And They Called It Camelot: A Novel of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis by Stephanie Marie Thornton: A Book Review
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: 2020
Pages: 480
Source: Publisher/Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis: An intimate portrait of the life of Jackie O…
Few of us can claim to be the authors of our fate. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy knows no other choice. With the eyes of the world watching, Jackie uses her effortless charm and keen intelligence to carve a place for herself among the men of history and weave a fairy tale for the American people, embodying a senator’s wife, a devoted mother, a First Lady—a queen in her own right.
But all reigns must come to an end. Once JFK travels to Dallas and the clock ticks down those thousand days of magic in Camelot, Jackie is forced to pick up the ruined fragments of her life and forge herself into a new identity that is all her own, that of an American legend.
My Review: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was one of America’s most fashionable First Ladies. She was also a symbol of America’s strength on the dark day when her husband, John F. Kennedy was assassinated. In this historical retelling of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s life, Jackie is shown as a wife, mother and ultimately a survivor.
And They Called It Camelot is a very personal and intimate look at Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. In this novel, it felt like the First Lady’s own autobiography. The reader got to delve into her head as she goes through her two marriages with her husbands- John F. Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was a strong character and had to go through many personal tragedies. She lost three of her children. Both of her husbands were unfaithful to them, and she had to bury them. My heart ached for her each time she had to face a loss. However, I admired her courage to rouse herself out of grief to support her own children. Her children were her strengths. Thus, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was mostly a wife and a mother first and was America’s First Lady second. She was also a woman of perseverance.
Overall, this novel was an in-depth psyche of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. All the characters were very complex. I thought Mrs. Thornton depicted the infamous historical figures very well, especially John F. Kennedy. He was shown as a very complex person who frequently reverted to his bachelor’s ways. My favorite aspect of this novel was Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s relationship with Bobby Kennedy. And They Called It Camelot was a very engrossing read from the first page till the last! Even though it is long, it was a novel that I did not want to end! The novel was very fast-paced that begins by detailing her courtship with John F. Kennedy! This novel will linger with you long after you have finished reading the last page! I recommend this novel for fans of The Kennedy Debutante, The Lost Diary of M, and The Pink Suit! And They Called It Camelot is a symptom banquet for anyone that loves reading about America’s First Ladies!
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
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