Kate Alcott Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Kate Alcott is the pen name for journalist of Patricia O’Brien. She writes historical fiction books and nonfiction, and she’s the author of a New York Times bestselling book, The Dressmaker, A Touch of Stardust, and The Daring Ladies of Lowell. She is a resident of Washington, D.C.

A Touch of Stardust
Kate Alcott is one of the greatest authors of historical fiction books spiced up with some romance that will get both historical and romance novels readers hooked in the right from the first page to the last.

Right from the start, you’ll be embattled by her protagonist as artfully as Julie is seduced by a charming editor Andy Weinstein, who served as David O. Selznick’s apprentice and best golden boy.

Julie is one of the early pro-feminisms, a reversion to those tumultuous years in the movie industry when films such as Gone with the Wind was termed as a sloppy film with an unfinished plot, days when most people predicted that the movie would be a disaster.

We are introduced to Julie during Selznick’s remake of the burning of Atlanta, something that almost takes Julie’s breath away. As the fire rages across the landscape, demolishing anything along the way, Julie ponders how David Selznick will ever build his Tara.

In control of Hollywood from the start, the diligent Julie demonstrates to be Andy’s romantic enemy. He’s a loveable man who in the first covers his businesslike personality creatively behind Selznick’s zealous vision. Julies got a lot to learn even though she’s got some crazy dreams of making it up to the screenwriting stardom.

Born and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Julie’s is highly determined to make it big. However, she’s not ready for her romance with the charming dark-haired Andy, who seduces her with long romantic nights and takes her on long drives in Sunset Boulevard.

To be sure, Julie’s is not some babe from the woods, and she is also definitely not contented with being the wife of a prominent lawyer from a famous family in a town where the blacks were expected to know their lanes and a girl was considered an old maid if not married by the age of 20 years.
Obsessed with the movies right from the start, Julie gets a work to work as a personal assistant to Carole Lombard. Carole is a badass woman who will stand up to anything that comes her way. She is also the strength behind her self-effacing lover Clark Gable who must overcome his fears to ride to stardom as the legendary Rhett Butler.

As her plot thickens, Kate Alcott introduces the readers to other characters who will play their roles with panache and elegance, feisty George, fragile Vivien, Gable, Victor Fleming, etc.

The author’s fictional Julie is the core of this tale. It is Julie who dives effortlessly into her new role as best friend and confidante to Carole and her lover Andy, and it’s also the same Julie who distraughtly bangs on an old typewriter when sharing a rooming house with her blonde friend Rose. She soon tumbles into the world of Hollywood and straight to the doors of MGM, where she gets a job of a lifetime.

Through her different roles as love, confidante, amateur screenwriter, and lover, Julie remains focused and passionate about what she wants in life. Even at times, she wonders whether happy endings only exist in movies, she soon realizes that she’s probably writing her own story.

The author does a fantastic job of presenting Julie’s fears, sadness, strengths, and defiance. She writes with passion and vibrancy. Her worldview of the 1930’s entertainment industry is fantastic as Andy and Julie existence in a world of drinking, backstabbing, and competitiveness. The Hollywood sign becomes a symbol of glamor, filling the entire city of Los Angeles with desire and hope.

The fears and mistakes alongside the magic and sweat are the final results of days, weeks, and months of tensions, anger, and disruptions.
The author uses this constant turmoil to simply focus on one universal question- what are the choices that really set up on our individual paths in life? As the readers, we get to see Julie grow from a kind woman to another.

Kate Alcott’s talent is that she is able to provide an intense sense of Julie’s decisions in life. What follows next is a concept of boy-meets-girl, where the girl is focused on work, glamor, and love, but this is the reason why the book comes as so powerful and charming.

The Dressmaker
In her New York Times bestselling novel, Kate Alcott presents us with a story closely related to the Titanic saga but with one twist that will get any reader drawn in from the first page to the last.

This is a fantastic historical story of a young woman who survives a calamity only to find herself entangled in a media hysteria in the wake of the tragedy.
We meet Tess, a desiring seamstress who feels like she’s hit her breakthrough when she gets employment from a well-known designer- Lady Lucile to be her personal maid on the doomed Titanic voyage.

Once they’re on board, Tess catches the attention of two men, one millionaire, and the other kind sailor. Unfortunately, disaster hits on the fourth night.
In the middle of the chaos and urging attempts of the two suitors, Tess is among the last people to get on a lifeboat.

Tess’s sailor suitor manages to escape unharmed, but the other suitor- the Chicago millionaire isn’t so lucky.

On land, rumors about the survivors begin to circulate, and Lady Duff soon becomes the subject of media scorn and the later the hearings of the Titanic.
Sharing the same concepts as the doomed Titanic voyage but narrated from a whole new fresh angle, The Dressmaker is a great read filled with glamor and glitz, giving the readers raw feelings of a national tragedy and emotions of love. If you enjoy reading fictional stories based on real life events, then The Dressmaker is highly recommended read.