Husbands & Lovers by Beatriz Williams

 

My thoughts

This is the first book I've read by this author. It definitely will not be the last. This book blew me away. It's SO good. So full of feeling and history. 

Two women in different eras. They are related but had no idea. At least one didn't. Not until she lost her biological mother. 

Mallory Dunne tells her story in New England in 2022. Her story goes back in time to when she worked for a rich family as a nanny to twins. To a time when her best friend Monk Adams got her the job. When they fell in love and promised to always be there for each other. Something happened and that promise could not be kept. But years later Mallory's son Sam ate a poisoned mushroom while at sleep away camp and now needs a kidney. 

Then we go back to 1951 Cairo and meet Hannah. Hannah has had terrible hardships in her life. Lost so much because of the war. She met and married a man way older but one who would give her security. Give her financial freedom. Give her a life when she had given up on everything. Hannah meets and falls in love with another man. All she wanted from him in the beginning was a child. 

Many secrets come out of this story. Each timeframe has them. Many tears were shed by these two woman. They both had hardships though different. What happened to make Mallory leave Monk was the most devastating thing I can think of at that time. So was what happened to Hannah but in such a different way. These two women are strong. They are determined. 

The only thing I wish was that in the end more of my questions would have been answered. Like where did Hannah go after what happened. I know what happened to Mallory and wept when I read that. But who was the woman who rescued Hannah? What happened next? Maybe there will be another book? Not sure if that would be good or not but I would read it. 

I enjoyed this book from the first to the last pages. It held me captive. Kept me wanting more. Most of the characters were likable but of course there was a few to hate. I was very pleasantly surprised with how good this book was. I will be reading more by this author. 

Thank you #NetGalley, #BeatrizWilliams, #RandomHousePublishing, for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.

Five big stars and I highly recommend it. It's excellent!

About

New England, 2022. Three years ago, single mother Mallory Dunne received the telephone call every parent dreads—her ten-year-old son Sam had been airlifted from summer camp with acute poisoning from a toxic death cap mushroom, leaving him fighting for his life. Now, in a search for the donor kidney that will give her son a chance for a normal life, Mallory’s forced to confront two harrowing secrets from her past: her mother’s adoption from an infamous Irish orphanage in 1952, and her own all-consuming summer romance fourteen years earlier with her childhood best friend Monk Adams—now one of the world’s most beloved singer-songwriters—a fairytale cut short by an agonizing betrayal.

Cairo, 1951. After suffering tragedy beyond comprehension in the war, Hungarian refugee Hannah Ainsworth has forged a respectable new life for herself—marriage to a wealthy British diplomat, a coveted posting in glamorous Cairo. But a fateful encounter with the enigmatic manager of a hotel bristling with spies leads to a passionate affair that will reawaken Hannah's longing for everything she once lost. As revolution simmers in the Egyptian streets, a pregnant Hannah finds herself snared into a game of intrigue between two men…and an act of sacrifice that will echo down the generations.

Timeless and bittersweet, Husbands And Lovers draws readers on an unforgettable journey of heartbreak and redemption, from the revolutionary fires of midcentury Egypt to the moneyed beaches of contemporary New England. Acclaimed author Beatriz Williams has written a poignant and beautifully voiced novel of deeply human characters entangled by morally complex issues—of privilege, class, and the female experience—inside worlds brought shimmeringly to life.