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The Blue Butterfly

A Novel of Marion Davies

By: Leslie Johansen Nack

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Paperback | 3 May 2022

At a Glance

Paperback
352 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21.5 x 14.1 x 3

Paperback

$37.99

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2023 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards Gold Medal, Fiction: Historical

“The book reads as if it really is Davies’ autobiography . . . . a timely reminder of what women would have been up against in Hollywood.”
—Historical Novel Society

“The Blue Butterfly is a vibrant period novel that reimagines the controversial love story of a classic film star.”

—Foreword Reviews

New York 1915, Marion Davies is a shy eighteen-year-old beauty dancing on the Broadway stage when she meets William Randolph Hearst and finds herself captivated by his riches, passion and desire to make her a movie star. Following a whirlwind courtship, she learns through trial and error to live as Hearst’s mistress when a divorce from his wife proves impossible. A baby girl is born in secret in 1919 and they agree to never acknowledge her publicly as their own. In a burgeoning Hollywood scene, she works hard making movies while living a lavish partying life that includes a secret love affair with Charlie Chaplin. In late 1937, at the height of the depression, Hearst wrestles with his debtors and failing health, when Marion loans him $1M when nobody else will. Together, they must confront the movie that threatens to invalidate all of Marion’s successes in the movie industry: Citizen Kane

Industry Reviews

"10 Historical Novels to Add To Your Summer Reading List"

-Ms. Career Girl

"Following the lives of real-world people to spin an engaging story is a tricky business . . . . Fortunately, author Leslie Johansen Nack has picked the perfect subject matter in Marion Davies whose life on and off the silver screen was filled with glamour and high drama.."

-Readers Favorite Review

"Leslie Johansen Nack goes where no author has gone before with this vibrant period novel that brilliantly reimagines the life of legendary film star, Marion Davies."

-Brit & Co, "12 Historical Romance Novels To Tide You Over Until Bridgerton Premieres"

"The Blue Butterfly is a vibrant period novel that reimagines the controversial love story of a classic film star."

-Foreword Reviews

"A detailed, moving portrait of a complex woman in a complex life."-Kirkus Reviews
"In The Blue Butterfly, Leslie Johansen Nack chronicles the career of the fabulous Marion Davies and captures the star's legendary verve and spirit on the Broadway stage, in her Hollywood movies, and in the battle against Citizen Kane. More importantly, this novel tells of the love story between Davies and William Randolph Hearst to its heartbreaking end." -Edward Lorusso, author of The Silent Films of Marion Davies

"Leslie Johansen Nack redeems the tragic legacy of Marion Davies, William Randolph Hearst's long-time lover, in her newest, The Blue Butterfly. Dripping with diamonds and gilded with grandeur, The Blue Butterfly takes readers from the bowels of the New York stage to the glittering life of Hollywood and its stars. Haunting and heartbreaking, The Blue Butterfly elicits the gut-punch that what we do for love colors our lives forever."

-Ashley E. Sweeney, author of the award-winning Answer Creek and Hardland

"The Blue Butterfly is an unfiltered, first-person narrative told in glittering detail. It is the almost mythic story of a glowing, spirited woman who is captured and showered with riches beyond imagining-a butterfly in a gilded cage. In this very fast-paced book, which spares no detail in the telling, we see how dearly Marion Davies paid for her willing captivity."

-Laurel Davis Huber, author of the award-winning The Velveteen Daughter

"The book reads as if it really is Davies' autobiography . . . . a timely reminder of what women would have been up against in Hollywood."

-Historical Novel Society

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