Cleod Crate (McLeods Booksellers)

What's in the box: The site does not spell out crate contents, but expect books selected by McLeods staff from their own range of new releases and New Zealand titles.

Cleod Crate is the subscription offering from McLeods Booksellers, an independent bookshop based in Rotorua. The shop runs a full online store with categories covering fiction, Aotearoa New Zealand titles, Māori books, children's and young adult reading, cooking, gardening, hunting, poetry and graphic novels, plus fountain pens, journals and puzzles. That range suggests a crate drawn from a well stocked, locally minded shop rather than a generic warehouse. The main site gives little detail about the crate itself. It does not explain how books are chosen, how often a crate ships, what it costs or whether you can pause or skip, so check the crate's own page or contact the shop before you sign up. What the site does show is a team that takes curation seriously: staff picks come with written reviews and there is a meet the staff page, which is reassuring for a box that relies on someone else's taste. The stock leans toward current releases alongside a solid selection of New Zealand and te reo Māori titles, something few overseas book boxes can offer. If you want to support an independent New Zealand bookseller and enjoy handpicked reading, it is worth a look. If you need clear terms up front, the lack of published detail is a drawback.