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A review by mishale1
Another Woman's Husband by Gill Paul
4.0
I loved this. I find the royal family interesting, I love historical fiction and have always found Wallis Simpson interesting.
This book is about Rachel, Mary Kirk and Wallis Simpson more than anything. Ironically the Princess Diana story isn’t a huge part of the story. No harm there.
Rachel gets engaged to her film maker boyfriend, it’s 1997 and they are behind Princess Diana after she gets into her infamous fatal accident.
Rachel’s fiancé finds a piece of jewelry on the scene and gives it to her for safe keeping.
Soon afterwards, he decides to make a film about Princess Diana’s death.
He becomes completely obsessed with conspiracy theories and starts to neglect Rachel.
They don’t know much, they do know that she was coming from the former home of Wallis Simpson.
The other timeline in the story begins in 1911 when Wallis Warfield and Mary Kirk meet as teenagers. They begin an immediate friendship. Mary was the closest friend Wallis every had and their friendship went on for many years. Wallis married first and moved away. This was the first fracture in their friendship. But their relationship persisted. Soon after, Mary got married too. They went from a childhood friendship to adult friends, dealing with the dramas their lives brought. Sometimes Mary could be jealous of Wallis and her unique personality. Wallis could charm anyone. If Wallis wanted something, she would make absolutely sure that she got it.
When husband #1 turned out to be a loss, Wallis decided husband #2 would be Ernest Simpson. The problem? Ernest was already married to Mary’s friend. But Wallis still got what she wanted.
This put another fracture in her relationship with Mary for several reasons.
And when Wallis had her chance to charm the future king of England, well, she was up to the challenge.
With no real knowledge of the situation, I used to just see Wallis and the King’s relationship as romantic. A kind abdicating the throne to marry his true love? What could be more romantic than that? But as I’ve learned more about the story (divorced? Not exactly. Nazi sympathizers? What?!) it has felt less so.
That said, it’s still incredibly interesting!
It makes for a great book, whether told as historical fiction or true.
I enjoyed the way this book was written. I was even interested in all the afterwards and historical notes. The author made it all feel so real that you didn’t know which parts were fact or fiction.
This book is about Rachel, Mary Kirk and Wallis Simpson more than anything. Ironically the Princess Diana story isn’t a huge part of the story. No harm there.
Rachel gets engaged to her film maker boyfriend, it’s 1997 and they are behind Princess Diana after she gets into her infamous fatal accident.
Rachel’s fiancé finds a piece of jewelry on the scene and gives it to her for safe keeping.
Soon afterwards, he decides to make a film about Princess Diana’s death.
He becomes completely obsessed with conspiracy theories and starts to neglect Rachel.
They don’t know much, they do know that she was coming from the former home of Wallis Simpson.
The other timeline in the story begins in 1911 when Wallis Warfield and Mary Kirk meet as teenagers. They begin an immediate friendship. Mary was the closest friend Wallis every had and their friendship went on for many years. Wallis married first and moved away. This was the first fracture in their friendship. But their relationship persisted. Soon after, Mary got married too. They went from a childhood friendship to adult friends, dealing with the dramas their lives brought. Sometimes Mary could be jealous of Wallis and her unique personality. Wallis could charm anyone. If Wallis wanted something, she would make absolutely sure that she got it.
When husband #1 turned out to be a loss, Wallis decided husband #2 would be Ernest Simpson. The problem? Ernest was already married to Mary’s friend. But Wallis still got what she wanted.
This put another fracture in her relationship with Mary for several reasons.
And when Wallis had her chance to charm the future king of England, well, she was up to the challenge.
With no real knowledge of the situation, I used to just see Wallis and the King’s relationship as romantic. A kind abdicating the throne to marry his true love? What could be more romantic than that? But as I’ve learned more about the story (divorced? Not exactly. Nazi sympathizers? What?!) it has felt less so.
That said, it’s still incredibly interesting!
It makes for a great book, whether told as historical fiction or true.
I enjoyed the way this book was written. I was even interested in all the afterwards and historical notes. The author made it all feel so real that you didn’t know which parts were fact or fiction.