Thursday 9 September 2021

Book ~ "The Santa Suit" (2021) Mary Kay Andrews

From Goodreads ~ 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. 

Ivy has recently been divorced from her husband ... he had fallen in love with her best friend so she needs a change.  She buys an old farmhouse across the country she finds online and she and her dog pack up move into it.  It hasn't been lived in for a while and is in worse shape than Ivy had thought (she bought it without visiting it).  She has to clean and fix the house plus get rid of the furniture, trunks, boxes, etc. that were left behind.  

She comes across an old Santa suit in a box in the closet ... the former owner was the local Santa many years earlier.  Inside the pocket, she finds a letter written by a child named Carlette asking Santa to bring her daddy home safely from the war.  Ivy is curious to find out who Carlette is and what happened to the family.  

This is how she meets a grandfather who hasn't seen or heard from his granddaughter in many years, a woman who is excited to marry a man she's never met, a local shop owner who needs marketing help to keep her business alive and many more.  Plus there's the very helpful real estate agent who sold her the house who is very helpful and handy in fixing things around her house. 

This was a quick read.  It's a cute story written in third person perspective with happy Christmasy endings for all.

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