One Big Happy Family
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4.4 • 14 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Susan Mallery, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Boardwalk Bookshop, returns with the joyful and utterly irresistible story of a mother who couldn't love her kids more but hopes that, just this once, they please don't come home for Christmas. Perfect for fans of Mary Kay Andrews and Julie Murphy!
Julie Parker’s kids are her greatest gift. Still, she’s not exactly heartbroken when they ask to skip a big Christmas. Her son, Nick, is taking a belated honeymoon with his bride, Blair, while her daughter, Dana, will purge every reminder of the guy who dumped her. Again. Julie feels practically giddy for one-on-one holiday time with Heath, the (much) younger man she’s secretly dating.
But her plans go from cozy to chaotic when Nick and Dana plead for Christmas at the family cabin in memory of their late father, Julie’s ex. She can’t refuse, even though she dreads their reactions to her new man when they realize she’s been hiding him for months.
As the guest list grows in surprising ways, from Blair’s estranged mom to Heath’s precocious children, Julie’s secret is one of many to be unwrapped. Over this delightfully 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 let go of old hurts and open their hearts to love.
Don’t miss Susan Mallery’s brand new novel, BEACH VIBES, a dazzling, clever and poignant story about the family we’re born into—and the one we create for ourselves, coming March 2025!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this feel-good contemporary from bestseller Mallery (For the Love of Summer), an extended family uses the Christmas holiday to plan hopeful futures. Julie Parker, 54, has enough confidence to single-handedly run the towing company founded by her father, but she's insecure about introducing her boyfriend, Heath, who's 12 years her junior, to her grown children. So she's glad the two of them will be spending Christmas alone. But then plans change: Julie's daughter Dana, son Nick, and Nick's wife, Blair, decide they want to join Julie at her mountain cabin. Blair can't abandon her mother and Uncle Paul over the holidays, so they're invited as well. When Heath's grade school children and his ex-wife need a place to go, warmhearted Julie insists they come to the cabin too. The last straw is when Dana's ex gets shot and arrives days before Christmas to recuperate. Julie can handle a crowd, but these difficult guests need a full-time mediator, especially when a family squabble lands her in the hospital. It's refreshing to read about a slightly older heroine, and her relationship with Heath is both hot and supportive. The happy endings all around tip things over into sappy territory, but Mallery does a great job capturing both the chaos and the joy of a family Christmas. Readers will be heartened.
