Bright Lights, Big Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews

The Tollivers have a Christmas tree farm in the mountains of North Carolina in the holiday novella Bright Lights, Big Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews due out September 26. Usually, Murphy and his father Jock haul the trees to New York City to sell starting a month before Christmas, but this year, Jock’s health is interfering with their usual plans so Murphy tells his sister Kerry that she has to step up.

 

Kerry moved back home to NC recently after being termed “redundant” in her art agency job. She is reluctant to haul the Tolliver’s small, dilapidated camper to New York to provide a place for her and Murphy to live while selling the trees. But when push comes to shove, Kerry musters up the energy to hall “Spammy” to New York with her father’s truck.

 

The Tolliver family has developed great relationships over the years with the business owners and residents in Greenwich Village where they set up a lot to sell their trees. When another tree company tries to undersell the Tollivers, arranging their business just across the street, Kerry ups their game using her artistic abilities. The competitors challenge back with theft and vandalism until Murphy stands up to them.

 

Embraced by their temporary neighbors, Kerry becomes close with Patrick and his son Austin along with an aging gentleman known as Heinz as well as the retail shop owners. Restaurant owner Claudia feeds the Tollivers and provides restroom facilities while the bakery next door to her provides plenty of coffee and pastries.

 

When Heinz goes missing, Kerry and Murphy make a wide search of the area looking for him. Turns out, there is much that the Tollivers and the residents in Greenwich Village do not know about the elderly man who they think may be homeless.

When Patrick wants to dial up the friendship to romance, Kerry is reluctant, although she isn’t immune to his charms nor those of his sweet son Austin. She and Murphy are supposed to be heading back to North Carolina to spend Christmas with their mother and father; however, a snowstorm along with icy roads threatens to delay their plans to return home for Christmas.

 

Mary Kay Andrews, the Queen of Summer Reads, has provided readers with another holiday novella following her last one, The Santa Suit. Andrews, a pseudonym for Kathy Hogan Trocheck, splits her time between Atlanta and a second home on Tybee Island.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting August 13, 2023.

I would like to thank St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.