Short Story Sunday: Holiday Hideaway by Mary Kay Andrews
Holiday Hideaway: A Short Story
Author: Mary Kay Andrews
Narrator: Eva Kaminsky
Published: October 29, 2024
Audio: 1 hour 59 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Date Listened To: December 2, 2024
Jessica’s Rating: 3.5 stars
Short Story Description:
Tilly Farriday isn’t feeling very jolly this season. Recently divorced and broke, she’s squatting in one of her rental agency’s properties until her new home is ready. The sprinkles on top of the burnt Christmas cookie that is her life? The new owner shows up early, forcing Tilly to hide in the attic to save her job…and what remains of her dignity.
George Holloway is here to sell his granduncle’s house—and to reconsider whether he and his fiancée are right for each other. Amid home repairs, George notices strange noises and missing food, but as much as he gets his rental agent on the phone, Tilly dodges every invitation to meet. He’s sure that someone’s here with him, and it’s certainly not the Ghost of Christmas Past, Present, or Future.
As Tilly and George circle each other, they both wonder where their lives are headed and if, maybe, meeting each other is just the Christmas miracle they need.
Jessica’s Review:
MKA wrote a Christmas short story, so you know I was going to read or listen to it!
Holiday Hideaway was a cute short story that could really use being expanded upon! It was almost too short for me. It’s not realistic at all: Hiding in the attic of a house that your company rents while the new owner who inherited it is staying there. And add your dog to the mix? Does this dog not bark… Ever!?!?! Come on. Other than all of that, Tilly and George’s banter and chemistry seeps through the audiobook. You just know what is ultimately going to happen. I was ready to go on this short story and see what ultimately happens. And with MKA you know it’s never really that easy!
The narrator for this short story is Eva Kaminsky and she did a good job with her narration!I did enjoy it an gave it 3.5 stars, but I think MKA needs to stay away from short stories and at a minimum write novellas, like her previous Christmas novellas have been. Which I loved both of those!
My reviews for those novels are here:
The Santa Suit This one was a double review with Kim!
Bright Lights, Big Christmas
Advanced Audiobook Review: Summers at the Saint by Mary Kay Andrews
Summers at the Saint
Author: Mary Kay Andrews
Narrator: Kathleen McInerney
To Be Published: May 7, 2024
Audiobook: 14 hours 34 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: April 12-21, 2024
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Audiobook Description:
Welcome to the St. Cecelia, a landmark hotel on the coast of Georgia, where traditions run deep and scandals run even deeper. . . .
Everyone refers to the St. Cecelia as “the Saint.” If you grew up coming here, you were “a Saint.” If you came from the wrong side of the river, you were “an Ain’t.” Traci Eddings was one of those outsiders whose family wasn’t rich enough or connected enough to vacation here. But she could work here. One fateful summer she did, and married the boss’s son. Now, she’s the widowed owner of the hotel, determined to see it return to its glory days, even as staff shortages and financial troubles threaten to ruin it. Plus, her greedy and unscrupulous brother-in-law wants to make sure she fails. Enlisting a motley crew of recently hired summer help—including the daughter of her estranged best friend—Traci has one summer season to turn it around. But new information about a long-ago drowning at the hotel threatens to come to light, and the tragic death of one of their own brings Traci to the brink of despair.
Traci Eddings has her back against the pink-painted wall of this beloved institution. And it will take all the wits and guts she has to see wrongs put to right, to see guilty parties put in their place, and maybe even to find a new romance along the way. Told with Mary Kay Andrew’s warmth, humor, knack for twists, and eye for delicious detail about human nature, Summers at the Saint is a beach read with depth and heart.
Jessica’s Review:
Here we go! It is time for MKA’s new beach read that is out just in time for the start of summer! MKA always has a lot going on in her books and there is a little bit of everything for a reader to enjoy here.
We have suspense, mystery intrigue and even a little romance thrown in. There are family secrets, betrayals, danger, and murders! If you have followed my reviews for some time you know MKA is an auto-read author for me. And she’s also from Georgia, so that automatically gives her bonus points. She’s wonderful to meet as well.
The narrator is Kathleen McInerney again and these two are just perfection together. MKA’s story telling her McInerney’s narration just bring it.
Do me a favor, if you have yet to read a book by MKA, please pick one up and read it. If audiobooks are your thing, listen to it and experience both wonderful ladies!
Pre-order Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
ARC Review: Bright Lights, Big Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews
Bright Lights, Big Christmas
Author: Mary Kay Andrews
To Be Published: September 26, 2023
288 Pages
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: August 20- September 3, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
When fall rolls around, it’s time for Kerry Tolliver to leave her family’s Christmas tree farm in the mountains of North Carolina for the wilds of New York City to help her gruff older brother & his dog, Queenie, sell the trees at the family stand on a corner in Greenwich Village. Sharing a tiny vintage camper and experiencing Manhattan for the first time, Kerry’s ready to try to carve out a new corner for herself.
In the weeks leading into Christmas, Kerry quickly becomes close with the charming neighbors who live near their stand. When an elderly neighbor goes missing, Kerry will need to combine her country know-how with her newly acquired New York knowledge to protect the new friends she’s come to think of as family,
And complicating everything is Patrick, a single dad raising his adorable, dragon-loving son Austin on this quirky block. Kerry and Patrick’s chemistry is undeniable, but what chance does this holiday romance really have?
Filled with family ties, both rekindled and new, and sparkling with Christmas magic, BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CHRISTMAS delivers everything Mary Kay Andrews fans adore, all tied up in a hilarious, romantic gem of a novel.
Jessica’s Review:
I absolutely loved MKA’s last Christmas novel The Santa Suit when it came out in 2021, and when I found out she had a new Christmas novel coming out in 2023, I knew I had to read it! (Honestly… I have to read any and all of her books!) Like always, MKA delivered! She brings the Christmas spirit and Christmas joy to the reader no matter what month the book was read. I was honestly worried about starting this book in August that would it be too early for me to get in the Christmas spirit. But NO, it didn’t! I swear as I was reading, I could smell the pine trees of Christmas! All I needed was cold temperatures and some hot cocoa! (Which will be coming very soon!) We don’t usually get snow here in Georgia, but I found myself wanting that as well even though I was reading the book in 90+ degree heat!
MKA can truly write and just captures the magic of the Christmas season! Bright Lights, Big Christmas deals with the Tolliver family who live in North Carolina. Every year they bring their family owned and grown Christmas trees to NYC and sell them for enormous prices. They are well known in the area and this Christmas we have Kerry taking her father’s place to help her brother Murphy sell the trees. Kerry is going through some life changes and finds herself growing to love the people and the neighborhood. And we get a little Christmas romance with a single dad and his utterly adorable son Austin! MKA also gives us a little bit of a mystery as well!
This is such a sweet, fun, and fluffy read to get you in the Christmas spirit! It deals with family, friendships, romance, and holiday cheer! You can’t help but become attached to these characters. And we have Spammy the vintage camper that Kerry and Murphy are living in which ends up being its own unique character with its own history in of itself!
If you are a fan of MKA and/ or Christmas stories in general, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Bright Lights, Big Christmas when it comes out on September 26th!
Many thanks to the publisher St Martin’s Press for granting me an arc to read, review and highly enjoy!
Pre-Order Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK