📖 Featured Book of the Month ~ Scandalous Women by Gill Paul

Avon Books UK
13 August 2024

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book 

1966: In London, Jackie Collins's racy The World is Full of Married Men hits bookshops and launches her career. In New York, Jacqueline Susann's debut novel Valley of the Dolls is published, and she's desperate for it to be a bestseller. But both are about to discover the price they will pay for being women who dare to write about sex.

Meanwhile, college graduate Nancy White is excited to take up her dream job at a Manhattan publishing house. But Nancy could never be prepared for the rampant sexism she is about to encounter.

When Nancy introduces the two Jackies, she fears they will become rivals in their race to top the charts. As she strives to achieve her ambition of becoming an editor, can all three women succeed despite the men determined to hold them back?

📖My Review..

Sadly, I have to admit to never having read any of Jacqueline Susann’s novels, perhaps a little before my time, however, in the nineteen eighties I did devour the later novels of Jackie Collins by which time she was firmly established in the publishing world. To have this novel centred around two of the most groundbreaking female novelists of the twentieth century is a real insight in the perils and pitfalls of the then largely dominated male publishing world. 

This is such an insightful fictional glimpse into the lives of two fascinating women who took on the male establishment and who fought to get their work published even though they were ridiculed and criticised for writing rather risqué stories which women absolutely adored. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the two Jackies, both women had their individual challenges, made all the more complex by their desire to write the stories they wanted to write, whilst at the same time being ostracised for the gritty content of their books, even though women were buying them in their thousands.

The author has captured this time to perfection, the daring fashion, the hedonistic lifestyle, the danger of recreational drugs and the excitement of noisy nightclubs, all combine to bring the swinging sixties to life in a unique way and paring these two feisty women together in a story is a real treat. I devoured the book in a couple of afternoons, beguiled not just by the authors but also by Nancy’s story who holds everything together so beautifully.

Beautifully written and impeccably researched as all this author’s stories undoubtedly are Scandalous Women is a real page turner, highlighting the misogyny they all encountered and their sheer grit and determination in trail blazing their way through the difficult early days of women’s publishing and marketing. It’s such a fascinating read that I have no hesitation in making Scandalous Women my Featured Book of the Month for September. 

About the Author

Gill Paul is an author of historical fiction, specialising in the twentieth century and often writing about the lives of real women. Her novels have topped bestseller lists in the US and Canada as well as the UK and have been translated into twenty languages. The Secret Wife has sold over half a million copies and is a book-club favourite worldwide.

She is also the author of several non-fiction books on historical subjects. She lives in London and swims year-round in a wild pond.

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