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Synopsis:
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…
My Review:
5/5 stars. I loved everything about Last Christmas in Paris so much! I’m glad that my last novel of the year was such an amazing one. Everything was great: the letter format, the historical setting, the characters, the themes of writing and truth in journalism, and the swoon-worthy slow-burn romance and confessions of love that made me squeal. I went into this expecting a nice Christmas historical fiction, and it gave me so much more.
I loved both of the main characters, but Evie was my favorite. I loved her personality. I also loved that she wanted to be a journalist. Speaking of that, this book had a big theme about truth in journalism, not shying away from what is actually happening. I didn’t expect that to be a major element going in, but I’m glad that it was. As a journalist, that’s something very important to me.
This book had a big-reveal, plot-twist kind of moment. I figured it out before it was revealed, as soon as hints were being dropped. That’s not because it was way too obvious, but because there was good foreshadowing. The authors did a good job of sprinkling clues in, enough that readers could come to the correct conclusion on their own.
Last Christmas in Paris was very engaging, keeping me invested early on and all the way through. I read through it pretty quickly because I just had to keep reading to find out what would happen. It was mostly because of the slow burn romance. I could tell that they were both falling for each other, but I was itching for some actual confessions of love to happen. They would say things to and do things for each other, but never actually admit their feelings, and I wanted to scream. It took such a long time to get there.
Rated: Mild. Profanity includes one use of moderate language, around 10 instances of mild language, and a few uses of God’s name taken in vain. Kisses talked about but not described. Mention of a baby born out of wedlock, and “recklessness and passion” during the war, but nothing is shown. As for gore, for a book about war, it’s not very gory. There are lots of deaths and injuries talked about, but nothing is described in detail. There is a brief mention of alcohol abuse.
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