The Blue Butterfly: A Novel of Marion Davies

(Paperback)

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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 Hearsts 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 Marions successes in the movie industry: Citizen Kane.

Reviews

2022 Readers Favorite Book Awards Finalist in Fiction (Historical - Personage)

10 Historical Novels to Add To Your Summer Reading List

Ms. Career Girl

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

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, 5 STARS

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 Butterflyis 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
InThe Blue Butterfly,LeslieJohansenNackchronicles the career of the fabulous Marion Davies and captures the stars legendary verve and spirit on the Broadway stage, in her Hollywood movies, and in the battle againstCitizen Kane. More importantly, this novel tells of the love story between Davies and William Randolph Hearst to its heartbreaking end.Edward Lorusso, author ofThe 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 Butterflytakes readers from the bowels of the New York stage to the glittering life of Hollywood and its stars. Haunting and heartbreaking,The Blue Butterflyelicits the gut-punch that what we do for love colors our lives forever.

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

The Blue Butterflyis 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 imagininga 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-winningThe Velveteen Daughter

Youll have a new appreciation of the complex woman after reading this page-turning novel, which puts the spotlight on Davies once again.

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Author Bio

Leslie Johansen Nacks debut, Fourteen, received five indie awards, including the 2016 Finalist in Memoir at the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Before she started writing, she raised two children, ran a mechanical engineering business with her husband, took care of her aging mother, and dreamed of retirement when she could write full-time. She did everything late in life, including getting her degree in English Literature from UCLA at age thirty-one, only two years after she married for the second time. If you want to know when her next book is coming out, please visit her website www.lesliejohansennack.com and sign up to receive an email when she has her next release. She lives in sunny San Diego and enjoys sailing, hiking and reading.