Adriana Trigiani, the New York Times bestselling author of the blockbuster epic The Shoemaker’s Wife, returns with her biggest and boldest novel yet, a hypnotic tale based on a true story and filled with her signature elements: family ties, artistry, romance, and adventure. Born in the golden age of Hollywood, All the Stars in the Heavens captures the luster, drama, power, and secrets that could … and secrets that could only thrive in the studio system—viewed through the lives of an unforgettable cast of players creating magic on the screen and behind the scenes.
In this spectacular saga as radiant, thrilling, and beguiling as Hollywood itself, Adriana Trigiani takes us back to Tinsel Town’s golden age—an era as brutal as it was resplendent—and into the complex and glamorous world of a young actress hungry for fame and success. With meticulous, beautiful detail, Trigiani paints a rich, historical landscape of 1930s Los Angeles, where European and American artisans flocked to pursue the ultimate dream: to tell stories on the silver screen.
The movie business is booming in 1935 when twenty-one-year-old Loretta Young meets thirty-four-year-old Clark Gable on the set of The Call of the Wild. Though he’s already married, Gable falls for the stunning and vivacious young actress instantly.
Far from the glittering lights of Hollywood, Sister Alda Ducci has been forced to leave her convent and begin a new journey that leads her to Loretta. Becoming Miss Young’s secretary, the innocent and pious young Alda must navigate the wild terrain of Hollywood with fierce determination and a moral code that derives from her Italian roots. Over the course of decades, she and Loretta encounter scandal and adventure, choose love and passion, and forge an enduring bond of love and loyalty that will be put to the test when they eventually face the greatest obstacle of their lives.
Anchored by Trigiani’s masterful storytelling that takes you on a worldwide ride of adventure from Hollywood to the shores of southern Italy, this mesmerizing epic is, at its heart, a luminous tale of the most cherished ties that bind. Brimming with larger-than-life characters both real and fictional—including stars Spencer Tracy, Myrna Loy, David Niven, Hattie McDaniel and more—it is it is the unforgettable story of one of cinema’s greatest love affairs during the golden age of American movie making.
more
I really enjoyed this book. The “famous” people in it were those of my childhood and it was wonderful peeking into their lives. Great read, easy story, sad when it ended.
I had a hard time moving forward in this book. I really like the authors other book I read so I was looking forward to this book
Loved it
I greatly enjoyed this glimpse of the glamour days of classic Hollywood. Highly recommended.
Escapist historical Hollywood fare.
Researching Loretta Young and her later interviews tainted my enjoyment of this “reality novella” and left me in conflict throughout. Maybe wait until you’ve finished this book to do the same. Read as a fictional account of a bio, as it was intended, it is a good romance novel that takes you into the backstage of the golden era of Hollywood film making. In that way, I enjoyed the making of “The Call of the Wild” with Gable and Jack Oakey and tales of Spencer Tracey and David Niven. Trigiani excelled at giving them voice, so much so that I could hear their accents and inflections in my head as they spoke through her. She sets the scenes especially well. This is an enjoyable, informative, romantic look into Loretta Young’s life. Later opinions may blow your mind.
Not as engaging as her earlier series, but a pleasant entertainment.
Not her best work but still a good read about real Hollywood
Love all trigiani’s books,
Adriana Trigiani’s All the Stars in the Heavens is the fictitious account of Loretta Young’s career and – in particular – romance with Clark Gable, which led to the highly hushed up birth of a daughter, Judy. The first half of the book especially is engaging and page-turning; the late chapters feel slightly more forced, but the book in its entirety certainly evokes Old Hollywood in all of its glory.
If the above paragraph feels slightly ambivalent to you – it is. I actually finished this book well over one week ago, and I’ve been really struggling with my feelings about it in the interim. The book is very well written. Certainly much of it is well-researched – enough so that I wanted to learn a bit more about Loretta Young. But, and this is an awfully big but, as I was reading more about Young, I learned that in her later years she spoke openly about her relationship with Gable – and characterized their supposed “romance” as date rape. Surely Trigiani came across these same claims in her research, yet it appears she chose to wholly and entirely disregard them in favor of creating a narrative about a failed romance and inventing circumstances that kept Gable and Young perpetually apart, Young pining for Gable until her last days.
This feels wrong to me on so many levels, not least the fact that it diminishes Young’s experience, that I’m unable to take an unbiased view toward the work itself. Thus, rather than recommend All the Stars in the Heavens for its sweeping portrayal of glittering Old Hollywood, I would prefer to recommend two other titles in which the golden days of the movie industry are equally well-imagined: The Chaperone and West of Sunset, if you’re interested in further reading of the same genre.
(This review was originally published at http://www.thisyearinbooks.com/2017/09/all-stars-in-heavens.html)
If you enjoy learning about old time movie stars, this is the perfect read for you! From inside Loretta Young’s personal assistant’s point of view.
I have enjoyed all of her books that I have read. She is an awesome author.
Once again a fantastic book. Can’t get enough of Adriana Trigiani
I have loved her other books. This was not up to her previous standards.
Read like a book report on the hollywood heyday
I love Adriana Trigani’s books. I fall in love with the characters and get really wrapped up in the story! Always sad when a book comes to an end!
Draggy.
I’m not sure how much of this story was imagined and what was factual. I know Carole Lombard died in a plane crash and Spencer Tracy drank, but I’m pretty sure Loretta Young’s innermost thoughts are imagined by Adrianna. But that’s not a problem – I love classic Hollywood stories and this was a crackerjack read.
love every book this author has written. this one brings some of the the early Hollywood stars to life; even if just an imagined life it is quite believable.
I knew these people in the movies
loved the book