Last Christmas in Paris: A Novel of World War I
by Heather Webb and Hazel Gaynor
Publication Date: October 3, 2017 William Morrow Paperbacks
Paperback & eBook; 384 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
New York Times bestselling author Hazel Gaynor has joined with Heather Webb to create this unforgettably romantic novel of the Great War.
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…
Praise for Last Christmas in Paris
“Beautifully told…the authors fully capture the characters’ voices as each person is dramatically shaped by the war to end all wars.”—Booklist
“For fans of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society comes another terrific epistolary historical novel that is simply unputdownable […] this remarkable novel will undoubtedly go on my keeper shelf.” —Karen White, New York Times bestselling author of The Night the Lights Went Out
“Humor, love, tragedy, and hope make for a moving, uplifting read. A winner!” —Kate Quinn, author of The Alice Network
“An extraordinary epistolary novel that explores the history and aftermath of the Great War in a sensitive, memorable and profoundly moving fashion. A book to savor, to share and discuss with friends, and above all to cherish.” —Jennifer Robson, international bestselling author of Goodnight from London
“There is a special talent to writing the epistolary novel and Gaynor and Webb have mastered it. Letter by letter, the complex lives of Evie and Thomas unfold as WWI wages on, bringing with it the heartbreaking news of physical and emotional casualties. And yet, in the midst of such sacrifices, an ever-deepening love surfaces, finding a unique way to live on in this devastatingly beautiful work of historical fiction.”—Renee Rosen, author of Windy City Blues
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Review:
"The Last Christmas in Paris: A Novel of World War I" by Hazel
Gaynor and Heather Webb is a beautifully written story of love, loss and hope
during wartime. It's written mostly in letters and has a Downton Abbey
feel to it.
Ms. Webb and Ms. Gaynor give such a beautiful and moving portrayal of how
war affects every aspect of one's life. They show this through the
letters of a few young people. In the beginning of the war, the letters
are full of excitement, a sense of adventure, pride and thoughts that the war
won't last long. As one can imagine, the letters and the people in the
letters change as the war gets more serious, moves closer to home and becomes a
lot longer than everyone had anticipated. The characters have to share
and communicate everything through these letters (and sometimes
telegrams)--they didn't have our modern technology. Parts of the letters
in the book are blacked out--showing how even the letters are censored.
The large newspapers will show only the happy side of war and newspapers
get in trouble and are censored for showing the truth. This fact
made me really angry, as it does to Evie (one of our main characters), who
takes up writing for one of the newspapers. There is such a contrast
between the women's lives at home and what is actually happening on the front
(as told by Evie's brother, Will, and his best friend, Thomas). We see
the war through the eyes of this trio. Their emotions go from enthusiasm,
to denial, to despair, and eventually to hope (and love makes its way in there
too).
I fell in love with the characters in this story, especially Evie and
Thomas. I went through all the emotions they went through. At
times, it was so heavy that I had to take a break from the book. But it's
such a great story, that I still really wanted to know what happened to these characters
and couldn't stop thinking about them, even when I wasn't reading. I love
how Evie and Thomas become closer through letter writing and are able to say
things that they wouldn't be able to say in person. Letters and the
written word are so powerful. This is also shown through Evie's column
that she writes for the war effort and the amazing response she gets.
There are so many great themes in this books and important topics that are
covered. This is not a light read, but it is so moving and
beautiful. At times it is heart wrenching and I almost started crying
(which I don’t often do with books). My heart was on my sleeve as I
approached the ending–and it did not disappoint! I will certainly look at
Christmas differently this year and will be thankful for peace, family and the
opportunity to celebrate in freedom!
Content: I give this novel a PG-13 rating.
There is the use of minor swear words. The Lord's name is taken in
vain. There is the mention of how women are treated on the war front and
talk of prostitutes. There is a man with PTSD. A child is born out
of wedlock.
Rating: I give this book 4 stars.
I want to thank Heather Webb, Hazel Gaynor, Historical Fiction
Virtual Book Tours, William Morrow Publishers and Harper Collins Publishers for
the complimentary copies of this book for review. I was not required to write a
positive review. The opinions I express in this review are my own. This is in
accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s CFR
16, Part 255.
Me: I want to give a warm welcome to
Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb! I’m so excited to chat with you about your
newest book “Last Christmas in Paris: A Novel of World War I.”
Me: I really enjoyed the writing
style in this book. It was hard to think that two different people wrote
it. How did you write it with two different authors? Did you break
it up in some way or appoint who wrote what section?
Heather
and Hazel:
Thank
you! We really liked the way writing letters felt authentic to the times—it’s
exactly how the characters would have communicated then and this played a big
role in why we chose the epistolary format. Hazel would wake up in Ireland
(fiver hours ahead of Heather) and pen a letter or two from her character.
Several hours later, Heather would wake in the U.S. to find mail in her inbox,
and write a reply from her character, and so on. We’ve often described it as
waking up to a writing prompt each day. The process felt very organic, and the
story flowed. Editing, on the other hand, was a more tricky operation. We used
comment bubbles and colored fonts to track our changes, and somehow, with
plenty of Skype chats and coffee, it all came together.
We each took a character to start for the drafting phase. For
subsequent drafts, we each touched every single page and helped shape the
characters together.
Me:
You are from
two different countries, correct? Was it hard to write a novel being such
a long distance away from each other? What was that experience like?
Heather and Hazel: Having a writing partner requires a lot of trust and commitment,
navigating the pressures of individual writing projects, and the demands of
kids and family. Often, one of us would contact the other to explain a delay
because the kids were sick, or the heating was broken, or some other crisis got
in the way. Skype chats and Google Hangouts became weekly powwows to flesh out
plot snags and character arcs. But w-e really loved it! We had an absolute
blast working together.
Me:
What do you
hope readers take away from this book?
Heather
and Hazel: We hope readers take away the message that regardless of
circumstance, there is always hope and love in the darkest moments. We aimed to
portray a different, more personal view of a well-known event, and really
wanted to pull the readers outside of their own world into Tom and Evie’s.
Finally, we fell in love with writing letters all over again; the beautiful
paper and pens, the time it takes to craft something heartfelt. We hope readers
will send a few more hand-written cards this year and onward.
Me:
What did
your research for the novel entail?
Heather
and Hazel: In writing Last Christmas in Paris, we
wanted to explore some of the less well-known aspects of war: life in England,
the mental scars as well as physical, the role of women in the war, and the
Spanish Flu epidemic which struck just as the war was ending. To have access to
historical records, museums and recently discovered letters to and from the
Front drew us closer and closer to those very ordinary people caught up in this
devastating event.
Hazel: While
researching my short story ‘Hush’ for Fall of Poppies, I became drawn into the
stories of those left behind at home, as well as the better known stories of
the soldiers in the trenches. Research for Last Christmas in Paris included
plenty of trips to libraries and museums, reading a lot of historical accounts
of the war, biographies and memoirs of those who had been involved, factual
accounts of women on the home front, and a lot of primary source material
documented in collections of letters sent from the Front to loved ones at home.
Newspapers from the era were also crucial in gaining an understanding of how
the war was reported.
Heather: My
research into the Great War also began with my short story “Hour of the
Bells” in which a woman who was German-born married a Frenchman and had to
face an uncertain future with his death. I continued that research for Last
Christmas in Paris as mentioned above, in libraries, an extensive trip to
the Imperial War Museum in London, the Smithsonian in Washington D.C., and
more. As a reader and a novelist, I enjoy those little gems of information that
authors weave into the narrative so I sought those out, losing myself down the
rabbit of hole of unusual books and artifacts. I wanted to get as close to an
authentic feel for how a soldier would live and cope with such horror as
possible. I dug into a cook’s recipe book from the Front--amazing what they
ate!--The Wiper Times, a satirical periodical that circulated among the
troops, many archived letters, and so much more. My father is a retired U.S.
colonel with a deep understanding of war logistics so he was a tremendous
resource as well.
Me:
What was
something that you came across in your research that surprised you or that you
didn’t know before?
Heather
and Hazel: We
were surprised by how varied women’s roles were, including the Women’s
Auxiliary Core and their involvement in all sorts of war-related roles, but the
main thing that surprised us was how efficient and quickly letters moved to and
from the Front. Often, it was a matter of only two days of turn-around time.
Tens of thousands of workers joined the postal service to help with these
efforts. The letters were too important for both the soldiers’ morale and the
morale of those at home, and the War Office really understood this.
Me:
Did either
of you cry while writing this book? I know I sure came close to tears
several times! What a moving story!
Heather and Hazel: We laughed, and cried, a lot along the way! This was an emotional
book in so many ways and to experience that emotion with someone else really
made it very visceral and quite special.
Me:
Thanks so
much for taking the time to answer my questions!
About the Authors
HEATHER WEBB is the author of historical novels Becoming Josephine and Rodin’s Lover, and the anthology Fall of Poppies, which have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan, Elle, France Magazine, and more, as well as received national starred reviews. RODIN’S LOVER was a Goodreads Top Pick in 2015. Up and coming, Last Christmas in Paris, an epistolary love story set during WWI will release October 3, 2017, and The Phantom’s Apprentice, a re-imagining of the Gothic classic Phantom of the Opera from Christine Daae’s point of view releases February 6, 2018. To date, her novels have sold in ten countries. Heather is also a professional freelance editor, foodie, and travel fiend.
HAZEL GAYNOR is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of A Memory of Violets and The Girl Who Came Home, for which she received the 2015 RNA Historical Novel of the Year award. Her third novel The Girl from the Savoy was an Irish Times and Globe & Mail Canada bestseller, and was shortlisted for the BGE Irish Book Awards Popular Fiction Book of the Year. The Cottingley Secret and Last Christmas in Paris will be published in 2017.Hazel was selected by US Library Journal as one of ‘Ten Big Breakout Authors’ for 2015 and her work has been translated into several languages. Originally from Yorkshire, England, Hazel now lives in Ireland.
Blog Tour Schedule
Monday, September 25Review at 100 Pages a Day
Review at Books of All Kinds
Tuesday, September 26 Review at The Lit Bitch
Wednesday, September 27 Review at Just One More Chapter
Review at History From a Woman’s Perspective
Thursday, September 28 Review at So Many Books, So Little Time
Monday, October 2 Review at Let Them Read Books
Tuesday, October 3 Spotlight at Passages to the Past
Wednesday, October 4 Review at A Literary Vacation
Friday, October 6 Review at Library Educated
Monday, October 9 Review at A Bookish Affair
Review at Suzy Approved Books
Tuesday, October 10 Interview at A Bookish Affair
Thursday, October 12 Review at Creating Herstory
Friday, October 13 Review at Pursuing Stacie
Monday, October 16 Review at Curling up by the Fire
Tuesday, October 17 Review at Faery Tales Are Real
Wednesday, October 18 Review at The Maiden’s Court
Interview at Faery Tales Are Real
Thursday, October 19 Review at A Holland Reads
Friday, October 20 Review at CelticLady’s Reviews
Giveaway
During the Blog Tour we will be giving away 2 copies of Last Christmas in Paris! To enter, please enter via the Gleam form below.Giveaway Rules
– Giveaway ends at 11:59pm EST on October 20th. You must be 18 or older to enter.
– Giveaway is open to residents in the US & Canada only.
– Only one entry per household.
– All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspect of fraud is decided upon by blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion.
– Winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.
Direct Link for giveaway: https://gleam.io/JyNQh/last-
