What can I say about a Beatriz Williams book other than wow! I absolutely love her writing and in my eyes she can do no wrong. But I do have to say this might be my favorite book to date. My favorite genre is historical fiction and beyond that I love a dual time line. The way Beatriz weaves these two stories together is exciting and satisfying. It’s a wonderful ride and you will enjoy every minute of it. A definite “can not put down” book!

Rounding up to 4.5. Beatriz Williams creates such vivid pictures with her writing. The love story between Monk and Mallory was perfect and I couldn't get enough of the backstory about Hannah. The varying timelines kept me engaged from the very beginning. Don't sleep on reading this one!

📚 Book Review 📚

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for an arc in exchange for my honest opinions.

Publication: June 25, 2024

Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

This is my first book by Williams and it won’t be my last! I had a bit of a hard time rating this because there were things I liked but things I struggled with.

I loved Hannah’s timeline but ultimately there was too much plot for me to connect fully to the story. Health issues, secret pregnancies, adoptions, historical issues in the 50’s, etc.

I would categorize this book as a drama with some historical pieces involved.

Perfect for fans of:
🖊️ 3rd person POV
📕 Three timelines
🖊️ 1950’s Egypt historical pieces
📕 Surprise pregnancies
🖊️ Family secrets
📕 Health issues
🖊️ Descriptive writing
📕 Family drama

Prior to reading Beatrix Williams new historical fiction book, Husbands and Lovers, I had not read a book by her in a few years. While, I did enjoy the plot and ultimately gave the book three stars, I found quite a bit of the book’s language crass and unnecessary
I enjoyed the characters, especially Sam, and Mallory and Paige’s relationship.
I will not spoil the ending but I was surprised by one of the developments, later in the book.
The going back and forth to Paige and Mallory’s grandmother’s story was interesting.

I know that Beatriz is a popular author. This is the first book I have read by her so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I absolutely loved the storyline of two parralell lives. Both women are strong and fierce in navigating their obstacles.
This book is absolutely fantastic and will stick with me for a long time. I am going to absolutely read another one of Beatriz’s books. I completely understand why she’s so popular! Thank you for the advanced copy!

A perfect blend of history and romance. It takes you through a journey through time and heartaches. Perfect for a lazy afternoon. Loved it easy read. Dual setting two woman separated by time. Such a page turner.

Husbands & Lovers is the perfect summer read! I flew through this book and was not ready for it to end. What a beautiful historical and modern day romance!

This book is about secrets, love and inner strength. The three different timelines in this book follow Hannah’s story, taking place in Egypt after Would War II, and the other two timelines follow Mallory’s past and present, in New England. I found myself enthralled with both their stories. I was heartbroken for Hannah and the insurmountable losses she faces, but filled with so much hope for Mallory and what the future holds for her. The way Monk effortlessly fit into Mallory’s life was precious. He was such a refreshing and like able character, I couldn’t help but fall in love with him. Even though he is engaged to someone else and a famous musician, he doesn’t hesitate to welcome Mallory and her son, whom he has never met, back into his life. I couldn’t stop reading until I knew if Mallory and Monk were going to get their happily ever after or not.

I definitely recommend adding this book to your summer reading list! You will not be able to put down this beautiful written story.

This was a great read! I loved how the author explored the relationships of all the main characters. I was so caught up in everyone's personal story & could not wait to see how it would all come together in the end. The characters were richly developed & the anticipation was high to see where the story would go next. I enjoyed the historical fiction aspects of the book as well.

I finished this book within 24 hours. It was a wonderful three time-line book that ties together the stories of two women that are linked by a beautiful cobra bracelet. The story of Hannah is tragic and strong. It was interesting to watch it unfold. Mollie's story stretches over her teenage years into adult hood when a freak accident happens at her son's camp. As the stories converge together, a beautiful story emerges. This book held me captive and did not let me go until the very last page. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read and give my opinion.

I love Beatriz Williams and found myself wanting to love this book a bit more than I did. (I'd likely give it a 3.5 if I didn't have to round up).

What I loved:
*The intergenerational connection.
*The story told from from multiple perspectives.
*The intrigue and surprises.
*The descriptions that made me feel like I was in Cairo and at the shore.

What I didn't love:
*There were a lot of threads and mini-storylines. Maybe too many.
*The Egyptian narrative needed (or I craved) a bit more detail about Hannah's story and the espionage element.
* I struggled to relate to Mallory. I wanted to...and there were glimmers, but I found myself more interested in her sister and even Monk.

This book is amazing. I could not put it down. This is my first Beatriz Williams book, but it will not be my last! She was able to combine multiple eras, genres, and styles together to create something outstanding. I felt so connected to the characters and storyline that I didn't want it to end. I reread the ending and enjoyed it more the second time than the first. I hope Beatriz Williams comes out with a sequel that gives more information about what happened to Hannah, as well as more of Mallory and Monk. Bravo, Beatriz Williams, I can't wait to read the next one!

I really enjoyed this book and the sweeping stories it told. The "current" timeline was my favorite and it made me teary at times. The "far past" story was interesting but sometimes I wasn't really sure it tied into the main story. I did love the ending though and how everything really came together. The female figures in the book were strong and interesting characters, full of surprises and exciting to read about. The settings were beautiful backdrops. Great story!

Beatriz Williams never disappoints! Two women in two different eras, struggling to rebuild their lives: a WWII-scarred Hungarian ex-countess now trying to adapt to life as wife to a British diplomat, a modern-day artist molding her every day around a son with damaged kidneys and little hope of a transplant. Both women are linked by mysterious lovers and an even more mysterious family heirloom that ties 21st century New England to postwar Cairo. Sensitive, thought-provoking, romantic, and entertaining!

Husbands & Lovers was a great read! Love, romance, and sacrifices of two strong women decades apart make this Historical Fiction one of my favorites for this year. Two timelines one in Egypt and the other in Massachusetts come together through DNA and solves a family secret. Thank you Netgalley and Beatriz Williams for the opportunity to read this prerelease book.

This is an outstanding story.

I was totally prepared to review this and say it's a great beach read, befitting its cover and release date. I went with that idea until about 50% of the way through; it wasn't revolutionary, but it was good fun, I thought. Then, it all changed.

I loved every character in this story with all my heart. This was surprisingly well researched, with a large chunk of the story taking place in 1950s Egypt seen through the eyes of Mallory's (our other protagonist) biological grandmother, Hannah. I honestly learned a lot about history that I had never looked into beyond the high school curriculum, and there's nothing better than seeing history as it would have been through the eyes of those who lived in it. The romance, for both characters, was cute and I was thoroughly invested in it. None of this, however, is what justifies this 5-star rating.

This is one of the most hard-hitting books I've ever read in terms of how much emotional pain this caused me. I was literally crying at least 3 separate times reading this, and that's saying something for me. I can't go into too much detail to avoid spoiling the story -- and besides, you just have to read it and experience it for yourself. The writing in this is absolutely fantastic. I hadn't heard of Beatriz Williams before this novel, but she's on my radar now for sure.

If you enjoy a second-chance romance, a steamy affair, or some good family drama, you'll probably like this book. Just the same though, if you enjoy uncovering lost family secrets, in-depth historical fictions, or heart-wrenching backstories, this is for you too.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for access to an ARC! This is my honest review.

I was so excited to receive an ARC of this book! It took me a tiny bit to get into (I like one of the POV more than the other) but I ended up really enjoying it.

Told in dual POV in the past and present, I wondered how the two stories would collide. Beatriz Williams did a wonderful job weaving these tales together.

I also never want to eat a mushroom :)

This was my first Beatriz Williams book & I was thrilled to get it! I am not a huge romance reader, but I thought the different timelines would be interesting. A rock star & exotic Egypt - what’s not to like! I enjoyed it, but was more than ready for all the drama to come to an end. Many thanks to NetGalley for this read in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book as I do all of Beatriz Williams novels. It would have been a five star, However, especially in some of the earlier chapters right in the middle she would change time frames. For example, Hannah would be in present day and the next paragraph she would be back in Hungary. That made it very hard to keep up with. Too much jumping around from place to place in a single chapter, and this seemed to go on for much of the book. Aside from that, I really enjoyed the story and especially the ending.

Mallory Dunne and Monk Adams, best friends from childhood, then sweethearts, are the epitome of star crossed lovers in Beatriz Williams new book, Husbands and Lovers. Monk has never understood why Mallory disappeared from his life just when it seemed they would make a life together, but his budding career as a musical star takes him one direction, and Mallory heads another. Now a single mom, Mallory faces every mom's worst nightmare - her son Sam is hospitalized by a tragic accident, and while he survives, he needs a kidney transplant. Mallory's sister urges her to reach out to Monk as a potential match, but Monk isn't even aware of Sam's existence. Can a chance encounter between Monk and Mallory on a childhood beach make a difference? Is there any way to find a match for Sam? Mallory's mom was adopted and they don't know much about her origins; can they find her family and possibly a match for Sam? And what is the significance of the bracelet that Mallory's mom left her?

Fifty years earlier, after the end of WWII, Hannah lives in Cairo with her elderly husband. Having survived unbelievable tragedy during the war Hannah seeks safety and security. But Hannah has a secret; and that secret can be the key to Sam's survival.

Both stories, Mallory's and Hannah's, while very different, are stories of inner strength, secrets and love, and how the choices we make affect not only our own lives, but those of others whom we love. Absolutely a must read!

Beatriz Williams packs a lot of story into the confines of Husbands and Lovers. I read the author’s note at the back of the book where she talks about the extensive research she had done and it was almost as if she found all this interesting information so she created a big, unwieldy story to pack it all into. There are three timelines in this book—Hannah’s story, which takes place in Egypt shortly after World War II, and the other two that take place in New England as they follow Mallory’s past and present. The two stories are linked, but…

The historical parts of the book are so interesting and compelling, they would have made for a wonderful book on their own. Hannah was such a strong character and had overcome so much, there just felt like there was a lot more to her story that I wanted to learn. Being that Hannah’s story was told as part of Mallory’s backstory, she was an important but smaller part of the book when her life and times were the more interesting of the two characters. As for Mallory’s part of the story, I loved the New England setting and the descriptions of Winthrop Island. I loved Monk (so much) and Sedge—they were two of the most likeable male characters I have read in a long time—but what I failed to grasp was what made Mallory so special to them. I didn’t love her as a character and while I didn’t dislike her I struggled to find her interesting. I did like that the book ended on a happy note and I would be interested to read a follow-up book with Paige as the main character.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.