As a long-time fan of Taylor Jenkins Reid, it’s no shock that I was drawn to her Old Hollywood-centered novel. I went into the pages expecting a thrilling, glamorous tale of movie magic. Instead, I was met with an unflinchingly honest, heart-wrenching tale of love and loss. How far are you willing to go to escape your past? How much are you willing to sacrifice for your dreams? How many people are you willing to hurt to save your own skin? These are some of the questions brought up and explored as we begin to understand the woman behind the icon, Evelyn Hugo. A woman who had seven husbands during her time as Hollywood’s biggest star surely has a lot to say about love and heartbreak.

The Sunshine Girls tells the story of BettyKay, a young woman from Iowa who leaves her farm town to go to college and study nursing right at the helm of the Vietnam War, and Kitty, an Atlanta-born city girl with big dreams escaping a past she’d rather not talk about. The story splits into two parts: one following BettyKay and Kitty through nursing school as roommates, and another showing Clara and Abbie resolving their differences to bury their mother, BettyKay. When Kitty, a world-famous movie star, shows up at their mother’s funeral in the middle of nowhere Iowa, Clara, Abbie, and the rest of the Greensboro population are stunned.