Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

December 16, 2021

Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

Evie, her brother Will and Will's friend Tom have been friends since childhood. When Will and Tom are shipped off to serve in France during World War I, Evie promises to write to both of them. Evie is a prolific letter writer, and she also writes to her BFF Alice. Both Alice and Evie want to do more for the war effort than knit socks for the soldiers (despite the protests of their families). Evie gets a job delivering mail and the dreaded telegrams to her community, and she also begins to write a column for the local newspaper about life on the home front and the hardships that the soldiers are enduring in France. Along the way, she and Tom realize that their feelings for each other are stronger than just friendship.

Told through letters between the characters, the book's themes focus on the roles of women during wartime, PTSD (or "shell shock" as it was called then), and the realities of trench warfare. I usually enjoy epistolary fiction (who doesn't like reading someone else's letters?), but this had a little too much romance for me and I found the storyline predictable. But romance readers will love it, especially if they like historical romances.

Epistolary fiction has been around for a long time. Dangerous Liaisons was one of the very early books written in this style. If you want to try another epistolary novel, try The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which is set during and just after World War II and is a much better book, IMHO.