In Christmas with the Queen, their fourth co-written historical novel, Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb (Meet Me in Monaco) craft a charming love story alongside a sensitive portrait of a young Queen Elizabeth II finding her way as a monarch and a public speaker through her annual Christmas radio broadcasts.
London, December 1952: Olive Carter is toiling away at the BBC, hoping to graduate from puff pieces to reporting important stories. A colleague's illness gives her the unexpected chance to travel to Sandringham House and report on the royal family's Christmas activities. The last person Olive expects to see is Jack Devereux--Cajun chef, American transplant to London, and old friend--working in the kitchens there after his wife's death. As Olive pursues her story and even gains a miraculous audience with the queen, she and Jack circle tentatively around each other, both longing for a deeper connection.
In alternating first-person chapters, Gaynor and Webb give voice to Olive's struggles with sexism and raising her daughter, and Jack's dreams of opening his own restaurant in London. Occasional interludes from Queen Elizabeth II add nuance, showing the difficulties she experienced as she established herself as a respected leader while navigating marriage and motherhood. Olive's encounters with the queen give both women a boost, and the slow-burning love story simmers like Jack's Louisiana gumbo, gradually gaining depth and complexity. Readers will enjoy the festive touches promised by the title, but the novel's heart lies in its depiction of three people working hard to pursue their own separate (but intertwined) purposes in life. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams