Folks, prepare for me to gush.
While it may not show much in my current daily life, I have a deep and long-standing admiration for glamour, most especially of the Old Hollywood kind. No, not the tinsel and flash but the Goods, the kind that causes a frisson or two. Now, I have a charming friend who feels the way that I do and as we are talking about writers and writing this week, it is the perfect moment to tell you about Vickie Lester’s (yes, that would be a nom de plume) fantastic new novel, “It’s In His Kiss.”
You might remember my dedicating a post to Vickie this past February as a cheer up effort for her birthday, one that fell just as her team of publishers dissolved while her novel was on the brink of publication. Can you imagine? It is amazing to think that in so short a time, she bravely took up the fallen reins and rode into the world of self-publishing with her friends and the many fans of her blog, Beguiling Hollywood, cheering her on to the finish. Et voila, she did it and ahead of schedule to boot. It’s a good thing too as this is one fantastic ride of a read. I am snobby enough when it comes to using certain adjectives where literature is concerned but honestly? “Fun” is the appropriate word here. Vickie told me, “I loved writing it and I loved editing it.” It shows.
Here is what I had written previously: “Each chapter that I have read had my heart racing, leaving me hungry for the next. For you see, Ms. Lester is not only a brilliant writer but the real deal who writes about Hollywood, it’s wonders and foibles, from the deep insider point of view. And some of the scandalous tidbits? Well, they very well might be a slightly disguised truth, which we all know is stranger than fiction.”
My oh my, someone was being prescient that day. I had no idea what I was in for when the novel arrived and I could finally read all of it. I am warning you now (and I see by a review at Amazon that I am not the only one), as cliché as it sounds you. will. not. be. able. to. put. it. down. Until you are neatly dropped down on the other side, breathless and blinking.
I understand more clearly “Ms. Lester’s” use of a fake name after having tasted each morsel of this dark but deeply romantic mystery, as some of the details are frankly too fantastic not to be true. And those of us who read her blog understand complicitly that this is a woman who knows of what she speaks from the source. Not to mention her skewering a certain “Clientology”? Scandalous. While I am no gossip in life, a little fictional swimming in that steamy pond never hurt anyone and half of the fun in reading the novel lies in discerning the “who is who” of the character’s real life counterparts. And the other half? In trying – and failing – to see where the story is going to take you next.
Hollywood. Glamour. Power. Lies. Destruction. Rebirth. It’s all in here…it’s all “In His Kiss.”
To Buy it on Amazon US: please click here.
Pour mes amis dans la belle France: cliquez ici.
To read more about the book: please click here.
Plus, there are plenty of great excerpts on her blog: here (just click on the photos).
Isn’t it amazing when our friends do great things?
Makes me happy and very proud.
Have a great weekend everyone and thank you for all of your kind responses on my previous post too…
Heather, catching up on posts I missed while on break and now will rush to get this on my Kindle – sounds like the perfect summer read! Thanks for the tip! XOXO
Wonderful review Heather. I haven't made it to the end yet but I am completely failing to see where that's going to be. And FUN is an excellent description. I would add 'rollicking good read".
Aw shucks Dr. Mike. But even that photo was taken over ten years ago! What was I wearing when we met? Most likely something one step above yoga pants!! 😉
Thanks Loree! I don't want to miss anything…or it could just be me being a muddle-headed fool. 😉
G, as in George? In the City of Lost Angels — I could probably drop it off on your doorstep 😉 .
Love the local bookshops, and wandering through the stacks. I imagine you can ask them to order it because Amazon has a wholesale division for the trade…
On the great behemoth, Amazon. xox, V
Silke, definitely read poolside —
She thought she had stepped boldly into a new palette when she abandoned her Manhattan black, but to her mounting embarrassment she instantly saw she blended in perfectly with the scrub and rocky outcroppings covering what is known as the movie colony, an old area of town right under the hills, once home to Elvis and Frank
and an ill-fated honeymooning couple of the thirties, Carole Lombard and Clark Gable.
In contrast, the other guests glistened in tanning oil.
There they were, half-naked, with implausibly buoyant bosoms
and supplemented bums and biceps, radiating a carefully constructed beauty; all of these individuals were in the film business or married to it. The women were skeletal; Anne assumed they had all stopped eating in about 2004.
Thank you! It was so much fun to write – I hope that comes across in the reading.
That's the wonder of the Internet, in so many ways, it's the biggest, most creative, most altruistic gathering of people I know of…
Fantastic review – It's In His Kiss is on my List! Best from the City of Lost Angels, G
With such a glowing recommendation…how can we not all rush out and read this book? I am looking for something fabulous to read just now…so shall hunt it down…i still prefer to support my local bookshop and get them to order stuff in for me…it costs no more, and it will be a sad day when the world loses all the local bookshops…
SOLD MOI!
I will order it or find it!
Suze! Thank you and congratulations to you on your representation, wonderful! Wonderful!
Heather, Mr. Terry, Ms. Bauer, thank you, too!
The image was taken from my rooftop at blazing sunset (by me) and the cover was designed by production designer, John Myhre, the book interior was designed by graphic artist, Shirley Kawabuchi.
It may also be a "pool read" since I am planning to spend two weeks near one very soon in the south of France.
So that will be a perfect lecture!
So cool you did it, Vickie Lester and so good you recommended it Heather! (:
This sounds utterly delicious! Congrats to Vicki for this accomplishment.
xo
Right, David, That was exactly what I was going to say: That IS a great cover! (:
Heather,
Hermes on your wrist is quite glamorous (not the tinsel and flash type either!).
mmmmm?……as someone who's been doing/designing/consulting-on book covers for the last 20 years?….all I have to say is "That is a GREAT cover".
—-david terry
Oh…there's NOTHING inherently deprecating or "wrong" in describing a book as "the perfect beach read". Such books are far-far in-between. I've got a B.A., two M.A's, an M. Litt, and a Ph.D. in literature….and I have absolutely no problem simply describing a book as "touching", "sincere", or even "a great beach-read" if the term is applied correctly and with discretion. I rarely use any of those adjective/phrases…..but I do it when I mean it.
Quite frankly, "It's in His Kiss" sounds like a smart person's good, enjoyable, and equally smart beach-read. I don't know about you folks, but I had enough of Danielle Steele & that Jackie Collins minx somewhere around 1982 or so…….
'Tis the season (at least in this hemisphere) for good beach-reads, after all….
David Terry (who's about to post this on his facebook page)
http://www.davidterryart,com
Congratulations to Vickie for getting published. I am sure that the book will make a wonderful read. I saw your comment, I thought you could subscribe by email to my blog. I'll check whether it's working.
We are finding that there a lot of talents among bloggers who can write in all kinds of genre. Vickie Lester is one of them.Thank you Heather.
Well, Suzahmahtooze, all of my writer friends have been published this year…so I believe there is a vacancy and you are going to fill that spot! Hooray! And you will enjoy Vickie's book a lot I believe – all of the inner tickings of the clock that I just swoop up along with the words.
And yes, the cover could not be more perfect…
Oh I would give one of my last remaining eye teeth to hear you sing it! Glad to be of service Madame…especially for such a firecracker of a novel. It is everybit as fantastic as I say…
Oh! I just typed you a long reply and poof! It disappeared. So briefly, the book is available at Amazon Espana but only in English as Vickie self-published it. And yes, the 30s!!!
I do believe "saucily scholarly" is a keeper. 🙂
And yes! I knew that I forgot something important – all of the design elements and details (the architecture, the art, the food) are what makes the world of the novel so real to me.
Heather, thank you so much for posting about this! Vicki, I absolutely love the cover of the book. It draws me in and I imagine it says a lot about the atmosphere that your writing evokes, paired with the title. I'm an old romantic soul and if your book is anything like your posts–how can it not be?–I know it'll be worth the time spent on every page. I take H.'s recommendations seriously so I'm thrilled she loved the story. Congratulations!
Mr. Terry,
It is definitely not oppressively scholarly, if it's anything it's saucily scholarly, and there's a strong art and design vein running through it. So here's the deal, do you still have my email address? If you send me a note I will send you a signed copy as thanks for the birthday presents and all your kindness.
With my highest regards, V
It's a beach read 😉 !
Oh Ms. Heather! Did anyone ever tell you you're too marvelous for words, like glorious and glamorous…
You're much too much
And just too very, very
To ever be in Webster's Dictionary…
Bless Cole Porter, and count your lucky stars you can't hear me sing!
Oh that song..reminds me on long nights dancing (when I was a teenager). Old Hollywood, do you mean the 2o/30's? Yes, that's my time too. Sometimes I have a feeling that I have must live in this era in a former life . Will try to get the book in Europe and in my mother language.
This is perfect – I almost wrote that it was a fantastic beach read but didn't want to insult Vickie!
Ah, sadly I am in the same situation! I have told friends and family to stop sending me anything as they never arrive. Unfortunate but true.
And thank you for the lovely compliment. It is a delicious read, I think that you will enjoy it.
Well, thank you for this recommendation, Heather. Three of my longtime, very bright friends have brithdays in the latter half of May, and I was wondering, just last night, what to get for them. I always try to get them something that makes for absorbing "beach reading" (they all take extended vacations to the beach in July). This novel sounds perfect…."smart" without being oppressively scholarly, engaging, and (from what you say) well-written.
Thank you,
David Terry
Hello Heather:
Could we, would we, ignore such a recommendation? And certainly not one coming from such as yourself whose taste and judgment in all things are truly respected. We shall, on our sojourn in the United Kingdom in July, seek out 'It's In His Kiss' most definitely. We dare not order it on line for delivery here as the postal service of the Motherland is, at best, unreliable.