A movie star, a diplomat’s wife, a scientist, and attendants to royalty—the protagonists of this month’s selection of stories live out-of-the-ordinary lives on, or near, a grand stage.
We’ll start with the movie star in WHEN WE WERE BRILLIANT by Lynn Cullen, a novel about the relationship between Marilyn Monroe and photographer Eve Arnold—the only female photographer Monroe worked with and the one she pursued as a young starlet, sure this woman would project the image Norma Jean wanted the world to see. Although one would become an internationally recognized personality and the other would be little-known, their association spans Marilyn’s life, her story revealed as Eve saw and photographed her. Both were ambitious, driven women determined to succeed in their chosen fields despite the restrictions imposed by their male-dominated industries, struggling to balance professional aspirations with traditional female roles in marriage and motherhood. Though Cullen’s Eve remains somewhat a shadowy figure and her narrative doesn’t delve deeply into Marilyn’s serious mental health issues, she does a marvelous job of letting Eve reveal the poignant humanity and enormous heart of the woman behind the symbol who yearned all her life for love, stability and acceptance.
We return to a fictional protagonist in TEDDY by Emily Dunlay. Newly married at an older age than most debutantes of the 1960’s, Teddy Huntley Carlyle accompanies her new husband to dynamic, cosmopolitan Rome. Having been somewhat scandal-prone, Teddy vows she will be the perfect, polished, discreet diplomat’s wife. But Rome simmers with intrigue, deceit and secrets, soon embroiling Teddy. Replete with descriptions of the glamorous art, fashion, and social maneuvering among the international jet-set, Dunley’s novel shows a woman of intelligence and passion trying to come into her own in a world where men set the rules and break them with an impunity not granted to the women they involve.
We remain in the world of high society—royal society in this case – in CHRISTMAS WITH THE QUEEN by Helen Gaynor and Heather Webb. The story begins in 1952, as young Queen Elizabeth II, following royal tradition, prepares to give her first Christmas Day radio broadcast. Involved in her story are single mother and aspiring reporter Olive Carter, who leaps at the chance to cover the broadcast and its preparations for the BBC, and widowed chef Jack Devereux, an American who is hired to work in the kitchens at Sandringham. Over the next five years, though the majority of the story follows Olive and Jack and their gradual rekindling of a relationship begun when they met in London on VE Day, we see from first-person point of view the changes as the new queen develops confidence in balancing the roles of wife, mother and sovereign, Olive becoming a sounding-board for the Christmas speeches and Jack slowly recovering from the devastation of losing his beloved wife. Filled with vivid details of life in post-war Britain and behind-the scenes looks at Christmas among the inner circle of royal family and staff at Sandringham, Gaynor and Webb’s novel is as nostalgic and heart-warming as the Christmas season itself.
We finish with THE ENGLISH CHEMIST by Jessica Mills. Society in the 1950’s discounted both the intelligence and the importance of women who strayed outside traditional roles. Despite Rosalind Franklin’s brilliance as a student, from being segregated at Cambridge to being sidelined once she wrangles a job in a science lab, she must struggle to continue working in a field that actively discourages female participation. Not until a later generation would the full value of her work in cracking the code of life and developing an accurate model of DNA be revealed. Despite this, Mills’s novel shows us a woman determined to use her intellect and her talents to break new ground, whether or not she is publicly recognized for it.
Embassies, Hollywood, Sandringham, secretive labs producing high-stakes science…this month’s selections reveal fascinating details about exotic worlds few of us “ordinary folk” are ever privileged to enter. Enjoy!
About Julia Justiss
Real, intense, passionate historical romance
Award-winning romance author Julia Justiss, who has written more than thirty historical novels and novellas set in the English Regency and the American West, just completed her first contemporary series set in the fictional Hill Country town of Whiskey River, Texas.
A voracious reader who began jotting down plot ideas for Nancy Drew novels in her third grade spiral, Julia has published poetry and worked as a business journalist.
She and her husband live in East Texas, where she continues to craft the stories she loves. Check her website for details about her books, chat with her on social media, and follow her on Bookbub and Amazon to receive notices about her latest releases.
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