Jackie and Maria was a wonderful historical fiction novel written by Gill Paul. The Jackie in the title refers to the most famous Jackie in history- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The author did a wonderful job in combining story telling with facts about many famous people in this book. I would never describe myself as a Kennedy fangirl but I definitely find the family intriguing and their appearances in history of the US fascinating.
I enjoyed how Paul intertwined much of the Kennedy political/policy legacy into the story without dwelling on those facts too much. It made me think about the Kennedy Center and how it probably evolved from Jackie's passion for the arts which is woven into this story to tie her storyline to Marie Callas in a manner other than Ari Onassis.
I'm sure Kennedy purists won't like this book and several reviews confirm that, but I thought the author did a wonderful job of using facts to create a well woven story. This is actually the second story I read in 2022 that involves the Kennedy; the other being The Kennedy Debutante about Kick Kennedy who has a brief mention in this story.
I have always been intrigued by the Kennedys but had only read Clint Hill's account of life as Mrs. Kennedy's Secret Service Agent and his perspectives on the couple who changed much of America's political story. I also have Jackie, Janet and Lee on my TBR list this year coincidentally as it is a book from TBR list that was selected for my Randomizer challenge. I am curious to see how much of the biography confirms the story line content in this novel.
Coincidentally if you are doing a challenge where the prompt for a book by a different title is included this book will work as it is also titled the Second Marriage.
Jackie and Maria: A Novel of Jackie Kennedy & Maria Callas by Gill Paul
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is very good historical fiction account of Jackie Kennedy and her relationship with JFK and Onassis. It is Interesting to me to learn about parts of her relationships that lead to possible interactions with other famous people in history. The author is very clear in her note on what is based on fact vs her fictional accounts. I didn’t really know much about Onassis except rich Greek shipping magnate that was Jackie’s 2nd husband. I knew nothing about Maria Callas but I am intrigued to learn more. A good read if you like fictionalizes accounts about real historical figures
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Challenge Prompts
The Challenge Prompts I will use this for are:
- Library Love #LibraryLoveChallenge Book #45
- Literary Escapes #LiteraryEscapes Greece
- AtoZ #2022AtoZReadingChallenge #AlphabetSoupChallenge J
- 2022TBR #2022ReadingChallenge #2 Controversial
- Virtual Mount TBR #VirtualMountTBR2022 Book #55
- Back List Reader #Backlistreader Book #45
- Historic Fiction #histficreadingchallenge Book #7
- 52 Book Club #the52bookclub #19 A book that has an alternate title
- Around the Year in 52 Books # 48. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2021 or 2022
- BooklistQueen #booklistqueenreadingchallenge2022 #20. Literary Fiction
- Beat the Backlist #BTB2022 #31 features royalty
- Nerdy Bookworm #NerdyBookwormChallengeXO #30 Read a book that has the friend's to lover's trope
- Nancy Drew #41. The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes (1964) - read a book where the mc plays a musical instrument
- Nerd Daily #NERDREADING2022 #51 multiple perspectives
- PopSugar #popsugarreadingchallenge #48. A book with two POVs
- Pick your Poison #82 a book about a legendary hero
- RAD challenge #aradreadingchallenge #
- What's in a Name #
- While I was Reading #
- Monthly Motif #MonthlyMotifGXO
- Monthly Keyword #MonthlyKeyWordGXO
- Reading Randomizer
- Beyond the Bookends
- Book Voyage #bookvoyagechallenge
- Diversify your reading #DYRC22 May: History & Biography
- Lifetime of Reading
- Uncorked Reader #UncorkedReading2022
- Unruly Reader Bingo #
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