Note: Thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow Paperbacks, and authors Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

Christmas With the Queen is a charming book that is a lot of fun, while at the same time showing just how hard society was on women who wanted a career following World War II. It was a time of change in England as Queen Elizabeth ascended to the throne, while at the same time, widespread misogyny in society marginalized the women who wanted to keep working outside of the home.

Olive Carter is a single mother who has worked in the BBC typing pool for several years but has ambitions to do much more. An opportunity opens up to work on a story on the Queen’s first Christmas radio broadcast after having ascended the throne following the death of her father. Olive looks at it from a bit of a different angle, rather than the traditional report the male correspondents have made.

Meanwhile, Jack Devereaux, an American sailor and chef who married a British girl and settled in London, is facing the holiday season alone for the first time after a tragic accident kills his beloved wife, Andrea. They had plans to one day open their own restaurant together, but Jack is paralyzed with grief. A friend had arranged for him to start working in the kitchen at the Queen’s Sandringham estate for the holidays, but he’s reluctant to get on with his life. His friends bring him to Norfolk for the holidays, and they convince him to go to work at Sandringham.

Olive and Jack knew each other following the end of World War II. They were part of a group of friends that formed in the celebration of VE Day. Over the years, they lost track of each other but met up again at Sandringham.

Christmas With the Queen follows Olive, Jack, and Queen Elizabeth through the early years of her reign as their lives continually intersect, usually at Christmas. The Queen and Olive form a bit of a bond as Olive coaches her on her speeches. They are both females in male-dominated worlds. Jack’s distinctive cooking style gets him a job on the Palace’s staff as a chef, and he and Olive manage to renew their friendship. Could it be more than that?

If you enjoyed the series The Crown, I think you’ll enjoy Christmas With the Queen. The story humanizes Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip, and their family in a holiday setting. She’s the Queen of England but she is nervous about the changing times and doubts herself as much as anyone. The story follows her Christmas message from when she first takes the throne until the first television broadcast of the message. She thinks of her own father and what he had to overcome with his speech impediment as she works to blend tradition and progress.

At the same time, Jack and Olive’s tepid romance gave me something to root for. I’m not a huge fan of romances, but this was sweet without being saccharine. They are both people I could root for. Olive has a secret she has managed to keep from just about everyone, but she’s still very sympathetic. We all make decisions in our lives based on the circumstances at that time, and in hindsight, it’s not always the right one. Jack and Olive arent’ good at communication, and their lives seem to keep throwing them together until they get it right.

If you’re looking for a fun, lighthearted Christmas romance, you can’t go wrong with Christmas With the Queen. The authors did a great job with the setting as well as the story itself. It’s hard to believe that this was seventy years ago now, and the time before television will be alien to many of today’s readers. The historical setting is depicted very well, and I could picture what it must have been like in those years.