a sweet, quick Thanksgiving read that delivers exactly what you want: charm, warmth, and a little bit of holiday magic. 🦃
December 2, 2025
cute, easy, fun read
December 1, 2024
It’s a cute quick read. Something of a palette cleanser. I enjoyed it.
November 21, 2024
Set during the thanksgiving parade. I really enjoyed it. It was cute.
November 3, 2025
Review from my blog, "This Writer Reads"
This romance about a girl who heads to NYC to get on a Thanksgiving Day Parade float to fulfill a dare with the help of the handsome New Yorker she meets on the bus was a frustrating read with its annoying female lead, weak writing, and errors regarding time.
Julie, a rural gal from Western New York (don’t you dare tell her she’s from Upstate), has a crush on her alcoholic friend, Eric. When she mentions how much she’d love to see the NYC Thanksgiving Day Parade in person, she finds herself trapped in a drunken dare from her friends to get on a parade float. Well, since the ringleader of the dare is her crush, she has to do it—even though the parade is less than twelve hours away, and she’s far from NYC. Meanwhile, Brian, a city boy temporarily in Canada, has just left his unfaithful girlfriend and is heading back to his hometown of NYC to spend Thanksgiving with his family. He doesn’t know how to break the breakup to his family, since they adored his former fiancée. As he tries to get some sleep on the bus to NYC, Julie joins him when she gets on in Buffalo. Julie tells him how she needs to get on a parade float, and he reluctantly decides to be her city guide. Now that she’s got a city boy helping her, Julie shouldn’t have any problems getting on a parade float, right?
For a short little novella, this closed-door romance was sure full of frustration and irritation.
Julie was exasperating. Since she was a social media addict, she always picked the worst times to take her phone out. She lacked any sense or intelligence in this story. She was even shocked by information that everyone knows. Did you know the Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC is always mobbed? Of course you do, because everyone does. This girl thought it wouldn’t be crowded! I don’t understand how a rural bumpkin can be “famous” on social media while having zero clue about the real world. On top of that, she was whiny, selfish, and acted more like a preteen than a college senior.
Brian was the grumpy-to-lovable male lead, though he had every right to be sullen at the start. However, there were times he let Julie’s selfish remarks or childish behavior go without a word. He was too protective of Kendra to tell his family what she’d done, even though she betrayed him, which was odd. While he was the more likable of the couple, Brian’s speed at which he fell for Julie weakened his character.
There was absolutely no chemistry between these two. The romance felt forced and unnatural, which robbed this novella of the potential for a cute holiday romance. The use of the miscommunication plot device was mishandled, coming across as awkward and unbelievable.
The writing was weak. The story was written with a middle-grade vocabulary, yet the story wasn’t intentionally YA. At times, strings of four sentences began with the same phrase, such as “I didn’t know” and “I couldn’t deny.” There’s a lot of unnecessary over-explaining and over-describing that bloats the pages.
The chapters are either from Julie’s POV or Brian’s. Julie’s chapters were in first person, while Brian’s were in third person.
One of the biggest issues this novella had was with time. There were numerous time compression errors: A time was noted, events happened, then we learn an hour’s passed, even though everything that happened would have taken much longer than an hour. The phrase “twelve hours” was tossed around in several places, but was never accurate. It was as if time had no meaning in this story, which made gauging the timeline extremely frustrating.
I read this book for my month of novels with a Thanksgiving romance. The entirety of the story happens on Thanksgiving Eve and Day, which was great. While there’s mention of Thanksgiving dinners, there’s none to be enjoyed here, as the focus of the story is the Thanksgiving Day Parade (obviously). However, it didn’t feel like a Thanksgiving story. Sure, there’s the parade, but it could easily have been any other type of parade, since there were no descriptions at all.
This story was more annoying than it was cute for me. I loathed Julie, and I knew Brian was making yet another relationship mistake with her. The book was plagued with timing issues that ripped me right out of the story repeatedly. The middle-grade writing style didn’t seem to fit the intended audience. Even the premise was childish. The ending made me want to gag and did not feel earned or realistic at all. As much as I wanted to savor this novella, it left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
Click here to see my full review INCLUDING a spoiler discussion, where I include my nitpicks, issues, parts I loved/hated, and errors I found.
This romance about a girl who heads to NYC to get on a Thanksgiving Day Parade float to fulfill a dare with the help of the handsome New Yorker she meets on the bus was a frustrating read with its annoying female lead, weak writing, and errors regarding time.
Julie, a rural gal from Western New York (don’t you dare tell her she’s from Upstate), has a crush on her alcoholic friend, Eric. When she mentions how much she’d love to see the NYC Thanksgiving Day Parade in person, she finds herself trapped in a drunken dare from her friends to get on a parade float. Well, since the ringleader of the dare is her crush, she has to do it—even though the parade is less than twelve hours away, and she’s far from NYC. Meanwhile, Brian, a city boy temporarily in Canada, has just left his unfaithful girlfriend and is heading back to his hometown of NYC to spend Thanksgiving with his family. He doesn’t know how to break the breakup to his family, since they adored his former fiancée. As he tries to get some sleep on the bus to NYC, Julie joins him when she gets on in Buffalo. Julie tells him how she needs to get on a parade float, and he reluctantly decides to be her city guide. Now that she’s got a city boy helping her, Julie shouldn’t have any problems getting on a parade float, right?
For a short little novella, this closed-door romance was sure full of frustration and irritation.
Julie was exasperating. Since she was a social media addict, she always picked the worst times to take her phone out. She lacked any sense or intelligence in this story. She was even shocked by information that everyone knows. Did you know the Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC is always mobbed? Of course you do, because everyone does. This girl thought it wouldn’t be crowded! I don’t understand how a rural bumpkin can be “famous” on social media while having zero clue about the real world. On top of that, she was whiny, selfish, and acted more like a preteen than a college senior.
Brian was the grumpy-to-lovable male lead, though he had every right to be sullen at the start. However, there were times he let Julie’s selfish remarks or childish behavior go without a word. He was too protective of Kendra to tell his family what she’d done, even though she betrayed him, which was odd. While he was the more likable of the couple, Brian’s speed at which he fell for Julie weakened his character.
There was absolutely no chemistry between these two. The romance felt forced and unnatural, which robbed this novella of the potential for a cute holiday romance. The use of the miscommunication plot device was mishandled, coming across as awkward and unbelievable.
The writing was weak. The story was written with a middle-grade vocabulary, yet the story wasn’t intentionally YA. At times, strings of four sentences began with the same phrase, such as “I didn’t know” and “I couldn’t deny.” There’s a lot of unnecessary over-explaining and over-describing that bloats the pages.
The chapters are either from Julie’s POV or Brian’s. Julie’s chapters were in first person, while Brian’s were in third person.
One of the biggest issues this novella had was with time. There were numerous time compression errors: A time was noted, events happened, then we learn an hour’s passed, even though everything that happened would have taken much longer than an hour. The phrase “twelve hours” was tossed around in several places, but was never accurate. It was as if time had no meaning in this story, which made gauging the timeline extremely frustrating.
I read this book for my month of novels with a Thanksgiving romance. The entirety of the story happens on Thanksgiving Eve and Day, which was great. While there’s mention of Thanksgiving dinners, there’s none to be enjoyed here, as the focus of the story is the Thanksgiving Day Parade (obviously). However, it didn’t feel like a Thanksgiving story. Sure, there’s the parade, but it could easily have been any other type of parade, since there were no descriptions at all.
This story was more annoying than it was cute for me. I loathed Julie, and I knew Brian was making yet another relationship mistake with her. The book was plagued with timing issues that ripped me right out of the story repeatedly. The middle-grade writing style didn’t seem to fit the intended audience. Even the premise was childish. The ending made me want to gag and did not feel earned or realistic at all. As much as I wanted to savor this novella, it left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
Click here to see my full review INCLUDING a spoiler discussion, where I include my nitpicks, issues, parts I loved/hated, and errors I found.
November 26, 2025
Not sure if it was just the age difference between myself and the characters, but I felt like I could not get into them. Even as a novella, this book lacked any depth and seemed forced.
November 28, 2025
2.5***
This had great potential, it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either
This had great potential, it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews