4.5 stars…..

• Book: The Second Marriage
• Location: Europe, United States (USA)
• Author: Gill Paul

Review Author: MiriamSmith

Gill Paul is the best selling author of ‘The Secret Wife’ and her latest publication “The Second Marriage” featuring love, passion and tragedy, based on Jackie Kennedy and Maria Callas, is for me a superb example of women’s historical fiction at it’s best.
Going into the story, I wasn’t fully aware of all the details regarding the love triangle between Jackie Kennedy, Maria Callas and Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. So for me, the details in the story were new, as I didn’t have anything factual to compare it to, other than Jackie being the wife of the American President John F Kennedy who was tragically assassinated.
As the story develops, the smouldering tension between Ari and Maria was palpable and their relationship was a one I was immensely engrossed with.
All of the women in the story led a grief stricken and tragic life, for which no one will ever know the true feeling and emotions they experienced in their real lives. The author in my opinion has managed to convey what she feels would be their true reactions to certain life events with sympathy and compassion and I felt were probably the closest you’d get to their actual lives.
Having recently watched a programme on television, where a camera crew were allowed to film on the Onassis’ floating palace ‘Christina’ and seeing its opulence and grandeur, it made it all the more easy to imagine the story, where the scenes were set on board the yacht.
Featuring many real life people I recognised of the era, including the antics of Marilyn Monroe and her sad demise, Winston Churchill, plus one of the most famous assassinations in American history, I really felt connected to the story and found it a thoroughly entertaining escape from our current modern reality.
I was very pleased to see some historical notes added by the author at the end, which I read with gusto. I even googled more information on the characters to get a further feel for their personalities and history.
Whether a lot was true to facts or whether it was the basis of a very intelligent imagination, I loved this book. Even once I had finished it, the characters were on my mind and I truly wanted to continue reading more. If you like well written historical women’s fiction that reads like a real life Greek tragedy, then I would happily recommend you read “The Second Marriage” (or Jackie and Maria as it’s called in America) and I’ll certainly be looking to read any further novels by Gill Paul again in the future.

4.5 stars

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