And They Called It Camelot

Starred review from January 20, 2020
Thornton follows up American Princess, a novel of Alice Roosevelt, with this engaging and meticulously researched take on Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. Thornton opens moments before President Kennedy’s assassination, exploring the complexity of the first couple’s relationship, along with Jackie’s own pretensions (“This simple pink pillbox hat put to shame those jowly Texas matrons with their overwrought concoctions of flowers and feathers”). Thornton then jumps back to 1952 and Jacqueline’s doomed relationship with stockbroker John Husted and her job as a photo girl for the Washington Times-Herald, which leads to her meeting then Congressman John F. Kennedy, whom she quickly falls for despite knowing he’s a womanizer. The novel expertly conveys the many painful episodes in Jackie’s life—Kennedy’s infidelity, the loss of two children, the violent death of her first husband, and the casual cruelty of her second—with grace and empathy. Students of history will appreciate Thornton’s exacting research and convincing portrayal of the first lady and style icon, and Kennedy aficionados will feel as if they have an unparalleled access to Camelot. Thornton’s magnificent portrayal of Onassis will delight fans of Kennedy-related fiction.

March 1, 2020

Thornton's second novel (after American Princess) is an intimate portrait of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis through the best and worst of her legendary life. A writer for the Times Herald at age 23, she marries war hero-turned-Congressman Jack Kennedy, devoting herself to him through surgery and serious illness, years of infidelity, and the soul-crushing loss of three of their five children in utero and at birth. A fashion icon and a favorite of Jack's father Joe and brother Bobby, Jackie mesmerizes the nation with her strength and poise. As first lady to the 35th President, Jackie restores the White House to historical beauty. While in Dallas, Jack is assassinated, leaving her a 34-year-old widow with two small children. She then grieves with Bobby, loving him more than a brother-in-law, until the New York senator is shot and killed. Fearing for her children's safety and attempting to escape the "Kennedy curse," she marries Aristotle Onassis, an older Greek playboy millionaire. After his passing, she finally finds contentment in a job as a book editor for Viking, while also opening a presidential library dedicated to Jack. VERDICT Readers will enjoy this heartbreaking story of a wife's fierce pride and loyalty to her president and country, despite years of marital loneliness and loss.--Laura Jones, Indiana State Lib., Indianapolis

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2020
An American icon gets the fictional biographical treatment in this engrossing novel. Jacqueline Bouvier is in her early twenties when she meets the dashing John F. Kennedy, a congressman from Massachusetts whose political star is on the rise. Marrying into the sprawling Kennedy family presents some difficulties, but Jackie wins over the Kennedy men, forging an alliance with patriarch Joe. As John ascends into progressively higher offices, Jackie is often left to face the crises of her life?miscarriages, depression, her husband's infidelity?on her own, suppressing her feelings to present a glamorous fa�ade to the world. The focus is on the highs and lows of Jackie's life: the early years of her marriage, her renovation of the White House, her husband's assassination, and her subsequent relationships with both Robert Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis. Jackie was a notoriously private person, but Thornton's (American Princess, 2019) author's note details the situations where the historical record is unclear. Readers will quickly realize that the fairytale world of Camelot wasn't what it seemed and that Jackie's story is full of hidden pain. An excellent choice for fans of historical fiction that explores the inner lives of women.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)