Clearly, Stephanie Marie Thornton is not afraid of a challenge–I can’t imagine how intimidating it must have been to assume the voice of America’s First Lady, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis in Thornton’s novel AND THEY CALLED IT CAMELOT.

Tracing the history of Jacqueline’s relationship with Jack Kennedy and (to a lesser extent) Aristotle Onassis, through to her later years as she forges a new identity as an independent woman, AND THEY CALLED IT CAMELOT shows a woman of intelligence, style and dignity, who suffered more trouble and tragedy then anyone should have to bear.

Thornton inhabits Jacqueline so completely in this fictionalized version of her life that I lived through every one of Jacqueline’s joys and triumphs and wept over her many sorrows. By the time I closed the book, I felt I knew Jacqueline intimately.

AND THEY CALLED IT CAMELOT is an amazing achievement and testament to Thornton’s consummate skill in weaving historical fact into fiction, breathing life into her subjects the way non-fiction sources can never quite achieve. I cannot recommend this novel highly enough.