A Beautiful Rival
A Novel of Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden
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Narrated by:
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Lisa Flanagan
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By:
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Gill Paul
About this listen
In this stunning new novel, bestselling author Gill Paul reveals the unknown history of cosmetic titans Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein and their infamous rivalry that spanned not only decades, but also broken marriages, personal tragedies, and a world that was changing dramatically for women—perfect for fans of Fiona Davis, Marie Benedict, and Beatriz Williams.
Who would have guessed that the business of making women beautiful was so cutthroat?
They could have been allies: two self-made millionaires who invented a global industry, in an era when wife and mother were supposed to be the highest goals for their sex. Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein each founded empires built on grit and determination…and yet they became locked in a feud spanning three continents, two world wars, and the Great Depression.
Brought up in poverty, Canadian-born Elizabeth Arden changed popular opinion, persuading women from all walks of life to buy skincare products that promised them youth and beauty. Helena Rubinstein left her native Poland, and launched her company with scientific claims about her miracle creams made with anti-ageing herbs.
And when it came to business, nothing was off-limits: poaching each other’s employees, copying each other’s products, planting spies, hiring ex-husbands, and one-upping each other every chance they had. This was a rivalry from which there was no surrender! And through it all were two women, bold, brazen, and determined to succeed—no matter the personal cost.
In this sweeping novel from the bestselling author of Jackie and Maria and The Manhattan Girls, two larger-than life fashion icons come alive with all their passion, bitterness, and ambition as they each try to live the American dream.
©2023 Gill Paul (P)2023 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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Beloved author Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction with a unique love story set in the New York City theater world during the 1940s. Told from the perspective of an older woman as she looks back on her youth with both pleasure and regret (but mostly pleasure), City of Girls explores themes of female sexuality and promiscuity, as well as the idiosyncrasies of true love. In 1940, nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris has just been kicked out of Vassar College, owing to her lackluster freshman-year performance.
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A strong story
- By Anita Kristensen on 06-08-19
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The Personal Librarian
- By: Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture in New York City society and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating for critical works as she helps create a world-class collection.
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A Treat For This Academic Librarian!
- By AlTonya on 07-14-21
By: Marie Benedict, and others
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Between Two Thorns
- The Split Worlds Series, Book 1
- By: Emma Newman
- Narrated by: Emma Newman
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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The new season is starting and the Master of Ceremonies is missing. Max, an Arbiter of the Split Worlds Treaty, is assigned with the task of finding him - with no one to help but a dislocated soul and a mad sorcerer. There is a witness, but his memories have been bound by magical chains only the enemy can break. A rebellious woman trying to escape her family may prove to be the ally Max needs. But can she be trusted? And why does she want to give up eternal youth and the life of privilege she’s been born into?
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I hate writing Bad reviews but.....
- By Joseph Reeves on 04-26-17
By: Emma Newman
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House of Trelawney
- By: Hannah Rothschild
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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The seat of the Trelawney family for over 700 years, Trelawney Castle was once the jewel of the Cornish coast. Each successive Earl spent with abandon, turning the house and grounds into a sprawling, extravagant palimpsest of wings, turrets, and follies. But as the centuries passed the Earls of Trelawney, their ambition dulled by generations of pampered living, failed to develop other skills.
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Really fun read
- By Ruthi on 04-12-20
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The Inheritance
- A Novel
- By: JoAnn Ross
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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When conflict photographer Jackson Swann dies, he leaves behind a conflict of his own making when his three daughters, each born to a different mother, discover that they’re now responsible for the family’s Oregon vineyard - and for a family they didn’t ask for.
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Great story a few little quirks
- By Dawn Starostka on 09-15-21
By: JoAnn Ross
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Burr
- A Novel (Narratives of Empire, Book 1)
- By: Gore Vidal
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 21 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Here is an extraordinary portrait of one of the most complicated - and misunderstood - figures among the Founding Fathers. In 1804, while serving as vice president, Aaron Burr fought a duel with his political nemesis, Alexander Hamilton, and killed him. In 1807, he was arrested, tried, and acquitted of treason. In 1833, Burr is newly married, an aging statesman considered a monster by many. But he is determined to tell his own story, and he chooses to confide in a young New York City journalist. Burr is the first novel in Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire series.
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Finally! Vidal's Great Take on the Life of Burr
- By John Norton on 06-12-19
By: Gore Vidal
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My Mrs. Brown
- A Novel
- By: William Norwich
- Narrated by: Angela Brazil
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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When the grand dame of Ashville passes away, Mrs. Brown is called upon to inventory her estate and comes across a dress that changes everything. This isn't a Cinderella confection; it's a simple yet exquisitely tailored Oscar de la Renta sheath and jacket - a suit that, Mrs. Brown realizes with startling clarity, will say everything she has ever wished to convey. She must have it. And so Mrs. Brown begins her odyssey to purchase the dress.
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Sweet story
- By Pam Hewitt on 05-01-20
By: William Norwich
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The Last Tiara
- By: M.J. Rose
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Sophia Moon had always been reticent about her life in Russia, and when she dies, suspiciously, on a wintry New York evening, Isobelle despairs that her mother's secrets have died with her. But while renovating the apartment they shared, Isobelle discovers something among her mother's effects - a stunning silver tiara, stripped of its jewels.
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absolutely beautiful!
- By Nita on 12-20-22
By: M.J. Rose
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The Secret Life of Sunflowers
- By: Marta Molnar, Dana Marton
- Narrated by: Kendra Murray
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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When Hollywood auctioneer Emsley Wilson finds her famous grandmother's diary while cleaning out her New York brownstone, the pages are full of surprises. The first surprise is, the diary isn't her grandmother's. It belongs to Johanna Bonger, Vincent van Gogh's sister-in-law.
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Nothing like a expected…
- By LOVETOQUILT on 05-06-23
By: Marta Molnar, and others
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The Razor's Edge
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The Great War changed everything and everyone, and Larry Darrell is no exception. Though his physical wounds from the war heal, his spirit is changed almost beyond recognition. He leaves his betrothed, the beautiful and devoted Isabel; studies philosophy and religion in Paris; lives as a monk, and witnesses the exotic hardships of Spanish life. All of life that he can find - from an Indian Ashrama to labor in a coal mine - becomes Larry's spiritual experiment as he spurns the comfort and privilege of the Roaring 20s.
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An Classic of Love and the Desire for Meaning
- By Eric on 01-06-17
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The Marriage Bureau
- The True Story of How Two Matchmakers Arranged Love in Wartime London
- By: Penrose Halson
- Narrated by: Jane Copland
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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In the spring of 1939, with the Second World War looming, two determined 24-year-olds, Heather Jenner and Mary Oliver, decided to open a marriage bureau. They found a tiny office on London's Bond Street and set about the delicate business of matchmaking. Drawing on the bureau's extensive archives, Penrose Halson - who many years later found herself the proprietor of the bureau - tells their story and the stories of their clients.
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Splendid!
- By Nadia on 06-27-20
By: Penrose Halson
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Devoted to the Duke
- The St. Clairs, Book 1
- By: Alexa Aston, Dragonblade Publishing
- Narrated by: Price Waldman
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
After returning to London from his Grand Tour, serious-minded Jeremy St. Clair, the Marquess of Sather, attends a ball and meets a luminescent beauty who draws him out of his shell. They share a searing kiss - her first - and though he never planned to wed, Jeremy desires to make this young woman his. But his life takes an unexpected turn when he leaves her that night.
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EXCELLANT NARRATION!!
- By Edwina "I Love books" on 11-09-19
By: Alexa Aston, and others
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Boring and contrived
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Appendix not recorded 😔
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Binge worthy
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An unexpected jewel with refreshing perspectives
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Couldn’t listen for more than 3 chapters.
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It’s 1938, and a young woman selling face cream out of a New York City beauty parlor is determined to prove she can have it all. Her name is Estée Lauder, and she’s about to take the world by storm, in this dazzling new novel from the USA Today bestselling author of The Social Graces and Park Avenue Summer.
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Lots of fun
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Dorothy Parker: renowned wit, member of the Algonquin Round Table, and more fragile than she seems. Jane Grant: first female reporter for the New York Times, and determined to launch a new magazine she calls The New Yorker. Winifred Lenihan: beautiful and talented Broadway actress, a casting-couch target. And Peggy Leech: magazine assistant by day, brilliant novelist by night.
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Boring and contrived
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Jackie and Maria
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Jackie Kennedy is beautiful, sophisticated, and contemplating leaving her ambitious young senator husband. When she's offered a holiday on the luxurious yacht owned by billionaire Ari Onassis, she says yes...to a meeting that will ultimately change her life. Maria Callas is at the height of her operatic career and widely considered to be the finest soprano in the world. And then she's introduced to Aristotle Onassis, the world's richest man and her fellow Greek. Little by little, Maria's and Jackie's lives began to overlap, until everything they know about the world changes on a dime.
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Appendix not recorded 😔
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1911: When 15-year-old Mary Kirk meets Wallis Warfield at summer camp, she’s immediately captivated by her fearless, brazen, and self-assured personality. Though Mary’s family isn’t crazy about Wallis, Mary stands by her side - even years later when rumors swirl about Wallis and her reckless behavior with the Prince of Wales. But when Mary’s loyalty to Wallis comes into question, their friendship will be put to the test. 1997: After a romantic proposal in Paris, Rachel and her fiancé Alex are in a cab when the car ahead crashes.
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Binge worthy
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An unexpected jewel with refreshing perspectives
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Couldn’t listen for more than 3 chapters.
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In the summer of 1925, Thelma Morgan arrives at the Paris Ritz still stinging from the heartache and humiliation of her failed marriage. Her twin sister, Gloria, newly and blissfully wedded to Reginald Vanderbilt and with a baby in tow, has invited her to spend the summer - and though romance is the last thing on Thelma’s mind, she can’t deny that Reggie’s friend Duke Furness is as charming and dapper as he is keen to win her affection.
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Beautifully Written
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1876. In the glittering world of Manhattan's upper crust, women are valued by their pedigree, dowry, and, most importantly, connections. They have few rights and even less independence - what they do have is society. The more celebrated the hostess, the more powerful the woman. And none is more powerful than Caroline Astor - the Mrs. Astor.
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Disappointing Effort
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1966, NYC: Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls hits the bookstores and she is desperate for a bestseller. It’s steamy, it’s a page-turner, but will it make the big money she needs? In London, Jackie Collins’s racy The World Is Full of Married Men launches her career. But neither author is prepared for the price they will pay for being women who dare to write about sex. Jacqueline and Jackie are lambasted by the literary establishment, deluged with hate mail, and even condemned by feminists. In public, both women shoulder the outcry with dignity; in private, they are crumbling.
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Perfection
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By: Gill Paul
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Dollface
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Vera Abramowitz is determined to leave her gritty childhood behind and live a more exciting life, one that her mother never dreamed of. Bobbing her hair and showing her knees, the lipsticked beauty dazzles. As the ultimate flapper, Vera captures the attention of two high rollers, a handsome nightclub owner and a sexy gambler. On their arms, she gains entrée into a world filled with bootleg bourbon, wailing jazz, and money to burn. She thinks her biggest problem is choosing between them until the truth comes out. Her two lovers are really mobsters from rival gangs....
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Unsympathetic characters
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The Queen's Secret
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In this riveting novel of royal secrets and intrigue, Karen Harper lifts the veil on one of the world’s most fascinating families and how its “secret weapon” of a matriarch maneuvered her way through one of the most dangerous chapters of the century.
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It doesn’t deserve a review.
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1918: Pretty, vivacious Grand Duchess Maria Romanov, the 19-year-old daughter of the fallen Tsar Nicholas II, lives with her family in suffocating isolation, a far cry from their once-glittering royal household. Her days are a combination of endless boredom and paralyzing fear; her only respite are clandestine flirtations with a few of the guards imprisoning the family - never realizing her innocent actions could mean the difference between life and death.
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Slow....Very Slow....
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By: Gill Paul
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What the Lady Wants
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In late 19th-century Chicago, visionary retail tycoon Marshall Field made his fortune wooing women customers with his famous motto, "Give the lady what she wants." His legendary charm also won the heart of socialite Delia Spencer and led to an infamous love affair.
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Wasn’t expecting that!
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Park Avenue Summer
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New York City is filled with opportunities for single girls like Alice Weiss, who leaves her small Midwestern town to chase her big-city dreams and unexpectedly lands a job working for the first female editor in chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, Helen Gurley Brown. For Alice, who wants to be a photographer, it seems like the perfect foot in the door, but nothing could have prepared her for the world she enters.
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It’s Beach Read Season
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Diva
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In the glittering and ruthlessly competitive world of opera, Maria Callas was known simply as la divina: the divine one. With her glorious voice, instinctive flair for the dramatic and striking beauty, she was the toast of the grandest opera houses in the world. But her fame was hard won: raised in Nazi-occupied Greece by a mother who mercilessly exploited her golden voice, she learned early in life to protect herself from those who would use her for their own ends.
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How I love a Great Diva!
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By: Daisy Goodwin
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Such Good Friends
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On a Thursday morning in May 1961, a well-mannered twenty-one-year-old named Marlene enters the Fifth Avenue apartment of Lee Radziwill to interview for the position of housekeeper and cook. The stylish wife of London-based Prince Stanislaw Radziwill, Princess Lee is intelligent and creative, with ambitions beyond simply jet-setting. But to the public, she is always First Lady Jackie Kennedy's little sister. As Marlene becomes a trusted presence in the Radziwill household, she observes the dazzling array of famous figures who flit in and out of Lee’s intimate circle
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Too Much Servant, Not Enough Truman and Lee
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By: Stephen Greco
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Windy City Blues
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In the middle of the 20th century, the music of the Mississippi Delta arrived in Chicago, drawing the attention of entrepreneurs like the Chess brothers. Their label, Chess Records, helped shape that music into the Chicago Blues, the soundtrack for a transformative era in American history. But for Leeba Groski, Chess Records was just where she worked. Leeba didn't exactly fit in, but her passion for music and her talented piano playing captured the attention of her neighbor, Leonard Chess, who offered her a job at his new record company.
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Excellent!
- By LettyB. on 07-06-17
By: Renée Rosen
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The Engineer's Wife
- By: Tracey Enerson Wood
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- Unabridged
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Emily's fight for women's suffrage is put on hold and her life transformed when Wash, the chief engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge, is injured on the job. Untrained for the task, but under his guidance, she assumes his role, despite stern resistance and overwhelming obstacles. Lines blur as Wash's vision becomes her own, and when he is unable to return to the job, Emily is consumed by it. But as the project takes shape under Emily's direction, she wonders whose legacy she is building - hers or her husband's.
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A Fluffy Missed Opportunity
- By SWSW on 07-24-20
What listeners say about A Beautiful Rival
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Bianca Sabrkhani
- 08-13-24
Enjoyable Book Misses Crucial Historical Moment
When I read the description of this book, I saw the timeline and the subjects it covered and was very excited because many WWII-era books discuss 'Victory Red' lipstick, which I assumed would be part of this story since Elizabeth Arden developed it. While the book was very good, I was disappointed to reach the end of the war and realize that such a significant aspect of that timeline was skipped over completely, with only a passing mention of a military contract.
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- Lila
- 06-10-24
Very interesting fictionalized history of two famous beauty icons
The narrator is extremely talented. She can do various accents and differentiate between numerous characters. Perfect diction, pacing, inflections.
The novel was a times a bit wearing due to the very lengthy entity between the two main characters over decades. But it was always interesting and included many Scenes in which the lives and the businesses evolved and developed over many years.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Barbara A
- 11-22-23
Loved it
I never knew about the story. Absolutely incredible. Well written and well performed. I especially appreciated the epilogue and appreciated that the author explained which parts she took liberty with and which parts were true. Well done.
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- Jane Scibilia
- 10-13-24
Easy listening read
Loved the plot and the way the story moved. It is a plausible take on reality.
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- Laura Stokes
- 07-14-24
I saw it as a Broadway show
Loved the narrative. Loved the story. Legendary women. Easy listen. Very good narration. Listened to it all in one weekend.
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- Linda E. Wilson
- 04-27-24
Couldn’t stop listening
This is the first book I listened to by Gill Paul. I loved it and zipped through it, listening every chance I got. It’s a fascinating story, entertaining, with deep character portrayals. I enjoyed learning about these two fashion icons.
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Performance
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Story
- Amanda
- 08-10-24
Strong Women
I had absolutely no idea that there was such a fierce rivalry between Elizabeth Arden and Helen Rubinstein in the early 1900s. These two women, each of them being titans of industry in the cosmetic world, were strong, independent, smart, and sadly lonely and untrusting. They lived in a time when women were still expected to marry, manage a home, and raise children. They each faced hardship, failed marriages, and deceit from their supposed friends and family. Despite all of the shared success and hardships and the fact that they had so much in common, they likely never met on friendly terms, and each spent decades of their lives trying to outwit the other. The story is told from each woman's point of view in alternating chapters. I really enjoyed the story and will look through other books by this author. The history was well researched, and from what I've found by reading a little on my own, it is very accurate with a few liberties from the author on private conversations and thoughts/emotions, of course.
The narrator did a good job and made this one a pleasant listen.
Mild spoiler warning:
There is a chapter near the end of the book that describes a very sad scene involving animals. There are descriptions of injury and suffering that I had to skip past. I imagine while I read, and those are images that will never leave my mind, so I wanted to give fair warning to anyone else with a soft heart for animals. If you, like me, want to skip this chapter, you'll know it because Elizabeth Arden gets a call in the middle of the night about a fire. Just go ahead and ove to the next chapter.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Amazon Customer
- 07-06-24
Not even if it were free
This was terrible, couldn’t even finish. Such unrefined utter nonsense. Two strong intelligent women who rose up in a man’s world, made an iconic name for themselves and created an industry in which they dominated and the author wrote pure petty crap of a storyline for both. No depth of character…..she stole my ribbon, well she stole my crayon first nonsense. All I can say is not only do I want my money back, I want my time back too!
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2 people found this helpful