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His Girl Hollywood

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

From Entertainment Weekly columnist Maureen Lee Lenker comes the standalone follow-up to It Happened One Fight, a rompy second-chance romance set in the glittering world of 1930s film.

Arlene Morgan has always dreamed of being a movie director, like so many women in the silent era before her. But when Evets Studios finally gives her a shot, a rare thing in 1930s Hollywood, she's dismayed to discover that her leading man is none other than Don Lamont. Born Don Lazzarini, Don was Arlene's next-door-neighbor growing up, two best friends with two big dreams. He's the only man she's ever loved...except he abandoned her to pursue his dance career in New York, and she hasn't seen or heard from his since.

But Don, despite his Broadway success, has been caught under the thumb of his gangster manager Frankie Martino for the last eight years, unable to come home. When he gets offered a role in a Hollywood picture, he leaps at the chance to free himself once and for all. But clashing with his director, the girl he once knew as Lena, leaves him scrambling to find his footing. As the two unpack old wounds and struggle to work together, Don starts to realize Lena might have been his dream girl all along. But she doesn't know about Frankie, and getting her involved in his contract would put her in danger, too. It's going to take quite the footwork to prove his feelings and help make Arlene's picture a success before Frankie takes drastic measures to keep his most valuable leading man.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      November 11, 2024
      Returning to the Golden Age of Hollywood (after It Happened One Fight), Lenker offers a hijinks-filled rom-com that’s more successful as a rollicking period piece than a love story. Oscar-winning screenwriter Arlene Morgan has always dreamed of directing and knows that, as a woman, she’ll only get one chance to prove herself, even with the full support of her studio head. So when she’s assigned Broadway dancer Don Lamont as her musical picture’s quick-footed costar, she resolves to keep it strictly business with the man who happens to have been her childhood best friend and longtime unrequited love. Don’s found success on Broadway but has little to show for it because he’s under the thumb of a local mobster. His first movie offers him a chance to break away, even if that means returning to California and the bad memories of familial disapproval that haunt it. It’s hard to buy into Don and Arlene as a couple because their chemistry doesn’t quite come across on the page. Still, the setting sparkles, whisking readers to glamorous Hollywood nightclubs, diner counters, movie sets, and the Santa Monica Pier, and the threat of the New York mobsters injects a bit of danger into the fun plot. Readers who come for the atmosphere won’t be disappointed.

    • Library Journal

      December 1, 2024

      Don Lazzarini leaves behind his small-town life in California and sets out to fulfill his dream of becoming a Broadway star, but his agent, Frankie, uses rigged contracts to ensnare him in a life of mobsters and blackmail. Ten years later, Don's past comes back to haunt him when he is signed to a one-picture deal with Evets Studios. The film's director is none other than Arlene Morgan, the girl he left behind to make it big in New York City. Don is desperate for the success of this new movie to get him out of Frankie's clutches and away from the mob. Working with Arlene becomes complicated, as the closeness of filming brings back all the feelings that they tried to forget. Featuring New York mobsters and Hollywood starlets, this story of fortune and fame weaves together the rich settings of the stage with the complexity of the characters who struggle to find that never-forgotten love. VERDICT Lenker (It Happened One Fight) writes a romance novel that also embraces the real struggle of women in the 1930s who wanted a career outside the home. The story balances the trials and tribulations of love, longing, and ultimately, success.--Judy Garner

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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