Tag Archives: 1960s

Mar31

The Chateau on Sunset by Natasha Lester- review

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I haven’t done a review in a while as my husband passed away on March 4th and I haven’t been able to focus on writing for a bit. I have read a few books and hope to get more reviews done soon.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this copy for review.

Fire was the theme of this book. It played a large part in the story. A late 1950s, early 960s take on the Jane Eyre story, the author did an excellent job weaving in elements of the source material in this coming-of-age tale.

The young orphan, Aria Jones, after her parents died in a fiery automobile accident, comes to live with her aunt at the Chateau Marmot, an icon in Los Angeles. The aunt, a former actress has turned tranquilizer user after a mysterious event a number of years ago. She stopped acting and holed up in a set of rooms in the chateau when her engagement to a Hollywood producer ended. She wasn’t much of a substitute parent for her fourteen-year-old niece, the child of her brother.

Left to her own devices in the hotel, Aria tries hard to not make a nuisance of herself. Two young actresses sort of take her under their wings and act kind of like big sisters for her.

Over the years, Aria doesn’t leave the hotel much. She works to stay low profile but a lot of people in the chateau rely on her sensibleness. She calls the hotel doctor to help a lot of the young actresses who find themselves in bad situations. She also babysits a lot of the actors’ and actresses’ children and hordes money to save to live in Hawaii when she is an adult. Her biggest desire is to escape the hotel but she never seems to want to even walk all the way down Sunset Boulevard.

When she is almost an adult, a rock star purchases the chateau. He has a child whose mother passed away. Aria asks to babysit the child who happens to be the same age as Aria was when she moved to the chateau herself. She has success bonding with the teen and forms an attachment with the rock star father.

Several mysteries exist in the chateau. Why a friend of Aria’s aunt died in an apparent suicide; who lives in one of the bungalows secretly; what secrets does the famous producer hide; what does the rock star hide from his past as well as his present; and why did Aria’s aunt go from wildly popular as an actress to a recluse living on Quaaludes and other drugs?

Fire appears on the regular in this book and it haunts the protagonist’s life.

I absolutely loved this book. Lots of good meaty drama in the story. The protagonist was very likable and the two friends she made when she first came to the chateau were complicated young women who had deep side stories themselves.

The rock star who was based on Rochester was an enigma as well and the protagonist drew him out in the same way Jane Eyre drew out Rochester.

The protagonist’s story traces—in a 1960s fashion—the path of Jane Eyre. As someone who has been to the Marmont, I enjoyed the fact that the writer made the hotel itself a real character in this novel.

Overall, this is an excellent read and a very good, mystery heavy, take on the classic tale. 

BLURB:

A sheltered young woman living at the Chateau Marmont falls under the spell of a scandalous, secretive man as all of Hollywood’s glamour swirls around her—a stunning feminist reimagining of Jane Eyre from the New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Seamstress.

In 1957, newly orphaned Aria Jones is sent to live with her aunt, a fading star who hides away in Hollywood’s infamous Chateau Marmont. There, two aspiring actresses, Calliope and Flitter, take grieving Aria under their wing.

But the Marmont isn’t meant for small girls with big hearts, and Aria’s first few nights reveal an insidious secret that continues to haunt her as she grows up in the hotel’s halls, where the bright lights of Hollywood cast even darker shadows. If Aria can just stay invisible and invite no trouble as she saves money, then she can leave the Marmont and live life on her own terms—alone, but free. 

All her carefully laid plans are shattered when the hotel is bought by Theo Winchester: a reclusive rockstar turned unexpected caretaker of his daughter Adele, and unlike any man Aria has met before. To earn the last bit of money she needs to escape, Aria becomes Adele’s tutor, which brings Aria closer to Theo and ignites a passion she never expected. 

Suddenly, Aria finds herself wondering if she still wants to remain invisible—and if inviting trouble is a risk she’s willing to take to pursue what she truly desires.

Jul22

The Magnolia Palace- Fiona Davis

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This was a quick read that was enjoyable. I found it interesting that the main character was inspired by a real person. I knew the family who owned the Magnolia Palace were real –The Frick family. Mr. Henry Clay Frick was an industrialist as well as an art patron and eventually, he left his home to the city to make into a museum. Audrey Munson was the woman who inspired the heroine, Lillian, in this story. Audrey was used by many sculptors of that era as a model for many of the statues around the city of New York. Many call her the first super model.

The novel begins with Lillian being in the wrong place at the wrong time and she is questioned in the murder of her landlord’s wife. She flees and ends up in a job interview to be the assistant to Mr. Frick’s daughter.

The action swings back and forth from the gilded age to the 1960s where we meet a model named Veronica who has come over from England to be part of a photo shoot at the Frick mansion which is now a museum. She meets a young man who is interning at the museum.  They accidently get locked into the museum overnight in a snowstorm and blackout.

Back in the gilded age, Lillian works for the daughter of the industrialist and tries to help her in her love life as the woman’s father wants her to marry. There’s a lot of interesting psychological undertones in Frick’s son and daughter’s interactions with him as well as each other.

Lillian finds herself falling for the young man who has been chosen to be her employer’s fiancé and he falls for her as well. The daughter goes out of town with her family and sets a kind of treasure hunt around the house for her intended husband in order to amuse him while she’s gone. Lillian helps him in the quest and they draw closer together.

In the 1960s, Veronica finds the clues for the treasure hunt in the house/museum and she, along with the intern start to follow them while they are stranded in the house.

The rest of the story continues to move back and forth between the time periods and the two heroines. A murder occurs and the excitement builds in each era. I won’t say much more as I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but it’s a unique and interesting story. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it if you like art, the gilded age, the 1960s, mysteries and a fictionalized look at the past in an exciting way.

Issues of racism and prejudice against women with ambition are two of the themes of this story as well as family love and conflict.  Overall, I think it’s a good story.