A friend said the best thing about this book was the last sentence and I’m inclined to agree!

“ Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now? ”

I listened to this on audiobook and it may well have been the narrators but I found the content so cliche and over the top I just couldn’t take it seriously! The constant reference to her beauty is distracting and gave everything else a superficial blanket, covered with a layer of disbelief and repeated forced attention on something very shallow. There is a reason for this but it was just too much I feel.

Don’t get me wrong I got quite quickly drawn in by the mystery ‘reveal’ which was hinted at throughout the whole book so had to see it through, but I just found myself groaning and rolling my eyes constantly. Evelyn is written with both arrogance and ignorance - nothing she says is new and everything she experienced, many have for sure. The book is mostly set in the 60s and things weren’t then as they are now of course but it just didn’t sit right with me. The explanations for the 7 husbands is a tad repetitive but considering the reasons, I’m not surprised there were so many.

I’m both glad and not that I listened to it instead of reading it - on the one hand I could have spent my time listening to something else, but on the other I could have wasted even more time reading the book instead of listening while I did other things… perhaps I’ve missed something as most adored this book but it wasn’t for me I’m afraid