Christmas with the Queen

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Jack didn’t anticipate running into Olive again, especially right now.  His wife died a few weeks ago and he’s taken a job in the Royal Household because, well, what else was he supposed to do?  Olive didn’t anticipate being in Sandringham either, but the BBC reporter on the royal beat was sick and she’d lobbied to take his place.  Olive and Jack hadn’t seen each other in nearly 8 years when they bumped into each other in the library at Sandringham during preparations for Queen Elizabeth II’s first Christmas as monarch.  Will their spark reignite as they get to know each other again, or will the secrets of their past come back to haunt them under the watchful eye of the Royal Household?

Christmas with the Queen is the latest historical fiction release from the powerhouse partnership of Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb.  Following up on successes like Last Christmas in Paris, this novel showcases their talents of dual timelines and multiple main characters while pulling back the curtain on life in the Royal Household throughout the first few years of the Queen’s reign.  While ripe with historical facts and beautifully written scenes that make you feel as though you’ve traveled back in time, this novel also provides a beautiful romance between Olive and Jack.  This is a book about overcoming the odds to achieve your dreams.

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I give Christmas with the Queen 5 out of 5 stars.  Readers may be familiar with the early years of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign through recent documentaries and the Netflix series The Crown, but this novel delves into the lives of the hired help and background characters to the public life of the Queen.  I appreciated the inclusion of so many historical moments from this period to set the scenes for this storyline.  I also appreciate the excerpts from the Queen’s Christmas addresses at the beginning of each new year – it helps to delineate the time jumps and prepare the reader for the next adventure for our main characters. 

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If you loved The Crown, Young Victoria, or The Cook of Castamar on the small screen, you will enjoy this book!  I would also recommend this book to readers who appreciate historical fiction set in the 1940’s and 50’s who are looking for something with a little romance and lots of history.  With minimal physical romance and no other abrasive subjects, I would direct this novel to readers as young as 13.

I first heard about Christmas with the Queen at an author event with Heather Webb for her latest solo release The Queens of London earlier this year and was immediately drawn to this story.  I was very excited to see it available through Netgalley and to have the opportunity to read it early!  This is a beautiful story and I can’t wait to share it with my friends!

Christmas with the Queen will release on November 19^th – you can preorder your copy today in our Bookshop.org store!

 

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What I’m Reading

• Current print book: The After Party, Anton DiSclafani
• Current audio book: A Discovery of Witches, Deborah Harkness
• Book I’m most looking forward to: Virgin River, Robyn Carr