After being down for a few days with side effects of my booster shot, I am back, and jumping right back into reading holiday reads! Up next is the novella, The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews.

From Mary 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.

The Santa Suit was the perfect read to dip my toes back into reading. First, it is a quick read. Second – the plot lines were easy to follow and were enjoyable. We had Ivy trying to find herself after her divorce, the mystery of the Santa note, a possible romance, a career shift, and a B-plot storyline of her friend’s online dating saga. It sounds like a lot, but they tied together nicely. And third – who doesn’t love a small town during Christmas time!

While I enjoyed it for all the holiday fun, the only thing that upset me was that it wasn’t long enough. We jumped straight into storylines or their conclusions pretty quickly, and storylines would progress much much faster than they would if this had 100 more pages to flesh things out a bit more.

Besides that, I enjoyed The Santa Suit for giving me some holiday warm feelings. This is now the second story I have read of this author, and I have noticed that the subject of being a “newcomer” into town and whether or not you’re welcomed in has been a running theme. I wonder if this is in any of her other novels?

Have you given this one a try? If so, what were your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below!