Book Review: The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo

Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Title: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Publisher: Atria Books
Publish Date: June 13, 2017
Buy: Amazon
Book Blurb: Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one in the journalism community is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?

Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband, David, has left her, and her career has stagnated. Regardless of why Evelyn has chosen her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s Upper East Side apartment, Monique listens as Evelyn unfurls her story: from making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the late 80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way. As Evelyn’s life unfolds through the decades—revealing a ruthless ambition, an unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love—Monique begins to feel a very a real connection to the actress. But as Evelyn’s story catches up with the present, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways

Review: The Seven Husband's Of Evelyn Hugo is probably one of the best books I've read all year. I went into it thinking that Evelyn Hugo was a character similar to Greta Garbo with the husband count similar to Elizabeth Taylor.

Monique is the writer Evelyn has chosen to write her biography. She's very much a secondary character though. This book is all about Evelyn, though we know that there's going to be something that links the star with her.

Evelyn's life is stunning, coming out of Hell's Kitchen to Hollywood and the men and the woman who made her who she was.

If you were expecting a super sexy book, that isn't what you get here, though Evelyn is definitely a woman whose career is made because she's a sex pot. Her greatest films are those that push the boundaries of the time.

What this book is about is her long abiding friendship with Harry Cameron and her long relationship with Celia St. James.

Ah Evelyn and Celia oh man. These two women had such ups and downs. As much as this book was about Evelyn and her husbands it is also about her sexuality, which at the time of her fame was not the norm. See Evelyn is bisexual. Those husband's she's loved or used or both all of them. Each one served a purpose in her life and her career.

She was an amazing character. I couldn't understand Monique's feelings for her at the end, before the big reveal. I really felt Evelyn was a character you really loved, even when she was doing unlovable things. She's selfish, ambitious and definitely one helluva woman.

For me the book ended when she finished her story. I know the connection between Evelyn and Monique needed to be made, but all I cared about was Evelyn. I also admit I cried for her and with her at several points in this book.

Rating: 5 flowers

Book Review: Forever, Interrupted

Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Title: Forever, Interrupted
Pubisher: Washington Square Press
Publish Date: July 9, 2013
Buy: Amazon

Review Copy Provided By: Net Galley
Book Blurb: 

“Have you ever heard of supernovas? They shine brighter than anything else in the sky and then fade out really quickly, a short burst of extraordinary energy. I like to think you and Ben were like that . . . in that short time, you had more passion than some people have in a lifetime.” Elsie Porter is an average twentysomething and yet what happens to her is anything but ordinary. On a rainy New Year’s Day, she heads out to pick up a pizza for one. She isn’t expecting to see anyone else in the shop, much less the adorable and charming Ben Ross. Their chemistry is instant and electric. Ben cannot even wait twenty-four hours before asking to see her again. Within weeks, the two are head over heels in love. By May, they’ve eloped.

Only nine days later, Ben is out riding his bike when he is hit by a truck and killed on impact. Elsie hears the sirens outside her apartment, but by the time she gets downstairs, he has already been whisked off to the emergency room. At the hospital, she must face Susan, the mother-in-law she has never met—and who doesn’t even know Elsie exists.

Interweaving Elsie and Ben’s charmed romance with Elsie and Susan’s healing process, Forever, Interrupted will remind you that there’s more than one way to find a happy ending.

Review: This book should come with a disclaimer, if you don't believe in love at first sight and you hate books that will ultimately depress you, proceed with caution.

I knew this wasn't going to be a shiny happy book, but lordy Elsie's lack of coping skills were enough to make me punch her...oh wait, that's something she did when a guy asked her to go for coffee shortly after her husband's death.

For me there is so much that drove me absolutely insane about this book. It left me feeling much like I did while reading One Day by David Nicholls. Though the books are very different the feelings I had about the characters was very much the same.

I didn't like them.

Nope...I didn't like any of them.

Elsie is wishy washy, and when it comes to coping...she really doesn't even try.

Ben...first of all, who rides their bike to go get a box of Fruity Pebbles? Actually who goes to the store just to buy a box of cereal? And while I'm being annoyed by Ben...how is he even real! His relationship with Elsie goes beyond the typical "love at first sight thing." Oh and you date someone for six months and then marry them, but you don't introduce them, or even mention them to your mother? WTF!

Then there's Elsie's parents..they are just unbelievably self-absorbed. When she calls to tell them about her husband or as they believe, her boyfriend's death, they were so callous.

Then there's Elsie's friend Ana. I liked her more after Ben's death than before.

The only character that I could remotely like was Ben's mother, Susan, but even she starts out bitchy and then comes to terms with what her son did, and decided to hang onto Elsie, because she's now family.

It is a terribly emotional read. I found myself putting the book down, because I needed a break from all the "feels" that this story brings with it.

The only feel good moment in the book is at the end when Elsie finally pulls it together and does a wonderful thing for the library she works at. I have to admit, I loved some of the bookish discussions she has with Ben. One of the cute quirks about Ben is prevalent in the thing she does with the insurance money.

It wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't a book that made me go wow! What it did do, was leave me emotionally drained.

Rating: 3 flowers