Perfect holiday romance! Love everything these authors write! Love the dual timeline and charachters. Webb and Gaynor are a dynamic writing team

What a wonderful Christmas book. I love to read Christmas books at this time of year. I enjoy the happy endings, Christmas joy and new love. In Christmas with the Queen, there was all of this plus some historical fiction about Queen Elizabeth after she first took reign. We learned how she adjusted to becoming Queen so early in life; how she adjusted to her duties as Queen and Mother to young children and how Phillip adjusted to such a huge change in his marriage. While learning about this, we also got to see an old relationship between Olive and Jack become a new relationship. We saw their struggles, their careers getting in the way and a big secret kept from one of them. But they were able to overcome this and find true love.

A bit long (especially the back and forth with Jack and Olive) but an enjoyable historical fiction, Christmas read. I wish we'd spent more time with the Queen though.

This Christmas historical fiction will have you hooked with the first few pages. Royal workers have no idea that their worlds crossed paths a few years before. Each page and story will be tugging at your heartstrings.

What a wonderful book with chapters that went between Olive, a young emerging journalist trying to break into covering good stories working for the BBC and a young chef working for the royal family. The Queen has a couple chapters too and the characters interact with the Queen and Prince Philip predominantly at Christmas at Sandringham around the 1950’s when the Queen was emerging as a young monarch and delivering Christmas speeches. The characters are connected in more ways than one and it was a lovely story especially at the holiday season.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book through NetGalley. Christmas with the Queen is a lovely story of love, dreams, and friendship. The story was well written and the characters were rich in complexity. The story line was beautifully crafted with a variety of emotions and feelings. This is definitely a book for your to read list!
4 stars ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️

loved, loved this christmas time book! First time reading this book by these authors and will defintitely again

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for giving me back Queen Elizabeth. I have been missing her. This was a Christmas treat. Throughly enjoyed this read.

In the latest collaboration by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb, CHRISTMAS WITH THE QUEEN introduces us to Jack and Olive, two people who met and became friends in the celebrations after VE day, then lose touch. They reconnect in the unlikeliest place, both in Sandringham for the first Christmas of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign. When the usual royal correspondent falls ill, Olive talks her way into covering the royal preparations for the holidays and the Queen’s first Christmas radio address. She never expects to help the Queen prepare for her speech, nor does she expect to run into Jack working in the kitchen. Jack joined the royal kitchen as a chef, ultimately keeping the commitment he made before losing his beloved wife in a tragic accident. Seeing Olive again is one bright spot in an otherwise bleak time.
Told from three points of view – Jack, Olive, and Queen Elizabeth II – and with flashbacks from both Jack and Olive, we follow them through the years as they follow their paths and their dreams, slowly finding their way to each other. There is a secret, a surprise, and the royal family, and I loved watching the story unfold and it won’t be forgotten any time soon. This was a perfect read for Christmas or any other time of the year and another success for Gaynor and Webb’s co-writing partnership.
Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of the novel. All opinions are my own and freely given.

I enjoyed this book over the Christmas holidays. It was not quite what I expected and I would have loved to read more about the Queen rather than the romance which was the focus of the book, but I did find it to be an engaging and solid story. I very much enjoyed the descriptions of Sandringham and was delighted to learn the authors had visited and explored the house. I also loved the Easter eggs from Last Christmas in Paris, which I also recently read. I look forward to more books from these authors.

Title: Christmas with the Queen
Author: Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb
Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham, Gary Furlong, Esther Wane
Publisher: HarperAudio
Length: Approximately 10 hours and 15 minutes
Source: Audiobook Purchased from Audible

Have you ever wanted to visit somewhere else for the holidays? I’ve always wanted to go to Germany and England at Christmas.
Jack Devereux and Olive Carter had a brief romance at the end of World War II that never took off. Jack fell instead for Olive’s friend, Andrea. Years later, Jack is a widower and the two meet again at Sandringham House at Christmas. Jack is now a chef working for the royal family and Olive is a reporting on the royal family Christmas traditions when the two meet again. Will they ever be able to truly connect?
My thoughts on this novel:
• There are three narrators of this novel. Jack, Olive and Queen Elizabeth all narrate portions of the book. The audiobook has three different narrators for these parts which works out great. The primary narration is Jack and Olive.

• The novel starts in the 1950s and goes through several Christmases in the 1950s. I enjoyed that most of the action was during the Christmas season.

• There are flashbacks showing how Jack and Olive met at the end of WWII. Olive also has a brief meeting with then Princess Elizabeth celebrating the end of the war.

• The near misses in romance drove me crazy at times! I was like NOOOOOO – just tell him/her how you feel. This story is two shy people afraid to ever say their feelings and rock the boat.

• The story was cozy.

• Jack is a Louisiana native and brings spice and new dishes to the palace. He dreams of owning his own restaurant like his grandfather before him.

• Olive is a single mother. She lies that she is a war widow to hide the fact that she is an unwed mother. Her journey was interesting working as a female in a man’s world while also trying to hide that she is an unwed mother

• I liked the royal happenings throughout the story – it reminded me of The Crown.

• The ending of this novel was perfect.

Overall, Christmas with the Queen by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb is a lovely slow burn historical romance set at the Christmas season. I enjoyed reading this one!

Jack is an New Orleans born chef who finds himself mourning and alone in London in 1952. When he gets a job in the Queen's kitchen in her first year of rein, he works to prove himself and chase his dreams of happiness and opening his own Cajun-inspired restaurant.

Olive is a reporter for the BBC who is temporarily assigned to cover the Queen's first Christmas broadcast. She lives with her parents, and they help raise her little girl. She is working towards being a respected royal journalist in a male dominated industry while keeping her daughter's paternity and her love for the father, an old friend, a secret. When Jack and Olive cross paths at Sandringham, will they rekindle their friendship and make time for love in their career focused lives?

Set over a few Christmases in the Queen's kitchen and around her radio broadcast, this cozy winter story is told from the three perspectives and is a lovely Christmasy historical fiction. I really enjoyed all three points of views (although some of their actions annoyed me.) I liked this one a lot and want to go back and read these author's preview holiday book set during WWII in Paris. I really liked the setting and time period, and it was so refreshing to have a non-sappy holiday book that is memorable and lovely. I would highly recommend this one.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.

Historical fiction at its finest—with royalty, romance and Christmas spirit!

I have read Hazel Gaynor’s immersive historical fiction storytelling before. This was my first Heather Webb collaboration and the level of detail made me wonder — “am I reading about real people?!” Of course we DO have real characters, mainly the Queen and Duke, in this story. However the immersion into the time period made me feel as though the story’s main characters were real figures of history too.

As far as the story goes, we have a boundary breaking female, covering the royal family at each Christmas as this story unfolds. The leading man is charming, a recent widower and a chef on the royal family staff, about to embark on a second chance romance.

A great read for fans of historical fiction, the royal family and second chances.

I thoroughly enjoyed this well penned novel. A heartwarming story of two special people (Jack and Olive) brought back together after years of being separated. They have the ability to rekindle their friendship via the royals, as they both serve the royalty in their own capacity. A most powerful novel of friendship, secrets, forgiveness and love.

I highly recommend this novel. Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the authors for an advance reading copy of the book.

I adored this sweet Christmas story. I’m always excited to see new books from Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb and this one did not disappoint! I love books about the Royal family and this book has that in addition to a really sweet romance. All of the characters were so likable and I was really cheering for them! I loved the insider peek of the Queen at Christmastime. This was the perfect book to read in December! I received a free copy of this book from netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

I received an ARC of *Christmas with the Queen* through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

While the premise was intriguing, the execution fell a bit flat for me. As someone who loves the royal family, I was excited about the concept, but I struggled to fully immerse myself in the fictionalized conversations with the Queen—they felt a bit over the top at times. Olive, the main character, was frustrating, and her constant lack of communication made it difficult to connect with her journey.

I was also hoping for a stronger Christmas vibe, but it didn’t quite deliver the festive atmosphere I was expecting. Some sections of the book felt unnecessary and didn’t add much depth to the story or the characters. That said, if you enjoy royal family-themed fiction and don’t mind miscommunication tropes, this might still be worth a read.

#ChristmasWithTheQueen #NetGalley

This is a delightful look, although fictional, of Christmas with the Queen as told through characters that end up working for her. Olive and Jack are lifelong friends that have separated due for unforeseen circumstances. Life happens - marriages and births - until one day they are reunited while working with the Queen. It gives an intimate glimpse of what life was like in the monarchy in the early years of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, but it is also a story of perseverance and hope. Thanks to NetGalley for a beautiful story!

Although not my favorite Christmas novel this year, it was a lovely story about Queen Elizabeth, a reporter, the connection with a couple named Jack and Olive.

Absolutely loved this book! This book provides historical background about the new Queen Elizabeth and her challenges as she prepares for her first and future Christmas speech delivered over radio! It also tell the story of Jack grieving loss of his wife and how he becomes a chef for the Queen. Also the story of Olive, a young single mom, trying to make her mark on Journalism at BBC who gets some wonderful opportunities! She bumps into Jack who she had known years back! And will they rekindle their friendship, will secrets revealed, will she get a chance to report the stories she has developed?

This story kept me involved and made it hard to put down

This was a perfectly lovely read for the holiday season. It was a little predictable, but it was sweet and sentimental. I particularly enjoyed watching Olive’s relationship with Queen Elizabeth evolve over the years.

Thanks to NetGalley, William Morrow and the authors for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.