REVIEW: A Golden Life by Ginny Kubitz Moyer
Embark on a journey to 1930s California in Ginny Kubitz Moyer’s spellbinding historical novel in which a woman must choose between friendship and her own secrets.
It’s 1938, and twenty-five-year-old secretary Frances Healey is ready for a fresh start. Hoping to forget her painful past, she takes a job working for Hollywood producer Lawrence Merrill. She quickly becomes absorbed in VistaGlen Studios’s biggest project: a movie about Kitty Ridley, the legendary stage actress who disappeared from the public eye in 1895. The movie will be the making of Belinda Vail, a beautiful ingenue who is hungry for a breakout role—and also happens to be Mr. Merrill’s love interest.
But the real Miss Ridley has other ideas. Now ninety years old, she writes a scathing letter insisting the studio halt production of the film. Hoping to change her mind, Frances and Mr. Merrill embark on a trip to find the actress—only to land in a Victorian farmhouse in the Napa Valley. But as she learns the truth of Miss Ridley’s life, Frances finds herself confronting the very past she’s been trying to forget. And with the arrival of the ambitious Belinda, loyalties will be tested, bonds will be forged, and Frances will learn where true happiness lies. Set in Hollywood and the sun-drenched Napa countryside, A Golden Life explores friendship, forgiveness, and the power of honoring your own story.
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Dear Ginny Kubitz Moyer,
Now this is a gorgeous cover which did its job in reflecting the book and catching my attention. I seem to be attracted to historical women’s fiction lately and, huzzah, this one is not a dual timeline though it does refer back to some previous events from time to time.
As Frances Healey is on her way to interview for a position as a secretary to a producer at VistaGlen studios in Hollywood, we see a bit of what will be important over the course of the book. Frances has the gift of setting people at ease, so much so that they gladly tell her all about themselves. Frances loves to meet people and learn more about them. She dreamed of being a journalist before that got derailed and her life took a turn.
The studio is pulling out all the stops to make what will be a big budget film that could make the career of young ingenue actress Belinda Vail. But behind the scenes, Belinda’s relationship with Frances’ boss Lawrence Merrill is cracking at the same time that Lawrence is trying to reestablish his relationship with his troubled thirteen year old daughter, Sally.
Everything narrows to one focus as the subject of the film, legendary (and long thought dead) actress Kitty Ridley sends a letter demanding that the film be called off. The lives and past secrets of everyone risk coming to light. Will Kitty agree to have her life story told and will the growing relationship between Frances and Lawrence flourish or wilt under the pressure?
Well one the main things I enjoy about the book is how period it feels without it feeling too much like a history lesson. The names – good gosh thank you for the names. Frances and Lawrence and Sally and Celia and Joe and Nancy. Even “Belinda” picked a period sounding name when she left Podunk, Nebraska behind for the bright lights of stardom. There are enough details to firmly place the action in the 1930s without either going overboard or risking there being no sense of time or place at all. It all felt natural.
Each of the characters has issues and those issues make them seem alive and well rounded. There are hints for past events about Frances and Kitty that are slowly revealed. These make sense for the times and the mores. Frances’ past has driven a wedge between her and her beloved father. Lawrence and Sally are also divided by something that has left them floundering and in pain. But things aren’t one sided. Everyone has made mistakes and has regrets that haunt them which need to be addressed before any reconciliation can occur. I especially appreciate that Lawrence acknowledges that he knows he’s messed up.
There is one person I expected to dislike, do dislike but darned if this person isn’t given a good reason for the way they act and what they do. The family with whom Kitty lives is delightful but also given their troubles to face and overcome due to the Volstead Act. Kitty herself is indomitable. Hollywood would never have filmed her real life then but today, it would be the role which actresses would fight for.
All the way to the end, I wondered will this be a historical fiction with a romance … or not. Frances and Lawrence have both endured some hard knocks. They carefully negotiate a working relationship (and yay, that Frances really is fantastic at her job) and then cautiously advance when they both feel there might be something else between them. They are both kind but also flawed characters. Still we are given several instances of the innate core decency that is at the heart of them.
There are many strong female characters here aged from thirteen to ninety. They act realistically for the time period but yes, they do suffer at times from what was considered moral and normal then. They still manage to be themselves and choose how they want to live. And
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~Jayne
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