How can this be a debut?

This gave me total The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid feels and that is about as big a compliment as I can pay. Loved the story, the plotting, the characterizations and the "old Hollywood feel".

I've got my eye on you, Lindsay Lynch!

Do Tell dives into the dark underbelly of Hollywood, and was thus a sad and frustrating read. I didn’t love the writing style, which felt like a lot of telling versus showing as it zipped through the lives of several characters across several years. The ending is not what I necessarily wanted, but it worked for the story and felt satisfying enough.

This was loosely based on the rape trials against Errol Flynn, and I commend Lynch for shedding light on a forgotten story and giving his victims some semblance of recognition. Overall, if you’re interested in old Hollywood, I think you’ll enjoy this.

I love an old Hollywood story, especially one that exposes the business and darker side of studios behind the glamour. This story had so much potential and I wanted to love it more.

With some editing (too many character and too many storylines) it could have been great. Overall, it was a fine read if you like old Hollywood.

Set the Golden Age of Hollywood, this novel tells the story of Edie O’Dare, a poor Boston Irish girl who lucks into a studio contract but is told she’ll be let go at its approaching end. She’s known for awhile that she isn’t catching on, so she supplements her studio pay by feeding tidbits to Hollywood’s best-known gossip columnist, Poppy St. John. When Poppy won’t print her story about a big star sexually assaulting a new young actress, Edie, using a pen name, gives it directly to a newspaper. That sets in motion a plan for Edie to follow her acting career with one as a gossip columnist rivaling Poppy.

The plot of the book rang some bells for me. Edie’s character seems to be loosely based on famed gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, who also had a minor acting career and supplemented her pay by passing on tips to the then-preeminent gossip columnist, Louella Parsons. Like Hopper, Edie goes on to a regular column of her own in the Los Angeles Times, where she becomes hated and feared in Hollywood for her ability to make—or destroy—careers.

The plot point of the sexual assault incident and subsequent trial is based (as the author alludes in her Acknowledgments) on the trial of major star Errol Flynn for statutory rape of two young actresses.

Kudos to the author for the work of researching Hollywood history and turning it into a novel. However, the main character just doesn’t work for me. Edie starts out as a woman willing to betray confidences for her own benefit and soon shows herself willing to destroy the career of a man who doesn’t deserve it. She is—rightfully, it seems to me—viewed with disregard and even contempt by her acting colleagues and even her own brother. She has one moment in which she tries to do the right thing, but it’s fleeting and unsuccessful. I’m fine with unlikeable characters, but they have to have some kind of hook to their story. I think this character’s story might have worked if it was one of gradual corruption, or had some kind of personal arc to it. Instead, Edie is the same person from start to finish: an emotionally and morally stunted woman without a friend in the world.

2.5 stars, rounded to 3 stars for the skilled depiction of Hollywood in the heyday of the movie studios.

This one is for the lovers of the Golden Age of Hollywood and those who have a fascination for behind the scenes of movie making and stars of old. Do Tell gives a serious nod to the careers and influence of real life Hollywood gossip columnists, Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons who were the predecessors to what can be considered the Modern Age of online gossip sites such as TMZ, POPSUGAR, and E! ONLINE.
In the novel Do Tell, Edie O'Dare, a never really made it actress finds she has a knack for getting the goods on the studios and popular casts and crew behaviors and mishaps, sharing them with the gossip columnist of the day. When her acting career fizzles out she turns from a provider of gossip to becoming a formidable syndicated columnist herself.
Told by Edie as she looks back on her career in Hollywood while holding herself accountable for things shared she regrets, she also acknowledges it was a part of her career. Men don't apologize for their careers and neither does Edie.
As a big fan of old black and white movies and basically all the types of movies described in Do Tell, this was an enjoyable read for me. There were many dark times within the pages as well as reminding the reader that #metoo has been around forever. The case of the raped starlet that haunts Edie throughout her life and career is particularly moving.


Thank you to Doubleday Books and Netgalley for access to an early e-copy. All opinions are my own.

A Me Too book from the early years of Hollywood.

Writing is fun and quick. I'm surprised this is Lindsay Lynch's first book because it reads so well and has such an engaging plot.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love historical fiction and old Hollywood stories of starlettes so I was excited to read this. Edith O'Dare is an actress at the end of her contract with the studio and she's fairly certain that her contract will not be renewed. So she reinvents herself as a gossip columnist trading on her relationships and hot tips. When Edie finds about about a sexual assault of an underage actress by a big male star, she decides to get involved and use her influence.

The story started off really slow for me but the pacing did pick up. It does not read like historical fiction which is what I expected, but more like literary fiction with lots of characters and breaks in the story for flashbacks or another character's perspective. I think the author does a good job with the story and overall, its a good read!

3.5 rounded up.

I thought this was just fine. Lots of repetition and not enough there there to keep me wanting to pick it up. I was looking forward to reading it before i started, but it just felt like a slog. Some interesting content but perhaps not marketed properly. Not the propulsive, old Hollywood glamour read I was expecting.

Do Tell
Lindsay Lynch

It’s hard for me to give such a low rating but I found this novel to be totally disappointing on all levels—plot, characters, setting.

As a fan of classic movies, the intrigue of the contract movie studio system, and the celebrity gossip columnists of the time, I was looking forward to slipping into the backstory of how those movies, both memorable and flops, were made. I’m sorry to say I was disheartened on all levels.

This was a dull, superficial, repetitive read. The actors were hardly distinguishable from one another. Save one, all were the same in similar ways. Ambitious. At risk of being dropped by studio if they didn’t do what was expected on and off camera. Vain and superficial in their actions.. One character fitting that description? Of course. But not all. And there was no attempt at giving any of them any depth.

The main character, Edie O’Dare, was equally unlikeable. We weren't given enough to connect with. A girl who came to Hollywood from marginal circumstances, she either wasn’t cast right to be given a real chance or wasn’t a very good actress, so her three year contract was terminated.

While still under contract, Edie supplied tasty tidbits of insider information to a prominent gossip columnist for extra cash. When she needed to find some other way to make a living, Edie was able to get her own column on the back of a studio trial. One of their leading men raped a young up and coming starlet and the case went to trial. What could have been very dramatic was not. It was flat and repetitive and unsatisfying. I plowed through to the end in the hope something would happen for or to Edie…

While I had anticipated a Hedda Hopperesque tale or perhaps, Louella Parsons like story, this was a thin recounting of the power of the Hollywood studio system that might have been told in half the space.

My thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday for allowing me to read an advanced readers copy.


For more reviews, please check out www.jantramontano.com/readerscafe.

This was a book that I wanted to love, and there was much to appreciate in this story about Old Hollywood and the various truths behind the glitter. But ultimately, it did not ever soar for me--there were so many characters introduced that I never felt that I got a full read on most of them, the names felt too similar to distinguish them, and there was a great deal of telling me information without showing me. The book felt expository rather than immersive.

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an opportunity to read and early copy of the novel.

"As character actress Edie O'Dare finishes the final year of her contract with FWM Studios, the clock is ticking for her to find a new gig after an undistinguished stint in the pictures. She's long supplemented her income moonlighting for Hollywood's reigning gossip columnist, providing her with the salacious details of every party and premiere. When an up-and-coming starlet hands her a letter alleging an assault from an A-list actor at a party with Edie and the rest of the industry's biggest names in attendance, Edie helps get the story into print and sets off a chain of events that will alter the trajectories of everyone involved.

Now on a new side of the entertainment business, Edie's second act career grants her more control on the page than she ever commanded in front of the camera. But Edie quickly learns that publishing the secrets of those former colleagues she considers friends has repercussions. And when she finds herself in the middle of the trial of the decade, Edie is forced to make an impossible choice with the potential to ruin more than one life. Debut novelist Lindsay Lynch brings the golden age of Hollywood to glittering life, from star-studded opening nights to backlot brawls, on-location Westerns to the Hollywood Canteen. Through Edie's wry observations, Lynch maps the intricate networks of power that manufacture the magic of the movies, and interrogates who actually gets to tell women's stories."

If old time Hollywood had a little Me Too.

This had so many things I love, starting with the Hollywood setting. It was perfectly rendered and such a fun read overall.

I struggled with how to rate this book and ultimately felt I couldn't give it more than 3 stars. Honestly, it was more of a 2.5 star read for me.

The storyline felt very disjointed, none of the characters mattered to me at all, and from about 40% onward I felt like DNF-ing, but I wanted to know what happened to the character of Charles and that of Sophie.

I'm not sure quite what is was about the writing style that bothered me so much, but I just never made a connection with any character. I only cared about Charles and Sophie's stories because I felt they'd both been wronged.

I would recommend this book to people who enjoy Hollywood history.

Thank you to the author, publsiher, and Netgalley for an ARC at my request. My thoughts are my own.

This book takes place in the film studios of Hollywood just before World War II. The main character is Edie, who moves to Hollywood from the East Coast to become an actress. Every young girl's dream. She does not have what it takes to be a star but her experiences help to shape her as a gossip columnist. She has the opportunity to make a good wage and is backed by the film studio in exchange for favors. She is able to sway the public's perception of individual stars by the truths and innuendos that she does or doesn't print. She is not very likable and cannot be trusted although reading about her childhood does bring enlightenment as to why she is the way she is. I wavered on my rating because I didn't like Edie but the book IS a good read so I upgraded from 3.5 to 4 stars. The setting and the atmosphere dropped me right into the late 1930's and I really enjoyed that. Thank you to Doubleday and NetGalley for the digital ARC, This opinion as written is mine alone.

This book was a slow read with the story line so spread out and disjointed. I really was disappointed in the way that the characters were developed and how they sporadically interacted with each other.

The voice of B-list actress turned gossip columnist could not be more perfect, and the scandals she delves into are engrossing and thought provoking. As a reader, I often thought the book was headed in one direction to see it veer off into another. An evocative romp that makes the reader feel like a Hollywood insider.

I was excited to start this but less than halfway through I DNF'd. There were a ton of characters all rushed into the introduction that made it hard to concentrate. I think weaving in their backstory would worked better.

3.5
It's difficult to pinpoint anything to complain about here except to say that the tone was occasionally off putting, enough so that I had to really push through by the end.

Lindsay Lynch snagged some powerful blurbs for a debut author — Ann Patchett, Emma Straub, Geraldine Brooks to name a few — owing in some part to her job at Parnassus Books, but there must be some merit there. Edie O’Dare’s contract with FWM Studios in Hollywood is about to run out, and there’s not a lot for a young woman to do in 1939 California. She uses her quick wits and strong relationships with a lot of A-listers to parlay her low-profile acting career into a columnist for a newspaper. Lucky for her, Hollywood is in the midst of a scandalous trial where Edie knows a lot of the main players — all of whom seem to make an appearance in the story. Do Tell suffers from this overabundance of characters; there are also a lot of other things including clothing, makeup, hair, etc. that may put off some readers. But, if you love glamorous Hollywood with all of the accouterments, under the fluff Lynch has written a solid novel about female power in an unexpected time and place.

Edith O’Dare is an actress and part-time gossip columnist in the last year of her acting contract. Without any future prospects and a juicy scandal falling into her lap, Edith decides to work at getting this scandal published while spilling the secrets of her former colleagues.

A riveting novel set in the ’30s-’40s about the glitzy Hollywood scene and the seedy underbelly of the elite.

I feel as if I would have enjoyed this novel much more if there were fewer characters to keep straight. I felt almost drowned with the number of names thrown around at first and had difficulty connecting with anyone in particular. But overall, it felt like a very authentic Hollywood experience of that period.

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.