One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery

One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery

Published by Canary Street Press ISBN 9781335006301

Trade paperback, $18.99, 320 pages

From the publisher:

Don’t come home for Christmas. . .

Julie Parker’s kids are her greatest gift. Still, she’s low-key joyful that they want to skip a big Christmas this year. Her son Nick is romancing his bride Blair with a belated honeymoon, while her daughter Dana plans to purge every reminder of the guy who dumped her. Again. Julie’s excited to hole up for the holiday with Heath, the (much) younger man she’s secretly dating.

Her plans go from cozy to chaotic when her kids change their minds and plead for Christmas at the family cabin in memory of their beloved father. Julie can’t refuse, despite being nervous about the over-the-top traditions her grown children still enjoy—and anxious about how they’ll feel when they meet Heath and realize she’s been lying to them for months. She has justified her deception by insisting to herself that they’re not serious, despite the spark she feels whenever he’s near.

As the guest list grows in surprising ways, from Blair’s estranged mom to Heath’s beautiful young ex, Julie’s secret is one of many to be unwrapped. Over this complicated and very funny Christmas, she’ll discover that more really is merrier, and that a big, happy family can become bigger and happier, if they all let go of old hurts and open their hearts to love.

My thoughts:

I have always enjoyed Susan Mallery's books, but One Big Happy Family may be my favorite yet. As a mom to two grown adults, Julie is so relatable. She owns a tow business that she hopes her son Nick is ready to take on more responsibility in the business, just as she did as she took over for her father.

Julie's ex-husband (and Nick and Dana's father) passed away in January and this will be the first Christmas without him. Nick's wife Blair knows that it will hard for him and she is willing to forgo their planned Maui trip to spend Christmas at the family cottage in the mountains as they have always done.

As any good mom would do, Julie sacrifices her time with her (hot and younger) new boyfriend Heath for a family Christmas. Anyone who has done a big family holiday vacation will smile at the organizational skills that Julie shows as she plans menus, decorating, chore charts, and gift-wrapping to make everything go smoothly. (We all have someone like that in our family, right?)

As the number of people who will be staying at the cabin begins to grow, from Heath and his two young children to his ex-wife, to Dana's once-and-for-all-ex-who-broke-her-heart-for-the-last-time, to Blair's unpleasant estranged mother, secrets begin to bubble to the surface that may cause problems for more than one person.

I truly enjoyed these characters, Mallery makes them so real. From Dana's heartbreak to Blair's dealing with her IBS, to Julie's unwillingness to let anyone help her when she is vulnerable - we all know these people (and maybe are some of them). The Christmas setting was wonderful, and One Big Happy Family is the book I will gifting to many people this holiday season. I give it my highest recommendation. I adored it and I'd love to get an invitation to stay at Julie's family cottage for the holidays.

Thanks to Harlequin for putting me on their Fall 2024 Blog Tours.

The Friday 5ive- Christmas books

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post about five things that caught my attention during the week.

I know you'll be surprised to know that I have a lovely collection of Christmas books that I display during the holidays. The following are five of them that I think you may like.

1) Many writers have a Christmas book in their collection, and the late Dorothea Benton Frank's The Christmas Pearl is one of the best. It takes place in her beloved Low Country of South Carolina, where 93 year-old Theodora is remembering the the beautiful family Christmas' of her childhood as her bickering family comes home for the holidays. The edition I have has dozens of down-home family recipes at the end. We all miss Dottie.

2) In the historical romance genre, Lauren Willig's The Mischief of the Mistletoe is her Christmas novel from her popular Pink Carnation Series. While teaching at a girls school in Bath, England, Arabella and her friend Reginald find a Christmas pudding with a cryptic message inside that will lead them into a Christmas caper. The cover of this one is so lovely.

3) Mystery writer Mary Higgins Clark writes a series of Christmas books (some with her daughter Carol Higgins Clark), and her Silent Night takes the reader on a New York City adventure as young Brian follows a man who steals his mother's wallet into the subway and this changes the life of the thief and Brian.

4) I adore Mary Poppins, and when I saw this slim volume of Christmas stories, Aunt Sass, by P.L.Travers, I had to have it. Travers wrote these three stories to give as gifts to her friends about three people who influenced her- a Chinese cook, a foul-mouthed ex-jockey, and Aunt Sass, the inspiration for the character of Mary Poppins.

5) Last year the New York Public Library published 100 Christmas Wishes, a beautiful collection of vintage holiday cards that would delight any fan of Christmas.  It's so pretty to thumb through, and I got my copy signed by Rosanne Cash, who wrote the forward.

Do you have a favorite Christmas book? Share it in the Comments section.