Review by Booklist Review
After completing her Valentine trilogy, Trigiani (The Supreme Macaroni Company, 2013) sets her sights on Hollywood's Golden Age, which was fueled by the star system and close monitoring of actors' public and private lives by the dictatorial studios. While love affairs between cast members were often faked as publicity stunts, the one that blossomed between rising leading man Clark Gable and dewy-eyed ingénue Loretta Young was no illusion. The pregnancy that resulted, however, needed to be treated as one, for Gable was married, and Young's career would have been destroyed. With the help of her trusted secretary, Alda, and her close-knit family, Young plotted an elaborate ruse to keep her daughter's paternity a secret, all the while hoping that Gable would get a divorce and make their family whole. Based on the true story of one of Hollywood's most enigmatic love affairs, Trigiani's mesmerizing account of Young's tenacity and grace teems with backstage lore and gossip, making it a must-read for fans of Hollywood's classic movies and the legends of the silver screen.--Haggas, Carol Copyright 2015 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Trigiani's newest fictionalizes Loretta Young's life, both through her eyes and those of an invented personal secretary, whose closeness with the actress ties the narrative threads together. The author's (The Shoemaker's Wife) impeccable research and lush writing style recreates a plausible day-to-day look into the actress's life as a staunch Catholic living and working in Hollywood, beginning in the days of the Hays Code of 1930, which imposed strict moral rules on film content. The focus is on Young's close relationship with her mother and sisters, her affair with Spencer Tracy, her close friendship with David Niven, and most of all, her rumored romance with the married Clark Gable while shooting The Call of the Wild on location, as well as the extraordinary measures she went through to hide the subsequent pregnancy at a time when adultery and a child out of wedlock destroyed careers. Trigiani mines her own Italian roots with the character Alda Ducci, a young woman with her own secrets, who, as Loretta's secretary and friend, navigates the trials of love and fame with her. Eminently readable and richly imagined, Trigiani's latest will thrill her fans and surely collect new ones. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Costars Loretta Young and Clark Gable sustained a flirtation on the set of the 1935 film Call of the Wild. Young was almost two decades Gable's junior-and unattached, while Gable was married. Their onscreen chemistry didn't translate to offscreen happiness, and an unplanned pregnancy threatened the stars' careers. With the help of Alda, a former nun, who is now Young's private secretary, Young conceals her pregnancy and her child and ultimately succeeds in the studio system. VERDICT This vivid evocation of Old Hollywood captures the silver screen's golden age. For more about Gable's forbidden love affairs, check out Kate Alcott's A Touch of Stardust. (LJ 10/1/15) © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A novice nun suddenly finds herself dismissed from her convent and swept up into the heady world of Hollywood's golden age. Alda Ducci did nothing to merit exile from St. Elizabeth's Infant Hospital, a haven for unwed mothers. Indeed, Alda has worked very hard these past six years: six years of helping unwed mothers give up their babies. Six years since she fled Italy with heartaches and secrets of her own. But her mother superior is convinced that Alda can never let go of her dreams to help these poor women, so she sends her out into the world to become a private secretary to actress Loretta Young. The shift from poverty to luxury jars Alda, as well as the reader, although she endeavors to see the spiritual mission beneath the glamour. Loretta welcomes Alda into her family and her home, which she shares with her three sisters and her mother, Gladys, a talented interior designer and shrewd businesswoman. Within days, Alda has become indispensable to Loretta, and the two women bond to form an indomitable team, although Loretta steals nearly every scene. Dashing men, starry-eyed ingnues, jealous spousesall the players are well-cast as Alda helps Loretta negotiate the studio system, the Hays Code, and thwarted romances. Loretta works hard, not simply studying her lines, but often rewriting them into a code her dyslexia understands. Yet she can't help but fall in love with her every leading man. Drawn to Spencer Tracy, Loretta must lean heavily upon her Catholic faithand friend David Niven's humorto avoid temptation. Clark Gable proves even more difficult to resist. Trigiani (The Supreme Macaroni Company, 2013, etc.), a filmmaker as well as a bestselling novelist, spins a tale of star-crossed lovers, yet the rather flat prose dims the glow of the silver screen. A heartwarming tale of women's lives behind the movies. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
