Happy Tuesday! Today I am tweaking the TTT prompt just a bit. I am listing books I have read whose titles include real cities. I have visited some of those places (5 in fact!), but others I have only traveled to in my imagination via the books listed. I love how many different genres and time periods are represented — I hope you find one to schedule your next trip to!
Christmas with The Queen by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb was the last book I read in 2025. I set for myself a goal of reading all the holiday-inspired novels during December. This historical fiction set in the first years of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign was the perfect ending to the season. There’s great historical detail, plausible fictional interactions between the Queen and Prince Phillip, and a satisfying second-chance-at-love relationship between the two main characters, Olive and Jack. There are even some characters who make cameo appearances from Gaynor and Webb’s previous books. I completely enjoyed my reading time spent in 1950s England, a time of optimism for the future and relief from the hard days of WWII. I think this book could be enjoyed at any time of the year, but was especially nice read in the days leading up to Christmas.
Recommended.
Audience: adults.
(I purchased this book from Amazon. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)
December 1952. While the young Queen Elizabeth II finds her feet as the new monarch, she must also find the right words to continue the tradition of her late father’s Christmas Day radio broadcast. But even traditions must evolve with the times, and the queen faces a postwar Britain hungry for change.
As preparations begin for the royal Christmas at Sandringham House in Norfolk, old friends—Jack Devereux and Olive Carter—are unexpectedly reunited by the occasion. Olive, a single mother and aspiring reporter at the BBC, leaps at the opportunity to cover the holiday celebration, but even a chance encounter with the queen doesn’t go as planned and Olive wonders if she will ever be taken seriously.
Jack, a recently widowed chef, reluctantly takes up a new role in the royal kitchens at Sandringham. Lacking in purpose and direction, Jack has abandoned his dream to have his own restaurant, but his talents are soon noticed and while he might not believe in himself, others do, and a chance encounter with an old friend helps to reignite the spark of his passion and ambition.
As Jack and Olive’s paths continue to cross over the following five Christmases, they grow ever closer. Yet Olive carries the burden of a heavy secret that threatens to destroy everything.
Christmas Day, December 1957. As the nation eagerly awaits the Queen’s first televised Christmas speech, there is one final gift for the Christmas season to deliver…
Hazel Gaynor is an award-winning, New York Times, USA Today, Irish Times and internationally bestselling author known for her deeply moving historical novels which explore the defining events of the 20th century. A debut author recipient of the 2015 RNA Historical Novel of the Year award, her work has since been shortlisted for the 2019 HWA Gold Crown Award, the 2020 RNA Awards, and the Irish Book Awards in 2017, 2020, 2023 and 2025. WHEN WE WERE YOUNG & BRAVE was a national bestseller in the USA and THE LAST LIFEBOAT was a Times of London historical novel of the month and a 2024 Audie winner for Best Fiction Narrator. Her co-written historical novels with Heather Webb have all been published to critical acclaim. Hazel’s latest novel, BEFORE DOROTHY, became a USA Today bestseller and is shortlisted for the 2025 Irish Book Awards. Her work has been translated into twenty languages and she is published in twenty-seven territories to date. She lives in Ireland with her family.
Heather Webb is the USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of eleven historical novels, including Queens of London, Strangers in the Night, The Next Ship Home, and Christmas with the Quenn. In 2015, Rodin’s Lover was a Goodread’s Top Pick, and in 2018, Last Christmas in Paris won the Women’s Fiction Writers Association STAR Award. In 2019, Meet Me in Monaco was selected as a finalist for the 2020 Goldsboro RNA award in the UK, as well as the Digital Book World’s Fiction prize. To date, Heather’s books have been translated to seventeen languages. Check her website for more details on release dates and book club visits.
Happy Tuesday. I am Christmas binge-reading right now, but I am also looking forward to some great reading in the months ahead. Today my TTTWinterTBR list contains a couple of Christmas books I hope to finish up before New Year’s, some book club reading, and some just because reading. I hope you find a book to pique your interest!
It’s Freebie time at Top 10 Tuesday! While the possibilities are endless, I decided to list the Christmas books (0r Christmas-adjacent) I am reading this month (and a couple I read during Thanksgiving week). I am in full Christmas spirit mode which is surprising for me because I am generally a Scrooge until mid-December. But I’ve already started shopping and I put the wreath on the door yesterday 😉 . The books have certainly jump-started the season for me. I hope you find a book to love!
Happy Tuesday! Today bloggers are featuring their favorite books with BIG page counts. In my youth, I was a big reader of chunksters. The longer the better. But my advanced age, limited free time, and reading deadlines keep me from choosing those mega-books. I know, I know — I am retired. But my husband’s retirement earlier in the year really impacts my reading time. LOL! So today I am going to highlight my favorites from the distant past and those books that qualify as BIG books that I have read more recently and enjoyed. I define a Big Book as 450+ pages.
For more bloggers’ favorites, please visit That Artsy Reader Girl.
Top Big Books!
Five from The Past
Bleak House by Charles Dickens (800+ pages)
Exodus by Leon Uris (500+ pages)
Poland by James Michener (600+ pages)
The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas (500+ pages)
Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd (900+ pages)
More Recently Read
Code Name Helene by Ariel Lawhon (450+ pages)
A Noble Calling by Rhona Weaver (450+ pages)
When We Were Young And Brave by Hazel Gaynor (450+ pages)
The Women by Kristin Hannah(450+ pages)
The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray (500+ pages)
This week the TTT theme has another throwback vibe — books that deserve a re-read. It is rare that I re-read a book — there are just so many other books vying for attention! Last week I shared my favorites from July 2015, so I thought I would pick those from the whole summer of 2015 that would be great to read again. 10 years is a long time in the reading world, so many of the books would be fresh again. I hope you find one to re-read or read for the first time!
Happy Tuesday! Today’s TTT prompt is Destination Titles (books with the names of places in their titles). I didn’t anticipate how quickly I could come up with 10 books! My list includes books with cities in the title. The cover art reps the cities as well. Take a close look at A Shadow in Moscow‘s cover! I have a variety of genres and time periods represented — I hope you find one to love!
I confess that I use “the Google” when reading. Mostly it occurs when I read historical novels, but it can strike at any time if there is something I just have to know or see. In the past few months I have looked up recipes for food that was mentioned in a book, dresses by a a famous dress designer, buildings/landmarks that books are set in and around, and characters that lived in real life. Sometimes I can stray down rabbit trails, but I eventually return to the book until another Google-fancy hits me. This week I am featuring the last 10 books that caused me to Google. I hope one piques your interest.
Happy Tuesday! Today’s TTT topic is titles that would make good newspaper headlines. I chose to turn the books featured today into titles of magazine articles also. Profuse apologies to the authors for this — you’ll see. 😉
Happy Tuesday! I have posted on this week’s topic, Bookish Jobs, before, so I am tweaking the topic again. 😉 Sometimes a character’s occupation is essential to the story line. If they hadn’t held these jobs, there would have been no story! I hope one of the books on my list piques your interest.
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