source: free ARC via AmazonVine
title: Stars Over Sunset Boulevard
author: Susan Meissner/Twitter
pages: 383
genre: fiction/historical fiction
published: January 5, 2016
first line: Christine unfolds the tissue paper inside the pink striped hatbox and the odor of lost years floats upward.
rated: 4 out of 5 stars
Blurb:
In this new novel from the acclaimed author of Secrets of a Charmed Life, two women working in Hollywood during its Golden Age discover the joy and heartbreak of true friendship.
Los Angeles, Present Day. When an iconic hat worn by Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind ends up in Christine McAllister’s vintage clothing boutique by mistake, her efforts to return it to its owner take her on a journey more enchanting than any classic movie…
Los Angeles, 1938. Violet Mayfield sets out to reinvent herself in Hollywood after her dream of becoming a wife and mother falls apart, and lands a job on the film-set of Gone With the Wind. There, she meets enigmatic Audrey Duvall, a once-rising film star who is now a fellow secretary. Audrey’s zest for life and their adventures together among Hollywood’s glitterati enthrall Violet…until each woman’s deepest desires collide. What Audrey and Violet are willing to risk, for themselves and for each other, to ensure their own happy endings will shape their friendship, and their lives, far into the future.
My Thoughts:
When I read the 1930’s LA and Gone With the Wind film set setting of Stars Over Sunset Boulevard I was immediately sold on this one. Gone With the Wind is one of my all time favorite films and novels, so I was excited to see how it would be woven into the storyline here.
The story starts off in 1938 when Violet Mayfield leaves Alabama and comes to LA to find secretarial work in the big city. Audrey Duvall is an aspiring actress working as a secretary at Selznick International studios, which is currently filming GWTW. Audrey has been working for several years in LA and is still waiting for her big break. She lives in a beautiful home she inherited from her aunt. Audrey and Violet become roommates and good friends when Violet gets a secretarial job at the studio. A young man named Bert works there as a wardrobe assistant and is friends with both ladies.
the bookworm 