Christmas With the Queen includes royal family interactions, second-chance romance, and dreams realized.

Christmas With the Queen by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

Genre/Categories/Setting: Historical Fiction, Romance, Royal Family, Christmas, England

*This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

My Summary of Christmas With the Queen:

Thanks #NetGalley @WilliamMorrow for a complimentary e ARC of #ChristmasWithTheQueen upon my request. All opinions are my own.

In December of 1952 as the royal family prepares to spend Christmas at Sandringham House, a young Queen Elizabeth struggles to find the right words for her Christmas Day radio broadcast. Meanwhile, Olive, a single mother and aspiring journalist, receives an unexpected opportunity to cover the Royal Family’s Christmas holiday. Elsewhere, Jack, a grieving widow and chef, accepts an invitation to fill in as a cook in the royal kitchen for the Christmas events. Olive and Jack are surprised to see each other as they share a brief romantic history. They grow closer as they reunite over the next few years and interact with and serve the royal family. Sparks fly, but Olive is keeping a big secret.

My Thoughts:

Christmas and the Royal Family

The royal family Christmas gathering at Sandringham House sets the scene year after year. We gain glimpses into the preparation and festivities and are treated to brief interactions with the young Queen. However, this is Olive and Jack’s story, so we share their limited behind-the-scenes perspectives.

Complicated Relationship and Slow-Burn Romance

Olive and Jack have a complicated relationship that develops over five Christmas seasons. Olive is keeping a big secret and Jack is grieving the death of his wife. Plus, they must reconcile their brief romantic history. Miscommunication is frustrating for readers (like me) who don’t list this as a favorite trope! I totally understand Jack’s anger at the third-act breakup!

Second-Chance Romance Saves the Day

Sweet second-chance romance saves the day once miscommunication is resolved and the carefully-guarded secret is revealed. A satisfying conclusion awaits a patient reader.

Content Consideration: unplanned pregnancy, grief

Recommending Christmas With the Queen

I recommend Christmas With the Queen for fans of historical fiction, second-chance romance, and the Gaynor/Webb writing team. Readers looking for a story with a Christmas setting will want this on their December TBR.

Related: My favorite book by Gaynor and Webb is Last Christmas in Paris.

My Rating: 4 Stars

Meet the Authors of Christmas With the Queen

Hazel Gaynor is an award-winning, New York Times, USA Today, Irish Times and internationally bestselling author known for her deeply moving historical novels which explore the defining events of the 20th century. A debut author recipient of the 2015 RNA Historical Novel of the Year award, her work has since been shortlisted for the 2019 HWA Gold Crown Award, the 2020 RNA Awards, and the Irish Book Awards in 2017, 2020 and 2023. WHEN WE WERE YOUNG & BRAVE was a national bestseller in the USA and her most recent novel, THE LAST LIFEBOAT, was a Times of London historical novel of the month and a 2024 Audie winner for Best Fiction Narrator. Hazel’s next novel, BEFORE DOROTHY, will be published in June 2025. Her co-written historical novels with Heather Webb have all been published to critical acclaim. Their latest collaboration, CHRISTMAS WITH THE QUEEN, will be published in November 2024. Her work has been translated into twenty languages and published in twenty-seven territories to date. She lives in Ireland with her family.

Heather Webb is the USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of nine historical novels, including Strangers in the Night, The Next Ship Home, and up and coming, Queens of London. In 2015, Rodin’s Lover was a Goodread’s Top Pick, and in 2018, Last Christmas in Paris won the Women’s Fiction Writers Association STAR Award. In 2019, Meet Me in Monaco was selected as a finalist for the 2020 Goldsboro RNA award in the UK, as well as the Digital Book World’s Fiction prize. To date, Heather’s books have been translated to seventeen languages. Check her website for more details on release dates and book club visits.

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QOTD:

Is this new Gaynor/Webb release on your TBR or have you read it?

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