The Golden Hour

As its title suggests, The Golden Hour is doused in the shimmering, golden charm of the 1940s Bahamas, and shadowed with the political intrigue and tense race relations of the time.

I was absolutely enthralled by this plot, the writing, the setting, everything!

Lulu, a journalist who would’ve otherwise been forced to pack her bags and head back to the States with her tail and ink pen between her legs, instead makes her living packaging the high society life of the Duke and Duchess and selling it to readers as “The Lady of Nassau.” Granted access into the intimate goings-on of the banished royals, Lulu sees the stains that those meticulously positioned Union Jack pillows are meant to conceal 🇬🇧. Betrayal, treason, show more murder—all of these secrets hit Lulu personally when her (spy) husband goes missing, taken as a prisoner of war.

As Lulu risks her life to save Thorpe, she learns about the complicated, pained, beautiful, and scattered family that he comes from.

Told from two alternating perspectives and multiple timelines, this novel—with its glittering wits, poignant romances, and family intricacies—delights on every page.

Seriously. I want to live at the Prince George hotel in Nassau, heading toward my trusty bartender at 6 pm, people-watching while he whips me up a rum punch cocktail?!?! “So [begins Lulu’s] twentieth night in Nassau. Now pay attention” (Williams 38). And, God help you, when Beatriz Williams starts spinning a narrative (or three), you better sit up and pay that attention in full. show less

I am a fan of this author; but not so much this book. It’s an imaginative and fanciful plot, based loosely around an unsolved murder that took place during World War II in the Bahamas. If you need a memory jog, that was when the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were living in the Bahamas.

This is another one of those books that using a plot device that seems to be SO WIDELY used now, by SO MANY authors, that completely annoys me. Basically, the book is chunked into sections that represent different time periods, in different locations, and the complete story doesn’t come together until the very end. In the interim, the reader must keep track of plot lines and characters from 1900, 1941, 1943, 1905, 1942, 1916, 1944, and finally, 1951 in show more the Bahamas, Florida, London, Germany, Switzerland, and Scotland. So I found myself continually looking back to try to figure out whether the chapter I was about to read came before or after a previous chapter about these same characters. AARRRGGHH! To me it’s jarring to do so much skipping around and did NOT seem essential to building suspense in the overall plot.

While the unsolved murder is real, the central protagonist is fictional. Lulu, recently widowed (though not because of the war), is trying to make a living writing a gossip column about the Windsors and their life in the Bahamas. While mixing in with the wealthy set that surrounds the Windsors, Lulu meets a man whose work is war-related but mysterious and, not surprisingly, love blossoms. She also meets the people who will ultimately be involved in the murder but that is NOT a big part of the central plot. Then we delve into the back story of this man’s family, particularly the tragic love story of his parents.

There are spies, Nazis, illegitimate siblings, mental illness, and dysfunctional family relationships. It’s a reasonably interesting story. Just much more difficult to follow than is necessary. show less

Full disclosure: I am a sucker for well-done, intelligent historical fiction, so when a book is all that, I am transported and invested from cover to cover. This book had all of that. Set in two time periods — just before and during WWI and during WWII — in several countries — Switzerland, Germany, England, Scotland, the Bahamas, and south Florida — Ms. Willams weaves the stories of two grand, tragic love affairs into an historical, unflattering portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Edward and the woman he married, Wallis Simpson, thereby abdicating the crown of England. The plot has plenty of fresh twists, the characters are vivid and multi-dimensional, and the prose is lovely and lively. The narrator of the WWII-era show more parts, Lulu, is a plain-talking, tough but tender, modern American women thrown into this largely British life, and who would be at home in a black-and-white spy thriller. Delightful. show less

If I could give this book more than five stars, I would do so. It’s that good. It is well-written with beautiful descriptions, but not too much, and interesting characters whom I felt like I knew personally. My favorite part of the book, however, is how Beatriz Williams skillfully weaves together two seemingly parallel plot lines that ultimately crossover in a beautifully satisfying ending. Pure literary genius.

When I first read the synopsis, I assumed that the Duke and Duchess of Windsor would occupy the role of protagonists in the novel. Happily, I was wrong. While their presence is very much evident in the storyline, they are background characters who act as catalysts for setting certain events in motion. Also, by remaining in the show more background, they don’t overshadow the main characters like celebrities attending a school play. Lulu, Benedict, Elfriede, and Wilfred roam freely though the story in the light of their own making.

I must mention the dedication page: “To women and men everywhere who live with depression. You are loved. You are needed. The night will pass.” One of the main characters suffers from depression, and just as this dedication offers hope at the beginning of the book, Williams portrays it with a touching empathy that maintains this hopefulness through to the end of the story.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to get lost in a good story. I’m thankful I won the ARC in a Goodreads giveaway, or otherwise I might not have discovered this richly satisfying and mesmerizing novel on my own. show less

While I enjoyed this book for the most part and I always like Williams' writing style, there are a couple of things about her books in general that are getting tiresome for me, which were evident while reading this one. The alternating timeline trend in historical fiction is getting really old and gimmicky, in my opinion. I've really enjoyed it in some of Williams' books (A Hundred Summers), but it's not necessary in every book, including this one. I also feel like Williams overuses the trope "I love you so I have to have your babies!" too much, especially in this one where it was dangerous and life-threatening for the character to have babies. There were also some loose ends that didn't get tied up or explained very well.

Good phrases and insights throughout; hallmarks of good writing. The well-placed observation. I had a hard time getting a handle on Lulu; her time before coming to the Bahamas. I think that could have been sharper and the info revealed a little earlier. When it is though, things are at first surprising then shocking. Lulu is one cold, calculating person.

For me it was hard to figure how the two timelines would join up. When they finally did it was pretty much the end of the book. It’s satisfying, but a bit of a stretch. I felt the romance angle was played a bit too hard - there is a lot of sex and a lot of longing and pining. It made for a prolonged story that blunted the more dire elements of the plot.

Most of that revolves around the show more ex-King of England and his wife Wallis. Characterized as the most romantic relationship on earth, Williams portrays them as more practical and disappointed in their calculations. I know very little about them or if they really were Nazi sympathizers and arranged Sir Harry Oakes’s death, but that’s very much implied here. And since that crime hasn’t been solved to this day, and that the Duke never held another post for the government, maybe it’s true. Maybe he was just incompetent. Either way it was a nice device to weave a plot around. I don’t read a lot of WWII fiction and I’m glad I made an exception for this although I think it could have used some trimming. show less

I am a fan of this author; but not so much this book. It’s an imaginative and fanciful plot, based loosely around an unsolved murder that took place during World War II in the Bahamas. If you need a memory jog, that was when the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were living in the Bahamas.

This is another one of those books that using a plot device that seems to be SO WIDELY used now, by SO MANY authors, that completely annoys me. Basically, the book is chunked into sections that represent different time periods, in different locations, and the complete story doesn’t come together until the very end. In the interim, the reader must keep track of plot lines and characters from 1900, 1941, 1943, 1905, 1942, 1916, 1944, and finally, 1951 in show more the Bahamas, Florida, London, Germany, Switzerland, and Scotland. So I found myself continually looking back to try to figure out whether the chapter I was about to read came before or after a previous chapter about these same characters. AARRRGGHH! To me it’s jarring to do so much skipping around and did NOT seem essential to building suspense in the overall plot.

While the unsolved murder is real, the central protagonist is fictional. Lulu, recently widowed (though not because of the war), is trying to make a living writing a gossip column about the Windsors and their life in the Bahamas. While mixing in with the wealthy set that surrounds the Windsors, Lulu meets a man whose work is war-related but mysterious and, not surprisingly, love blossoms. She also meets the people who will ultimately be involved in the murder but that is NOT a big part of the central plot. Then we delve into the back story of this man’s family, particularly the tragic love story of his parents.

There are spies, Nazis, illegitimate siblings, mental illness, and dysfunctional family relationships. It’s a reasonably interesting story. Just much more difficult to follow than is necessary. show less