What I'm Reading || The Santa Suit - Southern State of Mind Blog by Heather

What does a girl do the week before Christmas when her boy-filled-family wants to watch football games instead of Christmas movies?

Well, she reads a Christmas book! I read The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews last weekend in a couple hours while the boys watched football. I always love Mary Kay Andrews, and this one is nice because it can be read in practically one sitting. While I don’t watch Christmas Hallmark movies, I feel like this book could be made into one! It’s a sweet, feel-good story and was just a great way to spend an afternoon this holiday season. I snuck in a holiday book last Christmas (One Day in December) as well and it turns out it is exactly what my soul needs during this crazy time of year. It’s nice to pause and just relax and get lost in a sweet story. Add in a blanket and a fireplace and it is perfection!

Add it to your bookshelf here ==>

THE SANTA SUIT

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.

You can catch up on all the past books “ON MY SHELF” here!