#BookReview of #AKennedyAffair by Emily Hourican | @EmilyH71

‘Two powerful families. A changing world.‘
– A Kennedy Affair

[ About A Kennedy Affair ]

When Kathleen ‘Kick’ Kennedy left England to return to America, Europe was facing war and Billy Cavendish, future Duke of Devonshire and the man she loves, had told her he could never marry her. Now, in 1943, as London stands a shell of its former self, Kick returns hoping to reunite with Billy – but there are many obstacles ahead.

Lady Brigid Guinness has swapped high fashion and exclusive dinner parties for long shifts as a nurse helping wounded soldiers, forming a close bond with one in particular. And yet the only person she can really talk to is a man shunned by her inner circle. Meanwhile, wide-eyed Sissy Maddington has arrived from Ireland under the care of the Guinness family. She’s eager to explore everything London seems to offer – while she tries to forget where she came from.

As the three women navigate a changed city, they each discover a capacity for love they never could have expected.

But will they find the strength to stay true to themselves?

[ My Review ]

A Kennedy Affair by Emily Hourican publishes today October 17th with Hachette Books Ireland. It is a tale inspired by real events and is described as ‘a powerful story of friendship, forbidden passion – and how in the worst of times we can discover the best of each other.’  I thoroughly enjoyed An Invitation to the Kennedys last year and loved how the series continues with the exploration of the bond between the Kennedy and Guinness families. Over the years I have read and reviewed Emily Hourican’s Guinness Girls series – The Glorious Guinness Girls, The Guinness Girls: A Hint of Scandal and The Other Guinness Girl: A Question of Honor, so it is an absolute delight to return to their world and see what they have been up to and how their relationship with the Kennedys has further developed.

It’s now 1941 and the war is in full swing, bringing death and destruction to many. Kathleen ‘Kick’ Kennedy is the much lauded daughter of Joseph and Rose Kennedy. On a previous trip to London in 1938, when her father was the United States Ambassador to the UK, Kick was exposed to English society, a world she found quite different from her years in Hyannis Port, Cape Cod. Kick was a sporty vivacious young woman, quite an eccentricity among her English peers but overtime she made friends, crossing paths with many notable names of the time, including the Mitfords and the Guinness girls.

During that time Kick developed a relationship with Billy Cavendish, future Duke of Devonshire. With his heritage and Anglican beliefs clashing with Kick’s Catholicism and Irish ancestry, there was always going to be a difficulty with either of their families agreeing to a possible marriage. After Kick returned to Cape Cod, following her father’s exit from London, their letter writing dried up, but now Kick is full of anticipation and hope. She has managed to persuade her parents to let her return to London with the American Red Cross as one of the Donut Dollies, girls who volunteered to raise the spirits of the American GIs while away from home soil. While Kick intends doing her bit for the war-effort, she is also secretly hoping to cross paths with Billy.

Lady Brigid Guinness now works as a nurse tending to the wounded and infirmed. Her day is spent indoors working long shifts and bringing comfort where she can. In the evenings she mixes with friends, both new and old, but Brigid is starting to feel disillusioned. She is finding it difficult to balance her work life with her personal life. Without the familiar guidance of adults, she steps up and begins to forage her own path, which takes her on an unexpected voyage of self-discovery and hope for a future that she could never have imagined.

Sissy Maddington arrives fresh from Ireland, doe-eyed and totally inexperienced. Her whole life had been in an old country estate with a fractured parental relationship. Now, under the care of the Guinness family, she is free to explore and develop into the young woman of the world that she aspires to. But Sissy’s naivety could potentially be to her detriment when those around her become consumed with their own problems and the trajectory of the war, leaving Sissy exposed.

Emily Hourican immerses the reader into the lives of these three young women as they face the realisation that the world, as they have known it, is on the cusp of huge change, both culturally and socially. The days of the big houses with lots of servants is waning, women’s independence is being tested and the boundaries of class are being blurred. As the lives of the Kennedy and the Guinness family are rocked by tragedy and disarray, the slow collapse of everything they hold dear is evident. Through their trials and tribulations, we see behind the glitz as the curtains start to fall. Although intertwined with fictional characters, much of what plays out in this book, and all the books in this series, is fact. Emily Hourican mentions in the Afterword that the ending had to be true to the story, which gives the novel an authentic touch.

A Kennedy Affair is another sweeping tale that captures the zeitgeist of the time. It delves into the complexities of society during those frenetic war years, exploring the power of the human connection. A vibrant and captivating novel, with a notably darker edge, that draws the reader in, A Kennedy Affair is a wonderful addition to this continuously scintillating series.

*Thank you to Hachette Ireland for a copy of A Kennedy Affair in exchange for my honest review

[ Bio ]

Emily Hourican is the author of nine novels and one book of non-fiction. Her first novel, The Privileged, was published in 2016, became an instant bestseller, and was short-listed for the Best Popular Fiction Award at the Irish Book Awards that year. She then published three more works of contemporary fiction, the last of which, The Outsider, is being developed as a six-part TV series with Treasure Films, with Emily as screenwriter, supported by Screen Ireland.

In 2019 she began writing historical fiction, and has since published four acclaimed, best-selling historical novels based on the Guinness and Kennedy families. The fifth, A Kennedy Affair, published in October 2024.

Emily is also an award-winning editor and journalist with the Sunday Independent, Ireland’s biggest-selling newspaper.

X ~ @EmilyH71