Today I am delighted to be part of the blog tour for Wonderful. My review is written with thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me on the blog tour and to the author for my copy of the book.

Blurb:

A Hollywood idol. The Virgin Mary. An everyday girl from Hull.

Three women, three eras, surprising things in common…

On 4th August 1962, the night she should have died, Marilyn Monroe – the biggest star in the world – receives a visitor who changes the course of her destiny. The Virgin Mary appears in her kitchen with a curious message. Inspired, Marilyn abandons her home, her life, her fame, and disappears into the night…

Fifty-four years later, in a Hull kitchen, Flora Baker finds Mary, bathed in light. She has a similar message for the working class woman who is on the poverty line and dreaming of a better life. Flora begins to make changes that impact not only her life but the lives of those around her…

Do Marilyn and Flora have more in common than just Mary’s visit? Are they somehow linked across time? And is Mary’s message for all the women of the world?

Wonderful is about the way women are portrayed in both history and the world of celebrity, about women not being quiet, and about women united by the shared stories that shape them.

Review:

If you’ve read my reviews before, you’ll be well aware of how much I love Louise Beech, both the lady and her writing. I’ve been looking forward to reading Wonderful from the moment Louise Beech announced she was working on it, and it didn’t disappoint at all. It was, well, wonderful. 

I must admit that I knew very little about Marilyn Monroe prior to reading Wonderful, but I could tell from the very beginning that this was a labour of love for Louise Beech. Her research is immaculate and I felt completely immersed in Marilyn’s life the whole way through the novel – both the parts that we know about from history and the parts that the author has imagined. I loved how Marilyn’s character was developed in such a multi dimensional way – she is a strong woman but she is also vulnerable, she had warmth and she had compassion and I really took her to my heart.

Alongside Marilyn’s story, we are also introduced to Flora in 2016. Like Marilyn, Flora has been through some difficult experiences, many of which she has hidden from other people, including those closest to her. Despite this, I did warm to Flora very easily and I wanted to know how Flora and Marilyn were connected. 

Following the date of her real life death, I was surprised at the direction in which Louise Beech took the fictional Marilyn. However, it quickly became clear that Wonderful is so much more than an imaginative narrative. It’s a story of feminism, grief, resilience, vulnerability and care which really touched me emotionally. Louise Beech always amazes me with how her writing conveys such vulnerable emotions in such a visceral way and Wonderful is no different. Louise Beech has put so much of herself into this novel and this hasn’t gone unnoticed. If you’ve read the author’s previous work, there are a few things you will recognise, but you can absolutely love this novel without this knowledge.

Wonderful is my favourite book of the year so far!

Wonderful is available from Amazon.

You can follow the rest of the blog tour here.