Sweet stories about serendipity inevitably seem to surface around the holidays. In THE SANTA SUIT, Mary Kay Andrews has written a novella that showcases what she does best: giving readers a story with a soupçon of mystery, a pinch of romance and plenty of southern charm.

Coming off a hurtful divorce, Ivy Perkins has bought --- sight unseen --- an old farmhouse. We worry for her when she arrives to find that her new home is a bit more dilapidated than she had realized, stuffed with furniture that the seller's children didn't want, and filled with some unexpectedly mysterious items.

"For those in need of a sweet holiday treat, THE SANTA SUIT is like a sugar cookie sprinkled with extra sugar, rather than the more complex summer novels that MKA pens."

Ivy is taken aback when she finds out that Ezra Wheeler, her real estate agent (whom she had pictured as a wizened old man with spectacles and a white shock of hair), is really a handsome hunk who also happens to be her neighbor. He is handy with tools and very interested in Ivy.

In quick succession, Ivy finds a vintage Santa suit in a closet. In the pocket is a poignant letter from a child who wants, as her only Christmas present, for her father to come home from the war. Ivy also discovers that her farmhouse was known far and wide for its fabulous display of Christmas lights that the previous owners, the Rose family, were extremely proud of.

While Christmas is an important celebration for the Roses, we learn that they are Jewish. I'd love to hear the backstory of how a Jewish family came to cherish Christmas so much that they played Mr. and Mrs. Claus and maintained a holiday light show that drew visitors from all over. Because of the lack of depth in a novella, we don't get to know Ivy as well as we might like.

Ivy befriends several townspeople and grows to like the vintage aspect of her farmhouse more than she had expected, and several lives are changed over the course of the story, including Ivy's. There is a lot of Christmas magic involved in the plot, from the charming, handsome neighbor to the powerfully delicious candy to the missing Carlette, the writer of the letter to Santa.

For those in need of a sweet holiday treat, THE SANTA SUIT is like a sugar cookie sprinkled with extra sugar, rather than the more complex summer novels that MKA pens. Think a dense chocolate cake. Merry Christmas, y'all.