Review of Scandalous Women: A Novel of Jackie Collins and Jacqueline Susann by Gill Paul

 Scandalous Women: A Novel of Jackie Collins and Jacqueline Susann by Gill Paul

384 pages, Paperback

Publication August 13, 2024

 

Taken from Goodreads:  Mad Men  meets the world of publishing in international bestselling author Gill Paul’s new novel about Jackie Collins and Jacqueline Susann, two dynamic, groundbreaking writers renowned for their scandalous and controversial novels, and the beleaguered young editorial assistant who introduces them. 1966, Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls hits the bookstores and she is desperate for a bestseller. It’s steamy, it’s a page-turner, but will it make the big money she needs? In London, Jackie Collins’s racy The World Is Full of Married Men launches her career. But neither author is prepared for the price they will pay for being women who dare to write about sex. Jacqueline and Jackie are lambasted by the literary establishment, deluged with hate mail, and even condemned by feminists. In public, both women shoulder the outcry with dignity; in private, they are crumbling—particularly since they have secrets they don’t want splashed across the front pages. 1965, College graduate Nancy White is excited to take up her dream job at a Manhattan publishing house, but she could never be prepared for the rampant sexism she will encounter. While working on Valley of the Dolls , she becomes friends with Jacqueline Susann, and, after reaching out to Jackie Collins about a US deal, she is responsible for the two authors meeting. Will the two Jackies clash as they race to top the charts? Will Nancy achieve her ambition of becoming an editor, despite all the men determined to hold her back? Three women struggle to succeed in a man’s world, while desperately trying to protect those they love the most.

 

My Thoughts:   I love getting a look into an author’s life to see how their writing brain works and Scandalous Women is just that at a much deeper dive.   This is a look into not only how they write but also into how they had to work so hard to get into a man’s world and be taken seriously.   The success they both received was not equal to the work they put into their writing. 

This book had me wanting to know more, to read another chapter, and to learn more.  As I read I felt like I was living life alongside the “Jackies.”  I felt their pain at the many bumps in their roads and I celebrated their successes as their dreams came true.  Both authors had similar book lives with their taboo sex scenes and struggles to show that there were readers out there for their books. Their personal lives included men behind them who supported them but beyond that, their lives were very different.   

Scandalous Women is an amazing historical fiction about two authors that I enjoy reading.  It was fun to get a look into their lives.

Thank you William Morrow for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

 

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Meet Gill Paul:  Gill Paul is the bestselling author of twelve historical novels, many of them about real women from the past whom she thinks have been marginalized or misjudged by historians. Her novels have reached the top of the USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Toronto Globe & Mail charts, and have been translated into twenty-two languages.

Gill also writes historical non-fiction, including A History of Medicine in 50 Objects and series of Love Stories. Published around the world, this series includes Royal Love Stories, World War I Love Stories and Titanic Love Stories.

Gill was born in Scotland and grew up there, apart from an eventful year at school in the US when she was ten. She studied Medicine at Glasgow University, then English Literature and History (she was a student for a long time), before moving to London to work in publishing. Her first novel was written at weekends, but she has now given up the ‘day job’ to write fiction full-time. She also writes short stories for magazines and speaks at libraries and literary festivals about subjects ranging from Dorothy Parker to the Romanovs, and about writing itself.

Gill swims daily, year-round in a wild pond and loves vintage clothes, old movies, and poking around in bookshops.