Glitter Baby by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

I discovered Susan Elizabeth Phillips this past summer and glommed a bunch of her backlist books. She writes great straight up contemporary romance for the most part. I grabbed this newest release, Glitter Baby, a few days after it came out and I didn't even read the cover blurb. It wasn't what I was expecting at all and it was completely fabulous.

Fleur Savagar is the most beautiful woman in the world . . . to everyone but herself. With her oversized hands and paddle-boat feet, her streaky blond hair and funny green eyes, she lives a life filled with secrets that began before she was born. That was when her bewitching mother left home to find James Dean and met Errol Flynn instead. Now Fleur has to grow up quickly, and life won't make that easy.

Jake Koranda is both New York's most brilliant playwright and Hollywood's hottest actor. Difficult, talented, and tormented, he has no patience for international glamour girls, not even ones with beautiful bodies and smart-aleck mouths. But there's more to the Glitter Baby than shine, and Fleur's tougher than Jake expects. Even with the odds stacked against her, she's fiercely determined to discover the woman she's destined to be.

An ugly duckling who can't believe she's turned into a swan . . . A tough-guy movie star with a haunted past . . . In a land of broken dreams, can two unlikely lovers trust their hearts?

This is such a great book. I thoroughly enjoyed it even though most of it took place in the 70's and 80's. The flashbacks to Fleur's mom's past are a fascinatingly seedy glimpse at Hollywood of the 1950's. SEP also borrows from the great dramatic traditions of early 80's romance novels with it's ecstatic highs and tragic lows. Really good stuff!

If you want to enter a drawing for a free copy of Glitter Baby, Jayne Anne Krentz is giving one away here.