“Harrison beautifully portrays the trials and tribulations of a Ziegfeld Follies dancer in her new novel, which is brimming with juicy details of Roaring Twenties New York City. Fans of City of Girls will adore this exploration of love and ambition.” –Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Lions of Fifth Avenue
“A delicious and entertaining exploration of the life of a Ziegfield girl with Harrison’s trademark ability to plunge the reader deep into the experiences of her characters. The Show Girl is a fast-paced and engaging read that will leave readers giving a standing ovation to Olive and to all women who choose to live life on their own terms.” –Susie Orman Schnall, author of The Subway Girls and We Came Here to Shine
JENA’S REVIEW
The Show Girl by Nicola Harrison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Come meet the modern girl of the Roaring Twenties, Olive Shine, in Nicola Harrison’s Historical Fiction, “The Show Girl.” The snazzy cover of this book features a show girl, with her twenty pounds of feathers atop her head. America was coming of age in the 1920’s and so were young women like Olive. But new times can mean new challenges.
Olive dreamed of being a show girl and the books begins with her barging into Ziegfeld’s office at the New Amsterdam Theater in New York City to present herself as the next show girl in his famous Follies troupe. Sometime audacity works, and Olive thinks her dream life has begun.
This book will have you totally enraptured with the 1920’s in New York City. The nightlife, the speakeasies, the fancy restaurants, the modern and exciting vibe are all depicted so vividly. The details of Olive’s show girl life and the production of the fantastic Ziegfeld shows are enthralling and well-written.
But there is more to Olive than glitz and glamour. She’s feisty, ferocious about achieving her dreams, and a bit wild and madcap. She came from a staid, middle class family and she harbors a tragic secret. When she meets wealthy and all-around wonderful Archie, she feels love for the first time. But what happens when her life and dreams collide? And we also know something that Olive doesn’t- October,1929 is coming soon. Can Olive the show girl keep her dreams alive or must her dreams change?
“The Show Girl” features a one-of-a kind main character and a lively story. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance review copy. This is my honest review.
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Born in England, Nicola Harrison moved to CA where she received a BA in Literature at UCLA before moving to NYC and earning an MFA in creative writing at Stony Brook. She is a member of The Writers Room, has short stories published in The Southampton Review and Glimmer Train and articles in Los Angeles Magazine and Orange Coast Magazine. She was the fashion and style staff writer for Forbes, had a weekly column at Lucky Magazine and is the founder of a personal styling business, Harrison Style.
I am a writer, blogger, book reviewer, and bon vivant and encourager. I have lived my entire life in Tropical Ohio. My goal is to make friends with everyone in the world. I wrote a fiction series, The Golden Age of Charli, that presents the problems and praises, and the love and laughter of family life and retirement. My passions are blogging, reading and reviewing, and writing. My life is a WIP.