The magic and energy of Madeline’s Starlite social club will sweep you away, making you wish you could join in the fun with these lively ladies if even for just one spirited night! A nostalgic tale of hope and aspiration in a tumultuous era of change, “Glimmer As You Can” stars three women who, while in very different stages of life, each desperately need some “star light” in their lives. Set against the backdrop of Brooklyn Heights in the early 1960’s, this book is one big wallop of nostalgia – even for those of us weren’t born yet.

*A big thank you to Danielle Martin, Alcove Press, and NetGalley for providing this free Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.*

Enter our cast: 20-something Lisa, British expatriate Elaine, and Madeline, a politician’s wife.

Lisa is a Pan Am stewardess who worries about “making weight” and who yearns to marry her boyfriend Billy – even though Billy is often disturbingly distant and cold, and despite the fact that marriage will end her time in the skies.

Elaine longs to be a reporter for the prestigious newspaper “The Chronicle”, yet she settles for applying for a fact checker role, as women typically “aren’t allowed” to be reporters – those jobs go to the men. However, her joy at applying is tempered by her fear at telling her long-time fiancé her plans, as she knows he will not be pleased she is going back to work.

Madeline, is the “glimmering light” for these ladies, along with a lively cast of several other lonely, frustrated, and battered women. As the owner of the Starlite dress shop, Madeline brings cheer and optimism into the lives of everyone she meets. When life was particularly rough in her recent past, Madeline opened the Starlite after hours as a social club for women. Here they dance, they sing, they play cards, read poetry, and generally revel in their freedom and elation, if only for an hour or two, before going back to their strictured lives.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, the debut effort of Danielle Martin. Her writing style was top-notch and her characters conclusively believable. However, I did find myself cringing quite frequently as I read, thinking that the women in this novel must be the unluckiest women in the world, as every single last one of them had an absolute blighter of a man in their life. For this reason I am awarding four stars for “I really liked it”, rather than tipping the scale over to five stars for “I loved it”. Yet, “Glimmer As You Can” was chock-full of sparkling moments and highlighted the healing power of sisterhood, both truly inspiring and read-worthy factors. I highly recommend you give it a read – and let me know what you think!

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#DanielleMartin
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Glimmer as You Can is a story of women's lives in the 1960's and the restrictions that they lived with.

There's Lisa, the stewardess, struggling to keep her weight under 130, as she waits for her boyfriend's proposal. There's Elaine, engaged to a wealthy man; a man drinking up his inheritance as quickly as he can. There's Jackie who's trying to hide the fact that she's abused. And, there are many others.

Madeline is divorced from a greedy and corrupt Brooklyn politician. She owns a tiny dress shop, and she created the Starlite Club. Several nights a week, the shoo becomes a club where ladies are free to be themselves.

This was a one-sitting read for me; I enjoyed this book immensely. I would highly recommend this title to anyone who loves women's fiction.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a free digital copy of this title to review from Net Galley.

#GlimmerasYouCan#NetGalley

This was an interesting concept for a novel and the characters are well written and developed, but I found it really hard to emotionally connect with any of them and therefore was not able to finish.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Glimmer As You Can looks at how difficult women's lives could be in the 1960's and focuses on three very different ladies, whose lives are being controlled by the men they are involved with. No matter what pain they are going through, they can escape it all at the Starlite social club, where the ladies gather at night to dance, paint, read, write, and lift each other up. I enjoyed meeting these ladies and could connect with some of their struggles.

Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for access to this ARC.

What a phenomenal read. I loved these ladies and hated the men! This novel definitely gives you all the emotions. Five stars!

Glimmer as You Can by Danielle Martin is set in the Brooklyn Heights in 1962. Martin did a wonderful job developing the female characters in this novel, but for me fell flat with the male characters. I thought this book had ups and downs: one minute I was captivated and loving it and the next not really interested in ready what was going to happen. I liked the premise of the book that the women had a great friendship and the social club setting. I thought it was going to go deeper, but it was just a stayed on the surface, even thought it had some very dark spots.

Thank you #netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Set in Brooklyn in the 1960's I found this to be an enjoyable and entertaining novel. I enjoyed the description of the lifestyles...actually I, myself, remember it well. Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a terrific book, the author describes the characters beautifully, as the story unfolds, they become your friends.
Smart women, so ahead of their time, unfortunately in those days, women where suppressed.
A lot of twists and turns, but the real message in this book is how these women evolve and share their feelings..
I would recommend this book, very enjoyable.

Thank you to Netgalley and Alcove Press for the ARC. Very enjoyable read. So nice to finally have a story not centered around the world wars. The characters were very likable. The author kept my interest until the end.

I enjoyed this book set in the 1960's about women friendship. The characters were drawn out and I believe that it was well represented of the time. I enjoyed reading about the flight attendant, the dress shop owner and the fact checker and more. I enjoyed this historical fiction book and would like to read more by this author.

What a beautiful, well-written look into the lives of women in the 60’s. This time period isn’t normally where a historical fiction book would land you but I loved it. The vivid descriptions, the lingo, and the lifestyles were all magnificent.

Delightful story. I was actually surprised on how this book kept me involved.
The story is about women, who in 1962, socialized after hours in the shop. They had fun playing games, dancing, singing, reading, and talking. The men weren’t supposed to know about this social club. Starlite was for women where they laughed, cried, and felt free. Madeline was the owner of the store and she organized the social club events. She was financially struggling after she divorced her cheating husband, who was the Brooklyn councilman. One day, there was an attack on the social club. Who was the attacker? Was Madeline’s ex-husband involved?
Three women tell the story and I felt close with each one of them. The author nicely described the relationship between women and their daily life at home and at work. Mostly, the story is about strong and independent women in 1960's.
Thank you to Alcove Press and NetGalley for providing me with an advance digital copy of this book. The release date for this book is 10 November 2020.

Glimmer as You Can is the story of a small group of women who come to together for a ‘social club’ in NYC in 1962. I had high hopes for this one. As usual I’ll start with the positive. The main women were interesting and well developed characters. The storyline was interesting and it was a quick, entertaining story. I appreciated the women looked out for each other. But, for historical fiction to be exceptional it needs to be oozing with details that bring the time period alive. Where there is just no mistaking when the story is taking place. Where you fee as though you’ve been transported to another time and place. Ultimately this novel didn’t deliver any of that for me. At one point I had to look up a detail mentioned to find out the exact year that this book was taking place. But all in all it was entertaining. Not sure I’d recommend it but I wouldn’t dissuade someone from reading it if the description piqued their interest. **Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this free e-book in exchange for an honest review**

I loved historical fiction, so I was really excited about this book. But unfortunately, it's lacking in historical details and I had a hard time connecting to the characters. It just didn't hold my attention very well.

I had requested a copy of this book because I enjoy historical fiction, and the description intrigued me. It didn't live up to my expectations, unfortunately. The characters didn't keep my interest, and there was not enough history for my liking. There is a tragedy about 3/4 of the way through the book that was unexpected and was just so depressing. I had thought this book would be more uplifting and inspirational, but it wasn't.

Glimmer As You Can is the first historical fiction I've read from this author.

It centers around three girls who try to juggle their lives around romance and everyday life.

The female characters are strong and independent which is always a strong point in any book.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book had a lot going for it - the time period (1962), the focus on the women's friendships, careers, and even the fashion. However, it was also in each of these areas that the book was a little shallow - I definitely was hoping for more about the friendships and the fashions - I would have loved to read more about Madeline's dresses. Also, the publisher description says this " Madeline's social club soon becomes a safe haven for women from all walks of life looking for a respite from their troubled relationships and professional frustrations." Troubled relationships is putting it lightly - the men in this book were not only nuisances, but actually abusive people. It was a dark look at the times, and I felt this was a little out of balance. None of the men in the book were even halfway decent and that was a bit depressing and unexpected. Overall this was an interesting read, but not nearly as uplifting as I expected going into it. I would look forward to new books from this author as I think there is definitely the opportunity for those books to be real stars.

This book is told from the perspective of three different women: Elaine, a young British woman who lives with a wealthy young man; Lisa, who is from a poor family and works first as a stewardess and then at a lunch counter; and Madeline who owns a dress shop and at night turns the shop into a social club for women.

This book is about the beauty and power of women. The bonds of women's friendships. The struggles women face. This book tackles homosexuality in the 1960s, mafia-related politics in Brooklyn during that era, women who seem naive but who are really heroes struggling and fighting for each other and themselves every day.

This was a fun historical fiction book.
1962. In the middle of Brooklyn Heights sits the Starlite: boutique dress shop by day, underground women's club by night. Started by the shop's proprietor after her councilman ex-husband Fred Abbott ruined her reputation, Madeline's social club soon becomes a safe haven for women from all walks of life looking for a respite from their troubled relationships and professional frustrations.

I found myself really drawn to these characters.
I loved the heart this book had. It was fun, fast paced. I enjoyed the history this book showed.

Thank you NetGalley & Publisher for this gifted e-ARC

This is a book I expected to like. The idea of women joking together during the post war years is one that has interested me. So many great books have been written about this period of time (THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, SUPERIOR WOMEN), but this is not one of them. I found the plot very slim and tge characters uninteresting.

The plot line and inconsistencies were annoying. If a reader recalls that time, so much of what was written was simply untrue. I feel like the stories were thrown together without sufficient research. There were some lines that made no sense.

So, I cannot recommend this novel.

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this.