Customer Reviews

Blue Christmas

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

A downtown Savannah contest for best Christmas display pits two design shops against each other. Weezy wants her shop to get the blue ribbon and a decorating disaster inspires her to completely rethink her approach to winning!! Meanwhile her long time boyfriend is distracted and blue over his family and bad memories of past Christmas celebrations. As Weezy tried to set things right, items begin to disappear from her shop and her home in a frighteningly personal way.
Mary Kay Andrews breathes a Southern charm into this romantic Christmas tale.

With Christmas just around the corner, antiques dealer Weezie Foley has decorated her store to look like an eighteenth century Yuletide gala in order for her to win the Savannah historical district contest. However, something odd occurs every night as someone seems to sneak into her emporium to steal an item of little value from her decorations. She has no idea who her midnight marauder is or why they purloin one article, but plans to find out whom he or she is.

Meanwhile Weezie also wants to share a joyful holiday with her boyfriend chef Daniel Stipanek, but he seems more a bah humbug than joy to the world type as he rejects her efforts. Weezie turns to her pal BeBe Loudermilk, her dog Jericho, and her certifiable family to help her learn what bugs Daniel about Christmas. Soon her two mysteries intertwine as Weezie needs a miraculous gift from the Magi if she is going to convert her beloved from being a Scrooge clone.

The latest Weezie-BeBe thriller is a blithe holiday romp that will please fans of the two zany women (see SAVANNAH BREEZE and MISSY FIT). The story line is amusing as Weezie recruits her best friend and her family to help her with Daniel. The cast is delightful, but Weezie owns this cheerful (except for moody Daniel) Christmas caper.

Harriet Klausner

More fictional fun from Mary Kay Andrews awaits you in this seasonal read! It's a short and sweet Christmas novel set in Savannah, SC with Andrews' wacky characters from previous books, Weezie and BeBe.

Weezie is determined to win FIRST PLACE for shop decorating so fancies up her store window in a 'Blue Christmas' theme. Crazy things start to happen and a mysterious woman enters the picture. It's a well-done little novel and VERY funny when Daniel's family (Weezie's boyfriend) comes to holiday meal. Dogs go wild and you can hear the food hit the floor!

If you're a reader who enjoys simple, fun seasonal reads - try this one!

During the holidays, I like listening to audiobooks about Christmas so I downloaded Blue Christmas and began listening while cleaning up on December 26. After two hours of listening, I still could not connect with the characters or figure out the plot. It just didn't go anywhere. Stuff is missing from Wezzie's house, but who cares? Daniel, her boyfriend, is grumpy during Christmas, but who cares? The main character Wezzie runs her own antique business, seems successful but worries endlessly about making Daniel unhapppy ("I knew better than to keep him waiting.") There is some weird woman - Apple Annie - that will probably turn out to be Daniel's mother but other than that, there is nothing going on. The main characters banter but it isn't really clever and is sometimes crude ("Screw you Ebeneezer.") Plus, the reader of the book uses annoying voices for men making them sounds slow and cartoonish. Then there are way too many cliche references to gay men - decorators, antique collectors and ex-priests. What is that about?!

I read/listen to many books in this genre - and this is not one that I will even finish. Mary Kay Andrew's Fixer-Upper is a much more entertaining and charming.

This wasn't my favorite book by Mary Kay Andrews, but I love her stories so much I couldn't resist. It is definitely just a sweet Christmas story about the gang in Savannah: Weezie and Daniel and Bebe and Harry, along with a few new friends. It was short and sweet but I would try and save it for Chritmas time for a relaxing read.

I love Mary Kay Andrews (aka Kathy Hogan Trocheck) and I have read everything she has written. Blue Christmas was a good book, but it was noticeably shorter than Savannah Blues and Savannah Breeze. I liked the characters and the story line, but I finished it in an afternoon and was left wanting more. While I like the Savannah setting, I long for MKA to use Atlanta again, as I grew up in Atlanta. All in all, a good book that would make a great stocking stuffer or gift.

This fun Christmas novella is a one night read for most Mary Kay Andrews fans. The mystery element is pretty transparent from the outset. But she does introduce us to two very promising characters who I would love to see pop up in a later book. All in all, it is a very merry holiday adventure for her fans.

The book should be read for no other reason than to enjoy the mania that is Weezie's Christmas Eve dinner. It is everything that all of us secretly fear will happen at our own holiday dinners, wrapped up and tied with a bow! Let's just say that Daniel's family is every bit as zany as Weezie's is.

This book would be a great holiday gift.

Every holiday season I try to read at least a few of the new releases that help us celebrate the season and this year one of the books I went for was Blue Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews.

This story reunites us with Weezie and BeBe from Savannah Breeze and Savannah Blues and is sure to put a smile on your face. Spend a couple of evenings curled up with this one and enjoy the season. It really is a time for peace, love, and family.

Mary Kay Andrews delivers another witty and entertaining installment in the adventures of antiques dealer Weezie Foley in Blue Christmas. While I have enjoyed recordings of other Mary Kay Andrews books, I was sorely disappointed in this performance.

Adopting a dumbed-down drawl, Isabel Keating makes the eclectic mix of otherwise smart, funny, and quirky characters sound more like a gang of dim-witted hicks. Her inflections are so awkward and forced that it seems like the recording session may have been the first time she ever read the book. The accent she uses smacks of country bumpkin rather than Southern charm. The reading was so bad that I gave up on the cds and checked the book out from my local library. Isabel Keating may want to omit this performance from her otherwise remarkable resume.

Weezie Foley is the owner of an antique shop in downtown Savannah. She is intent on winning this year's window dressing contest, but her fruit-based displays are sabotaged by hungry but otherwise mysterious vandals. She quickly comes up with a new theme, "Blue Christmas." Turns out that Blue Christmas is a theme for more than Weezie's window display: her boyfriend is too busy with work to celebrate the holidays, her neighbors are angry at her mutt dog Jethro for knocking up their pedigreed pup, and someone has been sneaking into Weezie's store and home.

I bought this book as part of a cozy mystery lot on eBay, but I would classify it more as chicklit. There is a very, very small amount of mystery, but it is more a vehicle for humor. This book is a breeze to read, and Weezie and the occupants of her town will provide you with an entertaining diversion during the holiday season.