Product Description

From the earliest days of her career, supermodel Fleur Savagar has been nicknamed the Glitter Baby. The illegitimate daughter of a world-famous movie star, she had been brought up by her mother and stepfather and deliberately starved of emotional love. So much so that she has spent most of her nineteen years looking for it in all the wrong places. Fleur is an ugly duckling who refuses to believe she's turned into a swan. Now an actress, she finds herself falling for her co-star, tough guy Jake Koranda. However, all her illusions are shattered when she discovers that she has been betrayed by those closest to her. Disillusioned and destitute, Fleur embarks on a voyage of self discovery, determined to reinvent herself...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #167003 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Review
'witty and refreshing...surprisingly thought provoking ' --Daily Telegraph

'Witty romance...she doesn't disappoint' --Time magazine

'Warm and engaging' --Choice magazine

About the Author
Bestselling author Susan Elizabeth Phillips has found fans all over the world with her warm and wonderful contemporary love stories that manage to touch hearts as well as funny bones. She lives in the Chicago suburbs and has two grown sons.

Customer Reviews

Glitter Baby.
"Glitter Baby" is a great read. It's a beautiful woman who can't believe she's beautiful, perhaps because of her past, therefore a true swan in the making tale. This is a very touching read because you really do feel for the character of Fleur. You want her to come out on top and are happy she eventually does. A real good read, along with Take Your Shirt Off: A Novel of Hollywood.

old school phillips
Only upon reading a review here did I find out that this was a reissue originally written in the 80s. It shows. Reading Glitter Baby is like reading the Phillips of yore, it has echoes of Fancy Pants and Hot Shot.

It's not that I dislike Phillips' older offerings, more that I feel that they were of their time. As a fan I've read them but I certainly wouldn't count them among my favourites of her work. And being of their time I don't always find them as relevant as they could be.

Fleur Savagar, aka Glitter Baby, is the daughter of the celebrity obsessed Belinda. In the 1950s Belinda had an affair with Errol Flynn resulting in Fleur. Flynn however never knew about his daughter as he and Belinda parted not long after the conception and she married into European aristocracy. Fleur was brought up by nuns in a convent, allowed to see her mother only twice a year.

When Fleur comes of age her mother decides it's time for her to take her rightful place in Hollywood and she lands a role opposite Jake Koranda, a rising star in the movie world. Things never really come easily for our heroine here: she hates acting and perseveres only to please her mother. And because she falls for Jake, of course. Her time as starlet comes to an abrupt end and Fleur decides to remove herself fom her mother's influence and thus star-studded society. Six years later she returns to the world she left behind and Fleur must juggle the person she has become, the girl she was and the people she walked out on.

My main problem with this novel was that the focus was heavily placed on background, which was interesting but lengthy. The spark between Jake and Fleur was never fully explored because the focus of the novel was never really placed there. This is what makes it a disjointed romance. The focus is placed on Fleur and her troubled relationship with her family. Jake, then, becomes incidental to the plot.

Back to the relevance of this as a reissued novel. Had Phillips kept the plot the same but changed the context I might have preferred this novel. It always read as a novel written twenty odd years ago, and even before I knew this was the case I thought it dated and confused. I just could not think why anyone would want to make reference to the hayday of film (the 50s - when Fleur was born) but actually base their novel in the 70s.

The above being said, this isn't bad and if you're already a fan you'll want to read it. If you're new to Phillips's work I'd reccommend starting with the Chicago Stars series or waiting for February's 'What I Did For Love' which promises to be excellent.

Glitter Baby
First published in 1987 (I believe) this was SEP's third major publication, and her finest. It was an instant bestseller and earned her recognition as a romantic fiction writter of great repute. In my opinion, none of her other books have reacged the standard set by this one ( although they are all good in their own right).
Glitter baby is the story of Fleur Savagar, the illegitimate daughter of Errol Flynn (the actor) and Belinda. Brought up by Alexi Savagar - her step father, and Belinda, Fleur is deliberately starved of emotional love, and spends the first ninteen years of her life searching for it. All her illusions are shattered when she discovers that she has been betrayed by every one that she holds nearest and dearest as one after another she discovers their personal agendas.
Disillusioned and destitute, Fleur embarks on a voyage of self discovery, and discovers and inner strength, integrity, resiliance and a talent all her own that does not need validation from anyone, and through it all finds enduring love.

This book is so touching and so beutifully written that I keep reading it over and over again - I have read it 10 times, and although this may sound sad to some of you, once you read it you will know what I am trying to convey.