Name: The Golden Hour
Rating: 5.0 (1 reviews)
Author: Beatriz Williams

About this book

Summary

Book Summary

The New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Wives and A Certain Age creates a dazzling epic of World War II-era Nassau - a hotbed of spies, traitors, and the most infamous couple of the age, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

The Bahamas, 1941. Newly-widowed Leonora "Lulu" Randolph arrives in Nassau to investigate the Governor and his wife for a New York society magazine. After all, American readers have an insatiable appetite for news of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, that glamorous couple whose love affair nearly brought the British monarchy to its knees five years earlier. What more intriguing backdrop for their romance than a wartime Caribbean paradise, a colonial playground for kingpins of ill-gotten empires?

Or so Lulu imagines. But as she infiltrates the Duke and Duchess's social circle, and the powerful cabal that controls the islands' political and financial affairs, she uncovers evidence that beneath the glister of Wallis and Edward's marriage lies an ugly—and even treasonous—reality. In fact, Windsor-era Nassau seethes with spies, financial swindles, and racial tension, and in the middle of it all stands Benedict Thorpe: a scientist of tremendous charm and murky national loyalties. Inevitably, the willful and wounded Lulu falls in love.

Then Nassau's wealthiest man is murdered in one of the most notorious cases of the century, and the resulting coverup reeks of royal privilege. Benedict Thorpe disappears without a trace, and Lulu embarks on a journey to London and beyond to unpick Thorpe's complicated family history: a fateful love affair, a wartime tragedy, and a mother from whom all joy is stolen.

The stories of two unforgettable women thread together in this extraordinary epic of espionage, sacrifice, human love, and human courage, set against a shocking true crime...and the rise and fall of a legendary royal couple.

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Media Reviews

"A fresh take on the WWII love story, with a narrator who practically demands Myrna Loy come back to life to play her in the movie." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Williams illuminates the story with exotic locales and bygone ambiance, and seduces with the irresistible Windsors. Readers will appreciate the wartime espionage that keeps the suspense high." - Publishers Weekly

This information about The Golden Hour was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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Cathryn Conroy

Once You Start Reading, You Won't Want to Stop! This Novel Left Me Spellbound
Oooh! Oooh! Oooh! What a book! It has it all: a historical thriller that doubles as a love story (actually two love stories), incredible writing, a colorful cast of characters, and a plot that is so compelling you had better order out because you won't want to stop reading to do something as mundane as make dinner for your family.

Written by Beatrix Williams, who I think is THE best living ChickLit writer, this is two seemingly disparate stories that eventually intertwine and then connect.

The first, which takes place in the early 1900s, is about Elfriede, an 18-year-old German beauty who marries a baron and suffers horribly from postpartum depression. She is summarily shipped off to a psychiatric facility in Switzerland to come to her senses. Instead, while there she meets the man who will be the love of her life.

Paralleling this is the story of Lulu, which takes place primarily in the Bahamas at the start of World War II. Lulu, who isn't all she appears to be on the surface, is sent to Nassau to write a monthly gossip column for a New York magazine—a column that is focused on the Duke and Duchess of Wales. Better known as Prince Edward and Wallis Simpson, the couple were essentially banished to the Caribbean after he abdicated the throne, and their friendship with Hitler became not only embarrassing, but also problematic to Great Britain.

While in Nassau, Lulu meets Benedict Thorpe, who is supposedly on the island as a botanist, but is really a spy, and the two fall madly in love at the most inopportune time. Add to this breathtaking plot twists of espionage and murder coupled with bravery, daring, and a kind of courage that borders on fearlessness, and the result is a captivating read.

The multilayered plot is not only juicy, but also intelligent and imaginative. Rich in historical detail, the book ingeniously alternates the two stories with each chapter ending in its own little cliffhanger. Truly, once you start reading it, you won't want to stop. This novel left me spellbound!

Tip: In the first pages of the book, reference is made to the 1890 short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and it serves as a thematic anchor to Elfriede's life. I highly recommend reading this very short tale before you read "The Golden Hour."

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Author Information

Biography
Books by this Author

Beatriz Williams Author Biography

Beatriz Williams is the New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling author of The Golden Hour, The Summer Wives, The Secret Life of Violet Grant, A Hundred Summers, and several other works of historical fiction, including three novels in collaboration with fellow bestselling authors Karen White and Lauren Willig. A graduate of Stanford University with an MBA in Finance from Columbia University, Beatriz worked as a communications and corporate strategy consultant in New York and London before she turned her attention to writing novels that combine her passion for history with an obsessive devotion to voice and characterization. Beatriz's books have won numerous awards, have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and appear regularly in bestseller lists around the ...

... Full Biography
Link to Beatriz Williams's Website