Reviews with content warning for Rape - Die sieben Männer der Evelyn Hugo

Maybe I'm finally burning out on Taylor Jenkins-Reid as this is the third of hers I've read this year. Her stories are well crafted hugs and I get the sense she loves all her characters, and always finds redeeming qualities in them, even the ones you want to hate. Evelyn Hugo is a film star of old with seven husbands under her belt. She's a little bit Marilyn Monroe, a little bit Liz Taylor, and the narrative consistently tells us how edgy and difficult she is, while we see her be a warm hearted and intelligent protagonist. Her great love is fellow actress Celia, and the seven husbands are various ways for her to get close to and away from her great love as she tries to hide her sexuality in Hollywood. The book keeps alluding to a dark secret and much like other Jenkins-Reid novels wants you to believe peril is around every corner, even though the characters are all much too loved and too lovely to get what's coming to them.

A strange exception to this is Celia, who does not come across well, and the book's modern day protagonist, the journalist writing about Evelyn's life. Neither character is very compelling and instead I found myself very much missing the daughter's point of view throughout.

Complex sexual relationships are navigated with an exploration of consent and trade. But this one didn't land right for me. It didn't sparkle like the previous Jenkins-Reid books I've read

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716a_m's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I spent half my time loving her and the other half hiding how much I loved her.

Such a perfectly written story. I felt like I was sucked into their universe, you know? I read this more than a year ago, but no doubt this book's still a masterpiece and will always be.

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allapaz's review against another edition

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3.0

underwhelmed and sad about it
was expecting evelyn hugo to be at least minimally likeable, but man, I had a rough time with her character. there were golden nuggets in here for sure, and something about TJR's writing keeps me reading even when I'm less than hooked. I just really wanted this one to blow me away like it has for so many people

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