Thank you to NetGalley and SheWrites for this ARC. Marion Davies is a dancer at Ziegfeld Follies and caught the eye of WR Hearst. She quickly becomes his mistress at the age of 19 and became her manager. Over the course of her career, she filmed over 29 films and continued her relationship with WR for the next 40 years, until his death in 1951. I loved her life story and loved hearing about all the movie stars she had contact with. Nack writes a great story! #TheBlueButterfly #LeslieJohansenNack #May2022

Very good and made me want to learn more about Marion Davies, but found the ending abrupt. Marion sometimes felt one dimensional.

This is an excellent historical fiction novel about Marion Davies, a 1920s actress and the long-time mistress of William Randolph Hearst. Her story is fascinating, and she interacted with many other famous and interesting people and events of the time. I felt transported to this time period, and really enjoyed learning more about this fascinating woman.

THE BLUE BUTTERFLY
BY: LESLIE JOHANSEN NACK

When reading Historical Fiction about factual people and their lives, I am always left wondering how much of what I just read is true and what is fiction. I was very excited to read this enjoyable novel about Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst. Marion Davies, a novel, is what I discovered after reading this entire somewhat longer than usual book and it wasn't until I reached the end and read the Author's Note, (which I always appreciate) did I learn that there was only one biography written in 1972, about Marion Davies. She died in September, 1961. She had dictated her life story but, she didn't get the chance to write her intended autobiography before she died. The Author, of this novel said she tried to make as much of a true accounting of the facts as possible. I gave this five stars for the storytelling that kept me reading and never bored and the fact that I got completely swept away and was extremely entertained from cover to cover.

It starts out in New York City, in 1907. The story is narrated in Marion's voice and she was the baby of the family of five children. Her name was Marion Cecilia Douras. Marian telling the story from her point of view was another winner of points for me and I found it not only intimate but enjoyable. By the time Marion was ten years old she said that she had to fend for herself and for the most part she liked it that way. She was a tomboy and being a troublemaker came easy for her. She conveys that her mother wasn't exactly neglectful, she just ran out of hugs by the time Marion was born. Her mother saw the "bleak economic realities for women" like her and her three sisters and guided them to seek opportunities to meet and marry wealthy and eligible men lied in steering her daughters to work in the theater, where the lines between the classes blurred. Her mother sort of instilled in her four daughters to navigate the world as best as she knew how, which some may see that as raising gold diggers. I never got the sense that Marion was a gold digger reading this novel about her life. She wasn't poor. Her father was a lawyer and they had two homes. I got the sense that Marion truly loved William Randolph Hearst or WR as she called him.

Her two older sister's named Reine and Ethel had jobs in the theater and Marion watched them dress and do their hair before heading off to their jobs. Her brother drowned when Marion was young, but she saw the toll that losing his only son took on her father. There is a picture of Marion in the beginning of this novel and she was stunningly beautiful with huge azure blue eyes and blond curly hair. It is easy to imagine how WR took one look at her when she got her job in the theater and he seemed smitten and he sent her a dozen long stem red roses in the very early stages when she was dancing.

In the early 1900's women from all walks of life were uniting to get the vote. Silent movies were the trend, the Ford motor company had the monopoly on cars and Theodore Roosevelt was president and the only way for women to ascend their station in life was to marry up. Marion's mother took it as her full time job to prepare all four of her daughters for Vaudeville. All four sisters took singing and dancing from the age of five. As I said, I felt that Marion was by no means poor when I read that they had a house in the posh Gramercy Park, which their mother lived with her oldest sisters' Reine and Ethel at first. Rose who was two years older than Marion was at times less close to Marion. Marion states that her and Rose lived during the week with their father in Brooklyn in their Victorian home. Marion was a fun loving youth who enjoyed joking and pranks in between twirling and dancing. Acting as a tomboy Marion dressed up as a boy and tucked her hair in a cap and joined a group of boys who threw rotten produce at houses when she was younger. The group got caught and the police informed Marion's mother that one of their targets was the butler of William Randolph Hearst.

I got the feeling that the Author wrote the novel featuring Marion and WR as sympathetic character's. When Marion got her turn at the theater she was noticed by WR and the gifts kept arriving. Three dozen Long stem roses, a gold and diamond watch in a blue box from Tiffany's and a key to an apartment were all sent to Marion by WR after her shows. He met her backstage and told her the apartment was hers and so she went there and WR was there. He and Marion drank champagne and she was nineteen years old and he was fifty-two years old. They enjoyed each other's company and by this time Marion was dancing in the Ziegfeld Follies. WR told her that he loved her and wanted to make her a movie star. She invited him to dinner to meet her family and it was asked by one of her parent's about his marital status. He said he was working on getting divorced from his wife Millicent who he had five children with.

WR soon bought a production Company which he managed and he picked the scripts for Marion to act in. She felt that he was managing her and later when she went out West to California she was under contract with MGM which the silent movies gave her parts in. WR helped open doors for her, but the price she paid was him making the decisions of which roles she would act in. Before that, the novel says that she got pregnant and she left for Europe with her sister Rose who she was to let Rose raise their child. Rose kept having miscarriages and WR could not get a divorce so the baby had to be given up which Marion felt was difficult but that was the arrangement to keep the baby from not knowing her real mother and father. Only WR and Marion's family knew that Marion and WR had a child together and it was kept a secret. WR wasn't present for the birth. Marion kept the secret and she reluctantly gave their baby daughter to her sister Rose and her husband George to raise.

The way the novel was written it came across it portrayed WR always building his homes which money was endless. He was always working and Marion moved her whole family out to California. She seemed quite generous taking care of her family. WR kept pouring money into what he called the ranch. Opulent living to the point of WR spending a fortune and Marion did a lot of drinking.

I don't want to disclose anymore than I have for leaving the rest to the reader to discover and enjoy if they think they would like to read this. I really enjoyed it, but it was slanted towards making WR and Marion in love and totally devoted to one another. Is this true? I don't know. There are other famous actors mentioned. I would have to read more non-fiction about both of them to determine what was factual and what is fiction. I was engrossed by the Author's writing style and the narrative. I would recommend this but emphasize that this is in fact a novel about Marion Davies. It has me intrigued to read what little there is about Marion Davies. There is also Charlie Chaplin's biographies to explore as mentioned at the end. I am more likely to read more non-fiction about these people but this was fun and enlightening and piqued my interest to seek out more about the sources mentioned and see what further I can learn.

Publication Date: May 3, 2020

Thank you to Net Galley, Leslie Johansen Nack and She Writes Press for providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

#TheBlueButterfly #LeslieJohansenNack #SheWritesPress #NetGalley

This is a wonderful read historical fiction at its best.Marion Davies is a woman i read about I found her to be a fascinating character.The book weaves real live people with fictional characters I enjoyed reading this from first to last page.#netgalley #shewritespress.

This was such an interesting glimpse into the Golden Age of Hollywood, and into the life of an actress that I honestly didn’t know anything about (which feels shameful to admit now). I recognized so many other names in this book - Greta Garbo, Charlie Chaplin, William Churchill - but was unfamiliar with Marion Davies.

This walks you through Marion’s life from her point of view, focusing on her film career and complicated relationship with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. I’m so curious what her life and career would have looked like - and how it would have been remembered - without his influence.

This story was engaging and difficult to put down. If you enjoy historical fiction and getting lost in the glamorous world of old Hollywood, I definitely recommend picking this up!

I really enjoyed this piece of historical fiction. It was well written with good characters that were well developed, a well written narrative and a well executed storyline that was grippuing from start to finish. I loved that I recognised some of the characters in the book too. A really good read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The Blue Butterfly is historical fiction based on the life of Marion (Douras) Davies a beautiful young woman growing up in the early 1900s. She had four sisters, and the advice her mother gave them was to make sure that they married for smart financial reasons not love. Marion dreamed of being on stage, and it was while she was a dancer that she caught the eye and heart of married William Randolph Hearst the newspaper mogul. That began a relationship that not only brought Marion love but a luxurious life and launched her career as a movie actress.

I loved this book! It was a tough time to be a woman, when your appearance was your value, but Marion was able to use her looks to then find her actual talent. The relationship she had with WR was often difficult but one that she knew she couldn’t live without — he had provided her entire family with a life they could never have had without him in it. Ultimately, she loved him dearly, and it wasn’t just the money that kept them together.

As I read, I kept wondering how much was fact and which things were fiction, but the entire story is believable. I had never heard of Marion Davies prior to reading Blue Butterfly. We have all heard of Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo, and so many others mentioned in the book. It’s sad that Marion Davies’ name got filed away in some lost page of movie history. For anyone who loves old Hollywood era type books, I highly recommend this one!

The Blue Butterfly: A Novel of Marion Davies by Leslie Johansen Nack is historical fiction that the author has done well with weaving fact and fiction about an interesting time in our history, featuring well known interesting characters.

The Blue Butterfly: A Novel of Marion Davies by Leslie Johansen Nack is a great historical fiction that takes us into the fascinating and colorful life of Marion Davies.

This is the first book I have read from this author, and it most certainly won’t be the last.

I am shamefully going to admit I knew ver little about Marion Davies before now. Learning about her professional and personal lives and her complicated relationship with William Randolph Hearst was definitely enlightening and interesting.

The author did a great job at creating an engaging narrative while adding the appropriate historical detail.

I certainly enjoyed this book and recommend it.

5/5 stars

Thank you NG and She Writes Press for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 5/3/22.