Review: Christmas with the Queen

Christmas with the Queen by Hazel Gaynor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

Jack had always been there, and yet, our timing had always been wrong. 

Taking place in 1952 England, Christmas with the Queen was the story of Olive, a single mother aspiring to work her way up to reporter in the BBC and Jack, an American who after WWII, left the Navy and stayed in London. The story starts off with a point-of-view from a young Queen Elizabeth II as she gets ready to spend her first Christmas in charge at Sandringham. There's a handful of povs from the Queen throughout the story and while I can see the attraction of having a real historical figure help ground a historical fiction story in time, it felt a little off to me to read a first person narrative from such a known figure to current generations. 

The two main povs are from Olive and Jack, switching off and on. Readers learn early on that Olive is lying about losing her husband in the war, she was never married but the times call for the lie. She lives at home with her parents helping her care for her daughter Lucy. Jack comes onto the pages happy with getting an opportunity to work in the royal kitchens at Sandringham, an opportunity his wife pushed him to take. Tragedy strikes early though and Jack finds himself a widow and reluctantly still taking the royal chef job. With a little luck and ambition, Olive gets the opportunity to cover the Christmas celebrations at Sandringham for the BBC and there she begins a yearly friendship with the queen and runs into Jack. We then get some flashback povs and learn these two knew each other seven years ago and that Olive is shaken up when she sees him again. 

If you're looking for a story with holiday feels, this has that as most of the story takes place in the month December, jumping to the month, spanning five years as Olive and Jack find themselves separated by circumstance, Olive trying to get promoted at the BBC, Jack busy as a chef and working towards his goal of opening his own restaurant, until they come together by luck each year at Sandringham and a royal Christmas tour. 

Around 35% a secret Olive is hiding (it's pretty obvious what it is) gets revealed to readers and I can see quite a few getting frustrated and irritated with Olive's inability and weakness at telling the person who needs to know. The authors tried to make it understandable why she delays so much, but, especially towards the end, she really had no excuse, and the relationship she tries to get going with a secondary character really did nothing for the story, for me anyway. This was more historical fiction with slice of life, the romance between Olive and Jack doesn't really get going until the last 20% and then we get a, very understandable, third act breakup with Jack having to get over his anger at Olive. 

A softer, there is some grief emotion with Jack learning to live with widowhood and Olive dealing with sexism in society and work, historical fiction that December hops for five years while Olive and Jack's lives bring them apart and together, with appearances by Queen Elizabeth II and some Easter egg characters from the authors' other books.

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