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…
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.