Today it's a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour The Second Marriage by Gill Paul.
Gill Paul's historical novels have reached the top of the USA Today, Toronto Globe & Mail and kindle charts, and been translated into twenty languages.
They include The Second Marriage (titled Jackie and Maria in the US), two bestselling novels about the Romanovs - The Secret Wife and The Lost Daughter - as well as Women and Children First, which was shortlisted for the 2013 RNA Epic Novel of the Year award, No Place For a Lady, shortlisted for a Love Stories award, and Another Woman's Husband, about links you might not have suspected between Wallis Simpson and Princess Diana.
Gill also writes historical non-fiction, including A History of Medicine in 50 Objects, and she speaks at libraries and literary festivals on subjects ranging from the Titanic to the Romanovs.
Gill lives in London, where she is working on her tenth novel, and she swims daily in an outdoor pond.
Follow @GillPaulAuthor on Twitter, on Instagram, on Goodreads,Visit gillpaul.com, Buy The Second Marriage
About the book
Jackie - When her first marriage ends in tragedy, Jackie Kennedy fears she’ll never love again. But all that changes when she encounters…
Ari - Successful and charming, Ari Onassis is a man who promises her the world. Yet soon after they marry, Jackie learns that his heart also belongs to another…
Maria - A beautiful, famed singer, Maria Callas is in love with Jackie’s new husband – and she isn’t going to give up.
Little by little, Jackie and Maria’s lives begin to tangle in a dangerous web of secrets, scandal and lies. But with both women determined to make Ari theirs alone, the stakes are high. How far will they go for true love?
Two of the most famous women of their time had a man in common. A man who wanted to own the voice of Callas, own the tragic widow of the ex-president, whilst his own family became victims of his obsessive behaviour driven by his mega-bucks.
Jackie Kennedy was expected to put up with infidelity, betrayal and a lack of compassion. Brought up to expect no emotional response from her match made in prosperity and political importance, and a mother who did nothing to address the jealousy between Jackie and Lee later in life.
If you know anything about the relationship between Maria Callas and Ari, but perhaps more so about her own life then it's easier to understand the finer nuances the author has picked up on and
used in this fictional story based on factual relationships and history.
Callas was a woman filled with insecurities courtesy of the mother who compared her constantly to the thinner more beautiful sister. Maria was overweight, a face and body she would grow into and was short-sighted. The beauty within was changed for the purposes of belonging to society when she was noticed by a her future husband, a man many decades older, she began to mix in certain circles as she perfected her fantastic voice.
This is how she met the man who would use her as an object to own and parade around like a prize horse, used for sexual gratification when needed. The bird in a cage owned by King Midas. She would ultimately die of a broken heart and the disappointment of unrealised dreams and a career she forfeited for false love.
At the end of the book Paul adds in some extra factual detail which put the lives of all three women into perspective a little more. Why did Jackie pick Ari? Revenge, one-upmanship? I actually think there are comparisons to be made between Diana's controversial choice of Dodi, because she knew what it would mean to the reputation of the Royal Family. The Kennedy family is American political royalty and perhaps Jackie decided it was time to move out of their controlling sphere and cause a stir of her own. Being able to sock it to her sister might have been the crumbs she followed to the choices she made.
What Maria, Ari, Jackie and Lee all have in common is tragedy, perhaps more than the usual amount people experience in a lifetime. Gill captures this well in this saga of love, money, ownership and heartbreak.
Buy The Second Marriage at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Avon; pub date 24 Aug. 2020. Buy at Amazon com.
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