Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures

Well-written by an author especially skilled in short-story telling. There is often more telling than showing in this book, but the writing is often vivid and observant.
Unfortunately, Laura Lamont feels as if she's just been one of the very lucky and rare individuals in Hollywood's golden era to be spotted by studio mogul Irving Green (a knock off Irving Thalberg, it seemed) and made into a movie star by dying her hair and changing her name from Elsa to Laura. She didn't do much of anything else to deserve - or win - her fame and fortune.
She's often a victim of circumstance including her fame, the Acadamy Award bestowed upon her, her motherhood, her two marriages, etc. She often says "Oh" or "Hi, sweetie", but disappointingly not much more.
I don't believe she would have left her family behind in the midwest only to let 10 years pass before they get graciously flown to LA for her Academy Award nomination to meet the children she had with her first husband. Worse, at this point her mother is mad at her for marrying a man of the Jewish faith? I really thought she'd be ticked off for keeping her grandbabies away from her all the years Laura literally could have had the "studio" do anything for her including fly her family out to her or vice versa.
I almost expected the book to turn out like "A Star is Born" because the main character starts off nearly the same way as Esther Blodgett (a/k/a Vicki Lester). Though, the Door County scenes in the beginning of the book are some of my favorites.
The story will take you in and transport you to another place and time, and do so in a refreshing 3rd person voice. ( )

While I understand that it was the point of the book to tell a life story, I think the way it was done made the pace jumpy and the characters hard to identify with. Speeding through her life, trying to touch on every episode, made it so there wasn't enough time to really connect and sympathize. Interesting perspective, interesting era, but ultimately not executed well. ( )

I received this book from Early Reviewers. I like the time period, so I saved this book until I had time to read it at leisure. There are some good things about it; Old Hollywood is a fascinating setting and Laura an interesting character. Overall, though, I wanted it to be a little more engrossing. There was something curiously flat about it, but not everyone would mind that as the story itslef was good. ( )

This book was missing something. I don't know exactly what but it was. Laura/Elsa's character was bland and it felt like her life was happening to her and she wasn't doing anything. She was very passive. ( )

Pretty page-turney, and a makeover story is always enjoyable, but after a while Laura Lamont needed to DO SOMETHING ALREADY. I get that life is hard, but eventually you gotta make it happen, lady!
Also, having a tragedy happen to a character is not the same as them actually having a personality. ( )