A review by courtneydoss
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

4.0

After hearing impressive things about Taylor Jenkins Reid, and particularly The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, I decided to put in a request for this book from my local library. The story of an old Hollywood starlet with a full, scandalous love life definitely sounded like something I wanted to read. However, the wait list for this particular book was six long weeks, and so I contented myself with Daisy Jones and The Six. My first impression of that book did not bode well for Evelyn Hugo, as I found it stuffy and hard to get into. I tried reading it on Kindle and again on Audio book before finally just scrapping the idea altogether. The fact that I stayed on the wait list for this book was merely out of sheer stubbornness and unwillingness to give up my place in the line after a few weeks. I'm glad that I gave this book a chance though, because I adored it.

Real life Old Hollywood was messy and Evelyn Hugo's fictional version draws upon the drama to tell a compelling story about love, growth, and self-acceptance. The story begins with young journalist Monique Grant finding herself requested by name for a super exclusive article featuring bombshell Evelyn Hugo. When she arrives, she discovers that it has all been a ruse. There is no article. Evelyn isn't interested in helping Monique's employer with an exclusive interview. Instead, she's offering Monique the chance of a lifetime to serve as her official biographer. Over the course of several days, Evelyn's private life is disclosed to Monique, and by the end Miss Hugo has no secrets left.

I think the thing that I loved the most about this book is vaguely spoilerish, so I won't detail it outright except below in a spoiler tag. However, I will say that this book opened up my mind to a whole other type of romance novel that I didn't know I needed so badly. I didn't know that they wrote stuff like this in a compelling, accessible way and I'm so thrilled to have found it. I recommend it highly.

SpoilerFor those of you who have read the book or who just genuinely don't care about spoilers, I absolutely ADORED the bisexual representation in this book. The romance between Celia St James and Evelyn Hugo was exactly what I wanted to read, and I'm super eager to find more bisexual representation in romance. The popularity of this book demonstrates the viability of lesbian and bisexual relationships within the romance genre, and I'm fucking stoked about it! I was also super impressed with the way it tackled the subject of biphobia within the straight and LGBTQIA+ communities. I love, love, loved this!