by K.E. le Veque

On a dreary Saturday I began reading this book about a stunning siren of the Golden Age of Hollywood, a tragic love story with a secret that was kept for more than eighty years and I almost finished it in one day!

Present Day: Joey Cabot is a successful writer whose last book didn’t sell very well. She is hoping that the new novel she is writing about the tragic last months of Hollywood legend, Lola Grayson, will put her back on top. Joey even manages to buy the California house that Lola and her lover, Robert Taggert, kept as their hidden love nest. The house is in disrepair and as walls are removed and plumbing updated, Joey finds a secret space with a safe. Inside the safe are documents related to Lola’s life. There is also an empty ring box and another box that contains a beautiful ruby and diamond brooch. What happened to the ring and why was this beautiful brooch left behind when Robert sold the house after Lola’s death? Joey’s obsession grows as she opens more boxes with things from Lola’s life. There are so many unexplained documents in these boxes and when she meets someone who was close to Lola, the story of her tragic life really begins to unfold.

Los Angeles, 1934: Lola Grayson is the biggest star at MGM. She rose to stardom the hard way through the casting couch with an insufferable stage mother and now she is owned by the studio. Her life isn’t her own as the studio dictates what she will do and with whom, what movies she will make and if she crosses the studio she will be in big trouble. Lola has always been medically frail and as her health worsens she wants to give up Hollywood, marry Robert and have children but the studio and he mother won’t allow it. When Lola tragically dies at the age of 26, the world is in morning and MGM has lost its biggest star.

As Joey hears about the life of Lola she realizes that she must write a book about the real Lola and not the one that Louis B. Mayer manufactured. The Girl Made of Stars brought the Golden Age of Hollywood and the studio system alive and cameo appearances by Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Spencer Tracy, Joan Crawford, Myrna Loy and Marion Davies added to the story.

I loved this book and had to keep reading it until I learned more about the secrets in Lola Grayson’s life.

Thanks to Dragonblade Publishing Inc and NetGalley for the advanced reading copy. It will be published on January 29, 2025.