BOOK REVIEW: The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews
The perfect small town holiday story with all the charm the season brings.
I absolutely love holiday books read during the holiday season. They just make me feel so warm and full of holiday spirit. I rank it right up there with the Hallmark Christmas Movie Marathons. And let me just say, I would LOVE to see this book adapted into a Hallmark movie. It is absolutely perfect.
My good bookish friend, Liz, recommended this book to me last year, so I made it a point to add it to my must reads for this year. I couldn’t have been happier. This book just had all the charm and soul to fill your heart up and give you all the feels.
Ivy, recently divorced, decides to blindly purchase an old farmhouse in another state and take the chance to start over. Leaving everything behind in Atlanta and getting a second chance in a small town. With just her dog, pumpkin, and the items he can fit in her car she starts the new adventure.
I challenge someone to try to tell me that there isn’t a better Christmas setting than an old farmhouse. Go on, try me.
Anyways, the house is a little more of a fixer upper than she was expecting, so thankfully her real estate agent is also a hunky handyman. Naturally, the story is very predictable when it comes to the love story aspect, which honestly isn’t the highlight of the book. Without reading it you know how it ends. However, I really liked Ivy and Ezra was really cute and sweet. I feel that first kiss was a little rushed and slightly weird, but whatever.
What I loved most about the plot was the whole side story about the Santa Suit. When Ivy arrives at Four Roses Farm, she discovers that it basically comes furnished with all the furniture, clothes and knickknacks of years and years of the prior owner's lives. In all this, Ivy finds an old Santa suit that has a note folded into the pocket clearly written by a child a long time ago asking for Santa to bring her daddy home from the wat (Vietnam) for Christmas.
This sets Ivy on a mission to learn who this young child was and where she is now. Did her father make it home from the war? I loved watching Ivy maneuver through her new community, making new friends and learning to find her place. She has a truly kind soul, and I love that about her character, and honestly I think that’s why I really loved this book. All the characters were so kind. Lawrence Jones is another one of my absolute favorite characters. How this storyline develops and plays out aligns perfectly with the flow and tone of the book. I can honestly say that there was one aspect connected to this that I wasn’t expecting. I think that one little twist really solidified my opinions on this book.
It’s a short, quick and easy read that is sure to get you into the holiday spirit. The side characters are cute and the second-chance romance trope is well done. And, clearly, the ending of the book is wrapped up like a beautiful present with a shiny bow.
Where does this land on my bookshelf?
Top shelf!!!! Again, I’m a sucker for these kinds of books. I always say that I’m not a huge romance reader, and I really don’t think that I am, but I read the fun, summer rom-coms and I’ll read the chilly, spiriting holiday reads. My holiday spirit is at a 10 and my heart is full. I highly recommend this for your holiday reading list!
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