I don't remember the first time that I heard about this book. I know that it was a while ago, but I don't really know when. From time to time I would see this title on BookTubers that would either buy it or review it, but never really had the chance to actually pick it. Maybe I judged it from the title. I really thought that I wouldn't connect to this book because at first it seemed like such a serious book to me. I am that kind of reader that loves YA or fantasy books, and this just didn't check all my boxes at the time.
This year, trying to "eat and devour" more stories, I started this little project of mine where I would try to translate at least one book a year (where I live, mostly of the books that get published in 2022 for example, get to be translated three or four years later), and I was searching for something to actually translate. As I was trying to find my next project, this one popped up in my screen and I immediately thought that this was the one. I didn't know what the main story was, and I didn't know anything about it, but something just attracted me to the book and DAMN! I am so glad that I did! Anyways, as I started to search for the perfect way to translate the title, I found out that this book had already been published in my country, but still didn't thought to buy it, just to use the title of the translated version. As I got out that day, me and my mother stopped by a book store and I wanted to buy a book just because I hadn't bought one in three months, and as I was searching in the book store for something good to read, as soon as I saw this one, I was sold!
This story took me by storm! I had no idea of how the story would be told but as soon as I realied that it would be about old Hollywood, I just got so damn excited! The way that Taylor Jenkins Reid describes the era and the every single character to me was so phenomenal. All the husbands of Evelyn were so different from each other and yet, so very same. I loved how Evelyn was, so driven by want to be famous and known, and how she would do anything to make it real. I love of how she is not your main typical character that always makes good choices and is just good because she has too! Evelyn is not a good person, she makes decisions and if they backfire at her, she knows how to handle them. She doesn't regret anything, she just continues to live by her mistakes and do her best to whatever lifes throws her.
From all the seven husbands, my favourite was Harry. Maybe because I had grown to love him and known him for most of the book, but also because he treated her so well. He didn't judge her for her mistakes and he also stood by her for everything that she needed. Harry truly felt like that person that you would want to be your friend and to have by your side.
Celia was a really good character too. Sometime I would get really angry at her because sometimes she felt like such an annoying person, but in the end I realized that that's how anyone would act if they would be at her shoes. To love someone, and for that someone to chose always acting over you, it must be hard. It felt like Celia was a true person. She had problems, she had insecurities, she had real problems and she had real fears. All of the characters did, and I think that that is the reason why the story felt so real, just because everyone was so well though and so well written.
I loved the contradict between Evelyn and Celia. Evelyn would always pick her career over everyone, and she wasn't ashamed of that. Something that hurted me was that even though every person that she married or fell in love knew this, and still after some time would hurt this thing against her.
As for the twists and the turns of the book, I kinda knew them from the begining but still they felt good. I knew that (SPOILERS) was going to die eventually, because there was no way that them would go to Spain with Evelyn and I remember thinking that the only way to fix that, was to kill the character. And as for the whole reason why Evelyn picks Monique, I kinda figured out that she knew her father, but not why.
It still hurts to know of how Evelyn lost everyone she knew during the story. From the husbands, to her lover, to her daughter. The end probably felt like a copout for me, because, let's be honest. I had been reading 300 something pages, and I wanted this big ass finale, but just because that didn't happen, it still felt powerful and good.
This book made me laugh, made me cry and it finally got me from my reading slump.
It was a phenomenal read and I think that it will be the best book that I would read not just this year, but for a long long time.
5/5 Stars.
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