Hazel Gaynor – Novel PASTimes

On the eve of World War II, two sisters embark on a journey that changes everything.

William Morrow Paperbacks (July 27, 2021)

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In 1937 two estranged sisters are sent by their dying grandmother on a European trip to deliver messages to people from their grandmother’s past. I was transported to Paris, Venice, and Vienna through these pages. The authors are wonderful writers, highly skilled at drawing readers into the times and places they write about. The sisters travel on the Queen Mary, the Orient Express, and the Hindenburg, which indicated that the ending was going to be dramatic. But the inner journey each sister takes is more impactful. They learn what it means to be a family, even when the family looks different from what they imagined.

I liked the format, alternating between each sister’s point of view with a few chapters from their grandmother’s point of view as she waits for their return. The voices were distinct and effective at showing their different personalities and reactions to events. There is a love interest for each sister but the authors do not take the easy way out with either. The sisters do not instantly fall into a man’s arms because of the romantic setting, even though they are told many times it could happen. I love how talented, strong-willed, but not impulsive these characters are. This story explores the importance of relationships in the midst of challenges, dangers, misunderstandings, and mishaps. You’ll enjoy this one!

Review by Cindy Thomson, https://www.cindyswriting

Published October 2017 by William Morrow Paperbacks

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This story, told mostly as an epistolary novel, was so well done and so touching that I was completely engrossed by the characters of Evie and Thomas as they corresponded throughout the war. The letters are filled with humor and fun banter between childhood friends and as the war progresses they turn more serious at times and deep with soul-searching thoughts and ideas and finally with desperation. Sprinkled throughout we see the elderly Thomas in 1968, obviously without Evie but it isn’t until the end we understand why he’s come back to Paris to read all the letters they had exchanged plus a new one he doesn’t open until he finishes the wartime letters. The description of the agonies the characters endured plus their hopes and dreams feels so real as I imagine they were, although not usually spoken, for those who lived through those times.

I can imagine these two authors, quite successful as solo novelists, took on particular characters as the voices are as distinct as they would be with real people, and that is the strength of this novel, in my opinion. It’s a love story, but not just a love story. It’s filled with history, as we who love to read historical fiction look forward to when we open a book.

Highly recommended!

—Reviewed by Cindy Thomson