Named a Best Indie Book of 2024 by Kirkus Reviews
“In the expert hands of Ginny Kubitz Moyer, A Golden Life is a dazzling story set in Hollywood’s dream factory…a fabulous read!”
—Adriana Trigiani, author of The Good Left Undone
“The author captures 1930s California with meticulous detail and has masterfully created characters with depth and authenticity…A delightful human drama.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
It’s 1938, and twenty-five-year-old secretary Frances Healey is ready for a fresh start. Hoping to forget her painful past, she takes a job working for Hollywood producer Lawrence Merrill. She quickly becomes absorbed in VistaGlen Studios’ biggest project: a movie about Kitty Ridley, the legendary stage actress who disappeared from the public eye in 1895. The movie will be the making of Belinda Vail, a beautiful ingenue hungry for a breakout role (who also happens to be Mr. Merrill’s love interest).
But the real Miss Ridley has other ideas. Now ninety years old, she writes a scathing letter insisting the studio halt production of the film. Hoping to change her mind, Frances and Mr. Merrill embark on a trip to find the actress—only to land in a Victorian farmhouse in the Napa Valley. But as she learns the truth of Miss Ridley’s life, Frances finds herself confronting the very past she’s been trying to forget. And with the arrival of the ambitious Belinda, loyalties will be tested, bonds will be forged, and Frances will learn where true happiness lies. Set in Hollywood and the sun-drenched Napa countryside, A Golden Life explores friendship, forgiveness, and the power of honoring your own story.
” . . . a delightful escape into the golden age of film, with compelling characters that make the novel simultaneously enthralling and contemplative . . . . irresistible . . . will enchant until the final page.”
—Library Journal
More praise for A Golden Life:
“A Golden Life is a wonderful portrait of an independent woman in 1930’s California. Moving from Hollywood to Napa Valley, the novel explores the ways in which women’s lives were constrained by the mores of the time. The settings are beautifully drawn and developed, from a producer’s office on a film lot to a scenic wine country home; special and loving attention is paid to the beauty of the natural world. Ginny Kubitz Moyer writes with quiet authority and strong prose, creating a novel that is hard to put down and characters that remain long after the book is read.”
—Laura Spence-Ash, author of Beyond That, the Sea
“In this captivating novel, a young woman becomes the confidante to both the powerful and powerless of Old Hollywood—all while trying to outrun her own painful past. Ginny Kubitz Moyer beautifully renders an entire cast of complex and tender characters who remind us just how precarious and precious life can be. You’ll love it.”
—Katherine A. Sherbrooke, author of The Hidden Life of Aster Kelly
“Once I started Ginny Kubitz Moyer’s A Golden Life, I couldn’t put it down. A story about confronting the past and owning one’s story, this novel is filled with enchanting period details, memorable characters, and an ending you won’t see coming. Five gold stars for this truly entertaining read!”
—Susie Orman Schnall, author of Anna Bright Is Hiding Something and We Came Here to Shine
“Complex, engaging, and beautifully written, A Golden Life is a celebration of the human condition in all its vanity and weakness, finally transcended by forgiveness and love. You will not want this novel to end.”
—Marian O’Shea Wernicke, author of Toward That Which Is Beautiful and Out of Ireland
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