Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl by Renée Rosen – 432 pages
ARC from Berkley Pub and Netgalley for an honest review
Book Blurb:
Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl by Renée Rosen: In New York City, you can disappear into the crowd. At least that’s what Gloria Downing desperately hopes as she tries to reinvent herself after a devastating family scandal. She’s ready for a total life makeover and a friend she can lean on—and into her path walks a young, idealistic woman named Estée. Their chance encounter will change Gloria’s life forever.
Estée dreams of success and becoming a household name like Elizabeth Arden, Helena Rubinstein, and Revlon. Before Gloria knows it, she is swept up in her new friend’s mission and while Estée rolls up her sleeves, Gloria begins to discover her own talents. After landing a job at Saks Fifth Avenue, New York’s finest luxury department store, Gloria finds her voice, which proves instrumental in opening doors for Estée’s insatiable ambitions.
But in a world unaccustomed to women with power, they’ll each have to pay the price that comes with daring to live life on their own terms and refusing to back down.
My Review: 4.5 stars
Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl by Renée Rosen was a stellar look into the life of Estee Lauder, the iconic woman who created the brand Estee Lauder, and turned it into a household name. I love the way Rosen uses a secondary character to get inside the head of the real-life character. In this case it’s Gloria, her confidant, her bestie and the one who knew Estee better than herself.
Don’t get me wrong, Gloria may not be the main character, but her role in the book is irreplaceable. Her storyline is just as juicy as Estee’s, and at some points even more so. Gloria played arbitrator between Estee’s husband Joe and Estee, she was often their son’s babysitter, and worked/flourished at Saks Fifth Avenue, when Estee couldn’t get through the door.
Estee was ambitious, stubborn, hard-working and smart, but she was also something she couldn’t stand – being broke. She knew she created amazing products, but her struggle to get to the Saks makeup counter seemed more like a dream than ever becoming a reality.
Learning Estee’s real back story and feeling her desperation to succeed was empowering. Let’s face it, hard work pays off…that’s why they call it hard. Estee became a force to be reckoned with and beyond her imagination in terms of success.
This is a well-researched novel and will completely entertain you. Well done!
Quotes I liked:
Don’t forget that we become the people we think we are.”
“I don’t believe in being realistic.”
“Intimacy is much more personal than sex.”
“Sometimes you’re the dog and sometimes you’re the hydrant.”
“I couldn’t handle being happy. I was just more comfortable in my state of purgatory.”
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