Genre: Women’s fiction. ⭐️Stars from Goodreads: 4.25. ⭐️Stars from me: 4.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is indeed a very entertaining read. There’s really no place in a book where you’d want to take a break and do something else instead of reading. You just want to read the whole book in one sitting even though it’s too long for that.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a story about an ageing Hollywood actress who’s finally revealing her secrets.
Evelyn herself is absolutely amazing. She’s so charming. She makes you smile. She makes you like her. Even though she’s a character, she acts and sounds alive and real. Her dresses are always gorgeous. If there’s ever a movie adaptation I will watch it just to see all this beauty again on the screen.
There are a few moments I didn’t like though. It feels awkward to be criticising something I actually enjoyed but I can’t pretend those moments didn’t happen. So here they are.
The strongest side of Evelyn Hugo
Evelyn has so much potential. She’s witty, wise and talented. Nevertheless, according to the book her main assets are her boobs. 
I almost feel offended on her behalf.
Communication glitches of Evelyn Hugo
Some interactions between characters are plainly implausible. I don’t mean impossible. The are unrealistic. Here’s an example to illustrate what I mean. A couple is discussing their possible divorce while watching their beloved daughter play. They mention the implications a divorce would have on their work, their public image, other practicalities. Not once do they mention how it will affect their beloved daughter (who’s playing in front of them!) 
How is this possible? Either the daughter is a piece of furniture (which the book insists is not the case) or something doesn’t work with the storytelling. In fact, if you remove the adored daughter from the book completely, nothing at all will change in the plot.
Timeframes in the book
The time frames are simply announced by a character every time. There’s no feeling of the time passing by. You just read about a few scenes and then you are informed that actually 15 years passed while you were reading them.
Terminology
It’s a minor thing, but it was repeated several times so it is noticeable that a character calls her grief “the devastating luxury of panic”. 
To me it doesn’t sound like an extravagant or sophisticated choice of words but rather like the character doesn’t know proper words for her feelings.
On a positive note
I did love the end of the book! I was preparing myself for something way more simple than that. There was a great twist and an awesome finale as a result. 
I’m giving the book four stars and I will be recommending it to people because it’s beautiful and fast-paced, and it entertains really well.
Great review! It’s perfectly normally to have critique even when you liked a book. Fair points as well. It sounds like the author was maybe not very experienced yet or lacked editing. Is it a debut novel?
Thank you! I actually haven’t thought about this, I mean the fact that it might be her first novel. But I checked and no, she’s been publishing a book a year since 2013 and there are already two other books after Evelyn but one hasn’t been launched yet.
Oh oke well maybe she just focused on other things :p
Yes, looks like it. 🙂
Wonderful review Alexandra! I really liked the headlines of your review!
Thanks Ova! I’m experimenting with the headlines. 🙂 I think I quite like the way they make all the text look more organised.
I’ve heard lots of good things about this book – thank you for also presenting a few of the flaws. It sounds like a fascinating read from an interesting author.
I also heard lots of praises for the book, people absolutely love it. I can see why. It is indeed fascinating. Have you read any other of her books?
No – I’ve never read anything of hers. But I do like the sound of this one…
I loved this novel!! I am a big Jenkins Reid fan, and I definitely think this is one of her best works. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting when I first started reading, but I loved the surprises it gave me. My review of this book will post on my blog in about three weeks — I hope you’ll check it out!
I love that you posted that pic of the green dress from Atonement — I kept thinking of that dress, too, when they talked about Evelyn’s green one (and, of course, whenever I looked at the book cover).
To be honest, I didn’t even know it was from Atonement. I saw it and knew it was the one I needed. Of course I will be looking forward to your review! I’m very happy you liked the book. It’s such a treasure to find a book you really love. I’m going through this with The Mermaid and Mrs.Hancock now. I didn’t even know books still could be THAT good and interesting. I feel very lucky I also found a book I love 😁
The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock is on my TBR list!! Looking forward to that one, especially now that I know you liked it so much. I also just saw that you posted a review about that one, so going to that page now… 🙂