Book review for Susan Meissner- Stars over Sunset Boulevard
Susan Meissner moves me with her evocative books. Having just finished Secrets of a Charmed Life, I am left with a heart so full of emotion that my breath catches. Swallowing back a sob, tears smart my eyes, threatening, before the inevitable overflow. What a wonderful and powerful writer.
The first book I read from this author was back in January and I posted the review on my blog. A few books have come and gone from my life since them. However, it just so happens, that the two books preceding Secrets of a Charmed Life just happened to be by Susan Meissner. I read and thoroughly enjoyed Stars over Sunset Boulevard and before I could compose a book review I was well in to the next book, A Fall of Marigolds. Well, by the time I reached the conclusion, I thought myself to be emotionally wrung dry. There could not possibly be a better book from this author. I intended to list Marigolds as one of my books of the year, and I still do, but wow, this lady keeps socking me with her heartfelt, stories of love and loss. There’s nothing sappy about her, but she certainly knows how to pack that emotional punch.
Here is my first of three book reviews for one fabulous writer’s books. Incidentally, if you do not care for historical, contemporary, women’s fiction, then these may not be the books for you.
Stars over Sunset Boulevard by Susan Meissner
1938
Two women meet in a typing pool in Hollywood.
Violet has no aspirations to be in the limelight. Born into an Alabama household with all the Southern expectations of family and children, she is a product of her upbringing with no desire to be anything but an ordinary housewife and mother. Fate, however, deals her a cruel blow and dashes her hopes. She flees to Los Angeles and strikes up an unlikely allegiance with Audrey, an older, worldly woman.
Audrey is an aspiring actress seeking that one golden opportunity that will shoot her to stardom and all the trappings of fame and fortune. Ten years previously, she almost touched
One man is piggy in the middle in a triangle of love and friendship.
The set of “Gone with the Wind” provides an exciting backdrop to the story as their friendship blossoms on and off the set. A vivid picture of that era is brightly painted on the pages of the book as Susan Meissner dazzles your senses with her descriptions, almost making one believe they can touch and taste and smell, the costumes and the lights and the sets.
2012, in a vintage clothing store, Christine unpacks a box containing an old green hat. She flips it over and reads the tag, Scarlett #13. Immediately, she is transported to a childhood memory. She has seen this hat before!
Stars over Sunset Boulevard is a journey that spans several decades recording a story of Love and friendship, woven in an elaborate web of secrets, lies and deceptions.
