Title: Last Christmas in Paris
Author: Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb
Publication: October 3, 2017
Publisher: William Morrow Publishing
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 400
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SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)
August 1914. England is at war. As Evie Elliott watches her brother, Will, and his best friend, Thomas Harding, depart for the front, she believes—as everyone does—that it will be over by Christmas, when the trio plan to celebrate the holiday among the romantic cafes of Paris.
But as history tells us, it all happened so differently…
Evie and Thomas experience a very different war. Frustrated by life as a privileged young lady, Evie longs to play a greater part in the conflict—but how?—and as Thomas struggles with the unimaginable realities of war he also faces personal battles back home where War Office regulations on press reporting cause trouble at his father’s newspaper business. Through their letters, Evie and Thomas share their greatest hopes and fears—and grow ever fonder from afar. Can love flourish amid the horror of the First World War, or will fate intervene?
Christmas 1968. With failing health, Thomas returns to Paris—a cherished packet of letters in hand—determined to lay to rest the ghosts of his past. But one final letter is waiting for him…
REVIEW:
The author of this book is one of my go to Historical Fiction authors. I love her stuff and it’s always well researched and well written. So when I saw this book, and I believe it was in thrift books, I knew that I had to get it.
Evie’s brother and her brothers best friend join the war efforts in WW1. The story ebs and flows as they write back and forth. To start with this isn’t really a book that has a beginning middle and and end. I mean it does but this book is different. This book is a book made up of letters that Evie writes her brother and his friend Tom. It is also the correspondence that they write back. It’s a love story woven among the war. Throughout the letters are bits of an actual book based in the 60’s after all the wars.
While I liked the idea of this book, I thought there was too much bouncing around. There were a lot of letters switching. But what I loved was the story that was painted throughout the letters. You get to see the main characters slowly fall in love. You got to see the drama of war unfold. You saw what people went through on the front line of the war. The author did a really good job of growing the character of the main character. She starts the book as a young seemingly naive girl and it ends with her as a strong young woman. I have several more of this author’s books on my shelf and I can’t wait to read them if they are just as sweeping as this one was.
