Published by Atria Books Genres: Adult Fiction, Contempory, Fiction, LGBT, Romance
Format: Hardcover
Who was the Great love of your life?
Such a wonderful, mesmerizing read that had a twist at the end that I did not see coming! What can I say, I loved it! An intelligent and engrossing look at fame and at what cost will one pay to achieve it? Evelyn Hugo reminded me of Elizabeth Taylor, and Zsa Zsa Gabor. Old Hollywood glamour.
Evelyn Hugo (Evelyn Elena Herrera) is ready and willing to tell her story about her glamorous Hollywood life and various marriages. But there is a catch, as there often is, as she wants Monique Grant, a fairly unknown magazine writer, to tell her story. Why? How does she even know Monique Grant and her writing? The hows and whys don’t matter as Monique wants and needs to do this story. Her husband, David has left her and she needs the piece to further her career.
Monique sits with Evelyn in her Upper East side apartment while Evelyn tells her how she went from living in Hell’s Kitchen to being one of the top paid actresses of her generation. She tells how she loved and lost, how she got to Hollywood, how she married and divorced, and how she rose to fame, how she lived a secret life. Evelyn is smart, witty, and determined. She has lived a full life and has gained a lot of wisdom and success. She is a flawed and like-able character as are most of the other characters in her life.
I do not want to give too much of this book away. What I will say is that it is well written and dripping with glamour. This book is so atmospheric and I could see the ladies dressed in their gowns at all the important award shows and after parties. Fame has a price, as they say, and Evelyn pays hers in this book. This is a story of one’s woman’s rise to fame but it is also a love story.
I’m so glad that I read this book – I almost didn’t. I have a lot of books I was asked to read for reviews and this one came from the library. I had it sitting on my table and knew it was coming due. I kept looking at it sitting there. I kept wondering..should I read this or not? Do I have time to read this? The answer was “No” but I though…maybe. I decided that I would read a few pages, if I liked it, I WOULD finish it, if not back to the library it would go. Needless to say I was hooked. This is my first book by Taylor Jenkins Reid but it will not be my last.