Meet Me in Monaco

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:     I mean, look at this photo. Do you absolutely swoon? Grace Kelly has got to be one of the most glamorous but mysterious women ever—

from her iconic roles with the likes of Cary Grant

and Jimmy Stewart

her terrifying “relationship” with Alfred Hitchcock

to her effortless fashion sense to her fairy-tale-seeming wedding to the Prince! Of Monaco

and then her children, and her tragic death—

It seems like the stuff of fiction, doesn’t it? And now, it is.  The wonderful Heather Webb (under the talented and confident hands of  Heather Webb and Hazel Gaynor) bring  her to fabulous fictional life is their Meet Me In Monaco—a brand new book with non-stop buzz.

Where did this book come from?  Well, of course.  We have it for you first- hand.

Meet Me in Monaco: A Novel of Grace Kelly's Royal Wedding

                 by Heather Webb and Hazel Gaynor

Set in the 1950s against the backdrop of Grace Kelly’s whirlwind romance and unforgettable wedding to Prince Rainier, MEET ME IN MONACO is a novel about passion, fate, and second chances in an evocative sun-drenched journey along the Côte d’Azur. It's about legacy, about the challenge of artisans to stay afloat in an ever-modernizing world, and it's about taking chances. 

The story revolves around the intersecting lives of the future princess, a passionate French perfumer, and a loveable British press photographer. As a summer book it is deliberately full of 1950s glamour, and while there is romance at the heart of the story (there’s a wedding between a prince and a princess after all!), it is also about so much more.

We especially loved developing our protagonist, Sophie Duval, and her world as a struggling perfumer. Sophie was desperate to preserve her father’s legacy in Grasse, Provence - the perfume capital of the world- and she is tested by everyone she loves to see just how far she's willing to see her vision come to life.

 Capturing all the evocative scents on the page as she hones her craft was great fun to write from the fragrant tuberose and night jasmine, to the salty breezes wafting over the rocky soil of Provence. La Belle France is all about appealing to the senses, n'est-ce pas? It was the perfect backdrop for blooming love, both for Sophie and James, as well as for Grace and her prince.

We also wanted to delve into what influence a woman like Grace Kelly might have had on those who came into contact with her, however briefly. We wanted to understand the very ordinary people caught up in a most extraordinary love-affair between an American actress and a little-known Prince. 

We wanted to highlight the people who surrounded Grace in the months, weeks and days leading up to her wedding, and later, who were deeply affected by the untimely death of one the most loved stars of Hollywood’s golden era. We wanted to illustrate how Grace’s kindness, influence, and courage touched the lives of many around her. The question of legacy, in our book, takes on several meanings here, for all of our characters.

Our story began with the basics, however--lots of research. Research is everything for a historical novelist, and between books and articles, old newsreels and newspaper reports, we discovered a tantalizing detail about Miss Kelly’s wedding dress being packed for its journey from New York to Monaco amid rolls of tissue paper scented with a perfume that had been especially made for her wedding day. 

Again, our novelists’ minds saw an intriguing angle to the story. Who was the perfumer who made that scent? And who were the harried photographers chasing the perfect shot of the most famous woman in the world, and who caused near riots in the days leading up to the wedding?

This is where our fictional protagonists—Sophie Duval: a passionate perfumer, struggling to secure her father’s legacy, and James Henderson: a press photographer searching for far more than Hollywood glamour through his lens—were inspired by real people and roles that were connected to Grace and the royal wedding in surprising ways. 

Our novelists’ gaze also wandered behind the scenes of those famous images of Princess Grace on her wedding day. Who was the woman behind the Hollywood smile? What were her private thoughts behind the many public appearances?

In writing Meet Me in Monaco, we discovered that Grace Kelly was far more than an icon of the silver screen, or the Princess she became. She was also a dear friend, a devoted daughter, a loving wife and doting mother. 

Through the lens of Sophie and James and their proximity to Grace Kelly during her transition from Hollywood star to Princess Grace of Monaco, we hope to have honored her memory, and brought her story to a new generation of fans, as well as showing a different side of her to those of us who, like us, have long admired her.  

We are so thrilled to see Meet Me in Monaco resonating with our readers, and we celebrated when we discovered it was named one of InStyle's best books to put in your tote bag for the summer, as well as one of Popsugar’s best books of July!  We hope you'll enjoy your trip to the Cote d'Azur, over the rolling fields of Grasse, and the beautiful cliffs of Prince Grace's Monaco, too!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Sigh. Shall we talk about Grace Kelly? What’s your favorite movie? Or story about her?

And a copy of MEET ME IN MONACO to one lucky US commenter!

Hazel Gaynor is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of six historical novels including The Girl Who Came Home and, most recently, The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter. She was the recipient of the 2015 RNA Historical Novel of the Year award, and shortlisted for the 2017 Irish Book Awards. She lives in Ireland with her husband and children.

Heather Webb is the internationally bestselling and award-winning author of six historical novels set in France, including Becoming Josephine and Rodin’s Lover, and the upcoming Ribbons of Scarlet, Oct 2019. She was the recipient of the WFWA 2018 STAR award. She lives in New England with her children and husband. 

About Meet Me in Monaco

Set in the 1950s against the backdrop of Grace Kelly’s whirlwind romance and unforgettable wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco, New York Times bestselling author Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb take the reader on an evocative sun-drenched journey along the Côte d’Azur in this page-turning novel of passion, fate and second chances...

Movie stars and paparazzi flock to Cannes for the glamorous film festival, but Grace Kelly, the biggest star of all, wants only to escape from the flash-bulbs. When struggling perfumer Sophie Duval shelters Miss Kelly in her boutique to fend off a persistent British press photographer, James Henderson, a bond is forged between the two women and sets in motion a chain of events that stretches across thirty years of friendship, love, and tragedy.

James Henderson cannot forget his brief encounter with Sophie Duval. Despite his guilt at being away from his daughter, he takes an assignment to cover the wedding of the century, sailing with Grace Kelly’s wedding party on the SS Constitution from New York. In Monaco, as wedding fever soars and passions and tempers escalate, James and Sophie—like Princess Grace—must ultimately decide what they are prepared to give up for love.

Who Lived in THE DOLLHOUSE?

"Davis’s impeccably structured debut is equal parts mystery, tribute to midcentury New York City, and classic love story. . . .
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I didn’t plan to make this rites of passage week, but it’s turning out that way. Yesterday, our pre-teens. Today, coming of age. Maybe. Do you remember the first place you lived all on your own?

I was 20, and, post-college, lived in a cute house (two bedrooms, LR, DR, bath, kitchen, driveway) on Illinois St. in Indianapolis. It was adorable, and such fun to share with my roommate (and still pal) Sharon. Our rent was $100. Total. A month. We scrimped and shared food and painted it ourselves and worked 7 days a week (I had two jobs, as a radio reporter and on weekends as an art galley helper, and Sharon sold real estate) and wow, we were on our own.

But you know the Barbizon? Of course you do. Think how many women were on their own for the first time there? And the brilliant Fiona Davis took that iconic apartment building in NYC and turned it into an acclaimed novel.

Here’s a bit about THE DOLLHOUSE—and I dare you not to gasp with, well, either mad desire to read it, or mad envy for not having thought of it. 

“Fiona Davis's stunning debut novel pulls readers into the lush world of New York City's glamorous Barbizon Hotel for Women, where in the 1950s a generation of aspiring models, secretaries, and editors lived side by side while attempting to claw their way to fairy-tale success, and where a present-day journalist becomes consumed with uncovering a dark secret buried deep within the Barbizon's glitzy past.” 

Okay, love it, right?

Fiona and I shared an event with Amy Poeppel (Small Admissions) and  Rachel Hulin (Hey Harry Hey Matilda) in Providence with Robin Kall Homonoff---here we are. (And in real life, we actually were in focus.)  It was great fun, and I’m so pleased to introduce her to you all.

(And we’re giving away a copy of THE DOLLHOUSE to a lucky commenter)
 

HANK: So, Fiona. How did you come up with this brilliant idea?

FIONA DAVIS: I stumbled on it.  A few years ago, I was apartment hunting in New York City and my broker took me to the Barbizon 63 condo, in what used to be the Barbizon Hotel for Women. While I didn’t take the apartment, the building had great bones and an intriguing history – the perfect setting for a work of historical fiction. Built in 1927, the Barbizon Hotel was the go-to place for cultured young women to live in while they worked or studied in New York City, the place where icons like Grace Kelly, Lauren Bacall, Joan Didion and Eudora Welty got their start

HANK: Whoa. Yes, it’s so incredibly intriguing—when you think of all the women who lived there, and the changes that unfolded over the years. And why it existed in the first place! How’d you tackle the approach you’d take?

FIONA: I’d been working as a journalist for many years, but the thought of turning a story idea into fiction was a new one. So I approached it the same way I would an article: do the research, figure out the main characters, make an outline and off you go. “How hard could it be?” I thought to myself.  

HANK: Famous last words. I have said them myself. And so?

FIONA: But as I researched and plotted, my ambition got way ahead of me. Perhaps if I’d stuck to the historical fiction genre, I might have gotten off easy. But I had the insane idea to write about two time periods – the 1950s and today – and not only that, I simply had to add a mystery element into the plot.

HANK: Two timelines, two sets of characters, tons of research to make sure the period details are right, AND make it a mystery?

FIONA: Anyone with good sense might have stopped right there. But I adored the work of paragons like Agatha Christie, Laura Lippman, and Elizabeth George, so it was crucial to me to have a question that was answered at the end of the book, in a way that my readers least suspected.

I’ve never been a fan of books that meander along, examining the minutiae of a person’s soul. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but as a reader, I crave mysteries because they engage not only my imagination, but my powers of reasoning. You know what I’m talking about - that running commentary in your mind as you turn the pages: Was that a red herring? Or a clue? If the author is overtly pointing my attention to this character as the murderer, who else might have done it? So weaving a mystery element in to THE DOLLHOUSE was non-negotiable.

HANK: We’re all with you on that. But back to that setting. Who’d you talk to?

FIONA:  As part of my research, I interviewed ex-guests who’d stayed there in the 1950s and 60s and was surprised to learn there was a lot of talk of ghosts and suicides among the guests, because every so often a distraught young girl would throw herself off the balcony, and that this was often hushed up in the press.

There was my angle. In my book, a heartsick journalist moves into what’s now the Barbizon condo and starts investigating a tragedy that occurred to her downstairs neighbor – an elderly woman with a terrible scar and a dark secret.

HANK: And then what?

FIONA:  Over multiple drafts, the story grew to encompass a number of themes, from women’s roles at work and at home to the challenges of aging, but what kept me sitting at my desk was the fun of revealing the unknown: what really happened back then?

HANK: Well it certainly worked! Here’s the rest of that PW starred review! “Darby and Rose, in alternating chapters, weave intricate threads into twists and turns that ultimately bring them together; the result is good old-fashioned suspense." 

Hurray!

I don’t think anything as glamorous and suspenseful happened in my first place alone—does cutthroat Charades count? But I treasure that time.  How about you, Reds? The first time you lived on our own—not school—where was it?

And we’ll give away a copy of THE DOLLHOUSE to one lucky commenter!

  

Fiona can be found on her website, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.  

Fiona Davis

Fiona was born in Canada and raised in New Jersey, Utah and Texas. She began her career in New York City as an actress, where she worked on Broadway, off-Broadway and in regional theater. After 10 years, she changed careers, working as an editor and writer and specializing in health, fitness, nutrition, dance and theater. 

She’s a graduate of the College of William and Mary and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and is based in New York City. She loves nothing better than hitting farmer’s markets on weekends in search of the perfect tomato, and traveling to foreign cities steeped in history, like London and Cartagena. THE DOLLHOUSE is her first novel.

THE DOLLHOUSE

When she arrives at the famed Barbizon Hotel in 1952, secretarial school enrollment in hand, Darby McLaughlin is everything her modeling agency hall mates aren't: plain, self-conscious, homesick, and utterly convinced she doesn't belong—a notion the models do nothing to disabuse. Yet when Darby befriends Esme, a Barbizon maid, she's introduced to an entirely new side of New York City: seedy downtown jazz clubs where the music is as addictive as the heroin that's used there, the startling sounds of bebop, and even the possibility of romance.
 
Over half a century later, the Barbizon's gone condo and most of its long-ago guests are forgotten. But rumors of Darby's involvement in a deadly skirmish with a hotel maid back in 1952 haunt the halls of the building as surely as the melancholy music that floats from the elderly woman's rent-controlled apartment. It's a combination too intoxicating for journalist Rose Lewin, Darby's upstairs neighbor, to resist—not to mention the perfect distraction from her own imploding personal life. Yet as Rose's obsession deepens, the ethics of her investigation become increasingly murky, and neither woman will remain unchanged when the shocking truth is finally revealed.

You Are What You--Wear?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Scarlett O’Hara’s curtain dress, of course. When you’re talking about the best and most memorable movie costumes ever, that’s on the list. 

EVERYTHING Grace Kelly wore in Rear Window, including that little cosmetic bag.  



Slinky exec Faye Dunaway in Network, and always-icy-chic Miranda Priestly, and Rita Hayworth’s black strapless Gilda dress, and Ilse’s slouchy Casablanca hat, and …well, I’ll going to have to stop myself.

My very favorite move costume ever, though, is the dress Audrey Hepburn wore in the tennis court dance scene of Sabrina.

Or wait, maybe Julie Christie’s furs in Dr. Z?  Or Rene Russo’s backless gown in the new Thomas Crown Affair. Remember that? Anyway. Enough from me.

But that is why I also swoon over “Renee Patrick’s” new novel—featuring Edith Head! Ah. Such a brilliant idea!

So we’ll let Renee—who is really Rosemarie and Vince Keenan—tell all.

REAL OR REEL, CLOTHES MAKE THE CHARACTER

by Rosemarie Keenan

Ask any costume designer and she’ll tell you costume design is all about character. As a writer, I can get behind that. Characters become living, breathing people on the page when we convey their thoughts, their words, their actions. And of course, when we describe their clothes.

In Design for Dying, we spend a fair amount of time describing what our characters are wearing. It’s not just because we love clothes. (OK, I love clothes. Vince is largely indifferent.) It’s because one half of our detective team is the legendary costume designer Edith Head. How legendary was she? Edith had a Hollywood career spanning seven decades. She was nominated for thirty-five Academy awards and took home eight of the statuettes, the most of any woman.

The diminutive designer, consistently clad in her trademark tailored suits with dark bangs and tinted glasses, knew that character could be revealed by costuming. “The story is your Bible,” she wrote in her 1959 memoir The Dress Doctor. “First and above all, what kind of character are we dressing?”

Take Double Indemnity (1944) for example. In that film the character Edith outfitted was a manipulative woman with murder on her mind. Barbara Stanwyck plays the scheming Phyllis Dietrichson, intent on entrapping Fred MacMurray’s Walter Neff. Phyllis’ seduction of Neff is executed through wardrobe. Stanwyck’s form becomes more concealed as the film progresses; how could it not when the movie begins with Phyllis clad in a towel? In the “honey of an anklet” scene she flashes her gams. Phyllis later arrives at Neff’s apartment in a not particularly daring skirt-and-sweater ensemble—except her brasserie is visible beneath the angora, a brazen reminder of her agenda. By the time of their supermarket rendezvous, Phyllis is armored in a long-sleeved blouse with a tailored checked vest.

Poor Walter didn’t understand what Edith knew and practiced. She states it plainly in The Dress Doctor: “Clothes not only can make the woman, they can make her several different women.”

Edith didn’t save her sartorial smarts for movie murderesses or even the beautiful people of Hollywood. She offered advice to the average woman through her books, newspaper columns and regular appearances on Art Linkletter’s radio and television shows. Edith diagnosed the fashion faux pas of the ladies in the audience, teaching them how to camouflage flaws and accentuate strong points.

Such style tips provide a connection between Edith and her detecting partner, Lillian Frost, in Design for Dying. While investigating the murder of an aspiring starlet, found in a costume stolen from Paramount Pictures, Edith teaches Lillian a few things about dressing, including how to use a belt to create a makeshift peplum top, lending the illusion of curves to Lillian’s somewhat boyish frame.

“The way you dress – or package yourself – is the one thing over which you have absolute control. You can’t change the size of your feet, the shape of your legs, the color of your eyes or the texture of your hair – but you can change the way you look as easily as an actress does each time she plays a new role.” Edith Head, How To Dress For Success

I’ve certainly packaged myself in different ways over the years, changing styles more often than a con man changes IDs. Pink jeans and a leather jacket during my New Wave phase, a black mini-skirt and glossy red lipstick in the late 80’s (remember Robert Palmer’s Addicted to Love video?), khaki-casual through much of the 90s (I know, what was I thinking?). Once I hit my forties though, and now entering my debut author phase, I finally know my type. These days I’d describe it as “as close to Amal Clooney as I can afford.”

 From time to time I still want to change those unchangeable aspects of my appearance that Edith catalogued but as always, she was right. No matter how often I try on the size eight slingback pumps I always walk out of the store with the size nines.

And what of my co-writer? Some of Edith’s style savvy has rubbed off on him too. I mean, just look at these shoes.

HANK: Love this! And VInce, very very fancy forties.  So Reds, let’s talk about movie clothing! What do you love and remember? What worked for you, and why?

DESIGN FOR DYING

Los Angeles, 1937. Lillian Frost has traded dreams of stardom for security as a department store salesgirl ... until she discovers she’s a suspect in the murder of her former roommate Ruby Carroll. Party girl Ruby died wearing a gown she stole from the wardrobe department at Paramount Pictures, domain of Edith Head.

Edith has yet to win the first of her eight Academy Awards; right now she’s barely hanging on to her job, and a scandal is the last thing she needs. To clear Lillian’s name and save Edith’s career, the two women join forces. Unraveling the mystery pits them against a Hungarian princess on the lam, a hotshot director on the make, and a private investigator who’s not on the level.

All they have going for them are dogged determination, assists from the likes of Bob Hope and Barbara Stanwyck, and a killer sense of style. In show business, that just may be enough…

RENEE PATRICK

Renee Patrick is the pseudonym for married authors Rosemarie and Vince Keenan. Rosemarie is a research administrator and a poet. Vince is a screenwriter and a journalist. Both native New Yorkers, they currently live in Seattle, Washington.

You can friend Renee on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ReneePatrickAuthor), follow her on Twitter (RPatrickBooks) or find more information at her website: http://reneepatrickbooks.com