-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
Summary | Discuss | Reviews | More Information | Read-Alikes
An Unforgettable Holiday Romance Set Across the Four Christmases of WWI
by Hazel Gaynor
An unforgettably romantic novel that spans four Christmases (1914-1918), Last Christmas in Paris explores the ruins of war, the strength of love, and the enduring hope of the Christmas season.
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…
What’s your favorite epistolary novel?
Last Christmas in Paris by Heather Webb and Hazel Gaynor, and Dracula by Bram Stoker. I can't believe I had never read Dracula before this fall.
-Cheri_Mcelroy
Book Suggestions - Ones I LOVED
Don't miss these books: THE CHAMPAGNE LETTERS by Kate Macintosh THE FRENCH WINEMAKER'S DAUGHTER by Loretta Ellsworth - FABULOUS READ THE SUNFLOWER HOUSE by Adriana Allegri CHRISTMAS WITH THE QUEEN by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb THE MEMORY DRESS by Jade Beer LAST TWILIGHT IN PARIS by Pam Jenoff ...
-Elizabeth
"Best-selling author Gaynor (A Memory of Violets) teams with historical novelist Webb (Rodin's Lover) to pen a moving and heartfelt story of love and bravery [...]" ―Library Journal (starred review)
"Gaynor and Webb's first collaboration is beautifully told [...] the authors fully capture the characters' voices as each person is dramatically shaped by the war to end all wars." ―Booklist
"Last Christmas in Paris is 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 and Somewhere in France
"Humor, love, tragedy, and hope make for a moving, uplifting read. A winner!" ―Kate Quinn, author of The Alice Network
This information about Last Christmas in Paris was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
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.
If you liked Last Christmas in Paris, try these:
by Ann Packer
Published 2026
The bestselling, beloved author returns with her first novel in over a decade, an intimate and profoundly moving look at a long marriage and the ways in which a startling request can change a couple's understanding of who they are, together and apart.
by Alice Winn
Published 2024
Winner: BookBrowse Debut Book Award 2023
A haunting, virtuosic debut novel about two young men who fall in love during World War I.
by Francesca Hornak
Published 2018
A warm, wry, sharply observed debut novel about what happens when a family is forced to spend a week together in quarantine over the holidays...
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from…or why…
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
