Author : Gill Paul
Title : Another Woman’s Husband
Pages : 464
Publisher : Headline Books
Publication date : August 17, 2017

Two women, divided by time, bound by a secret…

1911. Aged just fifteen, Mary Kirk and Wallis Warfield meet at summer camp. Their friendship will survive heartbreaks, continents, and the demands of the English crown, until it is shattered by one unforgivable betrayal.

1997. Kendall’s romantic break in Paris with her fiance is interrupted when the taxi in front crashes suddenly. The news soon follows: Princess Diana is dead. Trying to forget what she has witnessed, Rachel returns home, where the discovery of a long-forgotten link to Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, will lead her to the truth of a scandal which shook the world.

Gill Paul’s The Secret Wife was one of my top 5 books last year so when the opportunity to read and review Another Woman’s Husband came my way, I may have done a little jig around my living room. When I finally settled down to read, I immediately knew I was in for another treat.

August 31st, 1997. For many of us, this date is probably burnt into our brains. This day is how the story starts when Rachel and her fiancé, Alex, find themselves in a taxi right behind the car accident that claims the life of Princess Diana. Alex is a tv producer and is quickly lost in a cloud of obsession in an attempt to figure out the events of that night. As interesting as those chapters were, touching on the various conspiracy theories, for me the true strength of the novel lies in the chapters about Wallis.

1911. Mary Kirk meets Wallis Simpson at a summer camp. Their friendship will endure many ups and downs until one final act of betrayal.

Of course, I’d heard of Wallis Simpson and her place in history. But I didn’t know anything else about her. Her story is told through Mary’s eyes and it’s just so incredibly fascinating to read about as we follow Wallis from her teenage years all the way to her marriage to the King who abdicated the throne for her.

Rich in atmosphere and history, this story had me hooked until the very last word on the very last page and while I was quite sad to see it end, I was also utterly delighted to have had the chance to read this absolute gem of a novel. Fact and fiction flow together seamlessly, intertwined with a nice dose of intrigue that had me wondering throughout how on earth these two iconic women could possibly be connected. The author has such a wonderful writing style, full of fabulously vivid descriptions that I found myself completely immersed and could almost hear the music or the clinking of cocktail glasses.

This is historical fiction at its finest and would make a truly fabulous movie. If Gill Paul hadn’t already been on my list of go-to authors, she most definitely would be now. I absolutely loved this and I feel that even if you aren’t necessarily a lover of historical fiction, you too will greatly enjoy this novel! I can’t possibly describe how excited I am about the author’s next offering.

I can’t thank author Gill Paul and Phoebe at Headline Books enough for my advanced copy, which I received via Netgalley and chose to review honestly!

Another Woman’s Husband will be published on August 17th.

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