The Last Lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor

July 1, 2023

The Last Lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor

Alice King is a teacher and librarian who lives a sheltered life with her mother in Kent, while her younger sister lives a much more glamorous life in London, working for an MP. Alice longs to do something to help the war effort but isn't sure what she can contribute, until she hears about the need for escorts to accompany English children being evacuated to other British Commonwealth countries. She is accepted as an escort and looks forward to finally having an adventure. In London, war widow Lily Nichols agonizes over whether to evacuate her children, and decides to trust the government and send her children on one of the evacuation ships. But disaster strikes a few days into the voyage, and the two women along with Alice's sister Kitty fight to save the evacuated children.

Based on the true story of the SS City of Benares, part of Operation Pied Piper, the British government's plan to evacuate English children for the duration of the war. If you know the story of the Pied Piper, it would be hard to imagine a more ill-omened name for the project. The SS City of Benares was part of a fleet traveling from Britain to Canada and back. The convoy was torpedoed by a German U-boat in September 1940 after their military escort turned back toward Britain. The City of Benares sank, and 35 people including a number of children spent a week in a lifeboat before being rescued. Well-researched historical fiction, highly recommended.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

One of the lifeboats from the SS City of Benares

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.