The Show Girl

May 15, 2021
Olive McCormick leaves behind secrets in Minnesota when she travels to New York to make it big on Broadway. Using her talents and sass, she changes her name to Olive Shine and impresses Mr. Ziegfeld of the Ziegfeld Follies. Becoming a Ziegfeld show girl was the dream that Olive followed to New York City. Independent and successful Olive takes on the city and all it has to offer to the new age girls of the late 1920s. Reeling readers in with descriptions of glamorous stage performances and racy, sparkly costumes, Harrison keeps them hooked. Late nights, admiration, and applause are all Olive needs in life--until she meets Archie Carmichael. Falling in love with the wealthy and progressive Archie, Olive wonders if there is more to life than performing. Settling down to be a wife will mean revealing the secrets of her past. Can she be both a wife and a stage performer? Full of surprises and romance, Harrison's novel keeps readers turning the pages awaiting Olive's fateful future. Fans of Elizabeth Gilbert's City of Girls (2019) will drink this up.

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June 28, 2021
Harrison’s stirring latest (after Montauk) follows the coming-of-age of a young Ziegfeld Follies star. Singer and dancer Olive McCormick, 20, moves from Minneapolis to New York City in 1927 after giving up her baby girl for adoption. Olive had become pregnant after being duped into sex by a man who falsely promised to get her a job with the Ziegfeld Follies, and the delivery resulted in a torn uterus. Facing poverty, Olive left for New York to chase her dream. After impressing Mr. Ziegfeld, she finds fame as flirty, negligee-clad Olive Shine of Ziegfeld’s new risqué supper club; her acts are fresh and innovative, and success follows, replete with a Fifth Avenue apartment and adoring men. Olive gets engaged to wealthy businessman Archie Carmichael, but she hasn’t told him she won’t be able to have more children and, fearing his reaction, breaks up with him. Archie and Mr. Ziegfeld lose everything in the 1929 crash, and Olive scrapes by, working in a nightclub. When Olive decides to tell Archie the truth, it marks a pivotal turning point in their lives. Vintage Follies glamour is made lush and evocative, and is complemented by meaty explorations of hardships faceed by women living in the era. Olive is a rebel worth rooting for and she’ll keep readers turning the pages.