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The Girl From The Savoy Published by William Morrow on June 7, 2016Pages: 448 pages
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Presenting a dazzling new historical novel … The Girl From The Savoy is as sparkling as champagne and as thrilling as the era itself.
‘Sometimes life gives you cotton stockings. Sometimes it gives you a Chanel gown …’
Dolly Lane is a dreamer; a downtrodden maid who longs to dance on the London stage, but her life has been fractured by the Great War. Memories of the soldier she loved, of secret shame and profound loss, by turns pull her back and spur her on to make a better life.
When she finds employment as a chambermaid at London’s grandest hotel, The Savoy, Dolly takes a step closer to the glittering lives of the Bright Young Things who thrive on champagne, jazz and rebellion. Right now, she must exist on the fringes of power, wealth and glamor—she must remain invisible and unimportant.
But her fortunes take an unexpected turn when she responds to a struggling songwriter’s advertisement for a ‘muse’ and finds herself thrust into London’s exhilarating theatre scene and into the lives of celebrated actress, Loretta May, and her brother, Perry. Loretta and Perry may have the life Dolly aspires to, but they too are searching for something.
Now, at the precipice of the life she has and the one she longs for, the girl from The Savoy must make difficult choices: between two men; between two classes, between everything she knows and everything she dreams of. A brighter future is tantalizingly close—but can a girl like Dolly ever truly leave her past behind?
I have to admit it’s been a minute since I have read historical fiction, but I immediately fell in love with this book cover. The story is narrated from three different perspectives: Dolly, Teddy, and Loretta.
Dolly Lane, a maid with big dreams and dark secrets. Loretta May, a famous actress that seems to have everything everyone wants but everything that glitters isn’t gold. When Dolly & Loretta worlds collide, that’s when readers are led on an unforgettable journey. Teddy, Dorothy’s boyfriend who is sent off to war at the beginning of the book, returns a different person. Will he be able to cope with the obstacles he has ahead of him?
Author Gaynor does an excellent job of transporting readers to London in the 1920’s – 1970’s. The well-drawn characters, vivid imagery, and stellar writing makes The Girl from The Savoy an exceptional read.
Hazel Gaynor is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Girl Who Came Home: A Novel of the Titanic and A Memory of Violets. Hazel was the recipient of the 2012 Cecil Day Lewis award for Emerging Writers. She was a guest speaker at the Romantic Novelists’ Association and Historical Novel Society annual conferences in 2014. The Girl Who Came Home won the 2015 RNA Historical Romantic Novel of the Year Award.
