Review: The Santa Suit

The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I can't believe that I received this book as an ARC. I had already made plans to pre-order it!

 I have two favorite Southern authors - Fannie Flagg and  Mary Kay Andrews.  Mary Kay usually gives me a lighter look into the South, and Southern mysteries with a little bit of naughtiness mixed in. I adore her writing. Everything she ever wrote is on my 'Comfort Reads' shelf. This is the shelf I use when the world gets too horrible, and I need something funny, with a good kick-butt heroine. (not physically kick-butt but mentally!)

 Ms. Flagg is a bit deeper with her writing.  And if you liked Ms. Flaggs [book:A Redbird Christmas|199532], you will adore this book.

This particular book, The Santa Suit, seems to blend both of my favorite authors, and I nearly swooned with ecstasy when I read this book.  I adore romance, mystery, with a little bit of fairy dust mixed in, and this book had all of that and more.

This book will be a bit boring to some (no action-packed scenes, no raunchy sex), but to many others, it will show them the softer side of Christmas, the kindness of strangers, and fate.

This was a fast read, more of a long novella than a full-length book-just what I need during the holidays when I'm so busy.

I will certainly be re-reading this during the holidays!

*ARC supplied by MacMillan Books, Ms. Andrews, and NetGalley. My deepest thanks. 

 

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SYNOPSIS:"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."