The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo ~ Taylor Jenkins Reid
I knew very little going into this book other than the fact that I had seen lots of people raving about it in their top reads of 2018. So, I committed. I bought the book on my kindle, a book I knew would be slightly out of my reading comfort zone. Now having just finished it today I am more than glad that I did commit because it have easily taken a place in my top ten! Maybe even my top five 😱
The title is rather self explanatory with the story revolving around Cuban-American glam Hollywood actress Evelyn Hugo and her myriad of husbands through her somewhat scandalous career. However don’t be fooled, like myself, this book is entirely fictitious but written with such intricate detail that I googled more than once just to check whether Miss Hugo was real or not.
The story focuses on Hugo in her later years as she is retelling her life story to Monique Grant, a magazine reporter. Hugo chose Monique, who is going through her own divorce at the time, to not only write a cover piece and interview in the magazine she works for. Hugo’s first interview in decades. But also the chance to write her life biography which could earn Monique thousands.
Hugo has lost everyone she has ever loved along the way and now feels she can finally tell the truth because there is no one left to hurt with her tales. For some reason she chose Monique, a small magazine writer, to have the chance to write the tell all life story that the whole world has never heard but always wanted to know. However, What Monique can’t fathom out is why her? Why now? But as the story unfolds and travels through the decades, 7 parts for 7 husbands, we soon see that everything is not as it once seemed. With so many twists and turns and sordid secrets revealed along the way, I couldn’t help but just keep reading. I became so attached to these multi faceted characters and just how raw they were that I couldn’t help but shed a tear from time to time.
This book is full of passion, forbidden love, hidden abuse, the suppression of women in the movie industry and so much more. It’s one woman’s truly honest story about what she did to survive. After being put on a pedestal all her life this is Evelyn asking to finally be humanised and for people to know that what she did was wrong but that she’d do it all again in a heartbeat if it meant protecting the ones she loves.
Overall, I absolutely bloody loved this book and would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone. It was beautifully raw from cover to cover and that why it’s getting a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me.
Favourite Quote: “I know the whole world prefers a woman who doesn’t know her power, but I’m sick of all that.”
M 🌸
