Christmas with the Queen by Hazel Gaynor & Heather Webb-review

🎄Christmas with the Queen by Hazel Gaynor & Heather Webb-review🎄

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date November 19, 2024

December 1952. While the young Queen Elizabeth II finds her feet as the new monarch, she must also find the right words to continue the tradition of her late father’s Christmas Day radio broadcast. But even traditions must evolve 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, old friends—Jack Devereux and Olive Carter—are unexpectedly reunited by the occasion. Olive, a single mother and aspiring reporter at the BBC, leaps at the opportunity to cover the holiday celebration, but even a chance encounter with the queen doesn’t go as planned and Olive wonders if she will ever be taken seriously.

Jack, a recently widowed chef, reluctantly takes up a new role in the royal kitchens at Sandringham. Lacking in purpose and direction, Jack has abandoned his dream to have his own restaurant, but his talents are soon noticed and while he might not believe in himself, others do, and a chance encounter with an old friend helps to reignite the spark of his passion and ambition.

As Jack and Olive’s paths continue to cross over the following five Christmases, they grow ever closer. Yet Olive carries the burden of a heavy secret that threatens to destroy everything.

Christmas Day, December 1957. As the nation eagerly awaits the Queen’s first televised Christmas speech, there is one final gift for the Christmas season to deliver…

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REVIEW: CHRISTMAS WITH THE QUEEN is a historical, fictionalized story co-authored by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb focusing on American chef Jack Devereux, and journalist Olive Carter.

Told from three first person perspectives (Jack, Olive, Queen Elizabeth II) covering approximately twelve years, CHRISTMAS WITH THE QUEEN follows the friendship and building relationship between American chef Jack Devereux, and journalist Olive Carter. At the end of the second World War British born Olive Carter would meet American Navy man Jack Devereux, and having spent one night together, would never see one another again for close to seven years. In 1952, Jack Devereux will be invited to Sandringham Palace for the Christmas holidays where he will work in the royal kitchens for the new Queen and her family, while Olive Carter, now working as a part time reporter for the BBC, finds herself on assignment covering the royal family holiday preparations, wherein she will become Queen Elizabeth confident for her annual Christmas speech. For the next five years, Jack and Olive will come in and out of one another’s lives, always reconnecting at Sandringham with the royal family for the holidays but life has changed for both Olive and Jack, love, loss, grief and moving forward find our couple circling one another, never quite connecting two broken hearts.

CHRISTMAS WITH THE QUEEN is an historical, fictionalized story interspersed with a little bit of reality history including the ascension of the young queen. A thought-provoking romantic story of love and loss, CHRISTMAS WITH THE QUEEN is a heart warming yet somewhat tragic saga with animated and impassioned characters. Jack Devereux, a Cajun chef from Louisiana is struggling with a painful loss; Olive Carter has a secret that only a few people know.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

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