This was a cute feel good Christmas romance. There wasn't much of a romance plot/obstacle outside of her needing to go back home. I wish there was a bit more of a challenge in their relationship. I really enjoyed the storyline of the old man and I think is something that many people see and experience with their grandparents. This book ties together love around the holidays despite hardships they may have experienced (divorced parents/non-accepting families/etc).

I loved the narrator of this audiobook. Normally I feel indifferent to narrators, but she sold the story and fit the character with a sweet southern voice.

The Tolliver Christmas Tree Farm has been setting up in Greenwich Village for decades. But it’s been a decade or so since Kerry Tolliver has had to head up to New York City to sell trees for the Christmas season. After the loss of her job and her father’s heart attack, Kerry is enlisted to help her brother Murphy not only sell trees but also come up with new ideas to breathe life back into the family business. Along the way she befriends those in the neighborhood and might just find her next adventure.

I loved the cast of characters I met within these pages! While Kerry was a warm and relatable lead, I did feel she and Murphy came off as much younger than they actually were. They’re said to be in their mid-30’s but they felt more in their early to mid-20s. It may have been just the audio narration making them seem that way, but that was really my only compliant with the story.

This was the perfect audiobook to listen to while we put up our Christmas tree this year. In traditional Mary Kay Andrews fashion, Bright Lights, Big Christmas was such a heartwarming story to read. It has a great balance of romance, light humor, and of course Christmas spirit. Once again, I’m left dreaming, I grew up on a Christmas Tree farm and of course loved the small ode to The Santa Suit.

Bright Lights, Big Christmas is out now. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and MacMillan Audio for my advanced copies in exchange for my review. If you liked this review, please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof.books.

Bright Lights, Big Christmas has all the necessary ingredients for a feel-good holiday read.

The story takes us to an idyllic NYC neighborhood with small-town vibes. The people there watch out for each other and offer help when needed.

The one drawback was that Kerry’s brother Murphy behaved like a total asshat, but only, apparently, to her. I didn’t understand the hostility, and his gruffness along with her sickly-sweet tolerance grated on me.

I absolutely loved Klein’s character. His side story made up for Murphy’s idiotic behavior.

I listened to the audiobook, and Kathleen McInerney’s narration kept me thoroughly engaged.

*Thanks to Macmillan Audio for the free download.*

🎧Song Pairing: Bright Lights, Bigger City - CeeLo Green

💭What I thought would happen:

MKA writes cutie cute stories that are right to the point. Knew it would be the perfect holiday book to start with

📖What actually happens:

Kerry hasn’t helped her family sell their premium Christmas trees in NYC for a long while. Her father’s heart attack kickstarted her life.

She meets the most beautiful vibrant characters. People who have a supported their family business for years. She meets Patrick, a single dad with a precocious son and now fears she won’t be able to leave them.

🗯Thoughts/sassy musings:

AWEEEEEEE!!! My little shrivelled heart just grew a size or 2 (yes I am Dr Suess😂)

I crushed this in a day. A perfect listen all day and enjoy book. I loved that it referenced The Santa Suit💚

This book has everything:
🩵Single daddy
🎄CHRISTMAS TREES
🩷Found Family
🗽NYC Setting
🤍Instant Love (done well - a bit impulsive but it’s Christmas)

This was the perfect Christmas book! I loved how it had mention of Santa Suit. It gave me warm and cozy hallmark movie vibes! This is definitely a book I’d read again around Christmas time. I loved the narrator and the way she brought the story to life!

This is the perfect Christmas read! Wonderful characters, touching story and a Happy Ending! What could be better at the Holidays? Loved it!!

This was such a delightful quick read! This was my first one i read for the holiday season and it did not disappoint!

How on earth could I pass up reading Bright Lights, Big Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews with a title that is a play on a favourite Def Leppard lyric? I simply couldn't!

This book is absolutely adorable, and I loved it for exactly what it is! I've always wanted to travel to New York City at Christmas time, and this story instantly transported me there. It made my grinchy heart grow and really put me in the Christmas spirit - even without any snow outside!

The audiobook narrator (Kathleen McInerney) really brought Kerry to life and off the page. Her voice added additional warmth to the story and added to my enjoyment as a whole! I highly recommend getting your hands on the audiobook version this holiday season!

There's so much coziness within this book:
-atmosphere that oozed a piney scent
-Spammy, the trailer, had me longing for camping season
-community and found family that gave me all the feels
-small town underdogs that travel to the big city
-no third act breakup

Bright Lights, Big Christmas is cute, charming, and cheery!

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio for the complimentary copies to read and review.

This was a cute book. I loved the setting in NY, during Christmas time, and the coziness of it all. It was very wholesome and sweet! The love story was cute as well.

I love Mary Kay Andrews and she didn’t disappoint with this heart-warming tale of love and trees at Christmas time. I loved all the characters! This is a quick, light-hearted story that will be sure to get you in the Christmas Spirit. The narrator was perfection and I would definitely recommend listening to this one.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ -NetGalley Audiobook

<b>Description:</b>
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?


<b>BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CHRISTMAS</b> delivers everything a Christmas romance should. The spirit of Christmas. Friends. Family. Love and Romance…without the sex. Now don’t get me wrong, I love some smut just as much as the next person, but I don’t think a Christmas novel is the place for it. So kudos to Ms. Andrews for writing a clean, feel good novel. This book was also so atmospheric that you’d swear you’re a part of the story; sipping hot chocolate by a garbage can fire. A perfect read for a snowy Christmas Eve.

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio/ St. Martin's Press and Mary Kay Andrews for the chance to listen to this book for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.

Mary Kay’s Christmas novella always hit the spot!

Kerry flees the mountains of North Carolina for New York City to help her brother sell Christmas trees at their lot in Greenwich Village. She gets to experience the charm (and chaotic residents) of NYC while manning the tree stand and living out of “Spammy”, their little vintage trailer. She finds herself connecting with Patrick, a divorced dad, and his son charismatic Austin. When an elderly neighbor goes missing, they all band together to find him.

The characters are quirky, fun and full of all the banter we know and love from Mary Kay! Her grumpy brother started to grow on me. Austin reading a book about taco-loving dragons - he’s my kinda kid! 🤣 The connections are so heartwarming and truly capture the magic of Christmas. Found family, friendship and a little romance make for a sweet, charming story!

This is such a lighthearted holiday read that can be read in a sitting (or 2) with some hot cocoa and cookies!

As this genre goes, this book is a lovely holiday treat. There's a heartwarming cast of characters, but the plot was fairly predictable. I know that's the appeal of these kinds of holiday books. I just wish I was a bigger fan of happy endings!

Full disclosure: Although I was granted a digital copy of the NetGalley edition of the audiobook, I was not able to access it properly. Instead, I read a print copy which I purchased myself. As such, I cannot offer a critique of the audiobook performer.

Due to my relatively low rating of this title, I will only be posting my thoughts here in NetGalley and on Goodreads. Other usual postings (such as on my website, Amazon, and social media) will not be done.

Review:

I expected "Bright Lights, Big Christmas" to be a light, Hallmark movie-esque tale that would warm the heart for the holiday season. In many ways it did have these qualities. However, I found the character development to be quite lacking, which did not lead me to care about the players in the story. Andrews' style of writing was not to my taste. Chapters were often very short with abrupt endings which did not lend to a smooth flow of the storyline. Some sentences were disjointed, almost as if the final manuscript had not been properly vetted for continuity errors. This is the first novel of Mary Kay Andrews' that I've read, and I do plan to try another of her titles. She is very talented and I would like to give her work another chance. However, I can't necessarily recommend "Bright Lights, Big Christmas." It is possible to write a light, warm, holiday story with excellence. Andrews has not achieved it here.

Thank you @netgalley and @macmillan.audio for my gifted audiobook. I also bought this book for myself when the author visited my local bookstore!

While Kerry’s father is recovering from an illness, she must travel to New York City to save the family business and sell Christmas trees with her brother. The problem: Kerry has to drive to NYC (and then live with her brother and his dog) in the family vintage camper, which has no working facilities! Once there, Kerry quickly makes friends with the neighbors, including a handsome single father, Patrick.

MY THOUGHTS: I really enjoyed this charming and heartwarming story! The characters were beautifully developed and the storyline was fun! The New York setting had all the Christmas vibes! If you read 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙖 𝙎𝙪𝙞𝙩 last Christmas, then you will find a few Easter eggs in this one!

Read (or listen to) this if you enjoy heartwarming holiday reads! Kathleen McInerney does a beautiful job narrating this one!

I usually love Mary Kay Andrews books because they're light, heartwarming and funny. This one had all of those things. However, I didn't love it because it felt so cheesy and unnatural at times. I mean, the main character and her love interest are trying to get it on with the man's child only 2 ft away multiple times and I just found it so cringe, weird, and unnecessary. I would have preferred a more heartwarming approach, especially since it was surrounding Christmas time. I loved the concept and thought this had a lot of potential but miss the mark many times . Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am glad I got to this one finally! I love holiday reads and this was a cute one. Just enough drama and happiness to make it a fun story!

Bright Lights, Big Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews

Kerry Tolliver is a young woman from North Carolina who leaves her family's Christmas tree farm to help her brother sell trees in New York City's Greenwich Village. Kerry quickly falls in love with the city and its eccentric residents. She also develops a strong connection with Patrick, a single dad who lives on her block. She’s having a great time in NYC, but when an elderly neighbor goes missing, they must team up to solve the mystery.

I loved the characters in Bright Lights, Big Christmas. They are all so charming!

I also enjoyed the setting of the story. Greenwich Village is a beautiful neighborhood, and Mary Kay Andrews brings it to life with her vivid descriptions. I also loved the story's message about the importance of family and community.

Bright Lights, Big Christmas is a heartwarming story about family, friends, and love. It is a delightful holiday read that will put you in the Christmas spirit!

The audiobook was wonderfully narrated by Kathleen McInerney. Thank you Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the gifted copy.

Kerry Tolliver and her older brother Murphy make an annual trip from their family Christmas tree farm in NC to NYC to sell their trees and wreaths. While there, she makes friends with locals, including an older gentleman, a dragon-loving young boy, and his cute single dad, Patrick.

This Christmas story is heartwarming and will appeal to those that enjoy a specific subset of Christmas movies. It’s not exactly in my personal wheelhouse but I found it enjoyable (although totally predictable). I wasn’t a fan of the way that the brother’s character was written, it seemed uneven. I also wasn’t a fan of Patrick - I didn’t really see the chemistry there. The narrator did a nice job and the audiobook was a pleasant listening experience.

Christmas trees is the theme and Kerry is all about helping out her family after her father has a heart attack and cannot accompany her brother to NYC this year. Their family raises trees in NC and this can keep their farm going for the year or break it so she jumps in to help. Set up on the same corner as always she meets all the neighbors and finds a way to increase the business with her wreaths. A romance develops between her and Patrick, a single dad of Austin who loves to help out. When an elderly man goes missing she has to find him and solve the mystery of who he is. Kerry, being at a crossroads herself, is stuck on what to do. Come along on this journey. It was a fun ride!