Christmas Bliss

Christmas Bliss is Mary Kay Andrews’s 2013 holiday novel, a follow up to her bestselling Blue Christmas and a return to the Savannah and Manhattan settings she has used across several connected books. Andrews writes contemporary southern fiction with humor and warmth, and her readers come back to her for the comfortable feeling of catching up with characters they already know in places that feel like favorite vacation destinations.

The story splits between two sets of characters. In Savannah, antiques dealer Weezie Foley is preparing to marry her chef boyfriend BeBe Loudermilk’s brother JB just before Christmas. The wedding is two weeks away, the bridesmaid dresses are not coming together, and a long missing relative has just turned up with reasons to want a piece of Weezie’s family business. In Manhattan, BeBe is meanwhile dealing with her own complications, including the unexpected return of an old flame at the worst possible moment. The two storylines weave back and forth as the novel moves toward its Christmas climax.

Mary Kay Andrews handles holiday romance and comedy with practiced affection. Her plotting tends toward the gentle complication rather than the high stakes drama, and her humor comes from character rather than from set up jokes. The Savannah setting, with its specific mix of southern hospitality, historical architecture, and small town gossip dressed up in city clothes, gives her books their particular flavor. The contrast between the southern and Manhattan storylines lets her play different registers off each other in a way that keeps the novel from settling into one note.

For longtime Mary Kay Andrews fans, Christmas Bliss is a comfortable holiday read that revisits beloved characters. For new readers, the references to the earlier books in the loose Savannah series will land more softly, but the novel can be read as a standalone. Readers who enjoy Karen White, Patti Callahan, Adriana Trigiani, or Dorothea Benton Frank will find familiar territory here.