Thank you St. Martin’s Press / Netgalley, #partner, for the advanced e-copy of The Sunset Crowd in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library.
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press / Macmillan Audio
Published: July 4, 2023
Summary:
From Rodeo Drive to the French Riviera, Karin Tanabe’s The Sunset Crowd is a tale of survival and reinvention, of faking it until you make it, and the glittering appeal of success and stardom, as it seeks to answer that timeless question―who gets to have the American dream?
Money and fame: in 1970’s Los Angeles, everyone is fighting to reach the top, but very few have the talent, ambition, and luck to get there.
Meet LA darling Evra Scott. The daughter of an Oscar-winning director and a Brazilian bombshell actress, Evra is the city’s reigning style queen. By day, she’s at the helm of Sunset on Sunset, the store beloved by Hollywood’s young and beautiful. By night, she’s on the arm of Kai de la Faire, Hawaii’s hottest export, and the screenwriter of the moment.
Enter Theodora Leigh. The twenty-something Paramount assistant looks like a big screen star, but her sights are firmly set behind the scenes, as she fights to become a movie producer in a town where sex and sexism sell. Theodora’s got the talent and instincts, but she’s not willing to wait. Luckily, getting ahead by any means necessary is LA’s mantra.
Observing it all is Bea Dupont, a photographer for Rolling Stone and Vogue, who never misses the party, but always keeps to its fringes. A Manhattan blue blood turned West Coast bohemian, Bea holds Evra’s Sunset crowd together. She’s also Kai’s oldest friend, and she’s harbored a not-so-secret flame for him since they met at an elite Swiss boarding school.
But in Hollywood, no one stays on top forever. And it’s not long before Theodora’s unrelenting ambition sets in motion a dramatic quest for power in an industry that is as glamorous as it is duplicitous. From Rodeo Drive to the French Riviera, The Sunset Crowd is a tale of survival and reinvention, of faking it until you make it, and the glittering appeal of success and stardom, as it seeks to answer that timeless question–who gets to have the American dream?
My thoughts:
I became a fan of Karin Tanabe after doing a buddy read for her book, A Hundred Suns. I fell in love with her writing and knew I would be reading everything she writes after that book. I loved her next book, A Woman of Intelligence and was excited when I saw this one was coming out. What I love most about her books is that no one book is exactly the same.
This time around, we are transported to the glitz and glamor of Hollywood in the 1970s. I found myself instantly captivated by the vivid and immersive writing and loved how she is able to bring her characters to life so vibrantly! I was instantly taken with the drama that ensues with the friends as they are all consumed with trying to make a name for themselves. Hollywood really can be quite cutthroat as one tries to make it to the top and we see the lengths one will go to make it to the top. It was interesting seeing this from the different careers that each of the friends had – the actress, the stylist, the screenwriter, and the photographer – they weren’t competing against each other necessarily but we see just how far that ambition takes them and what they were willing to do to get to the top.
I enjoyed this one, it was the perfect summer read, filled with complex characters, secrets, and lots of drama. I love being able to lose myself in these types of reads during the summer and this one totally did just that.
Audio thoughts:
I find that Karin Tanabe’s books are just made for audio. They are so easy to listen to and the narrator for this one, Sarah Mollo-Christensen, did a great job bringing this one to life. Even with all the characters, she was able to give each one a unique voice and personality.
