The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews #bookreview #womensfiction #chicklit #contemporary #romance #holiday #christmas @stmartinspress

Title: The Santa Suit

Author: Mary Kay Andrews

Publisher:  St. Martin’s Press

Publication Date: September 28, 2021

Page Count:  224

My rating: 4 stars

About the book:

From May Kay Andrews, the New York Times bestselling author of Hello, Summer, comes a novella celebrating the magic of Christmas and second chances in The Santa Suit.

When newly-divorced Ivy Perkins buys an old farmhouse sight unseen, she is definitely looking for a change in her life. The Four Roses, as the farmhouse is called, is a labor of love—but Ivy didn’t bargain on just how much labor. The previous family left so much furniture and so much junk, that it’s a full-time job sorting through all of it.

At the top of a closet, Ivy finds an old Santa suit—beautifully made and decades old. In the pocket of a suit she finds a note written in a childish hand: it’s from a little girl who has one Christmas wish, and that is for her father to return home from the war. This discovery sets Ivy off on a mission. Who wrote the note? Did the man ever come home? What mysteries did the Rose family hold?

Ivy’s quest brings her into the community, at a time when all she wanted to do was be left alone and nurse her wounds. But the magic of Christmas makes miracles happen, and Ivy just might find more than she ever thought possible: a welcoming town, a family reunited, a mystery solved, and a second chance at love.

Mary Kay Andrews is one of those authors that when I pick up her books I just know I’m going to find wonderful writing and a wonderful story so I was excited to read The Santa Suit. This one is a contemporary romance novella that also had a bit of mystery to the story.

Ivy Perkins has just gone through a divorce and decided she needed a huge change in her life. Since Ivy can do her job from anywhere working remotely she decided she was going to buy a farmhouse sight unseen and move from Atlanta to a tiny town in North Carolina.

When Ivy arrives at her new home her realtor, Ezra, is waiting to help and Ivy sees the property is a bit more rundown than she thought. Ezra offers Ivy any assistance she may need including helping to clean out the old furniture. As Ivy boxes up the belongings she finds an old Santa suit tucked away with a note inside the pocket so Ivy being curious tries to find out if that little girl got her Christmas wish all those years ago.

So let’s just get the negative out of the way that lowered my rating to four stars and that would be that being a novella of course I felt it was a bit fast paced and could have used more depth. Being short the romance isn’t given a lot of focus and more of a just sort of happens. However, that being said there was a lot going on in this little story that was very entertaining and fun to read. Ivy was a lovely lead and surrounding her was a small town full of nice folks which more than made up for anything else lacking, especially with the family and friends side of the story.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online: 

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About the author:

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