The Starlet by Mary McNamara was a fun summer beach read. I always enjoy chick lit, and besides, who wouldn’t love a novel set in Hollywood and Italy? I know I do.
Mercy Talbot knows how to follow direction. She’s been listening to everyone from her overwhelming force-of-nature mother Angie since childhood, when she first became a star at age eleven. Mercy may have started life out as Tiffany Dawn, but she grew into Mercy Talbot, Hollywood starlet, and the book begins with this troubled twenty-three year old jumping from the top of King Triton into Trevi fountain in the heart of Rome. While paparazzi are capturing Mercy’s drug-fueled public breakdown, Juliette Greyson, a Hollywood insider on a much-needed vacation, gives Mercy the direction she needed to hear. She tells her to stop, and she “saves” Mercy from further embarrassment. Even though Juliette had no intention getting involved, she couldn’t help but try to save the girl the world has been watching have multiple breakdowns and failed rehab stints. To Juliette, Mercy is a girl worth saving.
Juliette and Mercy have a few things in common, including ex-lovers who turned up dead, as well as a history of drug abuse. Juliette takes Mercy to her Cerreta, the two-hundred acre family farm near Siena that she and her cousin, Gabe inherited. Gabe does not want Mercy there, and neither does Juliette, especially when she realizes she comes with a lot of baggage, including Juliette’s ex-lover Michael O’Connor who is replacing the actor who had just killed himself and who Mercy found dead in her hotel room. Juliette’s has her own little Hollywood insert themself into her Tuscan vacation, the very thing she didn’t want to happen. Then a detective arrives from Rome to say they are reopening the investigation into Mercy’s ex-lovers death.
The Starlet has a bit of everything for everyone – plenty of murder, mystery, mayhem, Italians, Hollywood insiders, and all the drama that comes along with it, including what else … drug addiction. This is definitely a story that could be ripped from today’s tabloids. Ms. McNamara writes a one liner beautifully in The Starlet that seems to sum up all of Hollywood’s misadventures – “Or do you save it for the camera?” You’ll have to read this book yourself to find out whether or not Juliette and Mercy do save it or not.
To purchase your copy of The Starlet click here.
To visit Mary’s website, go here.
CONTEST:
Regal Literary is sponsoring 2 fabulous The Starlet themed vacations. If you don’t win a vacation, you may be one of the lucky 100 people to win an autographed copy of The Starlet instead.
To win a weekend getaway in Los Angeles, complete with two nights at the Four Seasons, a four-star lunch at the Beverly Hills hotel, a guided tour of Hollywood, and more!
OR
A four days and three nights in the rolling Tuscan countryside at Spannocchia, Italy, for you and a companion, half price tickets for two from New York to Rome, and more!
Enter to win by visiting Mary’s website here.
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