One Big Happy Family

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. (Oct.)