The girl from the Savoy

Title:

Author:

Gaynor, Hazel, author.

ISBN:

9780062403476

9780008162283

9780008162290

Personal Author:

Gaynor, Hazel, author.

Edition:

First edition.

Publication Information:

New York : William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2016]

Physical Description:

419, 14 pages ; 21 cm

General Note:

Includes P.S. section, including biographical information about the author, historical information, and reading group discussion questions (second section, pages 1-14).

Abstract:

At the Savoy hotel, two women with very different pasts try to forget the devastation of the Great War and forge a new life in a city where those who dare to dream can have it all. Dolly is the Savoy's newest chambermaid, whose proximity to the dazzling hotel guests fuels her dreams to be a star like her idol, Loretta May. Loretta, the daughter of an earl, has rebelliously turned her back on the ordered life expected of a society woman and lives as she likes, but holds a dark secret. When Dolly's life collides with Loretta's, they must both learn to let go of their pasts in order to hold on to what they most desire.-- adapted from back cover.

Corporate Subject:

Savoy Hotel (London, England) -- Fiction.

Savoy Hotel (London, England) (OCoLC)fst00632503

Conference Subject:

World War (1914-1918) (OCoLC)fst01180746

Subject Term:

Hotel cleaning personnel -- Fiction.

Nobility -- England -- Fiction.

Actresses -- Fiction.

Nineteen twenties -- Fiction.

World War, 1914-1918 -- Psychological aspects -- Fiction.

Actresses. (OCoLC)fst00796328

Hotel cleaning personnel. (OCoLC)fst00961730

Nineteen twenties. (OCoLC)fst01037835

Nobility. (OCoLC)fst01038255

Psychological aspects. (OCoLC)fst01354086

Man-woman relationships -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

London (England), setting.

England. (OCoLC)fst01219920

England -- London. (OCoLC)fst01204271

Genre:

Historical fiction.

Romance fiction.

Fiction.

Document ID:

SD_ILS:2277758

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Library	Collection	Collection	Call Number	Status
Searching... Northeast Branch Library (Kern Co.)	Searching... Unknown	Adult Fiction	FIC REES MAT	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Oakhurst Branch (Madera Co.)	Searching... Unknown	Fiction Shelves	GAYNOR HA Girl	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Presenting a dazzling new historical novel ... The Girl From The Savoy is as sparkling as champagne and as thrilling as the era itself.

'Sometimes life gives you cotton stockings. Sometimes it gives you a Chanel gown ...'

Dolly Lane is a dreamer; a downtrodden maid who longs to dance on the London stage, but her life has been fractured by the Great War. Memories of the soldier she loved, of secret shame and profound loss, by turns pull her back and spur her on to make a better life.

When she finds employment as a chambermaid at London's grandest hotel, The Savoy, Dolly takes a step closer to the glittering lives of the Bright Young Things who thrive on champagne, jazz and rebellion. Right now, she must exist on the fringes of power, wealth and glamor--she must remain invisible and unimportant.

But her fortunes take an unexpected turn when she responds to a struggling songwriter's advertisement for a 'muse' and finds herself thrust into London's exhilarating theatre scene and into the lives of celebrated actress, Loretta May, and her brother, Perry. Loretta and Perry may have the life Dolly aspires to, but they too are searching for something.

Now, at the precipice of the life she has and the one she longs for, the girl from The Savoy must make difficult choices: between two men; between two classes, between everything she knows and everything she dreams of. A brighter future is tantalizingly close--but can a girl like Dolly ever truly leave her past behind?

Author Notes

Hazel Gaynor's debut novel, The Girl Who Came Home: A Novel of the Titanic, was a New York Times and USA Today bestseller. A Memory of Violets is her second novel.

In addition to historical fiction, she writes a popular guest blog, Carry on Writing, for national Irish writing website writing.ie. She shares thoughts and experiences of the writing process and has interviewed a number of popular authors, including; Philippa Gregory, Sebastian Faulks, John Boyne and Cheryl Strayed.

Hazel received the 2012 Cecil Day Lewis award for Emerging Writers and was selected by Library Journal as one of Ten Big Breakout Authors for 2015.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

The echoes of the First World War influence every character of Gaynor's latest novel, set in 1923 London. Peacetime is giving Londoners a chance to recover and reinvent themselves, and Dolly Lane is hoping that her new job at the Savoy-the poshest hotel in the city-will help her do just that. After losing her fiancé to amnesia induced by shell shock, Teddy Cooper, Dolly dreams of a life on the stage. At first the other maids laugh at her ambitions of becoming a chorus girl, but then she answers an ad to be a muse to struggling composer Perry Clements. Perry introduces her to his sister, beautiful starlet Loretta May. Though the two women come from different backgrounds, both have survived losses and both are keeping secrets. As Loretta and Perry take Dolly under their wings, she finds her life as transformed as she had hoped. But even as she is launched to a lifestyle that includes couture gowns and champagne, her heart still aches for Teddy, whose shell shock has seemingly changed him for good. Dolly's path toward stardom and the secret that's been haunting her help push this historical novel toward a thoroughly satisfying ending. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

A spunky young woman dances her way up from a job as a chambermaid at London's grandest hotel to a chorus girl and beyond during the Roaring '20s. Dorothy Lane is not known as Dolly Daydream for nothing. She may be washing clothes at London's famed Savoy Hotel, but her head is filled with Jazz Age fantasies of appearing in the West End or Hollywood. The hotel is full of celebs and glitterati, the so-called Bright Young People of British society, who fill the bustling ballrooms. In the first of a number of improbably lucky coincidences, Dolly literally bumps into Perry Clements, the brother of Loretta May, her superstar idol, on the street. Shortly thereafter, in another stroke of unlikely good fortune, Perry advertises for a "muse," andsurprise of surprises!Dolly coincidentally answers the ad. At 32, Perry's sister is the breathtaking beautiful darling of the gallery girls, of whom Dolly is one: shop girls and domestics who fill the cheap theater seats and live on tabloid accounts of the stars. Though she's only a few years older than Dolly, Loretta is world-weary, awash in gin and morphine, with secret health issues. In a blend of "Cinderella" and Pygmalion, (spoiler alert, but isn't it predictable?), Dolly miraculously becomes Loretta's protge. Gaynor (The Girl Who Came Home, 2012, etc.), a good storyteller, mars her tale by straining too hard for profundity and relying on hyperbole; Loretta describes Dolly as "the kind of girl one discovers perhaps once in a decade, a rough diamond waiting to be polished and brought out to dazzle for all the world to see." Though the book more than teases with romance-novel tropeswill Dolly end up with Perry or with her hometown amour Teddy Cooper, a solder broken by the Great War?the only real romance here is between Dolly and the stage. This flapper-era cocktail ultimately has more fizzle than fizz. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Gaynor struts her historical stuff once again in her latest novel, set in 1920s London. Aspiring-actress Dolly Lane has just been hired at the Savoy, London's most glittering hotel. For Dolly, it is the perfect place to help her forget her troubled past and to connect with London's elite, the very people who could make or break her career. When Dolly responds to a struggling songwriter's advertisement for a muse, she is thrust head-on into the lives of the rich and powerful, including the celebrated actress Loretta May. Both women find themselves at a crossroads the paths forward will require them to make difficult choices and take them to places they never imagined. Gaynor's (A Memory of Violets, 2015) latest quickly and completely takes readers into the exciting world of London between the wars. This story of loss and longing and of the power of ambition and dreams to carry us forward is filled with rich period details and unforgettable characters.--Gladstein, Carol Copyright 2016 Booklist