Hazel Gaynor & Heather Webb – Three Words For Goodbye

‘Three Words for Goodbye’ by Hazel Gaynor & Heather Webb is a historical fiction book. Set in the pre-WWII time period of 1937, it follows the story of Clara and Maddie, two sisters who were very close as children but had grown apart while finding their own ways in the world as adults.

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After not speaking for a year, Clara and Maddie are sent on the European trip by their dying grandmother who requests they deliver three letters, her goodbyes, to certain people. From Paris, Venice and then finally to Vienna where the ugly Nazi foothold is already underway, Clara and Maddie embark on a journey that will teach them about their grandmother and show them how to actually be sisters.

The characters are so realistic and the settings are so opulent, they travel on the Queen Mary and the Orient Express and return home via the Hindenburg. I felt I was on their journey with them. Maddie wishes to be a journalist, with Nellie Bly being a friend of the family as well it is almost like she wants to follow in her footsteps. Clara on the other hand is beginning to doubt if the future she envisaged with Charles is what she truly wants. This journey is the time for them to come together as sisters as they go around Europe delivering the letters that hold family secrets that have been kept hidden.

I have never read anything by any of these authors and am kicking myself for missing out. This is a historical fiction novel that does show us the unrest and growing concern within Europe of the Nazi’s growth, but the focus is on our characters and what they are going through. I love Historical fiction and this story fulfilled the history geek in me while being a character-driven story that kept me in the sister’s world from start to finish.

With realistic and engaging characters, gorgeous settings and opulent ships and trains that they travel on this is an escapist read that even gives us a touch of romance to top this book off. I loved being transported to wherever the sisters went in Europe and my time on the Orient Express was second to none!

Thank you to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours and William Morrow Paperbacks for my gifted copy of this book.