Gill Paul – The Second Marriage

‘The Second Marriage’ by Gill Paul recreates the 1950s through to the 1970s with this story. I adored reading this, not just because it’s historical fiction, but because it features one of the most famous family’s in the world, the Kennedys.

In the centre of this whole story lies, Aristotle Onassis, Jackie Bouvier Kennedy and the world-famous Maria Callas. I have always been fascinated with Jackie Kennedy from being a child so, for me, this book ticked every box.

The story alternates between Jackie and Maria. We follow Jackie through her marriage to J.F.K, and we experience his assassination and his brother, Bobby’s shooting. Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis in the 1950s to the 1970s had a complicated relationship, to say the least. I must say, I did not know anything about Maria Callas before this book, only that she was a singer and her name. I have to say at this point I was googling as well as reading. It was more to see what was fact and fiction.

The story had me engrossed so I had no idea which was which!
The story follows both women as their lives are interwoven. We see the only similarities between them was that they both came across as wanting to be looked after, protected if you would and both wanted children. That is where the likeness ended. Jackie was very guarded and quite reserved were as Maria came across as more open with her heart on her sleeve.

I cannot state how much I enjoyed this! I felt like I was being educated while being truly entertained at the same time. In my eyes, none of these women won this particular triangle and I finished the story with a bit of a heavy heart.

I liked that Gill Paul has added her notes at the end of the story. They further explained what had happened to the characters and clarified the truth or fiction of the story.

So happy I was asked to take part in the blog tour. Thank you to Random Things Tours and the publisher for my copy of the book for today.