The Forgotten Flapper

The Forgotten Flapper: A Novel of Olive Thomas (Forgotten Actress Series, Volume 1)

by Laini Giles

Publication Date: August 1, 2015

Publisher: Sepia Stories Publishing

Formats: eBook & Trade Paperback

Pages: 411

Genre: Historical Fiction/Biographical

A presence lurks in New York City’s New Amsterdam Theatre when the lights go down and the audience goes home. They say she’s the ghost of Olive Thomas, one of the loveliest girls who ever lit up the Ziegfeld Follies and the silent screen. From her longtime home at the theater, Ollie’s ghost tells her story from her early life in Pittsburgh to her tragic death at twenty-five.

After winning a contest for “The Most Beautiful Girl in New York,” shopgirl Ollie modeled for the most famous artists in New York, and then went on to become the toast of Broadway. When Hollywood beckoned, Ollie signed first with Triangle Pictures, and then with Myron Selznick’s new production company, becoming most well known for her work as a “baby vamp,” the precursor to the flappers of the 1920s.

After a stormy courtship, she married playboy Jack Pickford, Mary Pickford’s wastrel brother. Together they developed a reputation for drinking, club-going, wrecking cars, and fighting, along with giving each other expensive make-up gifts. Ollie's mysterious death in Paris’ Ritz Hotel in 1920 was one of Hollywood’s first scandals, ensuring that her legend lived on.

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  BARNES & NOBLE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A native of Austin, Texas, Laini Giles grew up the daughter of bookworms, and became a Nancy Drew devotee early on. When she realized there might be no escape from hairy tarantulas and bad guys with guns, she put her detective dreams on hold and wrote about them instead, finishing her first mystery novel with custom illustrations when she was eight. It was this love of mystery combined with a love of old MGM musicals and The Marx Brothers that led her to check Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon out of the library during her formative years. Ideas began to simmer.

A graduate of the University of North Texas, she put the writing on hold for a while when real life got in the way (i.e.—she met and married her Canadian husband and headed north for maple-flavored goodies and real beer). She highly recommends moving to another country and not being able to work for a year for finishing any novels you may have laying around.

Laini and her husband live in Edmonton, Alberta with their three gray girl cats, nicknamed The Supremes.

For more information visit Laini Giles' website and blog. You can also find her on Twitter and Goodreads.

BLOG TOUR SCHEDULE

Monday, August 3
Kick Off & Giveaway at Passages to the Past

Tuesday, August 4
Interview at The Maiden's Court

Wednesday, August 5
Book Blast/Spotlight at History From a Woman's Perspective

Thursday, August 6
Review at Book Nerd

Friday, August 7
Book Blast/Spotlight at What Is That Book About

Monday, August 10
Review at Book Babe

Tuesday, August 11
Book Blast/Spotlight at Room With Books

Wednesday, August 12
Character Interview at Boom Baby Reviews
Spotlight & Giveaway at Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus More

Thursday, August 13
Review at Beth's Book Nook Blog

Friday, August 14
Spotlight & Giveaway at To Read, or Not to Read

Saturday, August 15
Book Blast/Spotlight at Please Pass the Books

Monday, August 17
Book Blast/Spotlight at A Literary Vacation

Tuesday, August 18
Book Blast/Spotlight at Let Them Read Books

Wednesday, August 19
Review at A Book Drunkard

Thursday, August 20
Spotlight & Giveaway at View From the Birdhouse

Friday, August 21
Book Blast/Spotlight at CelticLady's Reviews

Monday, August 24
Review at A Chick Who Reads

Wednesday, August 26
Review & Giveaway at Raven Haired Girl

Thursday, August 27
Book Blast/Spotlight at Svetlana's Reads and Views

The Woman in the Movie Star Dress by Praveen Asthana

The blurb for this title talks a lot about a mysterious red movie star dress. "One day her fears become crystallized—intrigued by a man who comes asking about a beautiful scarlet dress she has recently sold, she looks into its history and discovers a secret that terrifies her. So begins a quest to find the scarlet dress complicated by a budding romance and the threads of her past, which intervene like trip wires. Emotions run high, and in the background the quickening drumbeat of the race to find the scarlet dress, potent as a loose, loaded weapon."

I rarely do this, but this book warrants it. I'm posting a one-bike review. Why? Because at 57% the red dress had only been in maybe three or four short scenes. There's next to nothing about it. It's like 5% of the book/story. I feel teased. The red dress appears in one scene of the past. Then it appears in the store. There are hints that a woman wore it who was murdered...and some modern-day unhappy wife buys it. The rest of the story follows the heroine as she does drugs, drinks, and becomes promiscuous, having sex with random men.

Where is the mystery? The cover screams noir, intrigue. I expected a bit more about this dress and its previous wearer. I was expecting perhaps a time slip. I was not expecting what I got. I'm all for a woman "getting some", but this woman isn't even enjoying the sex she has with these random men. It's more like she needs them to want her to feel worthy of herself. It's not the kind of heroine I like to promote on the blog, let alone read about.

I didn't mind the writing style, even though it was a bit overly simple. The story itself was just a bummer for me, especially the heroine. I recommend a different cover and blurb for this story. There is no mystery. There is no romance either. It's just sex. And there isn't even any detail about her sexual escapades, so it's not erotic either.

Thank you to Netgalley for letting me read this.

Hurricane by @jewell_p_rhodes --The Ultimate Mississippi Delta Whydunit

When I reviewed the Jewell Parker Rhodes children's fantasy Bayou Magic recently  here, I said that I wanted to catch up on novels by Rhodes that I hadn't read.  That included this final book in her contemporary mystery trilogy about Dr. Marie Levant, a physician descended from Voodoo priestess Marie Lavaux.  Levant became a Voodoo priestess herself after re-locating to New Orleans.

As readers might expect Hurricane deals with Hurricane Katrina, but not a description of NOLA's experience of Katrina.  Rhodes doesn't even reveal the post-Katrina fate of Charity Hospital where Dr. Levant worked. I personally discovered what happened to Charity Hospital while watching a Book TV discussion on C-SPAN 2 on We're Still Here Ya Bastards, a non-fiction book by Roberta Brandes Gratz about NOLA's recovery.  If you're interested, you can read Gratz's article on Charity Hospital which appeared in The Nation here.

Now it's time to begin the review of what Hurricane did include.

                                                         

It starts with Marie Levant discovering an entire family murdered in their home outside the small fictional African American community of Delaire.   When she reports the crime in NOLA, no action is taken.  So she decides to investigate herself and discovers that the case is much larger than she ever imagined.   I was exposed to some very sad information that I can't unlearn now about the tragedy of environmental degradation in the Mississippi Delta that didn't begin with the Deepwater Horizon disaster.  This is a novel about real life horror and monsters that do exist.  Similar environmental atrocities can and do happen anywhere.

Delaire also had a Hoodoo woman known as Nana who was a visionary and a healer.  She had seen that Marie was coming to Delaire.  Dr. Levant was expected to be their savior, but addressing symptoms without any knowledge of the underlying cause is not really healing.  In fact, it can be a terrible mistake. 

Marie recognized one of the spirits that Nana worked with.  She was Mami Wata, the mermaid goddess from West Africa who I encountered in Rhodes' Bayou Magic.  As a nature spirit, the interests of Mami Wata did not necessarily coincide with those of humans.  This was a spiritual lesson that Marie Levant needed to learn while Katrina descended on her city.

I've said a great deal about the themes of Hurricane and their implications in this review, but I don't think I can convey the brilliance of this book.  Readers must experience the hard truths that Hurricane uncovers for themselves.

                                                   

                                                     

The Julius Romeros Extravaganza #3--Charming Book With A Middle Grade Vibe

I absolutely loved the original approach of The Julius Romeros Extravaganza #1 by Hayley Lawson- Smith.   It introduces the protagonist Abigail, a bearded girl who is sold to a circus by a disapproving servant in 19th century Australia.   I reviewed this book at my former blog The Unmasked Persona here. The second book was  different in tone.  It was a very dark story about the abuse of circus freaks.  My review of that book was the last one I wrote for The Unmasked Persona. You can find that review here.  Like the earlier books in this series,  I received this book from Hayley Lawson- Smith in return for an honest review.

                                                 

Each volume in this series has had a different tone.  This one seemed to be too gentle to be considered satire like the first book. I thought that it was an adventure novel with occasional charmingly absurd events of the sort that I  have seen in books intended for middle grade children.  Yet I'm an adult and I admit that I was entertained.  Maybe this book is for people of all ages who enjoy reading about unlikely dreams coming true.

In this book Abigail and other members of the Extravaganza troupe, find their happily ever afters.  Readers may find this heartwarming.  Others, like me, may be somewhat disappointed that the adventure is over and the trilogy is complete.

 Yet maybe at some point in the future Abigail may have restless feet and want to resume her wandering.  It's also possible that some of her circus companions may want to join her, or that she may find new ones.   When you consider how strangely things sorted themselves out in the end, I would have to say that anything might happen.  You just never know.

                                                   

                                                     

Thrill Me by Susan Mallery @SusanMallery

Sometimes the one we let go is meant to be our true love. That's the case in Thrill Me, a second chance love story. Maya and Del were high school sweethearts until Maya dumped him because she didn't want to become like her mother. She didn't want to be young and have kids, instead she wanted to live life and find success, and they way she felt about Del, that would never happen. So she broke up with him.

Years later, she's back in Fool's Gold and so is Del, and since they both work in TV, they've been thrown together. The two of them admit to being attracted to one another, but of course the past creeps in, stopping them in their tracks.

I enjoyed the flirty banter in this book and a lot of the towns characters. Reading as Del and Maya found love again was fun. I'm more of a novella reader, so this one did seem to drag in a few places for me, but I pushed through and I'm glad I did. I had several moments I laughed because the Mayor of the town is a funny lady.

Susan Mallery isn't a new author on the block and I enjoyed her writing style.

If you're looking for a second chance love story, consider Thrill Me by Susan Mallery.

My Rating:

About the Book:

Meet the Mitchell brothers of Fool's Gold, California—five gorgeous men who've left a trail of broken hearts in their wake…

Maya Farlow learned the hard way to depend only on herself, so when she fell too deeply for the bad-boy charms of Del Mitchell, she did the only thing she could—she ran. Stunned, Del left Fool's Gold to make his name and fortune in extreme sports.

Now ten years later, Maya's been hired to promote her hometown's new slogan, The Destination for Romance. The celebrity spokesman is none other than Del, the man she dumped but never forgot. Awkward!

Although Del's not the type to hold a grudge, he's determined to avoid falling a second time for the woman who broke his heart. He's a daredevil, not an idiot. Trouble is, in all his adventures, he never found a rush as exhilarating as Maya's kiss. Maybe risking his heart will prove to be the biggest thrill of all…

Queen of the Night by J. A. Jance

Anna Faktorovich's academic study on mysteries and romances which I reviewed here, led me to try the mystery author J.A. Jance, who I'd never read before.  I was intrigued with what Faktorovich wrote about this author in her study.  So I took a look at descriptions on Goodreads of the books she'd written,  and decided that I'd probably enjoy reading this one.  It's a crime thriller rather than a mystery.  Readers won't need to see the major serial killer case solved.  The suspense lies in how the perpetrator's crime spree will finally be stopped. 

Queen of the Night is actually #4 in a series, but reading out of order never dismays me.  I believe that books ought to stand on their own.  If they don't, it's not my responsibility to remedy the situation by reading other books.  I will only read more books by the author if  I am hooked by the first one I tried.  That's why I'm so careful about my choice of first read by an author.  The Queen of the Night has a story line that deals with the legends and customs of the Tohono O'odham of Arizona.  I tend to like mysteries and thrillers that involve Native American background.  I definitely knew that I'd come to the right place when I saw that Jance had dedicated the book to Tony Hillerman.

                                             

The book opens with a really wonderful Tohono O'odham legend that is both feminist and anti-war about how the night blooming cereus flower came to be.   The annual blooming of this flower is a pivotal event in the plot.  I also loved discovering the concept of  "ghost scent".  This means that the scent of the night blooming cereus reminds the Tohono O'odham  of its story.

Yet it was a quote from Psalms that kept on running through my head when I thought about the stories of a number of the characters in this book.  I heard it  sung in Hebrew in my mind, but the best English version of the quote is:  "The stone that was rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone." (Psalms 118:22) Over and over Jance shows that people who are despised triumph.  I'm fond of underdogs, so this is very heartwarming to me.  The backgrounds of Dr. Lani Walker and Dan Pardee are the most compelling examples.

I do feel that Jance reached deep for the full humanity of all the prominent characters including the serial killer.  I don't mean that they were all sympathetic, but I understood where they were coming from.  We saw the heart of some of the relationships depicted in this novel.  The relationship between Diana Ladd and Brandon Walker was particularly moving.

This was a strong book that also taught me a bit about the Tohono O'odham.  I will definitely want to read another book in this series soon.                                              

                                                     

The Reading Radar 8/1/2015 @katekerrigan @natmegevans

What's the Reading Radar? It's just a list of books that caught my interest in the last week, why they caught my interest, and HOW. Having been an author myself once upon a time, I was always curious about how to reach readers. I type this up every week to share with readers books they may be interested as well and to let the authors know how they're being "discovered".

I spotted all the titles this week on Netgalley.

The Milliner's Secret by Natalie Meg Evans. I love millinery. Wish it hadn't gone out of style here in the States. And oh, WWII. 'Nuff said.

London,1937. A talented young woman travels to Paris with a stranger. The promise of an exciting career as a milliner beckons, but she is about to fall in love with the enemy...

Londoner Cora Masson has reinvented herself as Coralie de Lirac, fabricating an aristocratic background to launch herself as a fashionable milliner. When the Nazis invade, the influence of a high-ranking lover, Dietrich, saves her business. But while Coralie retains her position as designer to a style-hungry elite, Paris is approaching its darkest hour.

Faced with the cruel reality of war and love, Coralie must make a difficult choice—protect herself or find the courage to fight for her friends, her freedom and everything she believes in.

***

The Dress by Kate Kerrigan caught my interest because I LOVE vintage dresses. I'm intrigued by the idea of a scandal/story around a fifties dress.

Lily Fitzpatrick loves vintage clothes - made all the more precious because they were once owned and loved by another woman. Thousands follow her vintage fashion blog and her daily Instagram feed. But this passion for the beautiful clothes of the past is about to have unforeseen consequences, when Lily stumbles upon the story of a 1950s New York beauty, who was not only everything Lily longs to be, but also shares Lily's surname.

Joy Fitzpatrick was a legend. But what was the famous dress which she once commissioned - said to be so original that nothing in couture would ever match it again? What happened to it - and why did Joy suddenly disappear from New York high society?

Kate Kerrigan's enthralling novel interweaves the dramatic story of Joy, the beautiful but tortured socialite and that of Lily - determined to uncover the truth and, if possible, bring back to life the legendary dress itself.