Last Christmas in Paris A novel of World War I

Gaynor (The Cottingley Secret, 2017) and Webb's (Rodin's Lover, 2015) first collaboration is beautifully told through the letters between Evie Elliot, her friend Alice, her brother, Will, and his best friend, Thomas, during the Great War. Will and Thomas enlist as British officers in the fall of 1914, hoping the conflict will end quickly and they will all spend Christmas together in Paris. Instead, four years pass, and though Evie, Alice, Will, and Thomas are torn apart by war, their correspondence brings them together and two childhood friends discover they have been in love their entire lives. Beyond this romantic narrative, Gaynor and Webb use the characters' letters to convey the many perspectives of war. Evie represents the women left behind, feeling helpless at home, while Alice works as a nurse on the front lines, and Will and Thomas are in the trenches, battling the physical and psychological effects of combat. With the epistolary form, the authors fully capture the characters' voices as each person is dramatically shaped by the war to end all wars.--Norstedt, Melissa Copyright 2017 Booklist

An elderly Thomas Harding's Christmas visit to Paris in 1968 alternates with an epistolary novel that begins in September 1914 at the beginning of World War I with Thomas writing to inform his father that he's joined the British Army along with his best friend Will Elliott. Will's sister, Evie, begins corresponding with Will and Tom when they head to the battlefield in France. As hardships on the war front and back home play out through the letters, Evie is faced with difficult choices about pursuing her writing, helping with the war effort, and figuring out who she really loves. VERDICT 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 that will attract admirers of World War I fiction and the collection Fall of Poppies: Stories of Love and the Great War. [See Prepub Alert, 4/10/17.] © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.