The Blue Butterfly

2023 IPPY Awards Gold Medalist in Audiobook - Fiction
2023 IPPY Awards Silver Medalist in Historical Fiction
2023 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards, Gold Medal, Cover Design: Fiction
2023 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards Finalist in Fiction: Historical
2022 Readers’ Favorite Book Awards Finalist in Fiction (Historical - Personage)

“10 Historical Novels to Add To Your Summer Reading List”—Ms. Career Girl

“The book reads as if it really is Davies’ autobiography … . a timely reminder of what women would have been up against in Hollywood.”—Historical Novel Society

“Following the lives of real-world people to spin an engaging story is a tricky business … . Fortunately, author Leslie Johansen Nack has picked the perfect subject matter in Marion Davies whose life on and off the silver screen was filled with glamour and high drama … ”—Readers’ Favorite, 5-star review

“Leslie Johansen Nack goes where no author has gone before with this vibrant period novel that brilliantly reimagines the life of legendary film star, Marion Davies.”—Brit & Co, “12 Historical Romance Novels To Tide You Over Until Bridgerton Premieres”

“The Blue Butterfly is a vibrant period novel that reimagines the controversial love story of a classic film star.”—Foreword Reviews

“A detailed, moving portrait of a complex woman in a complex life.”—Kirkus Reviews

“In The Blue Butterfly, Leslie Johansen Nack chronicles the career of the fabulous Marion Davies and captures the star’s legendary verve and spirit on the Broadway stage, in her Hollywood movies, and in the battle against Citizen Kane. More importantly, this novel tells of the love story between Davies and William Randolph Hearst to its heartbreaking end.”—Edward Lorusso, author of The Silent Films of Marion Davies

“Leslie Johansen Nack redeems the tragic legacy of Marion Davies, William Randolph Hearst’s long-time lover, in her newest, The Blue Butterfly. Dripping with diamonds and gilded with grandeur, The Blue Butterfly takes readers from the bowels of the New York stage to the glittering life of Hollywood and its stars. Haunting and heartbreaking, The Blue Butterfly elicits the gut-punch that what we do for love colors our lives forever.”—Ashley E. Sweeney, author of the award-winning Answer Creek and Hardland

“The Blue Butterfly is an unfiltered, first-person narrative told in glittering detail. It is the almost mythic story of a glowing, spirited woman who is captured and showered with riches beyond imagining—a butterfly in a gilded cage. In this very fast-paced book, which spares no detail in the telling, we see how dearly Marion Davies paid for her willing captivity.”—Laurel Davis Huber, author of the award-winning The Velveteen Daughter

“You’ll have a new appreciation of the complex woman after reading this page-turning novel, which puts the spotlight on Davies once again.”—BookBub

Leslie Johansen Nack is the author of three award-winning books: her debut memoir, Fourteen, its sequel, Nineteen, and her historical novel, The Blue Butterfly. She graduated from UCLA with a degree in English literature and overcame past traumas to raise two children in a healthy, loving home. Nack is a member of The Authors’ Guild, The Historical Novel Society, and the Pacific Northwest Writers Association. She lives outside Seattle with her husband of thirty-five years.

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