Julie's Review: Stars Over Sunset Boulevard

Author: Susan Meissner
Series: None
Publication Date: January 5, 2016
Publisher: NAL
Pages: 400
Obtained: Amazon Vine
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction, Historical Fiction
Rating: 3.5/5
Bottom Line: Fish out of water story set in old era Hollywood
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Library

Summary: 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.  ~amazon.com

Review: Stars Over Sunset Boulevard is a well-written novel that alternates between the past and the present with much more time spent in the past. It is what connects the past and the present that ties us to Old Hollywood and to one of the most famous movies ever, Gone With the Wind. I wish there was a bit of a stronger tie to the movie but in the end it's about the relationships created because that movie was made, not the movie itself.

Audrey is vivacious and outgoing. Violet is quiet, reserved and wants nothing more than a normal life but for now that has escaped her. She came to California wanting something different and she found that in her friendship with Audrey. It's not far fetched to see why they are friends, each has a different effect on the other.

While each tackles their dreams separately what they want most in life will intersect in ways that neither of them could have forseen. It is what will keep them bonded together and what will almost tear them apart.

My one wish for this book was that it was a little less dull. That isn't to say that the writing isn't deft and exsquisite, it is but I wanted more of a tie to Hollywood. To the actors and actresses in Gone with the Wind. That's where the book was lacking for me.

I am interested in some of Ms. Meissner's other books because people have raved about her writing, so I will check those out.


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