It’s never a bad time to read a Christmas novel, but how soon is too soon to review one? Mary Kay Andrews’ The Santa Suit was released Sept. 28. I read it just a day or two later, but I just couldn’t bring myself to review it before Halloween. Even though it’s not yet Thanksgiving, people are starting to think about Christmas, so I can finally discuss the sweet book.

When newly divorced Ivy Perkins buys Four Roses Farm in the mountains of North Carolina, she doesn’t know what she’s getting into. I mean, she really doesn’t know because Ivy bought the house sight unseen. She wanted to leave her city life behind in Atlanta. So, she packed up her car, her dog, Punkin, and four baby chicks, and they headed to the mountains.

Ezra Wheeler, her real estate agent, warns her when he first sees her, but she’s ready for country life. She might not be ready for doors that need to be forced open with a shoulder, windows that let in the cold, and hot water heaters that give out. But, Ezra is ready to help, even when Ivy’s furniture is lost in an accident with the moving van.

Ivy is also unprepared for the reaction of everyone in the small community of Tarburton when they learn she bought Four Roses Farm. She just wants time to adjust to her new single life, fix up her house, and tend her chickens. But, it seems as if all 1,500 residents want to know if she’s going to put up all of the Christmas lights that Bob and Betty Rae Rose used to light the house. It was always important to the people of the town.

Ivy isn’t too interested in Christmas trees or lights or what the Roses did until she finds Bob’s beautiful, tailored Santa suit. There’s a note in the pocket from a young girl, asking Santa to bring her father home from the war. Ivy becomes obsessed with finding the letter writer, Carlette. She wants to know what happened to her. Did her father ever come home?

Step-by-step, Ivy tracks Carlette. By the time she loses the trail, she’s found a few new friends, a ninety-six-year-old man, a courthouse clerk desperate to marry her military pen pal, the owner of a candy shop that’s about to close. There’s really no magic in Ivy’s search for answers. But, there might have been a little push in the pocket of The Santa Suit.

While the ending and several relationships seem a little rushed, Ivy Perkins is a charming character. Friendship goes a long way, and Ivy isn’t the only one who finds her life changed. Mary Kay Andrews, as always, sets the reader up for a comforting read.

Mary Kay Andrews’ website is https://marykayandrews.com/

The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews. St. Martin’s Press, 2021. ISBN 9781250279316 (hardcover), 224p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I read a galley, thanks to NetGalley.