The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

Evelyn Hugo was one of Hollywood's biggest stars, an Oscar winner with a film career spanning four decades. Evelyn Hugo was also one of Hollywood's most scandalous stars with seven marriages to her name. Now an aging recluse living in Manhattan Evelyn is ready to tell her rags to riches story, reveal the truth about her seven marriages, and name the true love of her life. 

 Mysteriously Evelyn chooses to reveal all to a young unknown reporter, Monique, rather than a more accomplished writer. As Evelyn tells Monique her life story, Monique learns things about herself and her family that will change her life completely.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is not the type of book that I would normally read but it had had such great reviews and been featured in so many book club and subscription box picks that when I saw it at my library I picked it up. 

It's quite a long book (400+ pages) and although I did find it enjoyable I began to feel a little bored as it neared the end as there were quite a lot of repetitive small dramas that were related in great detail which seemed to drag the story out unnecessarily. (I really think that I would have liked this more if had been better edited and a hundred pages shorter.) I also wasn't too keen on the main characters as, in addition to being not particularly nice people, they all felt a little one dimensional.

The book spans from the 1950's to the present day but there wasn't all that much given in the way of period details. This coupled with the fact that the characters of Evelyn and her contemporaries barely changed or grew as the story progressed meant that I found it quite difficult to place what era I was reading about throughout the book. 

I didn't totally dislike The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. The story did flow well and the writing was, on the whole, good but I wish that I could have felt more sympathetic towards the main players and that the atmosphere and glamour of the movie business had come across in more detail.

I also thought that the ending of the book seemed a little contrived and it didn't sit very well with me or my expectations of the story. 

For me this was an okay beach type read but I must admit that I was expecting to enjoy it more considering the many glowing reviews I have seen of it.