- Soul Mate Bond
- Friends to Lovers
- Forbidden Love
- Right Person, Wrong Time
My Thoughts:
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was my first read by author Taylor Jenkins Reid and I have to say, I’d love to read more from the author. I’d seen The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo float around on TikTok, including audio from the audiobook, but I can’t say I was ever jumping to read it. That was until my friend Izzy highly suggested I read it, so I added it to my TBR list and have eventually gotten around to reading it.
Although The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was my first read by Taylor Jenkins Reid, it wasn’t my first introduction to her work. I’d previously watched Daisy Jones and the Six and One True Loves and to my surprise, I throughly enjoyed them both. I knew both of which were based on her books, but I somehow did not think both would be my cup of tea, genre wise; so that led me to watch the adaptations before ever giving her writing a chance. Having watched the adaptations and enjoyed them, I felt like reading the story’s they were based on would have a negative impact on whether I would like her story’s and result in me being uninterested in her story’s. That’s the thing with being a reader, you’re either a read before the film, or read after the film person. I’m still yet to determine which one I am, but having read The Hating Game after watching the film, I felt bored when reading the story, as there wasn’t much left to reveal or imagine on my own. That’s why I’ve avoided reading Daisy Jones and the Six and One True Loves, as I feared I’d experience the same as The Hating Game – being bored and knowing where the storyline goes before it’s finished. I felt if I did read them, it would give a negative introduction to Taylor Jenkins Reid, which may have set the tone for any future books of hers that I’d read.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo follows Hollywood star Evelyn Hugo and her journey to rising to fame. The story opens up to unknown writer, Monique Grant being approached by Evelyn Hugo at the end of her life, to write a multimillion dollar and long awaited biography. However, throughout the story, it is always questioned why Monique is the chosen one by Evelyn to write the highly anticipated biography.
Along with following the rising popularity of her career, the story also follows the seven husbands in which Evelyn was entangled with and the reveal that those seven husbands were a distraction from her one true love.
We are first introduced to Evelyn in present time, during her meeting with Monique where she presents the idea of Monique writing her biography, which was brought up under false pretences. After agreeing to go forward with writing the biography, the pair delve into Evelyn’s past, sitting for hours each day, detailing Evelyn’s history. At the start, many questions asked by Monique are avoided answered by Evelyn as a bid to ensure that answers are given at the appropriate time, in which the events occurred in.
When discussing Evelyn’s past, Evelyn begins at her childhood, where it is revealed that she grew up in a Cuban household with her mother and father. Her mother long dreamed of moving away with Evelyn from Hell’s Kitchen and her abusive husband to start a Hollywood career. However, this remains a dream, as Evelyn’s mother passes away when Evelyn is young due to pneumonia.
Now much older, Evelyn still holds her mothers dream, but now as her own and seeks out a path that will lead her to Hollywood. Thus the beginning of her rise to fame and the first of her husbands.
The First Husband (Ernie Diaz) – Diaz was the stepping stone to kickstart her career, where Ernie was her ticket to Hollywood. The pair married so that Ernie could be her guardian in which allowing her to move away from Hell’s Kitchen as she was underage. During this marriage, Evelyn learned the hotspot places in Hollywood where she’d knew her opportunities would be widened of being scouted. Eventually, she’s scouted and thus results in the divorce of Ernie, as producers believe it would be beneficial for her to be spotted with other men as an upcoming star.
The Second Husband (Don Adler) – Adler was Evelyn’s second husband and first real love. In the early stages of their relationship, Evelyn grew head over heels for Don and believed that she’d be worthy of love and not just for her body. The pair were set for being the couple of Hollywood with their rising success of their career – it was believed they were going to dominate the world. However, not long into their marriage, Don became abusive as it is made apparent that his career isn’t quite as successful as wife Evelyn’s – leading him to become jealous. During this marriage, Evelyn developed a good friendship with fellow co-star Celia St. James which quickly turned into feelings, but being in the 1950’s relationships of this type were frowned upon. Despite the abuse, Evelyn stayed with him, that is until she finds out that he’s been having an affair, subsequently making her want a divorce. During this time, Evelyn discovers the truth about Celia and sets out to develop their relationship further and in secret. Don agrees to divorce Evelyn, but not without blacklisting her from Hollywood and leaving her career to tank, in which she must restart.
The Third Husband (Mick Riva) – Riva was a calculated elopement planned by Evelyn to distract the media about her secret relationship with Celia. She’d been working with Max Girard on an upcoming movie, which led her back into the spotlight. Despite her reservations, Celia agreed to Evelyn’s plan to marry Mick in a drunken Las Vegas wedding to distract the media, unbeknownst to him. The elopement was short lived, only lasting a few days, but resulted in Evelyn becoming pregnant from the one night stand. This led to the end of her and Celia’s relationship, as Celia did not agree to Evelyn sleeping with Mick. Not being ready to be a mother, Evelyn got an abortion.
The Fourth Husband (Rex North) – North was a fake platonic marriage set up as a publicity stunt to mutually skyrocket their careers, which was highly successful. The pair cared deeply for one another but not romantically and lasted a few years until eventually, Rex fell in love with another woman, resulting in her becoming pregnant. Evelyn and Rex agreed to stage the divorce as a dual affair, where both parties cheated on one another just like their characters had done in the movie they starred together in. Rex with Joy and Evelyn with Harry to boost viewing on their upcoming film of the same storyline, which was very successful. During this time Evelyn discovers that Celia’s marriage to John Barrowman was fake.
The Fifth Husband (Harry Cameron) – Cameron was Evelyn’s longtime best friend who presented Evelyn with the idea of them having a fake platonic marriage, presented as real to the public, in order for Evelyn to hide her relationship with Celia and for Harry to hide his relationship with John. The pair were together for 15 years, the truth unsuspected by the media and was Evelyn’s longest marriage; which resulted in the birth of her daughter Connor Cameron. The four way relationship was successful until Evelyn blindsided Celia by starring in a film alongside abusive ex husband Don, where director Max Girard pushed for the pair to film an explicit sex scene. Evelyn presented the idea to Celia who was instantly against it due to her own insecurities of Evelyn’s sexuality. However, Evelyn comes clean that she’s already done it, which leads to yet again the end of Celia and Evelyn’s relationship, as Celia could not accept Evelyn putting something before her again. Despite Evelyn and Celia’s separation, Evelyn and Harry remain married to one another. Years later, Harry is overcome with grief following the death of his secret partner John, who suddenly passed away from a heart attack. Evelyn becomes worried about Harry’s mental state and drinking habits following John’s death and decides to present Harry with a role he can’t pass up. The pair end up winning an Oscar from starring in the film Harry produced and Max Girard directed. During this time, Max confesses his harboured feelings for Evelyn and dramatically asks for Evelyn’s hand in marriage. Feeling apprehensive, Evelyn seeks advice from husband Harry who encourages her to go forward and jump into the love she’s desperately been craving and has finally found; especially as their agreement is no longer active being that his partner has died and that Evelyn is no longer with Celia. Despite their marriage being a distraction from their authentic selves, Harry and Evelyn’s marriage was one of the few that were built on real love.
The Sixth Husband (Max Girard) – Girard was the second marriage (or third, if you count Harry) in which Evelyn married for real, romantic love. Evelyn married Max believing this to be her new chance at love, where she’d receive the long lasting love she’d desperately been searching for and failed to find with Celia. Evelyn quickly identified that her marriage to Max was that of love bombing. Once married, it became apparent that Max was only with Evelyn to hold the title of being married to the Evelyn Hugo and being in the Hollywood spotlight. Evelyn realised that Max only likes the idea of being with her and used her as a trophy. During this marriage, Evelyn becomes back in contact with Celia after many years have gone by. Celia reveals that she is dying and only has a short time of 10 years to live. Having previously agreed not to leave Max, along with Celia’s diagnosis, Evelyn discovers Max has been having affairs, where she finally decides to leave him. Celia presents Evelyn with the idea that they could move to Spain together, where Evelyn can marry Celia’s brother, Robert Jamison. Evelyn has a battle with Harry as he doesn’t wish to uproot his or Connor’s life from Hollywood to Spain. Harry later reveals that he has fallen in love again and presents the idea of him and Evelyn remarrying and Celia marrying his love, so that they can live simultaneous together. However, Harry’s plan is cut short following his death from a car accident in which he caused being drunk – leading to the death of himself and his love. In a bid to save Harry, she places the other man in the drivers seat to make it not look like Harry’s fault.
The Seventh Husband (Robert Jamison) – Jamison was a fake marriage introduced by Celia as a way for Evelyn to inherit her legacy after she ultimately dies. After Harry’s death, Evelyn, Connor, Celia and Robert move to Spain where they live a quiet life for Evelyn and Celia to spend their remaining time together without shame, following Celia’s impending death for pulmonary emphysema. During their last few times together, Evelyn and Celia get married in a bedroom ceremony and spend the last 10 years of Celia’s life finally together. 10 years after reuniting, Celia passes away, resulting in Robert and Evelyn to move back to LA to spend time with Connor, Evelyn’s daughter. Robert eventually passes away, leaving Evelyn a widow who never remarries. Not long after, Connor is diagnosed with breast cancer at 39 years old, where she later dies in her mother Evelyn’s arms.
The story ends with Monique leaving Evelyn following the end of their meetings and Evelyn’s story being told. It is implied and later revealed that after telling her story, Evelyn takes her own life after receiving the same diagnosis as her daughter.
Wow! That’s all I can say, I was at a complete loss on what to think after I finished The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. When I first went into reading this book, I had no idea what it was actually about, other than it was about a Hollywood star called Evelyn Hugo and her scandalous seven husbands. I’d previously heard audio clips from the audio book on TikTok and initially believed Evelyn would be a cold hearted character – which would actually be further from the truth. I even thought that Celia would be Evelyn’s rival. My pre thoughts on this book were that it wasn’t my cup of tea and that I wouldn’t be a huge fan, but surprisingly, I enjoyed it so much.
I found myself clung to the story, always wanting to know how each husband started and ended. I couldn’t put this book down. When I initially saw it was 800+ pages, I was a bit mortified, especially since my average book lengths are 350. I thought each page would be a drag, but it flew over and had me wanting more. I am a short chapter girl through and through, I can’t have long chapters because I feel like the books drag – leading me to loose interest and countdown to the next chapter. Some of the chapters in this book were 80 pages long, which at first I was again mortified at, but as I began reading them, I was shocked to discover I only had 5 pages left when it felt like I had just started reading them.
When Monique is looking through her fathers old photos of him working in Hollywood, I thought her father would’ve had some connection to Evelyn, which ended up being true, but not in the way it was revealed. Evelyn makes it clear when talking to Monique that she shouldn’t hold her to a high standard as she will be disappointed upon learning the truth about her. This leads Monique to be scared of her and had me questioning what Evelyn could’ve done that was so bad – my guess was murder. What was Evelyn’s big secret that would make people see her as a bad person? This had me wracking my brain trying to think of what it could be – my only thought was murder, which I suppose was close to the truth, but not done directly by Evelyn.
I very much enjoyed the format of this book, the inclusion of newspaper articles, the split between the events of modern day in Monique’s real life and her sessions with Evelyn, and then the flashbacks to Evelyn’s past as she tells her story, split between the periods for each of her husbands. It was so easy for me to visualise this story and I felt like I knew the way it would be formatted, if it was something I’d be watching on a screen. I’ve heard rumours that this is being picked up for an adaptation and I hope this is true. I also hope Amazon is the platform to make the story come to life, as I believe they’ve done a fantastic job at Taylor Jenkins Reid’s, Daisy Jones and the Six and Jenny Han’s The Summer I Turned Pretty.
Despite the inclusion of Monique’s life, I felt like I was unable to make a connection with her or feel sympathy for her when her fathers inclusion was revealed. I think that was due to how little we learned about her, in comparison to Evelyn.
When reading the letter exchanges between Celia and Evelyn, I felt a sense of peace that they were finally able to fully discuss their history with maturity. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Celia and her behaviour. I felt that within their relationship, Celia was very biphobic of Evelyn’s sexuality and the constant reminder of it and how Celia was so against Evelyn’s identity, very much hindered my enjoyment for their relationship. For me, Celia was redeemed when she admitted for her wrong doings in the failure of their relationship and how she let her insecurities get the better of her. At the point of the letters exchange and Evelyn’s uncertainty on whether to take the letters with her, I suspected they would be found by the wrong person and I was correct.
When Evelyn and Celia were planning the remainder of their lives together, I had a bad feeling Celia would pass away before they were able to follow through with their plans. However, I was relieved when they were able to reunite.
When starting out to read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, I wasn’t expecting to be bawling my eyes out at 2AM, but there I was hysterically crying, not once, not twice, but three times. I first cried when Harry died after his car crash, where Evelyn was telling him to be true blue and let go so he could be at peace. I then cried a bit harder when Connor eventually died, as Evelyn was now all alone and without any family left. She was living in a world where she wasn’t surrounded by the people she loved most. What got me with Connor’s death, was how Evelyn was holding her baby whilst she died. I didn’t cry at Celia’s death as it was expected. I cried for the last time when I realised that Evelyn had sent Grace, her assistant away so that she could die peacefully by herself. I sobbed when I came to this realisation and hoped Monique would go back once she realised the same.
Despite my reservations, I very much enjoyed this book. I was eager to learn about each husband and what the big shocking twist was that Evelyn had alluded to throughout. I’m not sure what I was expecting going into reading this book, but I what I experienced, was far from what I could’ve imagined.
Evelyn wasn’t an innocent character by any means, but I couldn’t help but sympathise with her and what she had experienced. All she wanted out of her life was to be loved. Every marriage and relationship she had, she was made to not feel good enough, she was used for her status. The men she had hoped for were never satisfied after they pursed her – they were always searching for next woman, ruining what they had in front of them. Equally, Evelyn used men to hide and protect the one person who she loved most.
The last line broke me – all she wanted was love and a family. Love from fans and love from a loving family she didn’t have as a child, she in her adult life, she was able to experience.
I really did love Evelyn’s character and struggled to dislike her, especially when Monique’s father was revealed as Harry’s new man who ultimately died as a result of Harry’s and Evelyn’s actions. I think my lack of sympathy for Monique was due to the lack of development of her character. As the letter was being revealed, I had a feeling Monique’s dad was the one in the car and that’s why she choose Monique. I was correct, but I didn’t see it coming until just before it was revealed. Even at this point, I still felt sorry for Evelyn rather than Monique and felt protective when Monique became angry and Evelyn and pushed her. I did initially think that Harry’s new man was Celia’s brother, which I’m not sure how that could’ve ended the story.
This story gave me Marilyn Monroe vibes and I’m sure it’s supposed to be inspired by her. I thought I could add more sad books to my TBR list but after sobbing at 2am, I think I’ll give it a miss.
I absolutely adored reading this book and can say I’d be very interested to read other books by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
Quotes that made me cry:
“I held her when she puked from the chemo. I wrapped her in blankets when she was so cold she was crying. I kissed her forehead like she was my baby again, because she was forever my baby.” – Evelyn as she recalls saying goodbye to her daughter.
“Evelyn Hugo just wants to go home. It’s time for her to go to her daughter, and her lover, and her best friend, and her mother. Tell them Evelyn Hugo says good-bye.” – Evelyn as she ends her story.
“Please take care, Evelyn,” – Monique, as she says goodbye to Evelyn for the final time.
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
