The premise of this book sounded intriguing to me and that was my reasoning for reading it. The story takes place in two different time periods. The first is 2016 with Libby as the central character & the other is in 1941 with Queenie at the center. Libby is the great niece of Queenie, and each story shows the contrasting lives of these two women some 70+ years apart.

Queenie resides in Nazi occupied Jersey and we see the daily struggles, fears & breakdown of their way of life due to the occupation. It is at times hopeful & humbling and at other times tense, frightening & suspenseful. I found this element of the story much more captivating. The author did a great job showing how people still could find some joy & happiness, still have the ability to love, & show uncommon bravery under oppressive conditions.

Libby's character is someone who is constantly taken advantage of by her husband & children. I didn't dislike her, but didn't particularly like her either. However with that said, it was interesting to see her change & develop as the story went on. She began to change & grow as a person, wife & mother, due in large part to Queenie.

She has a falling out with her best friend Stella because of an old grudge....which neither knew about growing up. Stella finds out the reason for the grudge from her dying mother & Libby finds out the true story from reading her Aunt Queenie's journal. While the story of the disintegration of their lifelong friendship had promise , I found it a little weak & underdeveloped. It was almost an unnecessary sidebar. The ending provides a beautiful lesson in forgiveness & appreciation for what blessings we've been given; however this isn't necessarily a "feel-good' happy Christmas tale. I believe the story would have worked better showing the juxtaposition of Libby & Queenie's lives & left out the friendship rift....since it wasn't focused on much anyway.

I thought Queenie's story was interesting; but the overall book didn't grab me until the last 20%. Not a bad read, but not one that stands out for me.

This was an okay holiday read. Surprisingly the chapters from the time of the German occupation of Jersey were less interesting than the ones set in the current day.

The nitty gritty of family life was worth reading although I wanted to take Libby and shake her hard when she let everyone in the world walk all over her! Are there really people like that out there? You would think survival of the fittest would have weaned them out by now.

There was one really exciting moment when Libby told them all where to go....but then she changed her mind. Oh well. It was a pleasant enough read although probably not memorable.

This was one of my many holiday reading picks from Net Galley this year. I really enjoyed this story that jumped between current day and WWII, as a woman reads her great-aunt diary.

Description

Can the secrets of the past be forgiven this Christmas?

Christmas is approaching on the island of Jersey, but Libby is feeling far from festive. Her police work and duties as vicar’s wife weigh heavily on her, she’s anxious about her troubled children, and now her best friend, Stella, has suddenly turned against her, citing a mysterious family grudge.

Libby is devastated by Stella’s unexpected coldness. But then her father shows her a diary written by her great-aunt Queenie, which sheds light on a long-hidden secret—one rooted in love, loyalty and betrayal. Writing during the Nazi occupation of Jersey in the winter of 1941, Queenie reveals a community torn apart by illicit romance, heartbreak and revenge—and by dark acts of fear and desperation.

The more Libby immerses herself in Queenie’s journal, the more she understands why its secrets still haunt her family and Stella’s. Christmas is a time of forgiveness, but is the treachery of their shared past too shameful to be forgotten?

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This was a fast and easy read, and it was so interesting to read about Jersey during the war. The modern day story didn’t capture my imagination as much as the “olden story” did, but the two stories intertwined for a nice conclusion. I’d like to look for more titles by this author!

Thank you for my review copy!

This is one of those book I always thought would be better than what it turned out to be. I loved the setting--the island of Jersey, in between England and France. I loved the dual time lines--part of the book was set during WWII and part of it was in 2016. I liked the way the WWII story was told via journal entries.

What didn't I like? Well, the whole story about Stella turning away from her because of a family grudge. These women had been friends through thick and thin since they were kids (now they have grown kids) and they knew there had "always" been problems between the families and now that she knew the reason (something that obviously had nothing to do with their generation) Stella was going to leave a close friend? Sorry, I don't buy it.

Other than that, it was a feel-good Christmas read and just the thing for a cold afternoon. Grade: B-

I'd like to thank the publisher for making the book available via NetGalley. I was not obligated to write a positive review. If you have Kindle Unlimited, this book is part of it.

This is a wonderful Christmas story combining present and past. It combines love and joy and is a,perfect novel for this time of year.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I just really could not get into Christmas on the Coast. I found it rather boring to me. Perhaps it is just the fact that this was not my type of book so do not let my review influence you.

Why is it so often the past and the present intersect in our lives? This book uses an alternating timeline, moving between December 1941, and December 2016, and eventually the past provides an answer to the sudden distance growing between Libby and her friend Stella. The author certainly provides a good look at how the German occupation of the Channel Islands affected the residents, and a journal written by a relative during that time spurs Libby to encourage her family's celebration of Christmas to be more meaningful.

A gentle, loving and very touching tale told with much finesse, a blend of old and new, from wartime when the Germans invaded Europe to present day. It tells of a very hardworking vicar's wife that everyone even her own family takes for granted. The slight accident that her mom had, was the catalyst for her instantaneous vacation, she was stressed going on burnout, she needed it. A near-fatal incident took her home before her holiday could actually begin in earnest, and it is here her pot over boil and her family saw the light of day. This is where they all get the opportunity to learn that valuable lesson as to the true meaning of Christmas and the meaning of true and unselfish love between family and where Libby and Stella learn forgiveness and the essence of a true friendship. A very emotionally encrusted book, at first I thought would have been boring but it surprises me, a loving must read.

Thank you for letting me read this book. Unfortunately I didn't finish this book because I wasn't interested in this book due to reading about vicarages, war and regilious conviction. That is not my type of story I would like to read.

I had a hard time with this novel. This novel runs two stories side-by-side, one that is told by Libby in 2016 and another one which is labeled Queenie’s Journal, who was Libby’s great aunt, which was written in 1941. I found that I liked the journal better, although at times it didn’t seem like a journal. The journal answered many questions and it also revealed and validated the actions and views of the individuals she wrote about. I liked the mystery and the darkness that surrounded this part of the novel.

As I listened to Libby, I couldn’t believe how on edge she was. Her life seemed too extreme to be actually happening. Then when she served wine with omelets, I had to laugh. Who does this? I just didn’t care much for her and I thought she made a better character when she was with someone else. This novel was a good novel to put me in the Christmas spirit.

I received a copy of this novel from NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

Two Christmas stories are told in alternate chapters in this novel. Both are set in Jersey, one in 2016 and the other in 1942.

I have a real fascination of the Channel Islands and their German occupation in WW2. Therefore, I thought this book had real promise. It turned out to be an unfulfilled promise.

The present day story stars Libby, who’s disgruntled with her job, her family and then her best friend when she suddenly turns on her. Pretty much all this conflict made me want to scream. Neither Libby, any of her immediate family, or Stella (the best friend) was likeable. Her hubby was weak. The kids were spoilt attention seekers. Stella was obviously a completely nutcase going through menopause. And Libby was self-absorbed and immature.

The historical chapters, written in the form of Libby’s great aunt’s diary, fall just as flat unfortunately. The characters here are just as whiny as the present day ones in fact.

There’s a lot of plot in the 1942 chapters. Girls fall in and out of love with their German captors, Jews and Russians hide, people get sick, and one even gets murdered. I hate to say it but Boxall just didn’t write a story based on these plots, however. She just wrote they happened and expected that to be enough. There’s no tension, no build up of events, and little to no characterisation (everyone sounds the same).

The murder, in particular, should have been a climactic scene that made us fret for the characters’ fate, but instead it’s ‘oh, there’s a body’. And the killer’s reveal is just ridiculous. Not their identity but the way they're revealed. There was no ‘show and tell’just all tell in a terrible info dump.

It’s a short book, which is the only reason I kept reading to the end.

2 out of 5 is generous. I’d highly recommend picking up a copy of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society instead.

“Christmas on the Coast” is a book written with alternating timelines. Libby is the main protagonist. She has a contemporary story set around the Christmas season. Queenie’s story is set during WWII. We experience her story through reading the journal she kept at the time. Both stories take place on Jersey, which is one of the small islands that make up the Channel Islands in the English Channel. It was occupied by the Germans during a good portion of WWII. Rebecca Boxall’s WWII story included a murder mystery and some really interesting historical fiction. I found myself less enthralled by her contemporary story. Libby (her full name is ‘Liberty’) used to be a police officer. She now works at a legal firm. She’s married to the local vicar, and has managed to raise three very self-centered children. She is the doormat to all of them, including her boss, and she struggles to be all things to all people while losing herself to a large extent.

Queenie’s story takes place in the early 1940’s and is filled with interesting historical tidbits, and ongoing tension in the storyline regarding how the population chooses to interact with the German occupying forces. How the islanders act and react have long term consequences for many of them. I found myself speed reading through Libby’s sections to get back to Queenie. Maybe I don’t have enough in common with Libby, or I just got fed up with her being such a people-pleaser. For whatever reason, I didn’t enjoy Libby as much as Queenie. Other readers may identify with Libby more than I do, so they might experience her with more compassion than I was able to manage. There is personal growth in both stories however. By the end of the book, the alternating stories were nicely aligned. The long-term outcome of the choices made in the 1940’s was more fully explained.

I’m giving this book 3.5 stars, rounding up to 4 stars. Queenie’s story gets 4 stars in my estimation, while Libby’s story is in the low 3 star range. I DID like the Christmas holiday scenes in both timelines; especially a walk to the Canterbury Cathedral that Libby took with her father on a snowy night. It did put me in a holiday frame of mind. If you’re looking for a book with alternating storylines that has a nice holiday touch; but is not so heavy on the sickly-sweet romances that seem to populate the Holiday book sub-genre now, this could be just the book for you.

"Thank-you" to Lake Union Publishing, Rebecca Boxall, and NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is based on historical facts but it's fiction. Despite that, this story makes a chill run up and down my spine. Imagine being on a small island and the Germans come in to occupy the land...

Lake Union Publishing and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you). It is being published today.

When Libby's best friend turns on her after her mother's death, she can't figure out why. Stella tells her to ask her father. She feels her family was betrayed by Libby's family. She finally gets an opportunity to ask and he shares her great aunt's diary with her. He says she'll get the facts by reading the story.

This is Christmas and there's a lot to do, she doesn't have much time for reading. She's got mini crises with her children and is overwhelmed with what must be done for the holiday. She finally reaches the end of her rope and tells her family what she thinks about them. She's overridden with guilt but feels better for getting it out in the open.

When she finishes the diary she finds she knows more but she still doesn't know part of the story. When she asks her father, he shows her another letter which ends the mystery. Now if she can only get Stella to listen to her...

When I picked this book, I was thinking that it would be a Christmas themed book, but it turned out to much more and in a good way. Yes, it was about Christmas, but more about family and the history they carry with them from generation to generation, the good and the bad. I am so glad that I picked this one up, it was such a good read.

Libby and Stella have been best friends since they were small children and now even as adults, they are pretty much inseparable. That is until, Stella learns of the reason behind the tension between their families all these years from her mother and wants nothing to do with Libby. A devastated Libby doesn’t understand and so close to the holiday’s, she goes looking for some answers from her parents. The journal her father gives her could shed some light on what happened all those years ago. Learning events that transpired all those years ago, and the truths behind some of the events revealed a lot to her about her own family as well as Stella’s. But the question was, would their friendship make it though it all?

The story is told from two different point of views, Libby in the present and Queenie from the past back in the 1940’s. Quennie’s journal entries during the when Nazi’s occupation and at time were emotional to see the things they went through. The horrible conditions, the hiding and they way they were treated. But Queenie had this way about her, I can’t explain it, she was a breath of fresh air during a time that was treacherous. Libby, on the hand, well her home is one of chaos. Her family is a mess and I think that she always felt that Stella was her rock. And with a family full of spoiled rotten children even the adult children, I would look a strong friend too and I did feel sorry for her. Libby’s parents were just amazing, reminded me of my own parents with the things they did. The other few characters from the past and present, were a good addition. I would have liked to learn more about quite a few of them too.

The stories from the past and present were weaved together very well, but I did find myself being drawn to the past more so than the present. The history behind it all was captivating and left me wanting to know more. I was pleased with the way the present day part of this went though, learning everything the way we did was such a great way to put all these people’s lives together and see how they all intertwined to make them in who they were today. It was a emotional story of forgiveness and love and one that will stay with me for a long time.

Christmas time and Libby is not into it. She has a complicated life she is a vicar's wife whild she working for the police force. What a mixture of conflict of feelings which leads to her troubles with her best friend Stella is acting odd and even holding a grudge agains Libby which she knows nothing about. Libby then finds a diary through her father which shines a light on the mystery. The grudge is from an affair, heartbreak and even revenge. Get ready to be intrigued, moved and spending a day reading this book.

What a great book to have and read during Christmas time!

I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

In this novel, we follow two distinct voices in two different timelines. There’s Libby, a working mother in her forties in the year 2016, and Queenie, a twenty year old girl in 1941, whose story we learn through journal entries.

I wanted to like their stories, but unfortunately the main characters held no interest for me. Libby is depicted as a people-pleaser, a woman dedicated to her family who does not receive any gratitude or recognition. I was unpleasantly surprised by the fact that she mainly focuses on the negative characteristics of her husband and children, who admittedly are not very likeable characters. Her lack of resilience weakens her character, and her issues border on tediousness. Even the familial bonds, which is one of my favourite themes explored in literature, didn’t intrigue me in this case, possibly because the reader is given a lot of information to process about each situation but little explanation and minimal description of the characters’ emotions and the reasons behind them.

Queenie’s character seemed to have better prospects, as it was taking us through her experience in the nineteen forties under the German yoke. Besides a few incidents, however, her voice did not hold my interest either. She focused on so many trivial things, which put me off, because I wanted something more from her point of view, a raw testimonial of how it was to live during those times. I have to admit, however, that in a way her voice paints a descriptive picture, in the sense that the Germans appear in every moment of her daily life and affect her accordingly. That in itself demonstrates how dominant their presence was, what it meant to be a prisoner in your own home.

The main reason I kept going through this book was the possible connection between the two protagonists, which is hinted at quite early into the novel. The writing style was not that hard to get into, but sometimes it felt overdone and lacking effortlessness. If there is a character I liked in this book, it would have to be Stella, Liberty’s friend. Now that seemed like a character with potential.

Libby has a very busy life as a police officer in Jersey, vicar's wife and mother to there troublesome children and so she really doesn't need it when her best friend stops talking to her because of some old family feud that she had never heard of! Then she gets to read the journal of Queenie from 1941 in occupied Jersey and starts to understand the history between the families.

A brilliant story the narrative alternates between Libby and Queenie and I loved both time frames but was especially fascinated by the descriptions of 1941 Jersey, it was definitely a book that I couldn't put down and so much more than the normal Christmas books. Rebecca Boxall is becoming one of my favourite authors

With the story alternating between Queenie, a young woman living on a German-occupied Jersey, in the English Channel, and Libby, a police officer, vicar's wife, and mother of three in present-day Jersey, describing the similarities and differences between Christmas now and 1941. This is a fascinating read, as we learn how Queenie and Libby are connected and the challenges each woman faces. This is a fast read, with themes of friendship, family, and a bit of mystery. The characters were realistic and mostly likeable, and I cared about what happened to (most of) them. The feel-good ending wraps up loose ends and doesn't leave you wondering what happened with the characters from 1941. I'll definitely be reading more by Rebecca Boxall.

Stella's sudden grudge (really? seriously?) is the impetus for Libbie to explore the history of Jersey during WWII- a situation most will not be familiar with. Libbie is a strong woman with a lot on her plate- she's in law enforcement, married to a vicar, and dealing with a lot of family issues (those sons!). The last thing she needs is her friend Stella being a snot. This is very well done historical fiction. Boxall uses Libbie's present day exploration of a 1941 diary to tell the story of the occupation of the Chanel Islands by the Nazis. Nicely written and well researched, this is more than a Christmas story, although it's quite in the spirit in the season. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

This is my first read by this author and it certainly wont be the last time either. I was sceptical because i dont like to read sad stories and this has been my second read enduring a recent novel mixed with the facts from the times of war. It hasnt put me off at all and i really loved it. I couldnt put it down once i read chapter 4 or 5. I stayed up until 3 am to finish it because i couldnt leave it and where do you leave it.... at a chapter discussing the war era or a chapter of nervewrecking recent days.... So i finished it whole.
The story of Queenies life was extremely different to the renct lifestyle of Libbys so this is what made it so good and readable. you have Queenie the child of a family who is writing a journal for whatever reason she has.... lucky for her it is needed to set a story staright in the recent times of 2016. Their struggles is beyond what you can imagine so anyone who thinks life is hard now, take a step back and read this.
Then in 2016, there is Libby, the mother and soul of running the house and everyones lives, she has a vicar husband who she does all his paperwork for as well as her own busy job. Then you have Liam, selfish party goer who thiks life isnt for being afe but by taking drugs and causing everyone heartache, then you have Amy, the bride zilla who cannot sort out her own wedding arrangements and has mum to do them for her as well. Then theres the young Milo, who is in trouble for sexting..... can life get any more problematic? yes her best friend stella has given her the cold shoulder after her mum died in hospital giving out some words from her past... fake because this is where the war times journal is used to clarify all that mix up and in the end theres a big happy festive christmas for all.
It was wonderfully writeen because otherwise i would have put it down or wrote an ok review. I would have bought this too. So i thank Netgalley for the chance to read this and i will look forward to her next book.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2149495373?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1