Book Review | "The Starlets" by Lee Kelly & Jennifer Thorne
An Organized Crime Thriller through an Old Hollywood Movie Lens
“The Starlets” is set in the summer of 1958 on a remote island of Italy, Tavalli, where the blockbuster movie A Thousand Ships is filmed. The epic is Apex Pictures’ final thrust for survival amid the studio sinking like the Titanic.
Actress Vivienne Rhodes arrives on the island under the impression she will be playing the film’s lead, Helen of Troy, surely securing her the much sought-after Academy Award after being defeated the same year. Unfortunately, Rhodes was misinformed, discovering she has been bumped to the secondary role of Cassandra to support the new star, Lottie Lawrence, her nemesis and fiancé-stealer.
Rhodes does not have much time to exert her rage and revenge before the two are engulfed by a murder and drug trafficking plot, finding themselves in sole possession of the evidence to bring down the criminal enterprise.
Leaving their personal conflict aside, the duo narrowly escapes their pursuers, setting them on a chase through Europe in an attempt to turn over the evidence to Interpol. From Monaco to the Alps and back to Italy, Vivienne and Lottie form a friendship as they evade the criminal predators and reveal the truth of their relationship and how they’ve been pitted against one another.
Will the actresses be the real-life heroines of this story or will the patriarchy win again?
“The Starlets” opens up in a dreamy old Hollywood world in the vein of “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” before emerging as an organized crime thriller, disposing of the glamour and fame facade.
The first third of the novel is wildly entertaining and intriguing, introducing the reader to an array of quirky characters, a representation of the past, present, and future of the 1950s Hollywood scene. The star-studded characters are quickly revealed to be complex but flawed humans struggling with their individual demons and histories.
As the drama unfolds via a yacht shootout and a body found in the props department, the plot thins as the movie’s female leads galavant around southern Europe. This is where the story lost me slightly. The on-the-run sequence falls victim to pacing issues with scenes vacillating between tenuous and viscous, unable to strike a healthy balance of plot points and moving the story forward.
Rather than abandoning the journey, buckle up for a bumpy ride pairing moments of slog with nuggets of bewitching scenes and character development. Although the middle detracts from the experience, the package as a whole is exciting, endearing, and enrapturing.
The heart of the novel lies in the relationship between Vivienne Rhodes and Lottie Lawrence, where they debunk what the world tells them they are and redefine how they show up for themselves and each other in the future. If to only follow this bond, the novel is completely worth it. I loved these characters and I think you will too.
And if you choose to listen to this novel, Narrator Gail Shalan knocks it out of the park, breathing life into each distinctive character. Shalan delivers an engaging and skillful performance, masterfully tackling all voices and narratives.
Authors Kelly and Thorne wrote a story with a unique, genre-merging twist, and though it falls short in places, the novel has great bones and a substantial foundation to work from. They transport you to 1950s Italy and drop you in the middle of an old Hollywood film set—and I don’t know about you but I needed to be transported this week to somewhere else.
If you feel bogged down by the current political climate and the election, “The Starlets” is a hopeful journey where women take back their power and prove they are more than the patriarchy deems them to be. I plan to fight for the Viviennes and the Lotties of the world and I hope you do too.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Purchase your copy HERE.
Thank you to NetGalley, HarperCollins Focus, and Harper Muse Audiobooks for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
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