This book is set during the golden age of Hollywood. It follows Laura Lamont, previously Elsa Emerson during about 40 years of her life,
I love books that show you a large portion of someone's life because I always find myself wondering what happened eventually to characters.
Elsa Emerson was born in Door County, Wisconsin in 1920. Her parents own the Cherry County Playhouse and so Elsa is surrounded by actors from an early age. After having a small part in one of her father's plays, she is bitten by the acting bug and decides that all she wants to do is be an actress. However her family suffers loss which Elsa feels very deeply. She marries an actor, Gordon Pitts at 17 so she can go with him to become an actress in Los Angeles. There she meets the charismatic and powerful producer, Irving Green, who turns young blonde Elsa Emerson into glamourous brunette Laura Lamont. The book then follows the ups and downs of her life, with Elsa/Laura constantly reinventing herself and fighting for the people she loves.
I loved Laura/Elsa, and I felt everything she went through. This book also has a wonderful set of secondary characters, especially her children who were all really well rounded characters. I loved too that even the minor supporting characters, you got to find out what happened to them and all of the loose ends were tied up. It felt very realistic and well researched. I was sucked into the world and felt like I really knew all the characters. Something that stood out for me was the treatment of gay characters. Homosexuality was still illegal at this point, but the other characters in the book treated it as being very normal. It was never made a big deal of, jus accepted, and I really liked this.
I wouldn't recommend this for anyone under 13 as there are some more adult themes e.g. drug use, suicide, swearing. However, for anyone who enjoys history, romance and Hollywood, you should read it. I really enjoyed the entire book, so I would give it 5/5.
Thanks for reading,
Ellie
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