Christmas With the Queen by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

 

Summary (from the publisher): ’Tis the season! The Crown meets When Harry Met Sally and Bridget Jones’s Diary, in the latest heartwarming historical novel from Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb, bestselling authors of Meet Me in Monaco and Three Words for Goodbye.

December 1952. While the young Queen Elizabeth II finds her feet as the new monarch, she must also find the right words to continue in the tradition of her late father and grandfather’s beloved Christmas Day radio broadcast. But even traditions must move with the times, and the Queen faces a postwar Britain hungry for change. 

As preparations begin for the royal Christmas at Sandringham House in Norfolk, two old friends—Jack Devereux and Olive Carter—find themselves reunited for the festivities. A single mother, typist at the BBC, and aspiring reporter, Olive leaps at the opportunity to cover the holiday celebration, despite self-doubts. When a chance encounter with the Queen presents an exciting opportunity, Olive begins to believe her luck might change. 

Jack, a grief-stricken widowed chef originally from New Orleans, accepts a last-minute chance to cook in the royal kitchens at Sandringham. When he bumps into a long-lost friend, an old spark is reignited.

Despite personal and professional heartache, Jack and Olive’s paths continue to cross over the following five Christmas seasons and they find themselves growing ever closer. Yet Olive carries the burden of a heavy secret. 

Christmas Day, December 1957. As the nation eagerly awaits the Queen’s first televised Christmas speech, Olive decides to reveal the shocking truth of her secret, which threatens to tear her and Jack apart forever. Unless Christmas has one last gift to deliver… 

Review: A little bit The Crown, a little bit When Harry Met Sally, a little bit Serendipity, this follows Jack and Olive, whose paths cross over and over across five Christmas seasons. Jack is a grief-stricken widowed chef from New Orleans working in the royal kitchens at Sandringham when he bumps into an old friend. Olive Carter is a BBC reporter who is at Sandringham for an assignment. As they continue to see each other in subsequent holiday seasons, they both begin to privately consider if there might be something more to their relationship than friendship. But Jack doesn't know that Olive has a significant secret from her past that may threaten their connection. 

So much of my enjoyment came from the absolutely top-notch audio narration of this book. This was dual narrated, which I always love because having both a male and female narrator for the alternating chapters adds so much. I also thought the brief chapters from the Queen's perspective were phenomenal! The narrator mimicked Queen Elizabeth II's voice so well! I felt like I was listening to excerpts from The Crown. 

This book wasn't over the top seasonal, but it also wasn't cheesy or straining to be Christmas-y either. It reminded me of one of the holiday specials for Call the Midwife (minus the healthcare bits obviously). It felt so mid-century and cozy and really brings the reader to post-war Great Britain. I appreciated Olive's struggles to be taken seriously in her career and also attempting to navigate life as a single mother. And I sympathized with Jack who is mourning the loss of his beloved wife. 

I thought this book was such a fun depiction of the royal family that felt realistic. There were a lot of people in real life that would have been like Jack and Olive and had brief interactions and come into the royal family's orbit while working for them in various capacities. We got to see a bit behind the scenes and see the queen and Prince Philip just a bit, but they still remained in the background of the story, which is really about Jack and Olive and not the royal family. 

I will say, a critical piece that the plot hinges on a secret that is being kept from Jack. I just really don't care for lack of communication and withholding of big pieces of information, so it did irk me. I understand why Olive decided to keep it from Jack, but I also think she should have told him or at least have told him well before she does. It would be hard for me to forgive if I was Jack. It was also odd to me that he doesn't ask more questions about this particular area and time period of her life that would have forced it to come to light. I will say that I loved that Jack falls for Olive independent of this knowledge. 

Stars: 4