"The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I sometimes feel like I may be the last person on Earth to read  "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" by Taylor Jenkins Reid, lol.  I have read (and enjoyed) a couple of her other books -- "Daisy Jones and the Six," and "Malibu Rising" (reviewed here and here, respectively) -- but this may be her most successful one. (It's certainly the one I see on more lists, etc.)  It's long been on my "want to read pile." Motivation arrived in the form of my Gateway/Lighthouse Women/Childless Collective book club: it's been selected for one of our upcoming reads. (Mild spoiler alert/trigger warning:  Evelyn is a mother -- but it's not the central thing about her in this book. She's a very strong and unconventional female character. There's plenty of fodder for discussion here!)  

Monique Grant, a young journalist at Vivant magazine, is startled when she learns that aging movie star Evelyn Hugo (think Golden Age movie stars like Elizabeth Taylor, Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe, etc.), who rarely grants interviews, has specifically requested that she be assigned to interview her for a story about the dresses she's auctioning off for charity.  Monique is even more startled when Evelyn tells her she wants her to write her life story.  Evelyn has a motive for telling her story -- and for choosing to entrust it to Monique -- and she has several shocking secrets she wants to share -- including the answer to Monique's very first question:  who among her seven (!) husbands was the one true love of her life?  

Like "Daisy Jones" and "Malibu Rising," this was a fast and fun read, about rich and glamorous people in Hollywood -- just what I needed right now. (I read the first half of it in the airport lounge and on the plane en route to see my parents for Christmas.)  There's a bit of crossover here with "Malibu Rising" -- or perhaps that should be vice-versa, since this book came first...!  Mick Riva, Husband #3, also shows up in "Malibu Rising" -- although the timelines of the two books don't quite jibe:  according to "Malibu Rising," Mick is married and having a family at the same time he's supposed to be married to Evelyn in this book. Oh well, I guess this is why it's fiction...! (I just Googled Mick, and apparently he also shows up in "Daisy Jones," which I don't remember, and "Carrie Soto," which I haven't read yet.)  

4 stars on Goodreads and StoryGraph. 

This was Book #47 read to date in 2023 (and Book #3 finished in December), bringing me to 104% of my 2023 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books! :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2023 tagged as "2023 books."