Catching up on books.

Really good book. I love this author and theses types of books. Learned lots :)

Thanks NetGalley for this arc.

Started off so exciting, but then got boring real quick, which is an absolute shock to me. This story could have had so much action, romance and meat, but I didn't even like Hedy! I'm sorry, read something else by Ms. Benedict.

The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict is a biography of the late, great actress Hedy Lamarr and her life before Hollywood. Ms. LaMarr was also an inventor and she worked on a system that would guide torpedos with accuracy to the target. Unfortunately, because she was a woman her patented invention was not accepted by the military, but in later years her inventions led to the use of cell phones.

Hedy, actually Hedwig Kiesler, was an actress in her native Austria before the Anschluss where Germany took over Austria as part of that country in the early years of WWII. She and her family were part Jewish and her father was concerned about political events that he was sure would involve them.

The head of munitions factories in Austria and other countries was enamored of her and, used to getting his way, sought Hedy’s hand in marriage. She accepted because her father was sure that Fritz Mandl could protect her and her family. Her marriage started very well and she was sure that she had made a good decision. She was present during dinners where political news was discussed, but the men didn’t consider that she was interested in what they were talking about, so she could gain information without giving herself away. Then she found that her husband played both sides of the conflict. First, he and his cohorts were determined that Austria would never be controlled by Germany and then when it became almost a certainty that Hitler would invade, he changed his allegiance. It was then that he treated Hedy more as a trophy wife and prisoner than a beloved wife. Hedy schemed to escape and eventually was successful. Traveling to Hollywood, she became a sought-after beauty and actress.

I found this book so interesting because it isn’t often that someone of Hedy’s beauty and her acting career is also a renowned self-taught inventor of radio frequency systems and understood them. I give kudos to the author because I know this book was well-researched and I love the way she wrote in the first person throughout the novel.

I remember, after much time passed, this book well. After reading about the beautiful and intelligent actress and scientist Hedy Lamarr, I spent hours researching her life through documentaries and googled articles. It is sad how she was only acknowledged for her beauty and her scientific brain was ignored completely. If I remember correctly, she struggled to get her invention patented and died without the recognition deserved.

I give this book four stars for the idea and research to bring Hedy to the readers attention. If not for this book, I don't believe, I would've known about her at all. I gravitate, with much interest, novels that are WWII and Nazi related.

Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark for the eARC via Netgalley

I really enjoyed this book, but I do wish the focus would have been more on Hedy Lamarr's later years. I was more interested in the parts about her invention than her time with her first husband. I rarely think this, but I think the author could have added another 100 pages, and it would still be interesting.

I truly enjoyed reading this historical fiction about Hedy Lamarr. I found the book yo be riveting and hard to put down. Hedy was such an underestimated woman!!

The Only Woman in the Room is based on the life of Hedy Lamarr, the beautiful and successful Hollywood actress who was also a brilliant scientist responsible for helping to develop Bluetooth technology. Fascinating!

Hedy Kiesler is lucky. Her beauty leads to a starring role in a controversial film and marriage to a powerful Austrian arms dealer, allowing her to evade Nazi persecution despite her Jewish heritage. But Hedy is also intelligent. At lavish Vienna dinner parties, she overhears the Third Reich's plans. One night in 1937, desperate to escape her controlling husband and the rise of the Nazis, she disguises herself and flees her husband's castle.

She lands in Hollywood, where she becomes Hedy Lamarr, screen star. But Hedy is keeping a secret even more shocking than her Jewish heritage: she is a scientist. She has an idea that might help the country and that might ease her guilt for escaping alone—if anyone will listen to her.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

A fighter against the Nazis.
A Hollywood leading lady.
A brilliant scientist.
WHAT AN AMAZING WOMAN!!!!!
Ms. Benedict has crafted a page turner. I couldn’t stop reading until I finished the book.
I can’t wait for the next book by Marie Benedict.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an arc in exchange for my honest review.

I knew of Hedy Lamarr’s inventiveness and particularly her patent of what became spread spectrum technology, so I was extremely keen to read about her extraordinary life. At the start I forgot I was reading about a real person, but when I recalled who she was, I could not but be amazed. I would heartily recommend people to read and learn about this outstanding, in every way, person.

I was very ready to love this book. What is not to love about a life of a beautiful woman (and Hedy Lamarr was all-natural bombshell and a true beauty by any standard), who is also a brilliant, self-taught inventor?
Yet this book has disappointed me as is both shallow and uneven in my opinion. It concentrates only into certain parts of Hedy´s life (more than a half book is about her life as a young wife to a powerful Austrian weaponry businessman) and how is she seen "only" as a woman (even the title "The Only Woman in the room" indicates that she is "only" a woman, a beautiful face with no brains or personality). Yet - I think that the true reality is much more colourful and complicated than the simplistic feminist take (nothing against the true feminism!). Also - is Hedy´s life worth no more than the simple statement about how women were only toys and unworthy creatures for men, which had brought many unhappiness unto earth? Well, yes, the abovementioned viewpoint is (partly) true - but there is much more into the picture, as the truth is simply less simple.
I have read somewhere that "your pain is your business brand" - and me for myself would like to know more about this woman from that point - her escapist pain, her brilliant intelligence (to become such a self-taught scientist that her inventions are in use as a part of the most modern technology? Without any education in the field? She must have been brilliant). How about her art? Is her art less important? How about her father complex, many marriages, children and later life?
Yet we spend more time on the cruelty of her first husband, meaningless sexual scenes, dresses and trying to end every chapter with a punchline (pin very much intended, as the final sentences feel extra fake to me).
This is not a biography, it is a novel. And it is not a good novel, as the storytelling concentrates more on a statement that on telling the story in its wholeness.
The life of Hedy Lamarr deserves a more comprehensive, deeper and more detailed analysis - and perhaps more human understanding of Hedy as a whole, not just a narrow view limited by a certain viewpoint.

This book features the life of actress Hedy Lamarr. The story started off at a good pace. Not as good as Carnegie's Maid but still a worthwhile read. I am not a big fan of WWII novels but the historical aspects were fascinating.

The Only Woman in the Room was...ok.

I was excited to read this because I love reading about women in science or technology. This book seemed like it would hit the mark for me but it didn't. The large majority of the book was about her marriage to Friedrich "Fritz" Mandl and her film career. While that was interesting, it wasn't what I expected and I wouldn't have read the book if I knew that would be the focus of the story. I wanted more.

The tagline for the book says, "She was beautiful. She was a genius. Could the world handle both?" but there is overwhelming emphasis on her beauty while her intelligence seems minimized. Benedict provides such a cursory overview of Hedy Lamarr's incredible and accomplished early life and makes it seem so vacuous which is shocking considering the material she had to work with here. If the intention was to bring Hedy Lamarr to life (and it clearly was), this book failed. She felt so flat and simply lackluster.

Her contributions to science and technology were rushed through in the last 15% or so of the book. The pacing was off throughout most of the book with major events like deciding to adopt James, custody of James, and pitching the torpedo system invention barely taking more than a few sentences. It was painfully obvious that Benedict herself didn't understand the torpedo system invention well enough to thoughtfully share or explain it to readers. Instead, it is discussed through descriptions of piles of books in Hedy's home, a confrontation with her co-inventor's wife, and a lot of waiting for responses.

Overall, I felt like I learned more about Hedy Lamarr from her Wikipedia entry. This book could have been great and if you want a book about Hedy Lamarr's early life with a focus on film you'll probably love it. If you want insight into Hedy Lamarr the inventor and scientist, you'll be disappointed.

I wanted to love this one because Hedy Lamarr has had such a fascinating life, but I could not get into the writing of Only Woman in the Room. It felt very slow to me. I tried a few times to read it but decided to DNF at 23%

Disappointingly simplistic.

I had high hopes for this book because I find Hedy Lamarr to be a fascinating person. Unfortunately, this book focused on all of the wrong aspects of her life and largely ignored the things that made the greatest contribution to her enthralling legacy.

To write fiction about Lamarr and focus primarily on her victimization by the men in her life feels like a disservice to her incredible accomplishments. I understand that this is women’s fiction and the target audience is deeply interested in relationship-driven content, but the glossing over of Lamarr’s scientific accomplishments in order to better focus on her appearance and mistreatment by men feels like putting Hedy in the same box those men wanted to hide her in.

Obviously those are important components of her story and need to be included, but to focus on them such as to imply that those were the defining moments of her life is disrespectful to the subject.

That misprioritization of content combined with the extremely simplistic writing made this one a big disappointment for me.

Marie Benedict has become one of my favorite authors for historical fiction. Her books read like nonfiction; she takes notable, but often overlooked, women from history and sheds light on their lives and accomplishments.

This story begins in the early days of Adolf Hitler's regime. We are introduced to the talented and Heidi Kiesler (aka Hedi Lamarr) when she was a young and little-known actress in Austria. Performing onstage, she catches the eye of wealthy Friedrich Mandl, the renowned ‘Merchant of Death’ and Austria’s richest man. He charms her and her parents with his wealth and influence, and she marries him. However, it soon becomes apparent that he wishes to tightly control every aspect of her life and appearance. She eventually escapes from him, and in finding her freedom she goes on to not only become a famous actress but to make significant contributions in the world of science.

This is an excellent read for anyone who is interested in history, and particularly the women in history whose accomplishments have too-often taken a backseat to the accomplishments of men.

A straight up fictional biography of Hedy Lamarr. The author brings nothing special to the story of this most interesting woman. Marred to the largest arms dealer to the Germans and eventually Hitler, Lamarr escapes her luxe imprisonment and makes her way to Hollywood. Her career is given short shrift, and the book ends during WW II, There's not much to recommend it. If you are a Hedy Lamarr fan, you already know what's in this book.

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley. This book had me from the very beginning. I love that it kept me engaged the entire time. I couldn't wait to see how it ended. I would highly recommend to all my fellow readers. Thank you for the chance to review this book!

I really wanted to like this book but couldn't seem to get into it. Hedy Lamarr led a fascinating life but it wasn't told well in this book. The writing was slow and I felt the author didn't do her story credit.

Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.