The Second Marriage

Wonderful!

I would expect nothing less from Gill Paul but this truly is something wonderful. It's as if she knew Maria Callas and Jackie Kennedy and has taken the hand of these women and imagined what it must have been like to be them, to have their privilege and chances in life but still have the light of the worlds media in their eyes. When they wanted love and affection, they were at their most vulnerable and this novel shows you how these women dealt with their lot in life.

It's a gift to be able to bring two such iconic women to life and make it feel authentic,as if Gill has taken their diaries with their innermost thoughts and written them down. These two women are fascinating and enigmatic in their own right but to see their love affairs, how Maria came to sing, how she fell for Onassis, how Jackie came to love Onassis after JFK...oh what a tangled web we weave!

We might think we know the story but Gill has taken that and mixed it with magic and exquisite research of her own.

Recommended!

An incredible interpretation of two tumultuous historical love affairs, where truth is interlaced with fiction. I can’t recommend it enough!

Thanks to netgalley for an early copy in return for an honest review.
Once again gill paul pulls it off again, this Author has a way of working the reader to where she wants them totally captivated.
Having read most of this author's work I think this is one of her best to date.
A must read for all.

The Second Marriage by Gill Paul is an excellent historical fiction that centers around two well-known women in the life of Aristotle Onassis: opera singer Maria Callas and Jaqueline Kennedy. Both characters are unique and formidable women in their own rights and both end up vying for the affection of one man.

I have read many fiction and nonfiction books in regards to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and the Kennedy family in general, so I had an idea of the situations and outcomes from a biographical aspect, however I have never read anything from a fictional aspect. It was refreshing, unique, engaging, riveting, and kept me enthralled despite knowing a great bit of detail already (which says something of the author’s talent to keep me interested).

I was thoroughly impressed and enjoyed this book immensely.

5/5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and Avon Books UK for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR (links below) and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon and B&N accounts upon publication.

I absolutely loved this book! I have read most of Gill Paul's books and this one did not disappoint. I love to be introduced to characters in history I know very little about.
The story is based around Jackie Kennedy and Maria Callas; 2 women I again knew very little about. Although their stories are quite separate they are linked by the men in their lives. I enjoyed learning more about them & felt I knew their characters by the end.
As much as there is an element of fiction to the story much of it is factually based. A triumph!

I absolutely devoured this book. I adored it. The characters, atmosphere, emotion were all so amazingly crafted that it was simply not possible to put this book down at times, and then when I did have to put it down, I kept thinking about it.

The story tells the lives of two glamorous women- Maria Callas and Jackie Kennedy and gives the reader an insight into their lives. I was so drawn in by it, learning all about them, what it's like to live such a public life and coping with the press and fans etc. I didn't know how the two women were linked before so it was intriguing to watch the story unfold.

The way that Gill Paul creates atmosphere and brings the past to life is amazing.

This is the perfect read to enjoy this summer. If you like books where you feel like you have really got to know the characters and it's set within a glamorous, seductive backdrop, then this is just for you!

This was an absolute joy from start to finish. Beautifully written and descriptive prose. I could not put it down.

Within the pages the reader is transported to the era of Jackie Kennedy and Maria Callas. This book tells the fictional story of how both their lives became entwined with that of Aristotle Onassis. It is a world of privilege and glamour and offers a glimpse into how the ultra rich lived.

Although this is a fictional account of those times, I feel that we really do get an idea of the personalities of both these amazing women, and an insight into the opulence of their surroundings. In the case of Maria Callas, who was renowned by the press for being a very difficult woman, it is very refreshing to see the story written sympathetically from her perspective.

There is no doubt that both women endured huge upset and difficulties throughout their lives, mostly caused by the men they were involved with, but this novel shows the strength of character that they possessed as they overcome their obstacles with strength and decorum. Ultimately when all is said and done and the men have moved on, the ladies remain standing strong.

Gill Paul beautifully describes the locations, making the reader want to stow away aboard the Christina to the Greek Islands with Jackie and Maria.

This is such a lovely book. I would highly recommend it for any historical fiction fans. It will not disappoint.

Maria Callas, Jackie Kennedy and man between them - Ari Onassis. Great story, Unique characters, great read.

Excellent historical fiction.

5 stars is simply not enough !! ( I read and reviewed this book under the title The Second Marriage)

Gill Paul has written another masterful captivating book based on history and put into a story I could not put down.

Historical fiction at its best.

Jacqueline Kennedy and Maria Callas, both having equal time in the story and both having a life story that pulls the reader in.

You feel like you are sitting there having a cocktail with these ladies( not together mind you). You laugh with them, you cry with them .

I wont give any more away but suffice to say put this book no matter the title to the top of your TBR pile.

Thanks to NetGalley, Avon Books UK, Avon for allowing me to get to lost in this fascinating story of 2 fascinating ladies.

A really great read.Love how this author manages to mix real people in history and fiction together to create a great story.Love Gills books.

I should start by saying that I was not expecting to like this book, I love to read about the Kennedys, though mostly factual books and I’d previously read a book by this author which I didn’t enjoy.
However this book......I loved it.
It tells the story of Maria Callas, Aristotle Onassis and Jackie Kennedy. Alternating between Maria Callas and Jackie’s point of view the story draws you in quickly. The author has wisely chosen to focus on the women, their day to day lives and feelings. Historical events are dealt with but only as they affect the lives of Maria and Jackie, This makes the book feel intimate and made sure it held my interest,
The characters are well drawn and realistic, I loved Maria, less so Jackie and even found myself caring about Onassis whom the author manages to portray in a realistic yet still sympathetic light. The selfishness of the characters is here, as it was in real life, fairly mind blowing, but I still found myself caring about them.
All in all I loved this and I wasn’t expecting to.
I’m going back now to look at others by the author.

I love Gil Paul’s books. The way she gets into the minds of her characters makes me believe her implicitly. This book tells at first two separate stories. One of Jackie Kennedy and one of opera singer Maria Callas. I knew quite a bit about Jackie but nothing about Maria Callas.
Being an opera singer was a real tough life. Rehearsing for hours each and having to look after your voice only to be booed during a performance if one note is not up to scratch. I felt so sorry for Maria all through the book especially the way she was treated by Aristotle Onassis.
The book takes us through the assassination of president Kennedy and emotional story behind it. How did Jackie feel? What did she do next?
I don’t believe that Jackie loved Onassis, I think she wanted him for security and because she was used to the riches and didn’t know what to do with her life next. I wish she had spoke with Maria and found out the truth of her relationship with Onassis.
Onassis on the other hand was unlikable to me. He wasn’t good looking but wanted to bed every woman he saw. He liked to have his conquests. I think money was the only attraction to him for most women.
I couldn’t put this book down it was a real page turner. I always expect a good read from Gil Paul.
The only thing that didn’t gel with me is the title. I don’t think it gives you any clue what the book is about. The American title of Jackie and Maria is much better.

This was another gripping, emotive book from Gill Paul. A period of history not often covered in this genre, but one I could read more and more of. I didn't think I could love a book more than The Lost Daughter, but The Second Marriage is perhaps my new favourite.

Jackie's story is an absolute rollercoaster and I found myself completely hooked and caught up in her POV.

Maria also offered a really interesting new take on such an epic, almost fairy-tale love story. Gill is a masterful storyteller and watching these three characters come alive on the page was a testament to how brilliantly she writes.

What the novel also does is take us into the minds of Jackie and Maria telling the love triangle from both points of views in alternate timelines. Callas is a remarkable woman with a wonderful back story in her own right. And the author raises the question of what made this remarkable, self-made 20th century icon leave her husband to become another man’s mistress? Does Gill answer the question – it would appear for love. And Callas remained Onassis’ one true love until his death.

The novel is forensically researched and pays great attention to detail. Although it reimagines the truth. Kennedy and Callas are believed to have only met once; and there is no evidence to support the theory that Callas and Onassis ever had a child.

The historical fiction does not detract from what is a wonderful book, possibly my favourite Gill Paul novel so far, and I found The Secret Wife very difficult to top.

Really good read. Would recommend to friends and family. I could sympathise with characters (important for any fiction novel!) and looked forward to picking it up and reading the next few chapters! Interesting plot line and a good ending. Will look out for more novels by the author. Thank you.

Triumphant! What an amazing book I absolutely loved it. It is about the 2 main women in Aristotle Onassis' life but this is also the backdrop to their lives which was so intrigung and answered some of the questions I had about them as I knew some things but not all. Whilst the book is fiction having looked further at events so much of this is real which makes it all the better. Once I had finshed reading it I was still thinking about it 2 days later which is always a sign of a good book. Brilliant. I will certainly be lookng for more books by Gill Paul

I am not quite sure what I feel about this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it but when I read that Maria Callas and Jackie Kennedy had probably never met, I felt quite disappointed.
However, it was well written and kept me engrossed to the very end so I have given it 5 stars and will definitely read another Gill Paul book.
Thank you Netgalley and Avon Books for giving me the opportunity to give my unbiased opinion.

This book was absolutely fascinating to read and it was hard to believe it was a work of fiction! It read so plausibly and was an incredibly interesting account of the world of well-known individuals such as Jackie Kennedy, Aristotle Onassis, JFK and Maria Callas. Highly recommended!

This was an interesting historical women's fiction based on the lives of Jackie Kennedy and the world-famous opera singer, Maria Callas. Two very different personalities but both share an affair with Aristotle Onassis.

I was hooked on right from the start and wanted to learn more about these two women. It covers their glamorous lives, tragedies, lack of privacy and relationship with the paparazzi.

The amount of research that the author has done for this book is commendable. I’ve never read a historical fiction novel before so I learnt a lot from this book.

Thank You to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for this ARC!

Really enjoyed this book, incredibly engaging and had excellent portrayals of two very public women that were invariably complex characters.

I knew of Jackie Kennedy but not much about Aristotle Onassis or Maria Callas so it was a pleasure to discover more about them through this novel.

I always felt sorry for the two women in the novel but never for Ari because he held these two women like a pawn and played with them over and over.

We will never know his true motivations but the man was incredibly charismatic.

I liked that the book didn’t shy away from the infidelity of Maria, Jack and Ari at different points, it’s just a case of reframing each situation and the author masterfully makes us feel sympathy for each character even when they’re doing wrong.

Would highly recommend!

I am ashamed to say that 'The Second Marriage' was my first book by the author Gill Paul, it will definitely not be my last!! What a wonderful book. Thank you so much to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this. I have always been interested in Jackie Kennedy and would have read a lot about her life and her loves. I only knew Maria Callas as a wonderful singer. This fictional book based on historical events around the love triangle that existed between these two formidable ladies and the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis was so beautifully written. I will be recommending this to everyone.

Once again an interesting historical fiction. Fascinating characters. Paul seems to be spot on with the characters and their feeling of emotions through so many different occasions. It is really difficult to spot what is fiction, that's how smooth the writing is. It's appealing when the author posts wee snippets of historical fact on social media so it draws you to the book but it also shows how much the author has researched the characters and what has happened in the situation to be so. I try to catch any Gill Paul books that I find.

Highly recommend

Thank you for the chance to read this bool for a full and frank review.

I enjoyed this book very much - at times it was difficult to remember that it was a novel based on some of the facts rather than a biography.

I am glad that Gill Paul put the acknowledgements at the end and explained how and why she wrote some parts the way she did.
It is the story of the life and loves of Aristotle Onassis and primarily his relationships with Maria Callas and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy amongst others. I was too young in the early 60s to understand the historical significance of the assassination of JFK and in any case we did not have a TV - so I didn't feel influenced by what I might have remembered of the times.
Of course in these days we can verify facts and listen to the melodic voice of Maria Callas easily on the internet. It was also possible to find photographs of her - I needed to see how she did her eye make-up for instance.
It was a book that I found hard to put down and as I read before I go to sleep I had a few late nights.!

A thoroughly enjoyable read.

I have always been fascinated by these two iconic women and the circles in which they moved, so it has been wonderful to read a novel that fleshes out the bones of their lives, both fictional and factual. The author cleverly dovetails their two stories as they move from the 1950s, through the 1960s and into the 1970s. The balance of the story, as it moves between their lives, works well and other pivotal people feed into the narrative as it builds, placing Aristotle Onassis, shipping magnate extraordinaire, in his central role between the two women.

Onassis and Maria Callas had a fiery relationship over a decade and at some level it worked well for them. But he was never faithful to her, always looking for the next conquest. She was portrayed in the press as a capricious diva but the author really picks up on the misogyny around her when she was trying to be the best she could be.

Jackie Bouvier married Jack Kennedy and of course we are familiar with their story. As President of the United States and First Lady the image that sticks is of Jack's assassination in the back of an open-top Cadillac, leaving Jackie Kennedy cradling the remains of her husband's head and brains, as the car sped to the nearest hospital. Trauma in the Kennedy family almost became the norm (often dubbed the Kennedy Curse) and a little later Senator Bobby Kennedy, Jack's brother, was also killed.  Further down the line there were more untimely deaths in the clan, which Jackie, fortunately, never had to witness.

These events left her vulnerable, suffering no doubt from PTSD, and Onassis already had his eye on this stylish, trophy companion and erstwhile First Lady. Back in Paris he was still seeing Callas who was desperate for a ring on her finger and marriage. He never acquiesced to her desire of marriage, whether that was his ultimate control or whether he couldn't acknowledge his neediness of her is unclear. He certainly was a controlling and ruthless predator, yet his charm won over so many. Once an enemy, however, always an enemy.

What the author does so well is delve into these lives of the rich and famous and conjure up the cloying, incestuous nature of the liaisons. Jackie's sister Lee was thought to have had an affair with Jack and she certainly had a relationship with Onassis before Jackie. Onassis's ex wife Tina went on to marry his arch nemesis Niarchos. There seems to have been so much revenge and punitive behaviour around that it made my hair stand on end. Money was no object but people? They could almost be traded and bought off.

I found it to be a riveting novel, with a very easy to read style. Recommended if you have interest in the era and like to 'people watch'.

Thoroughly enjoyed this largely fictitious account of Jackie Kennedy and Maria Callas, starting in early 1960's. A very readable book with enough fact to feel I have learned something.

I had just finished reading "Jackie et Lee" by Stephanie Des Horts when I saw that publication.

What an amazing read! I loved The Second Marriage. It is so well written - a fiction but based on historical facts.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for an egalley in exchange for an honest review.

Two women- Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy and Maria Callas. One man, Aristotle Onassis. In Gill Paul's latest novel, The Second Marriage or Jackie and Maria, we are presented with the parallel lives of two extraordinary women through the 1950s-1970s and the man that desired them both. Admittedly, it's very " soapy" and maybe a little melodramatic. But I fell for all of it hook, line, and sinker and I would love to see it become a mini-series( Netflix? Amazon Prime?). So yes, it was a very naughty addictive pleasure.

Let's talk about these two women! Jackie Kennedy, there's so much that we all think we know about her. We know that her in-laws gave her a hard time, that she had to deal with Jack's infidelity, and of course Dallas in 1963. But I had absolutely no idea how Jackie was often interpreted by the American media. They didn't like the way she spoke, that in Jack's run to the presidency that she dressed in French instead of American fashion, and did they ever attack her when she decided to remarry. Oh and all the trauma that she endured after Jack's death and how frightened she was for her children. Lots of emotions while reading her narrative.

Jackie Kennedy, herself is quite the person to write about, but I loved this introduction to Maria Callas. I actually listened to a lot of the latter's opera as I was reading this book. What a voice! What a lady! I was mesmerized by the way her story unfolded in this novel. Jackie and Maria "shared" the pages quite well and I could certainly understand the attraction that many of their contemporaries had for both of them. A day after completing my read of this book and I must say that I have so much admiration for both of these women.

Included in the book are the many resources that the author consulted during the writing of the book and of course, some of the scenes that happen in the course of the writing are created by the author and might not actually have occurred in real life. But we often get that in our movies too and the author is upfront and honest about it, so I would hope that wouldn't deter other readers from giving it a shot. I also want to stress that this is about two ADULT women, neither Jackie nor Maria are catty or petty towards one another. They show their frustrations and share their anguish about the way in which Onassis handles his relationships with them. Since we are seeing it through the eyes of these two women, he really doesn't come off looking like an angel.


I would certainly recommend this to my fellow readers. #TheSecondMarriage #NetGalley


Goodreads review published 14/08/20
Expected publication date 24/08/20

As a piece of historical fiction I found this quite unputdownable, it follows the story of three of recent history’s most well known characters. Maria Callas the famous soprano opera singer, Jackie Kennedy the former First Lady and Aristotle Onassis shipping magnate.

Maria Callas was Onassis’s lover for many years and was the reason his first wife divorced him. Jackie Kennedy was the wife of JFK he came to a very tragic end and it was after that she married Onassis and became known as Jackie O. At the heart of the story was Onassis a man who manipulated and lied to these two women.

The book seems to be more sympathetic towards Maria Callas whom Onassis treated very badly throughout their association, but she allowed him to treat her that way, so really it was on her. The portrayal of Jackie as basically a gold digger even Onassis was shocked at how much money of his she spent, was quite an eye opener. I struggled to see how many women were willing to put up with his treatment of them, had he not had such a large bank account I doubt any of these women would have given him a second look.

Overall despite being a well written book and judging it as a piece of fiction it’s a very good read. Factually much in this is already in the public domain, as to more intimate scenes the author has speculated and used a bit of artistic licence. I found it very difficult to find and connection with any of the characters, they are all spoiled and pampered and used to having their own way in everything. But money even lots of money cannot buy you happiness as this story proves.

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley

A novel based on real people. The story of Maria Callas and Jackie Kennedy and their relationships with Aristotle Onassis.
Whilst no one knows exactly what occurred between these characters I think this comes across as realistic.

An interesting and insightful tale