The newest Christmas novel from Mary Kay Andrews lets one feel the magic of Christmas in New York City! Kerry Tolliver recently lost her job as a graphic designer and her husband. She returns home to her NC mountain home after her father has a heart attack. The family has a Christmas tree farm and sells trees in New York City the month before Christmas every year. This year Kerr takes her father's place traveling to Manhattan with her brother, to live in the family's tiny camper and sell the trees grown by her family. They really need to make a lot of money to help pay her father's medical bills, so her brother has rather strict demands on Kerry. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, Kerry meets interesting neighbors including a lonely elderly man, a young boy who loves to draw, and his handsome divorced father. When one of the neighbors goes missing, the others bond together in a "small town" way to search for him. The ending though somewhat predictable, has all the feelings of Christmas.

Thank you, Net Galley for allowing me to read this ARC, but my review is honest and unbiased.

What a fantastic read! The story of love and compassion but written in such a different way than most. The story of a young woman finding her way through being challenged by those that care for her and an old man that lost himself after tragedy. A must read!

Kerri leaves her family’s tree farm in North Carolina and heads to New York City to work the tree stand and live in a small camper with her brother, Murphy. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, Kerri focuses on the family business while also becoming close with some of the people in the neighborhood.

I really enjoyed this book, and all the festive holiday vibes it delivered! A Christmas tree stand in New York City was the perfect setting, and I like the eclectic cast of characters. This is the perfect book to get you in the Christmas spirit for the holiday season!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my gifted e-book!

I look forward to Mary Kay Andrews Christmas books every year. This reminded me of a Hallmark Movie. I love the Christmas tree lot in the city setting. The supporting characters are charming. I do enjoy a good found family trope. The ending was a little predictable, but most Christmas stories are. Thank you for the free ebook.

This book is the ultimate holiday read! I love Mary's writing and have been a big fan for quite awhile. This book is like a big warm hug, and I am here for it!

3.5 stars

This was a really fun, lighthearted read with all the country come to town Christmas vibes that make Hallmark a holiday staple.

I paired the e-book with the audio version, and this was a fun way to immerse myself in the storytelling.

Read this one if you’re looking for a holiday romcom read in between those Hallmark and Lifetime movie binges.

My thanks to @netgalley, @stmartinspress and @macmillan.audio for the opportunity to read and review this book before its publication date.

After years of reading Mary Kay Andrews' novels, I have finally figured out the best way to describe her writing style and stories - her work is the Hallmark Channel of cozy novels! Like I am with the Hallmark Channel every Christmas, I am utterly obsessed with MKA's sweet, feel-good stories and "Bright Lights, Big Christmas" is every bit of that. It gives you all you could want in a holiday novel - a tree lot, blankets of snow, and adorable heroine, a cute kid and his cuter father, the required holiday pup with a dash of family drama! This book is perfect to get you in a holiday mood and is such an easy, fun read, you could finish it in a day (but I recommend drawing it out to make it last longer!)
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Definitely can see this story as a Hallmark Christmas movie. The setting was perfect and as I was reading I felt I was in the city at the tree stand. The brother-sister dynamic was believable. The romance was ok, the neighborhood characters were delightful as was the dog Queenie. If you’re looking for a quick holiday read this was a fun read.

This was more than just a love story. There is some mystery but to me this was more about finding your place in the world and believing in yourself.

The characters were great aside from the main character Kerry. I actually hated her. I think we are supposed to feel sorry for her but I didn’t. She was one of those people you hope you never actually have to interact with. Someone that can smile and be nice but the moment anything stressful happens, like needing to pee, she becomes a crazy person. However, I did love the capitalistic ideas Kerry has for Tolliver Farms money making. She was definitely able to help save the farm.

I loved the friendships that were formed within the story. Kerry was okay but she seemed very immature, at best. Especially when she was pounding on someone’s car for not moving out of the parking spot she wanted. It was the most ridiculous thing in this story to me. I never fully recovered from that scene. Kerry was always going to seem stupid to me after this point. No sane person would ever do such a thing. I also hated that the guy decided to like her after that.

I had to try to forget those things and focus on the rest of the story. This started off rocky but got better after all the dumb shit passed. Overall, I enjoyed the story.

The supporting characters were more interesting though. I would have loved to have more of them and less of her. I think her mom, Heinz, Patrick, Austin and even some of the customers would have been more interesting that her.

I could recommend this to people who like hate to love romance with a little mystery. If Kerry doesn’t sound like to much for you or sounds like you would laugh at her antics then this might be fore you. There is much more to this story than a romance, so if you like that, pick this one up for your holiday reads.

I listened to Kathleen McInerney’s narration of this story. I really like her for modern stories. If you enjoy contemporary audiobooks than you may have heard of her. She is perfect for them.

It is that time of year again and what better time than to read "Bright Lights, Big Christmas." This is a fan way to get in the Christmas spirit!! A theme of friendship and family makes this story fun and enjoyable. You can't go wrong with any book written by Mary Kay Andrews.

This might have been my first Mary Kay Andrews book, and it was a delight. It was filled with heart, and hope and was so much more than a romance. I adored Heinz and Austin, and loved that the spirit of Christmas shined bright through the neighborhood community. There were of course elements of the story that seemed Hallmark-esque, and stretched the realistic nature of a busy city into one that seems so small-town charming. The chemistry of the romance seemed to be lacking the build-up/tension of a standard romance trope, but given that so many other character developments played into the novel, Patrick and Kerry’s love story didn’t need to be central at all times. Overall, this is a great, quick Christmas read to kick off the season. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing access to a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was everything and more that I wanted in a Christmas book. If there is one thing that I will read about it, it is a Christmas tree farm and even though this is not exactly taking place on a farm it is still a Christmas Tree Lot in Manhattan. There's a reason that all of those Christmas movies that take place in NYC are so magical, and that is because NY is very magical at that time of the year. Mary Kay Andrews was able to take that magical feeling and put it right there in the pages of this story so you could imagine it for yourself. Every night I would look forward to curling up with the fire on and a hot drink and get whisked away to Christmas time in NYC. My only critique was are real Christmas trees going for hundreds of dollars in NYC? They arent priced anywhere near that here on Long Island so I was a little confused by that. Other than that, I was so pleased to read and review this book. I will read any Christmas books she puts out.

I generally enjoy the books by Mary Kay Andrews, especially her Christmas stories! Bright Lights, Big Christmas, however, wasn't my favorite. I did really enjoy the setting. Who doesn't want to read about a Christmas romance set at a Christmas Tree Farm. It's the perfect Hallmark-esque setting! I just really had a hard time with the romance in the story. I didn't feel their chemistry and there wasn't enough buildup. I wasn't buying their romance. There are other Christmas stories by Mary Kay Andrews that I would read before this one, unfortunately.

I needed this light hearted book right now, as we are heading into the holidays. I thought the storyline was fun and different with the main characters owning a Christmas tree farm and setting up shop every year to sell Christmas trees in a quaint New York City neighborhood - as quaint as a NYC neighborhood can be. The dynamic of the neighborhood was my favorite part, it felt cozy and homey.

Mary Kay Andrews has a way with holiday novels. Last year’s Santa Suit and this year’s Bright Lights, Big Christmas are two of my favorite seasonal reads. Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book for review.

Mary Kay Andrews does it again, bringing all the wholesome Christmas vibes with Bright Lights, and Big Christmas! She has become one of my favorite cozy romance authors because of her ability to make a book feel like coming home while not skirting around real life. The characters are believable with their flaws and life stories. I particularly loved Kerry and Patrick.

The book lives up to the promise of "a novella celebrating love and the warm, glittering charm of the holiday season." I think all contemporary romance readers should pick up a Mary Kay Andrews book, she has never let me down. This book in particular is perfect for the holiday season. I love how there are so many stories interlaced though out the book, not just the romance between Patrick and Kerry.

The only reason that you may not want to pick this book up is if you are feeling particularly Grinch-ish, or you just don't want a book about Christmas. Otherwise, this was an amazing novel with a lot of depth in such a short amount of pages.

As always, this Mary Kay Andrews book filled my heart with hope. I will be singing this one praises and giving it out to a bunch of my friends for the holidays. I can't wait to see what she writes next!

This book was so engaging, I hope a swirl is in the works. It is like Christmas within the pages. Such a heartwarming story! Made me want to sell Christmas trees on a New York street corner. I came to love and care about every character and the treasured Tolliver Tree Farm. I love when favorite author’s write holiday novels and this one was a gem. Thank you NetGalley and St Martins Press for providing me with an ARC.

I am a huge fan of Mary Kay Andrew’s and her latest holiday book does not disappoint! Romance, family dynamics, and so much more!!!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!
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I read The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews last Winter, and I am so glad that this is the first Christmas book I decided to pick up this season. I knew I could count on this being a short, sweet, and fluffy novel that felt like a Hallmark movie on the page. As a New Yorker, I’m a little jaded against the tree stands that move into my sidewalks every year, disrupting traffic and blasting music all night. Andrews made me see these businesses in a different light and the joy they bring to the City at Christmas.
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Is this a case of instant love? More or less, yes. But I was so ready to drop in and believe in the candy-cane-colored glasses that cover the world Andrews has created. Kerry is struggling in her professional life which felt a little close to home, but she kept pushing forward and finding her footing as she went. I’m ready for Christmas to descend upon NYC now.

I received this galley back in July and had to physically stop myself from reading it in the blazes of the Texas summer. I made it until November and perhaps will read it again in December. I loved it so much. I loved Kerry Tolliver and even had started to like her cranky brother, Murphy. If you need a book to kick off the Christmas season, this is the one for you. MKA, we need more! We always need more! :)

i read this in november and the entire time i was reading i really felt like it was december and i was reading by a fire with this one. christmas books are so fun and this was my first of the year! it was semi slow at times which is fun but lately i’ve been on such a fantasy kick where somethings always going on so i guess i just prefer that lol. i love that the new yorkers were all different! the characters were fun and kept a smile on my face!