this was heart wrenching and incredible, the way taylor is able to show the urge and desire to be with one true love for evelyn and celia is amazing and i just love how she weaves in her husbands and how everyone of them where different for different reasons. did i read half of the book in a day yes, as i couldn’t put it down as it made me want to dive my nose further into the book with the structure with the short chapters and how it flowed in general with the back and forth of monique and evelyn telling their parts of their story. also the plottwist at the end gave me goosebumps with monqiue’s dad being in love with precious harry (love him) was something i did not expect and was clever of taylor to bring that it towards the end with monique’s mum explaining that their relationship was not focused on the sexual aspect but then being soulmates/best friends and how that paralleled to evelyn and harry being in a relationship as they was best friends and soulmates. also an element i really appreciate is fuck labels, it was clear from the beginning evelyn didn’t wanted to be mistaken to be a lesbian but bisexual and how people kept erasing her “other half” if she was with men or with women like celia, and monqiue’s dad not having a label apart from that he loved his wife and child was all that mattered. this book’s core is about family and to choose the people you love over money and ambition as family is what makes you stronger as evelyn says she can have more money than ever but wouldn’t be fulfilled with happiness without celia. this book is a huge fuck you to men which i agree especially with a heavy focus on abuse and possession especially through evelyn’s life of men only wanting to be with her for the sake of her body or her fame. with monqiue’s quote saying that ev’s breasts brought her success but would also took her down, that got me and me so upset as that grew attention pos/neg. a lot of the time i was questioning evelyn’s choices but she had to do what she thought would work even at the end it didn’t really as she said she wasted time hiding her truth than living it. this book also covered how people would blame others to hide something about them that would ruin their career and life wether that be evelyn with pretending monqiue’s dad caused the accident and to pretend harry was innocent to protect him from jail or evelyn in general keep marrying to hide who she is and to pass the blame on her husbands than face her truth and to strive with her ambition to get what she wants, at the end realised it wasn’t the fame but to be with a family that loves her unlike what she had with her abusive father. this book is so interesting with the themes of fame and rich and the male gaze and racism and ambition which i have highlighted throughout as the story progressed it encouraged me to read more which is why this is a 5 star book.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Cancer, Car accident, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cultural appropriation, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Outing, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship