The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews

Publishing September 28, 2021 through St. Martins Press

If you are looking for something to put you in the spirit of Christmas, this is the story for you! Small town setting with very clean, closed-door romance.

Ivy Perkins, a newly divorced gal from Atlanta moves to a small town in the middle of nowhere North Carolina and buys an old farm house (Four Roses Farm) which used to be owned by Mr. and Mrs. Rose who played Santa and Mrs. Claus for many years at all the town’s holiday events. Ivy, her dog Pumpkin, and some chickens are all that ends up arriving in one piece. Her furniture is a whole other story. The Roses left everything behind, as their son James didn’t want anything, leaving Ivy with a treasure trove of holiday items and Christmas decor, including a beautiful, well-made Santa suit, worn and well-preserved by Santa Bob Rose for many years. Ivy happens upon an old note in the hidden pocket of the suit from a child named Carlotta asking Santa to bring her daddy home from war. Ivy is touched by the note, especially when she thinks of the feelings of loss when her own mother passed away when Ivy was very young.

Upon arrival at Four Roses, Ivy meets the real estate broker, Ezra, who is not an old man she assumed from his name. He’s actually a single, charming, and very good looking man who ends up helping her with so many things on account of her furniture not arriving as planned. With Ezra’s help, she begins to make the best of things at the old, rambling farm house and she and her Irish Setter dog, Pumpkin settle in. But she can’t shake the feeling that she really needs to find out if the little girl named Carlotta ever got her Christmas wish from Santa. Did her Daddy ever come back from the war? As Ivy asks questions around town, she develops some unexpected, and much needed friendships with a lovestruck gal named Phoebe and a very old, lonely gentleman named Lawrence. Will Ivy be able to locate Carlotta and give Lawrence a Christmas miracle she so desperately hopes for?

Thank you to the publisher and LibroFM for the complimentary audiobook review copy of this title.