Release Date: May 3, 2022
About The Book:
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.
About The Author:
Leslie Johansen Nack’s debut novel, The Blue Butterfly, A Novel of Marion Davies has won two awards including CIBA Semi-Finalist for Goethe Late Historical Fiction. Her memoir, Fourteen, A Daughter’s Memoir, 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. Please visit her website http://www.lesliejohansennack.com and sign up for her newsletter. She lives in sunny San Diego and enjoys sailing, hiking and reading.
Social Media:
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Book Blurbs:
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
“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
“You’ll have a new appreciation of the complex woman after reading this page-turning novel, which puts the spotlight on Davies once again.”—Bookbub
Bloggers On Tour:
May 4th- Books and Coffee MX https://instagram.com/booksandcoffeemx
May 5th- Plains Reading https://instagram.com/plains_reading
May 6th- Miss W Book Reviews https://instagram.com/misswbookreviews
May 9th- A Court Of spines n pages https://instagram.com/acourtofspinesnpages
May 11th- StamperLady https://instagram.com/stamperlady50
May 15th- Joannas Bookshelf https://instagram.com/joannasbookshelf
May 22nd- Rozier Reads and Wine https://instagram.com/rozierreadsandwine
May 28th- Subakka Bookstuff https://instagram.com/subakka.bookstuff
June 3rd- Books Love And Understanding https://instagram.com/booksloveandunderstanding
June 6th- Sarahs Bookish Reviews https://instagram.com/sarahs.bookish.reviews
June 8th- Reading Late Into The Night https://instagram.com/reading.late.into.the.night
June 12th- CMT Loves Wine and Books https://instagram.com/cmtloveswineandbooks
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