When journalist Monique is chosen by the reclusive actress Evelyn Hugo to be her biographer, she has no clue why she was the one chosen – or about the tragic intersection of their lives.
I feel like Contrary Mary here to say that I thought a generally universally acclaimed book was just fine, but I’m going to be brave and go ahead and say it: It was fine. Maybe I had too high expectations after reading the rest of the Reidverse books and all those rave reviews.
It’s a fascinating story, of course. It’s glamorous, dramatic Hollywood – how could it not be? Evelyn’s life is a colorful one, and I enjoyed picking out possible influences on her character and story – Monroe, Taylor, Heyworth? I liked how she portrays herself in as honest a light as she can, warts and all, and how Monique picks up some of her go-getter nature over the course of the story. It was also fun to see how Evelyn plays the media, and the gaps between perception and reality.
But maybe because I’ve seen how Jenkins Reid can write in her later books, I did feel underwhelmed by this one. I enjoyed the story and the romance between Evelyn and Celia, but maybe because of how the story is structured, with Evelyn already having done all her growing by the time we meet her, I did not feel like we really got into everyone’s lives the way we did in other Reidverse books.
Celia and Harry and Connor and the eponymous husbands – while all interesting, I wished we could have gotten closer to them and seen them clearer. Harry and Connor especially, because Evelyn is almost completely uncritical in how she treats them, and so we never really get a fully rounded image. I also thought the discussion of race was a little flat here, and wished the author had dug more into it, especially in Evelyn’s case.