Alcott, Kate

Movie fans and readers of historical fiction will appreciate this loving tribute to Old Hollywood and its stars. [See Prepub Alert, 10/3/16.]

Readers of Nancy Horan's Loving Frank and other biographical fiction will love this well-written and thoroughly researched look at Hollywood's glamorous and not-so-glamorous past. [See Prepub Alert, 8/22/14.]

As she did with her debut, The Dressmaker, Alcott draws from dramatic events indelibly etched in history and offers a fresh perspective. The resulting tale is reminiscent of the British television drama series North & South, in that it also explores issues of class and gender and is set primarily on a cotton mill during the same general time period. And like the series, Alcott's work will attract historical romance fans who will be entertained by the antics of the daring ladies who leave everything they know and embrace less-than-ideal conditions to gain their freedom. [See Prepub Alert, 8/12/13.]

Taking the tale of the Titanic out of the frigid sea and docking it in the courtroom and early 20th-century New York gives the familiar story a fresh feel. Tess makes a praiseworthy heroine, torn between her loyalties to the woman she so admires and her own principles, but would two men declare their love after knowing Tess for so brief a time? One fewer suitor might have been more plausible. Still, an engaging first novel in this year of everything Titanic.