Beatriz Williams is quickly becoming one of my favorite historical fiction authors. I have bragged before about reading The Summer Wives in an entire flight from Providence to Nashville and adding all of her books to my TBR backlist. The Golden Hour, her newest novel out on 7.9.19, didn’t disappoint!

This book followed Lulu in Nassau, the Bahamas, who is assigned to write gossip about the Duke & Duchess of Windsor, Edward VIII & Wallis, in 1941. I’ve read lots of historical fiction from this era, but I definitely had to Google these two a few times while reading. This was a chapter of history I wasn’t aware of. Despite my lack of knowledge on the subject, I was impressed by the lush setting that Williams created & I felt like I was able to immerse myself in the setting .

The book also followed a woman named Elfriede in another timeline, about 40 years before the events of Lulu’s story. While it was a little confusing, it tied all together neatly at the end. It was an interesting timeline to follow since it followed a German family in the lead-up to WWII.

The last female character we meet is Leonora, in 1944. She is integral to tying the whole story together and I LOVED her feisty attitude.

The story ties all up in 1944, and while it seemed woven together a little TOO neatly — I did have to suspend my belief a little in order to appreciate the ending — I loved how the romances played out, and how the author showed me completely different slices of life during the WWII era, and how well Beatriz Williams writes a setting. If this is on your TBR, I’d tell you to do a little reading about Edward & Wallis so you can understand their controversy, and just enjoy the words that surround you!

4/5 stars ❤