Christmas with the Queen by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

 

Title: Christmas with the Queen

Author:  Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

Narrated by:  Fiona Hardingham, Gary Furlong, Esther Wane

Publisher: HarperAudio

Length: Approximately 10 hours and 15 minutes

Source: Audiobook Purchased from Audible

Have you ever wanted to visit somewhere else for the holidays?  I’ve always wanted to go to Germany and England at Christmas.

Jack Devereux and Olive Carter had a brief romance at the end of World War II that never took off.  Jack fell instead for Olive’s friend, Andrea.  Years later, Jack is a widower and the two meet again at Sandringham House at Christmas.  Jack is now a chef working for the royal family and Olive is a reporting on the royal family Christmas traditions when the two meet again. Will they ever be able to truly connect?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       There are three narrators of this novel.  Jack, Olive and Queen Elizabeth all narrate portions of the book.  The audiobook has three different narrators for these parts which works out great.  The primary narration is Jack and Olive.

·       The novel starts in the 1950s and goes through several Christmases in the 1950s.  I enjoyed that most of the action was during the Christmas season.

·       There are flashbacks showing how Jack and Olive met at the end of WWII.  Olive also has a brief meeting with then Princess Elizabeth celebrating the end of the war.

·       The near misses in romance drove me crazy at times!  I was like NOOOOOO – just tell him/her how you feel.  This story is two shy people afraid to ever say their feelings and rock the boat. 

·       The story was cozy. 

·       Jack is a Louisiana native and brings spice and new dishes to the palace.  He dreams of owning his own restaurant like his grandfather before him.

·       Olive is a single mother.  She lies that she is a war widow to hide the fact that she is an unwed mother.  Her journey was interesting working as a female in a man’s world while also trying to hide that she is an unwed mother

·       I liked the royal happenings throughout the story – it reminded me of The Crown.

·       The ending of this novel was perfect.

Overall, Christmas with the Queen by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb is a lovely slow burn historical romance set at the Christmas season.  I enjoyed reading this one!

Strangers in the Night by Heather Webb (Bibliolifestyle Book Tour)

 

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @williammorrowbooks for the review copy of this book.

What is your favorite Frank Sinatra song or movie?  I have been on a Frank Sinatra kick the last couple of months listening to his songs.  I love so many of them and Strangers in the Night is one of my favorites.  My favorite movie starring Frank Sinatra is From Here to Eternity.  I’ve known Ava Gardner as a star, but I think the only movie I’ve seen of hers is Showboat.  I love old movies so I’m not sure how that has happened!

Strangers in the Night is a historical fiction novel detailing the tempestuous relationship between Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner.  Frank was a married man with three children when he fell in love with Ava Gardner.  Ava had previously been married and divorced twice and was already a star.  Frank and Ava together brought out both the best and the worst in each other.   This novel is their love story through the decades.

I enjoyed that Strangers in the Night was told from the dual narratives of Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra from when they first met through Ava Gardner’s death.  As a classic movie fan, I loved that the filming of my favorite movies that these actors were in was discussed.  It was fun as they interacted with various members of the golden age of Hollywood. 

Frank and Ava’s romance was very turbulent.  They were constantly cheating on each other, fighting, there were suicide attempts.  Frank was constantly with prostitutes and did not think that was cheating.  Through it all, they always felt that they were each other’s greatest love.  They ultimately found they couldn’t live together, but the love never stopped.  Frank had a quote, “ My girl liked to be courted, and I’d give it to her better than anyone else.  Courting was my specialty.”  I agree.  Frank was great at courting, but not so great at actually being a good long term partner.

I enjoyed the author’s note at the end, information about Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra, as well as great questions for a book club.  This would be a fun book to read for a book club.  It has Classic Hollywood, historical fiction, romance, adventure, etc.  The short chapters with alternating viewpoints kept this book moving.

Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

At the start of WWI, there was a general feeling in Great Britain that it was a lark that would soon be over.  As men headed overseas to France and started battling in the trenches, the feelings soon changed to hopelessness.  Will they ever be able to return home?  Will they ever be able to have a Last Christmas in Paris?

Thomas Harding is spending one last Christmas in Paris in 1968.  With him is a collection of letters from World War I between Evie Elliot, her brother Will, Will’s best friend Thomas Harding, and other friends and family.  As Thomas reads through the letters, he revisits the past, the heartache and loss of the war, and also the great love.

I love, love, loved Last Christmas in Paris.  I think epistolary novels are fun to read, it’s like discovering the story of your Grandparents told through their letters.  I loved the characters, especially Evie.  She lives a privileged youth growing up with Will and Thomas near London.  It all seems a lark when they first go off to war, but as the war progresses, Ellie longs to both become more involved and scared that she may never see Will and Thomas again. 

When going off to war, Thomas feels like it will be over soon, but also doesn’t want to settle into the family business of running a newspaper.  Only when he is overseas does he realize the importance of the paper and his father, and also the importance of his friend Will’s little sister.

I also appreciated that the novel faced a serious problem, PTSD or shell shock as they called it then, squarely on and talked about it as a major part of the story.  

Favorite Quotes:

“Life is forever changed without her without the sense of her somewhere near.  Empty hours wander by as I listen for the soft tread of her football on the stair and wait for her laugher to cheer these lifeless rooms.  When I close my eyes I can conjure her; the scent of her perfume, the feather-touch of her fingertips against my cheek, those intense blue eyes looking back at me.  But it is all illusion.  Smoke and mirrors that conceal the truth of her absence.”

“A new year lies ahead.  Though I am losing hope every day that I will ever return to England in one piece – or at all – at least time marches forward, paying no heed to the follies of men.”

Overall, The Last Christmas in Paris is a wonderful novel of love, life, and war.  I highly recommend it!

Book Source:  Review Copy from William Morrow. Thank-you!

Becoming Josephine by Heather Webb

I love historical fiction.  One period of history that has always intrigued me is the French Revolution, and then the rise and fall of Napoleon.  The almost mythical love story of Josephine and Napoleon is one of the greatest love stories of all time as well as being a great historical story from one of my favorite time periods.  I admit to not knowing much about Josephine before she met Napoleon.  Therefore, I was very excited to have a chance to review Becoming Josephine, which is all about Josephine’s early life.

Rose Tascher grows up on a plantation on the island of Martinique in the Caribbean.  After the tragic death of her sister, she takes her sister’s place in an arranged marriage with Alexandre Beauharnais, son of the Marquis, by traveling to Paris.  An awkward “country girl” Rose has a hard time fitting in, particularly as her new husband tends to spend all of this time partying with other women and not introducing her to society.  Rose decides to take happiness into her own hands and learns to become a fascinating woman of society.  All of the while Rose longs for true love.  Then the terror strikes and the Beauharnais family experience a great rise as well as a great fall.  As a widow, Rose meets Napoleon Bonaparte and reinvents herself as Josephine. 

I loved Becoming Josephine.  I took it camping with us over Labor Day and had a hard time putting it down.  I read through it quickly and found myself wanting more at the end. I learned a lot about Josephine’s early life and find her rise to power very fascinating.  I also loved the love story and Josephine’s search for true love.  My only complaint is that I wish there would have been more detail on Josephine and Napoleon together and their ends.  Even more in the afterward about what happened to them would have been perfect.  I had to go online and look up what exactly happened at the end of their lives.  As this was Becoming Josephine, it made sense that the novel was primarily focused on the early years.  Maybe Heather Webb will write another novel on the later years?  I would read it!

Overall Becoming Josephine is a fascinating look into a complicated and interesting woman’s life and her search for love.  I highly recommend it!

I read this book as part of the TLC book tour.  For more information on the tour see the following:  http://tlcbooktours.com/2014/05/heather-webb-author-of-becoming-josephine-on-tour-september-2014/

Book Source:  TLC Book Tour / Heather Webb – Thanks!