What a feel good Christmas story set in NYC. I loved all the characters and the way they made a big city like NYC feel like a community (set in the west village). It has set my mood for this holiday season.

Bright Lights, Big Christmas is the cutest, most heartwarming romance that will put you in the Christmas spirit! Kerry Tolliver leaves the quiet mountains of North Carolina to join the hustle and bustle of New York City as she and her older brother, Murphy, sell Christmas trees grown at their family farm. Kerry quickly befriends everyone in the neighborhood community, including Patrick, a single dad and his son, Austin. As relationships grow between several characters in just a few short weeks, Kerry realizes she might need to postpone her trip back south. Not only did I fall in love with the story and characters, I ended up pairing the ebook with the audio version because I couldn't wait to read/hear what happened next. Grab a cozy blanket, warm drink and comfy spot to read this adorable Christmas love story!

Thank you to Mary Kay Andrews, St. Martin's Press and #NetGalley for the ARC and opportunity to read and leave an honest review of this special book!

Bright Lights, Big Christmas is a cozy read peppered with Christmas festivity and happiness. Set in New York City, sibling duo Murphy and Kerry Tolliver are living out of a small camper while selling Christmas trees from their family tree farm back home. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, they sell trees, make friends, and even find love in the city.

The best part about this book is the setting – New York City in December is an unforgettable and truly living character within the novel. The community of friends and neighbors that develops and grows as the story progresses is heartwarming and brings the saying, “it takes a village,” to heart. Seeing Kerry and Murphy make and deepen their connections is one of the best parts of the story as well. The characters they meet (including fan favorites Heinz and Austin) help to round out the story and keep readers interested.

As far as holiday-themed romances go, however, this one fell flat. The male love interest, Patrick, seems rather pushy and unconcerned with the main female character’s wishes and desires. Their relationship seemingly develops over an attraction but doesn’t feel very deep at all. The ending felt rushed because their relationship didn’t have enough time in only one month to become as strong as it seemed. The relationship part of this book felt extremely unreal and uninteresting compared to the rest of the story.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys books brimming with holiday cheer and happiness. If you’re looking for a quick and enjoyable read, this book is perfect. Just don’t expect too much in the way of romance and true love.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Bright Lights, Big Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews
What a cute Christmas book!! I absolutely loved this plot and setting of selling Christmas trees in nyc to locals. A heartwarming story it reminded me of a great hallmark movie with a message that it’s not what we have it’s who we have. Thank you to @netgalley for the arc. This book is available for sale in stores!
#holidayreads #christmasbook #marykayandrews #brightlightsbigchristmas

Lovely lovely story, a lot of great characters, the leading lady is creative, fun, loving. A very nice Christmas romance with a nice ending.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.
I loved this book. It was a cute Christmas story of falling in love, taking chances and making new life long friends.
It was a quick and heart warming read.
I enjoyed all of the characters.

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.