Anchored Musings

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year – Ally Carter

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year – 5/5 ✩

Ally Carter never misses! The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year is about Maggie Chase and Ethan Wyatt, two rival writers who both accept a cryptic invitation to a Christmas party at the home of a reclusive fan. Little do they know, the world’s most famous mystery writer Eleanor Ashley is the party’s host. When Eleanor goes missing, Maggie and Ethan must team up to see if they can find the famous writer and make it back to the States in one piece. And, of course, it wouldn’t be an Ally Carter novel without some romance sprinkled in there.

If you’re looking for a feel good, fast-paced novel that will you leave you laughing at every turn and falling for a couple that feels real on the page in front of you, this is the book for you! I couldn’t have loved it more!

I might be biased here because Ally has been one of my favorite authors since I was a kid, but she really, truly never misses. She’s absolutely hilarious and knows how to immediately draw you into her stories. Ally introduces and teases things at the perfect moments, reeling you further and further in until you’re about the teeter off a cliff, but before you do, she pulls you back just in time to reveal the answers you’ve been craving.

She also knows how to write banter better than any other author I’ve read. Her characters’ dialogue never feels forced or awkward; it’s very real and very funny. You can’t help but love her characters and fall deeper and deeper in love with the enemies-to-lovers trope the more you read.

Her characters are dynamic and 3D on the page; Maggie and Ethan both are realistic characters with very real pasts that haunt them and eventually bring them closer and closer together. Maggie’s experience with her ex-husband has crafted her into the woman we see in the novel; she is a woman who has been gaslighted over and over, morphing her into someone who questions herself at every turn. Meanwhile, Ethan’s past with his family and his accident have shaped him; he is headstrong and caring, willing to do anything he can to protect the people he loves.

Throughout the novel, we see these two collide and begin to grow together, transforming Maggie into someone who can see and embrace confidence in herself and Ethan into someone who is able to grow with someone else and support someone else, helping him grow in turn. They both compliment each other so well, and together, they’re able to speak their minds and create a future together that would be unthinkable with anyone but each other. (Plus, Ethan is the definition of a golden retriever boyfriend and I couldn’t have loved him more for it).

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers for the Advance Reader’s e-proof of The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year! I can’t wait to get a hard copy of the novel once it’s released!

The Happy Place Effect

Some books make you feel. Other books REALLY make you feel.

I had a bad week this week and to try to pull myself out of it, I picked up Happy Place by Emily Henry.

Happy Place was one of my favorite reads from 2023 and I’ve been wanting to reread it since. The story felt so real and raw and vivid and it really made me feel all the emotions last year. I knew that rereading it would elicit those same emotions and I hoped that it would help me to get my emotions flowing and get me back into my usual frame of mind.

And reading it this time… it REALLY got me thinking.

Firstly, what is my happy place? I have many things and many places that make me happy, but I don’t know if I know what MY Happy Place is yet. And I think that’s okay.

I spend a lot of time in my head. I grew up as an introverted only child, which means I grew accustomed to time spent in my own head. I know how to make myself happy, I know how to entertain myself on long bus rides, train rides, and flights, and I thrive being on my own.

But that’s not to say I always want to be on my own. Just because I’m good at it, doesn’t mean that I always want it. And the older I get, the more I realize that I actually might not be as good at it as I think I am. I crave relationships with others and I so deeply value the ones that I have. The people I surround myself with are people who I have chosen from the billions of people in this world to call mine. We share similar values, we have fun together, we can depend on each other.

I also crave a partnership with someone else. I love love, I am a romantic at heart, and I truly can’t wait for the day that I settle down with a man I love and we create a life together.

Now that I’m older, I find that when I fall into bad moods or bad frames of mind, I have a more difficult time pulling myself out of them than I did when I was young. When I was a kid, I feel like I could just flip a switch and my good mood was back. If that didn’t work, I listened to Chris Brochu’s music and my good mood came back swingin’. But now, it’s not that easy.

This week was one of those weeks. Out of nowhere, it felt like my world was crashing down and no matter how hard I tried to pull myself out, I sunk further and further down. I’ve noticed this happen in the last few months too and my new philosophy is this: don’t try to pull myself out.

This might not work for everybody, and I realize this, but the more that I try to pull myself out, the more pressure I put on myself to feel better, the WORSE I feel when I can’t do it. Having that amount of pressure on my shoulders sets me up to fail.

Instead, I let myself feel. I let the emotions course through me and I remind myself that they will pass. The desire for them to pass remains like it would in the previous scenario, but the pressure is alleviated and it allows for my emotions to pass more quickly.

Going about it in this way will sometimes allow me to sit up, look around me, and realize the emotions have passed without even having realized it.

But to circle back to my first point – about doing well on my own – I’m realizing that that also might be hurting my relationships.

I’ve been seeing someone for the last few months and if you’d asked me before I picked up Happy Place, I would have said that things are going great. I would have told you that he’s an amazing guy. He’s caring, he’s thoughtful, he’s supportive, he’s everything you’d want in a partner. But I would also say that we have a lot left to learn about each other. That there are a lot of conversations left for us to have, a lot of room for us to grow and decisions to be made about where we see our future going. If you’d asked me before I reread Happy Place, I’d have said I had no worries about those conversations.

But now, I’m feeling a little bit like I’m on shaky ground. It’s nothing that he’s done, it’s nothing that he’s said, it’s ALL in my own head.

Happy Place is about a woman named Harriet who has recently broken up with her ex-fiancé Wyn. Harriet and Wyn met through their close-knit friend group and had been together nearly a decade before breaking up. When the friends go on their annual vacation, Harriet and Wyn still haven’t told their friends they’ve broken up and the story explores the complexities of friendships, relationships, love, loss, growing up, and what it means to find your happy place.

It takes Harriet almost the entirety of the novel to see that she’s grown apart from her friends. To understand exactly why she and Wyn broke up. In the end, it boiled down to the fact that she was trying so hard to be the one who had it all together. To be the one who didn’t put a burden on her friends. To be the rock when Wyn couldn’t. When it came to the important things – like picking a wedding date and grieving – Harriet pushed it all away, to let everyone else feel their emotions. To be supportive, never needy. To be the chill one. To always be the one who was okay. To never ask things of other people.

I saw myself in her. I don’t think these are bad qualities, but I think the circumstances in which she was exhibiting these qualities is important and it stung a little bit, seeing myself in her. I don’t want to be that person. I loved Harriet; she was witty, she was kind, she was lovely, but these are qualities in her that I do not want to share under these circumstances.

I’ve had a little bit of a fear inside me these last few months that maybe he doesn’t know how much I care. I have worked so, very hard to be chill in this relationship. I have worked to be the go-with-the-flow type of girl, when I am, in fact, not that girl.

I desperately want to be that girl, so I’m not saying this so it seems that I’m giving him a false version of myself. It’s just that in the past, I have been the complete opposite. I have had the desire to hold control in any way I can. I have wanted to talk 24/7. I have wanted to be together 24/7. And I genuinely do not want that now. I want someone who I care about and who cares about me. Who wants to see me and spend time with me, but doesn’t need for it to be constant. Someone who can create a life with me while we both still maintain our own separate ones as well.

I am trying so hard to do this that I fear I may have missed the mark completely. In trying to change how I’ve behaved in the past, I fear that I could have hidden the fact that I really do care.

I try to allow plans to come up organically, I tend to let him ask me to hang out or let him pick what we do, and honestly, not only is that probably difficult for him, it also, in no way, shows that I care about those things too.

Even though I don’t want to be picking everything and planning everything, I think I should be showing a little bit more initiative as well.

I don’t want there to be a lapse in communication on my end like there was on Harriet’s. As much as I know I’m every bit deserving of hearing that I’m missed or that he wants to make plans, he deserves those things too. And I think a part of me knew this, deep down, before rereading Happy Place, but this book really drove the point home.

Ultimately, Happy Place did what I needed it to; it made me feel better. But it did something more too. The book made me see faults in myself that I want to change and improve upon. I want to go after what I want, not just let things happen to me.

So, I’ll end it with this, what is my Happy Place? I don’t know yet. But I do know that it’s not in my head. The contentment I can find in solitude is wonderful, but it is not my happy place.

My happy place is external; it’s a place where I can build my life with people, share my ideas with others, spread my love, build connections. Where is that place is exactly? I’m still trying to find it with and that is okay.

July’s Playlist

Let’s break July down into a few categories: Emotions Running High, New Music, Vacation, and the Monthly Playlist.

Emotions Running High

July was an amazing month, but it wasn’t without its rough patches. Growing up an only child and not always having someone to turn to in the moment, I realized how much music helped. Music in general helps, but the artist that always, without fail, lifts my spirits is Chris Brochu.

Chris is one of, if not the best lyricists I’ve come across, and his views on the world are just so inspiring and uplifting. I made a short playlist of my favorite songs of his that you can listen to here.

New Music

Ryan and Rory released their debut EP at the end of the month called Ryan and Rory and it’s absolutely fantastic. Ryan and his family – very well-established songwriters – wrote the EP together and it gives the songs such a special, almost nostalgic feel to them. It makes me feel like I’m privy to a familial bond unique only to the Follese family. Click this link to listen to the EP. I love every song on it, but my favorite is definitely State I’m In.

Joe Jonas also released a new single this month called Work it Out and announced he’s going to be releasing a full studio album later this year as well.

Vacation Vibes

One of my favorite things about vacation – besides the vacation itself – is paying attention to what music plays while I’m away. After I’m home, those songs always remind of the trip and I love the feelings of nostalgia that become associated with the music.

While I was in California, the song U Don’t Get 2 Do That by Nash Overstreet popped into my head, and while I was working, I kept it playing on repeat. I also listened to some other songs that remind me of LA like I Hate LA by Hot Chelle Rae, Push My Luck by The Chainsmokers, and Lost in You by Mercy Mode.

We also listened to a lot of Pop Rocks on SiriusXM and saw Deadpool and Wolverine, which had an AMAZING soundtrack. It’s really hard for a film’s soundtrack to impress me because I truly think Shrek has the most phenomenal movie soundtrack and no film ever really holds up to it, but Deadpool and Wolverine kind of DID. I’d highly recommend listening to the soundtrack, and highly highly recommend watching the movie if you haven’t seen it yet!

The Monthly Playlist

U Don’t Get 2 Do That – Nash Overstreet
Work It Out – Joe Jonas
Dance Around It – Parachute
Pour Decisions – Ryan and Rory
State I’m In – Ryan and Rory
Cowboy Cry – Ryan and Rory
Drunk and Lonely – Ryan and Rory
This Town – Ryan and Rory
Thanks Mama – Ryan and Rory
Change My Life – Levi Hummon
Heart’s Not In It – Loote, Picture This
These Girls – Sticky Fingers
Holding on to Letting Go – Scott Quinn
No Sleep – Wiz Khalifa
I Hate LA – Hot Chelle Rae
Push My Luck – The Chainsmokers
Lost In You – Mercy Mode
Fading – Vacation Manor
Happiness – Wingtip
actually happy – BLÜ EYES
BRAINWASHED – Waterparks
no excuses – Virginia to Vegas
Hands Clean – Alan’s Morissette
Follow Me – Uncle Kracker
Iris – The Goo Goo Dolls
Bye Bye Bye– *NSYNC
The Power of Love – Huey Lewis & The News
If This Is It – Huey Lewis & the News
I’m With You – Avril Lavigne
You’re the One That I Want – John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John
Grew Apart – Logan Mize, Donovan Woods

If you want to listen to the full playlist, you can check it out here!

Second Chance Romance – Carol Mason

Second Chance Romance – 2/5 ✩

Second Chance Romance follows Moira, a mother who is grappling with her daughter getting older and the possibility of her marriage being over. In an effort to keep her daughter from making what she believes to be a huge mistake, she teams up with Frank, her daughter’s boyfriend’s father whom she immediately hates, to break the couple up. Along the way, Moira realizes Frank may not be as bad as she’d initially thought.

I really, really love the cover of this book! The cover and the title immediately reeled me in; it’s so bright and inviting and it looks like the perfect beach read.

I will be honest though, this was not my favorite book. I did enjoy the travel aspect of the book and I did enjoy seeing how characters seemed to grow throughout the novel. But I will be honest in saying that I struggled at times to stay engaged and I had a lot of trouble connecting with the characters.

I found both Moira and Frank to be insufferable; I didn’t think either of them had a whole lot of empathy for others and it made it difficult for me to root for either of them as individuals or as a couple. Their lack of communication was frustrating and I didn’t feel their relationship shifting from enemies to lovers; it felt like their feelings changed overnight and without warning and I didn’t understand how this could happen.

Moira’s relationship with her daughter was also troubling to me. Her daughter is a young adult and appears to be very mature, yet Moira treats her as anything but. Moira’s relationship with her husband was also troubling because the communication was nonexistent. I understand she was blindsided by her him, but her behavior following the revelation was childish and frustrating as a reader.

I also really wanted to explore more of the LA and Greek landscapes. A lot of the writing thoughout the novel as a whole felt like I was being told things, not shown, making it feel a bit mundane to me.

I do think this would be a good read for someone who is looking for a protagonist who is a little bit older. I wondered while I was reading if maybe I was having trouble with the characters because I’m used to reading novels with main characters who are in their twenties or thirties, so having a character who was a mom to a young adult isn’t something I typically read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Not in Love – Ali Hazelwood

Not in Love – 5/5 ✩

What CAN’T Ali Hazelwood do? She is an absolute powerhouse.

Not in Love is a forbidden romance that follows Rue and Eli, two individuals who can’t fight their chemistry no matter how hard they try. The only problem is that they really shouldn’t be together. Rue works for a promising start-up started by one of her best friends and Eli works for the company that’s attempting a hostile takeover. As time goes on though, they realize that it’s not worth fighting the sparks between them and that it might not even be worth pretending that they’re not in love.

Believe it or not, I think this book was spicier than any of Ali’s previous books (and her books are always spicy!). I think this one was so well done though because the chemistry between Rue and Eli was so palpable and these characters were so fleshed out that it made sense that the level of spicy was upped a few (hundred) notches from her other books.

I think Ali’s writing style has improved immensely and these characters are the prime example. Even though Not In Love maintained her typical fun, playful tones, there was also a seriousness to this novel and its characters that I don’t feel like we’ve seen from Ali before. I laughed, I got teary eyed, and I was insanely invested in this story.

And let me just state this for the record here: If my boyfriend/husband doesn’t love me the way that Eli loves Rue, then I. Don’t. Want. Him. I think I found my new, top tier book boyfriend in Not in Love and I will forever be comparing real life men to him now (thanks Ali). The way he loved her so purely and so deeply was magic on the page and I LOVE that he FELL FIRST and was so willing and open to loving her, even though he knew everything had to be on her terms.

None of This is True – Lisa Jewell

None of This is True – 3/5 ✩

None of This is True is a psychological thriller that follows Josie Fair and Alix Summers. The women meet on their 45th birthday when they realize they are birthday twins and from there, they begin working together on a podcast. Josie is mysterious and complicated and ingratiates herself into Alix’s life and home while slowly revealing details about her sordid history and readers are unsure what is truth and what is lie.

This was not my favorite book, but I do think the characters were well crafted and I definitely was on the edge of my seat trying to figure out what had really happened in Josie’s past and how that would link with the present.

I think I had different expectations going into this book which shaped how much I enjoyed it. I was expecting a mystery thriller, and while it was both of those things, it definitely tended more toward psychological thriller than mystery thriller. With that being said, I do think that if I had looked at as psychological thriller going into it, I would’ve enjoyed it far more because this book was a psychological thriller to a tee.

The individuals in this book have so many nuances and it was intriguing getting inside their heads and their pasts. The characters in this book were so fleshed out and it was absolutely fascinating to be in their heads, especially Josie’s, even though I wasn’t (and still am not) one hundred percent sure what to believe and what not to believe about her.

I also really enjoyed how there were clips/excerpts from Alix’s podcast sprinkled throughout the book. I thought that was really unique and definitely added depth to the story.

One thing I would do differently if I were to reread this book would be to actually physically read it. I thought the narrators in the audiobook were great narrators, but there were points when listening to the book when I had trouble hearing what was being said because, even when I had the volume on my phone maxed out, because the volume differed so much from part to part. I also had a little bit of trouble following some parts of the story. There were so many moving parts in this novel and I think if I’d physically read it, I wouldn’t have been confused at some points.

Take Yourself on a Date

We don’t have to wait for someone else to show us love, we have more than enough inside ourselves, so every once in awhile, take some time and remember to show yourself some love.

Sometimes, the universe decides it’s time to throw us some curveballs – sometimes, multiple curveballs at once – until we get to a point where we feel like we can’t really handle it anymore.

When you get to those points, don’t forget to take some time for yourself and do something for YOU. Don’t worry about what other people are going to think, don’t worry about the things you might miss if you say no to plans, just take some time to do something that’s going to make YOU happy. We so often forget ourselves in trying to make everyone else happy.

This spring has been a little rocky for me, as I think it has been for many people. I’ve been busy, there have been times when I’ve been stressed and anxious, I’ve been building new friendships, and I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world. But in the midst of everything, I realized how much of a break I really needed.

I needed time to just myself. I needed a long drive, I needed a reset.

Then I saw that there was a production of Waitress the Musical, my favorite show, in Ogunquit, ME and one of my FAVORITE Broadway actors was in it (Shoutout Matt DeAngelis).

At the last minute, I bought a ticket, I hopped in my car, and I drove to Maine. I took myself to dinner, I met new people, and I laughed and cried along to my favorite musical. It was low-key, it was an easy drive, but it was everything I needed.

My point here is this: don’t underestimate the small things. Buy the ticket, take the drive, and do something that’s going to make you smile. If you’re struggling right now or just feel like you need a break from reality, take yourself on a date.

Finding Joy in What Is

Finding joy in what is sounds like an easy task, but let’s be honest with ourselves, sometimes, that’s one of the hardest things anyone can ask us to do.

We are people who are built to want more. We crave instant gratification. We want things to look perfect from the outside, even if on the inside, they are far from it.

The more places we visit, the easier it becomes to think that that place is better than where we’re from. The more foods we try, the more we find ourselves saying that this food is better than the foods that we’re used to eating.

While some people are able to embrace the reality that the grass is not always greener without much conscious effort, many of us default to the philosophy that the grass is always greener and as a result, we keep seeking more, more, more.

If it’s not obvious, I am one of those people that struggles. I know that the grass isn’t always greener, I know it. But just because I have that knowledge doesn’t mean it’s always easy to embrace it.

Something that’s helped me in shifting my perspective is Mark Manson’s book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.

This book changed my life in so many ways, but I bring it up right now for one very specific reason: Chapter 8, The Importance of Saying No.

In this chapter, Manson discusses commitment and the liberation that comes with truly committing to something. While most people view commitment as something that is restraining, he discusses it as being something that is actually liberating.

He points out that it is only when you truly allow yourself to commit to something that you are able to truly know and embrace that thing. If you are always chasing more, you take the opportunity away from yourself to actually see if you like that thing or that person; it is only when you fully commit to it that you give yourself the chance to fully absorb it.

When I read this, it hit me like a ton of bricks.

I have never, not once in my life, categorized myself as someone afraid of commitment. But the more I read, the more I started to feel like commitment is something that might have scared me.

A point that Manson makes is that that we feel a need to find certainty and perfection, but when we are overloaded with options and opportunities, we can experience a type of anxiety. As a result, many of us refuse to choose; instead, we choose to keep our options open. This is us avoiding commitment, which then leads to unhappiness.

At first, I only related to the idea of not choosing, but then I took a deeper look at my life and my decisions.

Since the moment I began understanding that I didn’t have to stay in my hometown or home state forever, I decided I wanted to move. I always said I was going to move to Los Angeles. For a little while, I thought maybe Madrid. Then I decided it could be Covington, Georgia. Then I decided that no, it had to be LA.

From that moment on, I planned every aspect of my life around this desire to move. I viewed my jobs as temporary. I didn’t take advantage of the sights and restaurants in my area. To an extent, I even let my relationships fall victim to this desire to move, to this belief that things are fleeting.

But reading this chapter of Mark Manson’s book made me realize how much of a disservice I was doing to myself.

I’ve loved every job I’ve ever had, but never once did I allow myself to believe they would be long lasting.

Coaching gymnastics was a high school job. Painting at the wood shop was my school break job. The hotel was a way to make some extra cash in college, and even though I loved every moment of this job and three years later I STILL wish I could go back, I never, ever saw myself staying there forever.

And when I got the job I have now, even though I loved it, my plan was always to move out of state. As a result, I found myself getting frustrated with little things here, but no matter how frustrated I let myself get, it never mattered too much because I wasn’t planing to stay forever. But then one year turned into two and was leading toward three and I still had no plans to leave, but I was still not one hundred percent happy.

That’s when I read the book, last year. That’s when I took a step back and finally allowed myself to see that it wasn’t that my job was imperfect at all, it was that I was making it imperfect. I wasn’t allowing myself to genuinely enjoy the work or the people or the time because I wasn’t letting myself be fully present.

I wasn’t allowing myself to make connections or really even know what could be, because deep down, I didn’t feel like I knew what the point was. If I wasn’t going to stay, why make the connections?

This really got me thinking. Even if I didn’t stay, why rob myself of the amazing experiences and connections I could make while I was here?

I started taking a look at other aspects of my life too. I was notorious for saying there is nothing to do in Massachusetts, I was always claiming there were no good restaurants here, I was always comparing what I could to here to the “hundreds” of things I could do there.

I don’t want to dive too deep into my love life, but there were several times throughout my college years were I said ‘Well, I have to be single to do this,’ – this being travel to Europe, this being working on a cruise ship (because yes, one of my other dreams was to work on a cruise ship) – that I ended up stressing myself out thinking that I couldn’t form a genuine connection with someone because what if it ruined my plans for the future? Instead of making a choice to get the job or take the trip, I didn’t make any choice at all and kept just talking about the what ifs.

I don’t want to be that person anymore and I don’t think I am that person anymore.

I was fleeing. Anytime something happened here that I didn’t like, my gut reaction was to book a flight and leave for a little while. It resulted in tons of fun experiences, but it didn’t fix anything, and I didn’t see that at the time. But I don’t want to be that person that runs anymore.

This winter and now well into the summer, I started strengthening the bonds I’d made. I started diving headfirst into my work and taking on projects I hadn’t been interested in before. I started trying new restaurants and instead of walking past store fronts I’d walked past all my life, I started going in. I started branching out and making new friends. I realized that we really do have good food here and fun activities, I just have to allow myself to try.

I’ve always been a very happy person – I’ve never had trouble being happy when I’m on my own and I’ve done some really amazing things in my life – but I’m finally giving myself the gift of finding joy in what is.

I don’t need to run away to find happiness. I don’t need to uproot my life to find out where I want my roots to be.

I’m happy where I am. I’m happy with who I am. I’m happy with who I spend my time with and the work that I do.

Do I think I owe it to myself to at least try living in a different city for a couple of months? Sure. But I don’t need that to be happy; I’m already happy on the inside and I’m finally ready to settle down and to open myself up to sharing that happiness with someone else.

I’m not perfect and I know I still have a lot to learn and a lot of progress to make, but I hope that for any of you out there that are reading this and are feeling the same way that this helps you. And if you want more info on The Subtle Art of Giving a F*ck, check it out here.

The Paradise Problem – Christina Lauren

The Paradise Problem – 5/5 ✩

The Paradise Problem is the perfect steamy romance for the summer! The novel follows Anna and Liam as they celebrate Liam’s younger sister’s wedding. One of their biggest challenges: proving to Liam’s family that they’re a happily married couple. In reality, the pair married five years ago for personal reasons neither wanted to discuss at the time and not only have they not seen each other in years, Anna had been under the impression that they were divorced. As they struggle to keep up the charade in front of his family, Anna and Liam also struggle to fight their growing feelings for one another and the chaos that ensues at the hands of his family members.

After writing so many novels together, Christina Lauren know how to craft the perfect romance where you know the characters are going to make it to their happily ever after. This book was no different. What was different, though, was the depth of the characters.

Anna and Liam deal with serious issues in their personal lives – Anna has an unreasonable amount of responsibility on her plate with taking care of her father and his health issues and Liam has a plethora of issues with his siblings and his parents – and this added an incredible depth to the story, making their love feel even more realistic and interesting to read on the page.

I loved the island backdrop in their story and I loved the banter these two characters shared. Anna was a hilariously fun character that contrasted Liam’s more serious nature and I loved the pop culture references in the story as well.

I would absolutely recommend this book, especially in the summer and especially if you’re someone who loves traveling! This book is guaranteed to give you a bit of a travel bug once you read it!

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo – Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo – 4/5 ✩

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo recounts the story of Evelyn Hugo and her rise to fame in the 1950s and beyond. The story is told in alternating perspectives from the present to the past and Evelyn’s story is slowly revealed as she tells Monique, a journalist, her story.

I loved this book and I think the way that it was told played a huge role in why I loved it. I was fascinated by the shifts in perspective – having the present day in Monique’s point of view and the past in Evelyn’s – and I think telling the story through narratives and interviews was very interesting.

We learn that Evelyn has handpicked Monique to tell her story, but until the very end of the novel, we’re unsure why this is the case. I was shocked when I learned her reasoning, but I think it was a phenomenal way to tie the story together. Evelyn and Monique do, in fact, have a connection, and it was one I definitely did not see coming.

Throughout the novel, right until the very end, Evelyn has an air of mystery about her and she’s a character that I feel like you could examine and examine and still find there a new things to learn about her. She is clever and crafty and calculated and loving and her world was a joy to be a part of. I was flooded with empathy for her as I learned of all the hardships she faced, especially how mistreated she was by so many people around her and the way she never felt she could truly be herself.

My one piece of criticism with the book is Celia’s attitude. Celia is an actress whom Evelyn meets very early on in her story and she is Evelyn’s greatest love.

I loved Celia and Evelyn’s relationship – I was rooting for them from the very moment we met Celia on the film set – but that is not to say that they were a perfect couple.

I understand that Evelyn wasn’t ready to come out and there were times when she did not treat Celia fairly and it seemed she would rather play games in Hollywood than come out as who she really is. I also, though, did understand why Evelyn would play those games.

My biggest problem with their relationship overall is the way that Celia treated Evelyn. The worst moment for me was when Celia left Evelyn (for the second time I believe, and as a result she also left Harry, John, and Connor too) because Evelyn filmed a sex scene with Don. I understand times were different then and sex scenes weren’t as prevalent in media as they are today, but both Evelyn and Celia were ACTRESSES and I feel like Celia should’ve understood that and been able to compartmentalize that. She, as well as anyone, should know that you may have to be pretend to be intimate with others as a working actor or actress. I found Celia’s behavior at multiple points throughout the novel to be a little childish and immature, this being the worst of her behavior in my eyes.

But overall, I did enjoy the book and would recommend reading it. I think it is a fantastic piece of literature and I love the irony of the title of the book and Evelyn’s greatest love not being one of her seven husbands, but instead, a woman.