11 | August | 2020 | Berit Talks Books

Happy Tuesday book people!

This was such a heartwarming and heartbreaking story. I was so invested in Grace’s life and really was loving her characters growth throughout the story.🎬

My Thoughts

“I was untouchable, unstoppable, hurtling down a path to immortality so rapidly, so immaculately, that not one person stopped to question how it all worked so well, a fortysomething man and a teenager being so inextricably linked.”

Timely and compelling. Heartbreaking and hopeful. Riveting and disturbing. Ella Berman’s debut will resonate with any woman who has ever been objectified by a man catcalling her as she’s walking down the street or made to feel less then by a man Gaslighting her to believe that it’s all her fault. When Grace is 13 she is discovered at an audition in her UK hometown. Famous movie producer Able Yorke has found his muse and gives Grace’s family an offer they can’t resist. Enticed by the glittering Hollywood movie star lifestyle the entire family packs up and moves to California. Grace loves the glamorous lifestyle and being able’s number one protégé. But things go dark when the Producer crosses the line sending the protégé down the lonely path of guilt and insecurity.

Ella Berman started writing this in 2017 before #metoo. In the author note at the end she talks about this and why she didn’t really bring the movement into the story. I have a really hard time with stories about men in power taken advantage of innocent or even not so innocent girls/women, but I have to say the story did a really thoughtful job with the subject matter. Nothing was overly graphic or gratuitous it was more implied than anything else. This really allowed me to focus on Grace and her comeback. Grace was such a sympathetic character she was so hardened and yet so naïve. She could party like a champ, but she couldn’t purchase a phone. I’d imagine this is true of many child stars they are not able to do many of the things that their “normal“ counterparts are able to. I really loved watching Grace’s growth throughout the story. She started as a selfish spoiled diva and grew into a compassionate caring human. I also liked that this is not a total manhater book, seriously the nicest most caring character in the story was Dylan (Grace’s husband). A well told thought-provoking story with well developed characters. Just a little warning there is a lot of alcohol and drug use in the book, I mention this because I think the story will appeal to teens but in case you don’t want your kids to read about that here’s the warning.

This book in emojis 🎬 💊 🍸 🏖 📹 🎤

*** Big thank you to Berkley for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***

About the Book

A deep dive into the psyche of a young actress raised in the spotlight under the influence of a charming, manipulative film director and the moment when she decides his time for winning is over.

At the height of her career and on the eve of her first Golden Globe nomination, teen star Grace Turner disappeared.

Now, tentatively sober and surprisingly numb, Grace is back in Los Angeles after her year of self-imposed exile. She knows the new private life she wants isn’t going to be easy as she tries to be a better person and reconnect with the people she left behind.

But when Grace is asked to present a lifetime achievement award to director Able Yorke–the man who controlled her every move for eight years–she realizes that she can’t run from the secret behind her spectacular crash and burn for much longer. And she’s the only one with nothing left to lose.

Alternating between past and present, The Comeback tackles power dynamics and the uncertainty of young adulthood, the types of secrets that become part of our sense of self, and the moments when we learn that though there are many ways to get hurt, we can still choose to fight back.

About the Author

Ella Berman grew up in both London and Los Angeles and worked at Sony Music before starting the clothing brand London Loves LA. She lives in London with her husband, James, and their dog, Rocky. The Comeback is her first novel.

Have a wonderful day! Berit XOXO 💋

About the Book

Suddenly, it became hard to breathe and the sound of the engine throbbed in Eva’s head. The plane crashed and skidded. She heard the wail of sirens. The last thing she remembered was pulling her body across the tarmac an inch at a time—before her world went black.

Sweetwater, Texas, 1943. Eva has always wanted to fly away. She jumps at the chance to train with the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots and help the war effort, even if the days are exhausting, the southern nights sweltering. When she’s in the air, it’s all worthwhile: her heart soars, as close to infinity as you can get. And since she met handsome Jack, she has someone to fly back to. But on one dangerous night, everything goes wrong. When she awakes, her body is broken and her memory is gone…

Los Angeles, 1977. Eva seems like a normal married woman with a family to be proud of. When she woke up after that terrible night—a blank in her memory—Jack was smiling down at her. But so many decades later, Eva is still searching for answers about the night that changed her life forever. Why have letters to her fellow pilots gone unanswered for thirty years? What really happened on her last flight?

Ever since that catastrophic crash, Eva has lived with the worst fear imaginable: did she do something terrible enough to make her friends cut her off? Increasingly overcome by frightening flashbacks, where she is fighting to escape from a tiny cockpit filled with smoke as her plane falls to the ground, she desperately tries to uncover the truth. But are some secrets best left buried in the past?

From bestselling author Ella Carey comes a sweeping story, inspired by true events, about the brave, forgotten female pilots who helped America win the war. A story you will never forget, and one that will always stay in your heart.

This book was first published in 2019.

About the Author

Ella Carey is the international bestselling author of The Things We Don’t Say, Secret Shores, From a Paris Balcony, The House by the Lake, and Paris Time Capsule. Her books have been published in over fourteen languages, in twelve countries, and have been shortlisted for ARRA awards. A Francophile who has long been fascinated by secret histories set in Europe’s entrancing past, Ella has degrees in music, nineteenth-century women’s fiction, and modern European history. She lives in Melbourne with her two children and two Italian greyhounds who are constantly mistaken for whippets.

Ella loves to connect with her readers regularly through her facebook page and on her website.

http://www.ellacarey.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ellacareyauthor/
https://twitter.com/Ella_Carey

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