Those who enjoy classic films and Hollywood history will find much to relish here. Did she succeed? This reader certainly turned the pages. She has the challenge of writing well-known characters (in addition to Young and Gable, we spend time with notables such as David Niven, Spencer Tracy, and Hattie McDaniel) that are true to history, but also true to readers’ perceptions. She shows the glitter on the screen, but also the exhaustion, the fragility, the truths behind the scripted lives. But she’s as stubborn as her employer and, whether faced with love or loss or potential scandal, she finds her way in Hollywood.Īdriana Trigiani pulls us firmly into Golden Age Hollywood. Hollywood is a world away from the convent and Alda fights to maintain her honest values in this city of carefully managed lies. Despite her Catholic upbringing, and her better judgment, she falls for the married Gable.Īlongside the story of Loretta Young and Clark Gable’s troubled relationship is that of fictional Sister Alda Ducci, forced to leave her convent to work as Loretta’s secretary. Publicity says the story, 'pays tribute to the magic and unfathomable mystery of the natural world. But she doesn’t anticipate how Gable fills the set, touching everyone with his energy and charisma. Sarah Louise Butler published her debut novel, The Wild Heavens (D&M 22.95) about how a little girl and her grandfather discover an impossibly large set of footprints and become obsessed with the nine-foot tall creature that made them. She has no intention of falling for this one.

Loretta is young, but successful, with 50 film credits to her name and her share of leading men.

In 1935, Loretta Young and Clark Gable meet on the set of The Call of the Wild, being filmed on location on snowy Mount Baker in Washington.

The Wild Heavens by Sarah Louise Butler