Review: A Touch of Stardust by Kate Alcott

Title: A Touch of Stardust
Author: Kate Alcott
Publisher:  Doubleday (February 17, 2015)
ISBN: 9780385539043

Pages: 304 pages

How I Read It: eARC

Genre: historical fiction
My Rating: 3 cups 

Synopsis:

When Julie Crawford leaves Fort Wayne, Indiana for Hollywood, she never imagines she'll cross paths with Carole Lombard, the dazzling actress from Julie's provincial Midwestern hometown. Although the young woman has dreams of becoming a screenwriter, the only job Julie's able to find is one in the studio publicity office of the notoriously demanding producer David O. Selznick —who is busy burning through directors, writers and money as he begins filming Gone with the Wind.    

Although tensions run high on the set, Julie finds she can step onto the back lot, take in the smell of smoky gunpowder and the soft rustle of hoop skirts, and feel the magical world of Gone with the Wind come to life. Julie's access to real-life magic comes when Carole Lombard hires her as an assistant and invites her into the glamorous world Carole shares with Clark Gable—who is about to move into movie history as the dashing Rhett Butler.

Carole Lombard, happily profane and uninhibited, makes no secret of her relationship with Gable, which poses something of a problem for the studio as Gable is technically still married—and the last thing the film needs is more negative publicity. Julie is there to fend off the overly curious reporters, hoping to prevent details about the affair from slipping out. But she can barely keep up with her blonde employer, let alone control what comes out of Carole's mouth, and--as their friendship grows - soon finds she doesn't want to. Carole, both wise and funny, becomes Julie's model for breaking free of the past.

In the ever-widening scope of this story, Julie is given a front-row seat to not one but two of the greatest love affairs of all time: the undeniable on-screen chemistry between Scarlett and Rhett, and off screen, the deepening love between Carole and Clark. Yet beneath the shiny façade, things in Hollywood are never quite what they seem, and Julie must learn to balance career aspirations and her own budding romance with outsized personalities and the overheated drama on set.

My Thoughts:

“Each morning, she pulled herself from bed and joined the cleaning ladies and the plumbers and other sleepy travelers on the 5:00 a.m. bus to get to the studio early. That way, she could step onto the back lot alone and be in the old South and feel the magical world of Gone with the Wind come to life….It didn’t matter that she walked in a landscape of glued plasterboard, a place of fake structures held together by little more than Selznick’s frenzied dreams. It was vividly real.”

Any fan of Gone with the Wind cannot help but be intrigued by the blurb for this book – an imagining of the behind-the-scenes goings on of one of the most beloved and iconic movies of all time – irresistible! And while some aspects of this novel bring that prospect vividly to life, others, sadly, fall woefully short.

From the very outset of this book certain occurrences seem rather unbelievable and contrived.  Julie’s initial encounter and subsequent hiring by Carole Lombard, for instance, while setting the stage for the entire book, is a little too convenient and does not feel entirely plausible.  There is also a fair amount of superfluous storytelling and inconsequential detail that becomes a distraction rather than an enhancement to the story. So many topics are addressed in this work – movie making, screenwriting, the difficulties of prospective actors, women’s struggles, racial issues, antisemitism, the burgeoning threat of WWII – that it seems the author gets a bit lost amongst all the various threads and fails to do any of them full justice. All are worthy ideas, but it seems a more focused approach may have yielded a more cohesive narrative and a better book overall.

That said, however, the passages detailing the effort involved in making such a groundbreaking motion picture – the casting, elaborate sets, wardrobe, challenges faced by the actors, Selznick’s obsessive attention to detail – are compelling and provide a fascinating window into Old Hollywood and movie making. Another huge highlight is Carole Lombard. While neither the main character nor an actress in GWTW, there is a reason her photo is on the cover of this book. SHE is the real star of this tale. While protagonist Julie is a bit flat and underwhelming, Lombard, on the other hand, virtually leaps off the page in vibrant and dynamic detail. Her vivacious spirit, frank honesty, and wise insight add to the story enormously, and her presence is sorely missed during sections she is not at the forefront. So much so, in fact, that I rushed to Google to learn more about the remarkable woman behind the Hollywood glamor, and I would love to read more about her in the future.

This is not a bad book, but I must admit to being somewhat disappointed because, especially given the subject matter, it had the potential to be so much more. Still, a worthy read for GWTW fans, if only for a glimpse into the magic behind that most legendary film.

“Nothing could soar, could become magical, without sweat and a touch of stardust.”

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: A Vintage Wedding by Katie Fford

Title:  A Vintage Wedding

Author: Katie Fford

Publisher: 12 ^th February 2015 by Random House UK, Cornerstone Digital

ISBN: 9781448136971

Pages: 466 pages

How I Read It: ARC ebook

Genre: romance, women’s fiction, chick lit

My Rating:  three and a half cups

Synopsis:

In a small Cotswold country town, Beth, Lindy and Rachel are looking for new beginnings. So they set up in business, organising stylish and perfectly affordable vintage weddings. Soon they are busy arranging other people's Big Days. What none of them know is that their own romances lie waiting, just around the corner ....

My thoughts:

You know that feeling, you are just longing for a book that will uplift and refresh, entertain and make you feel good. Not too strenuous on the brain, just a nice easy read. Katie Fford’s, ‘Vintage Weddings’ will fulfil that desire. With such a relaxed writing style, it is not a tale filled with dramas and high tension but delightful, witty romance. At times, some may consider it, a little too convenient – however, I am prepared to overlook that because this really is an example of chick lit at its finest. I found it refreshing that there were three leading ladies who gelled together and you were able to watch their relationships and business ventures grow. Do not fear! It’s not all sunshine and flowers, there are the everyday problems in life – difficult relationships, family demands – but not so serious, just ‘normal’ every day stuff. Makes for a nice change and an all round winner:

“The best kind of sweet shop, when everything is really tempting, and you don’t have to have just a few but a whole box, or bucket, or whatever”.

 It’s full of likeable characters, realistic everyday occurrences, with a few little twists thrown in for good measure. My favourite character was Rachel, as I could relate just a little to her OCD (*giggle*) and how Raff – what a sweetie - slowly took down her walls of defence. The dialogue was entertaining and pure, that made escaping into this tale a breath of fresh air.

Fford’s writing comes with a message of optimism, inviting the reader to take that step in your life that could make all the difference. Look around you, look ahead and seize those opportunities that could very well change your life. In this circumstance, Beth, Lindy and Rachel move forward with their lives, instead of only working with the cards dealt them; they took an idea and ran with it.  Vintage Weddings truly was the missing piece in their life puzzles and you will smile at their novel approach and friendship. I liked how everyone banded together and worked as a team. I can only hope that Fford may revisit this little village some time down the track.

“However we met them….we’re all very lucky. And even without our blokes, Vintage Weddings is still amazing”.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen

Title: First Frost
Author: Sarah Addison Allen
Publisher:  St. Martin's Press (January 20, 2015)
ISBN: 9781250019837

Pages: 291 pages

How I Read It: eARC

Genre: magical realism, women's fiction, contemporary
My Rating: 4.5 cups 

Synopsis:
From the New York Times bestselling author of GARDEN SPELLS comes a story of the Waverley family, in a novel as sparkling as the first dusting of frost on new-fallen leaves...

It's October in Bascom, North Carolina, and autumn will not go quietly.  As temperatures drop and leaves begin to turn, the Waverley women are made restless by the whims of their mischievous apple tree... and all the magic that swirls around it. But this year, first frost has much more in store. Claire Waverley has started a successful new venture, Waverley’s Candies.  Though her handcrafted confections—rose to recall lost love, lavender to promote happiness and lemon verbena to soothe throats and minds—are singularly effective, the business of selling them is costing her the everyday joys of her family, and her belief in her own precious gifts.

Sydney Waverley, too, is losing her balance. With each passing day she longs more for a baby— a namesake for her wonderful Henry. Yet the longer she tries, the more her desire becomes an unquenchable thirst, stealing the pleasure out of the life she already has.
 
Sydney’s daughter, Bay, has lost her heart to the boy she knows it belongs to…if only he could see it, too. But how can he, when he is so far outside her grasp that he appears to her as little more than a puff of smoke?When a mysterious stranger shows up and challenges the very heart of their family, each of them must make choices they have never confronted before.  And through it all, the Waverley sisters must search for a way to hold their family together through their troublesome season of change, waiting for that extraordinary event that is First Frost.

Lose yourself in Sarah Addison Allen's enchanting world and fall for her charmed characters in this captivating story that proves that a happily-ever-after is never the real ending to a story. It’s where the real story begins.

My Thoughts:

“On the day the tree bloomed in the fall, when its white apple blossoms fell and covered the ground like snow, it was tradition for the Waverleys to gather in the garden like survivors of some great catastrophe, hugging one another, laughing as they touched faces and arms, making sure they were all okay, grateful to have gotten through it.” 

I love Sarah Addison Allen’s writing, and Garden Spells is a particular favorite, so the prospect of revisiting the Waverley family was exciting to say the least. While you could read this book on its own, your appreciation will be much greater if you begin with Garden Spells and experience the earlier events of this family’s story before diving into First Frost. Other reviewers have compared reading this book to coming home and visiting old friends, and it truly does feel that way. Though 10 years have passed since the end of Garden Spells and their lives have moved on and changed in various ways, the Waverleys are all still the same endearing yet imperfect characters, complete with their various magical gifts, personality quirks, and struggles to find their way.

As always, Sarah’s prose shines and the magical elements are incorporated with such subtle finesse that they are entirely believable. While not quite as perfect as Garden Spells was for me, this book is a very close second. There is a bit of mystery involved here and we gain some insight into Grandmother Mary, who raised the Waverley sisters, as well as their mother, the enigmatic Lorelei. Obviously, the focus of the story is slightly different this time, less romance and more family, but still completely engaging and filled with wonderful insights on life as the Waverley’s endeavor to get through the unsettling time before First Frost.

I must say that I did miss the antics of the irrepressible apple tree, as it is ‘asleep’ during most of the novel awaiting that first frost. I also would have loved to see a little more involvement from Tyler and Henry. Evanelle, however, is a delight as usual, and the unpredictable Waverley house gets up to some mischief that will keep you chuckling as well.

You simply cannot read one of Sarah’s books without feeling blanketed by a warm comforting glow, and First Frost is no exception. It is a delightful read and not to be missed, especially for fans of Garden Spells. I highly recommend it!

“Happiness isn’t a point in time you leave behind. It’s what’s ahead of you. Every single day.”

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: Dreaming Spies by Laurie R. King

Title:  Dreaming Spies (Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes #13)

Author: Laurie R. King

Publisher: 17 ^th February 2015 by Bantam

ISBN: 0345531809 (ISBN13: 9780345531803)

Pages: 352 pages

How I Read It: ARC ebook

Genre: historical fiction, mystery, cultural Japan

My Rating:  two cups

Synopsis:

For years now, readers of the Russell Memoirs have wondered about the tantalizing mentions of Japan. Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes had spent three weeks there, between India (The Game) and San Francisco (Locked Rooms). The time has finally come, to tell that story.
It is 1925, and Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes arrive home to find…a stone. A stone with a name, which they last saw in the Tokyo garden of the future emperor of Japan. It is the first indication that the investigation they did for him in 1924 might not be as…complete as they had thought. In Japan there were spies, in Oxford there are dreams. In both places, there is a small, dark-haired woman, and danger.

My thoughts:

This was my first book by Laurie R. King and sad to say, it will be my last. I was excited by the premise and pictured myself immersed in a thought provoking Sherlock Holmes suspenseful mystery – not to be. Reading more like a travelogue and FULL of detail that lent so very little to the wafer thin plot as it stood, I could not wait for the tale to be over.

The fact that the emphasis was on Mary and not Sherlock Holmes did not concern me, but surely using that name as a point of reference would lend some depth to the tale?  Yet the relevance of so many conversations and details were highly questionable and the fact that I had to read 50% of the book before I found out what the whole purpose was all about was ridiculous. Halfway through and finally:

“What is the thing your young Emperor-to-be wants us to retrieve”.

I almost wanted to give up on the book but because of my faith in Sherlock mysteries, I decided to stick with it. Still, it has to be said that wading through half a book with a whole lot of nuthin’ is really hard going without a skerrick of actual detective work. There were entire paragraphs dedicated to describing cuff links:

“The cufflinks I had chosen for him were oval, and two millimeters larger than his usual studs. Their shiny black surface was circled by a pencil-thin line of red enamel and set with a ruby in approximately one millimetre….”

(And it went on further in the description)

In all fairness, there is obviously a contingency of people who love this series (it is number 13 – she must be doing something right?) and it is clear that the factual material in this book was well researched. However due to that amount of detail in describing scenes and historical events, it began to read more like a travelogue. There were far too many pages dedicated to descriptions and minute details for my liking. There was a lot to read about cruise ships and cultural Japan in the 1920s and it's not that it's not interesting; it's just that it took away from the of laying foundations for a strong Holmes type mystery.

“A universal characteristic of the Japanese people, I had discovered, was their energy. This industrious nation seemed never to pause”.

 The story has little action and even less serious mystery. Sentences are long and difficult to wade through and, sadly, it became a real chore to read. Due to the slow pacing of the story, I would skim parts, but truth be spoken, not miss a thing:

“A long corridor hugged the inner wall of the U, with paintings and doors on one side and windows to a formal courtyard garden on the other. A short length of side corridor across from the stairway ended in the big arched window over the portico, making the U of hallway more of a Y. This truncated corridor… .”

 (And on it went further in the description)

If you are a fan of the Mary Russell series and enjoy reading about cruising and Japan in the 1920s – at a very leisurely pace – then this is the book for you.  Readers, like myself, who are expecting to have a mystery to solve, will become impatient and bored.

For me, this book was a challenge and I would recommend abandoning ship:

“Our initial intention, to abandon ship at the earliest opportunity, was rendered less urgent by this unexpected series of challenges”.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: Leaving Before the Rains Come - Alexandra Fuller

Title:  Leaving Before the Rains Come

Author: Alexandra Fuller

Publisher: 26th February 2015 by Random House UK, Vintage Publishing

ISBN: 9781473521032

Pages: 272 pages

How I Read It: ARC ebook

Genre: autobiography, memoir, nonfiction, relationships, African culture

My Rating:  four cups

Synopsis:

"I believed that if I moored myself to Charlie, I would know tranquillity interspersed with organized adventure. He would stay in Zambia because he loved the romance of it. I could remain here, safely. Our lives would be the 'three rifles, supplies for a month and Mozart' of Out of Africa without the plane crashes, syphilis and Danish accent." In 1992 Alexandra Fuller embarked on a new journey, into a long, tempestuous marriage to Charlie Ross, the love of her life. In this frank, personal memoir, a sequel to Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight, she charts their twenty years together, from the brutal beauty of the Zambezi to the mountains of Wyoming - the new adventures, the unexplored paths, the insurmountable obstacles ...and the many signals that they missed along the way.

My thoughts:

“The truth is, most of the things that change the course of our lives, happen in fleeting unguarded moments; grief buckling us at the knees; fear shattering through us like buckshot; love pulling us out on an unseen tide”.

Having read Fuller’s books before, I was really excited to get the chance to read her newest memoir. This time around Fuller examines her life once more from her marriage and the factors that led to its dissolution.

“At night our sighs and exhaustion left our mouths and settled over our bodies: a cloud of unmet expectations, a threatening storm of unbroken promises, a low-pressure system of the unsaid”.

Let me say from the outset, I love Fuller’s writing. For even though it is once again an examination of her upbringing and life, she conveys it so well, that if she wrote it on the back of a paper bag I would read it.  I am never disappointed as she captures the essence of not only Africa but how that impacted upon the way she views the world and her approach to life.

“What did I know about the fifty-five (give or take) countries of Africa? I carried within me one deep personal thread of one small part of it, and it had changed and colored everything”.

This tale, like others, has infiltrated through it, stories of her unusual childhood and the impact her quirky parents have had on the way she views the world. So, whilst a memoir most certainly, it would also fall into the category of relatable musings and thoughts on occurrences in life that we all can relate to. The focus for this instalment is about her marriage, her search and desire for protection and safety amongst the chaos of her troubled family and country.

“I loved my family, but at some point I had lost the mettle and the imagination to surrender to the promise of perpetual insecurity. Instead I chose to believe in the possibility of a predictable, chartable future, and I had picked a life that I imagined would have certainties, safety nets and assurances”.

It is heart wrenching and real, yet eloquent and exquisite.

“Someone had planted me in this soil and I had taken fierce hold. And although I had no illusions – this land wasn’t mine to inherit, none of it belonged to me – I couldn’t help knowing that I belonged to it”.

I am biased, as I adore her writing, highlighting passage after passage for further contemplation. I highly recommend reading something, anything, of Alexandra Fuller’s; if only to experience the magic that seeps from each page into your own consciousness.

“You always think there will be more time and then suddenly there isn’t. You know how it is. You have to leave before the rains come, or it’s too late”.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.