What an interesting premise. I have a great curiosity about Marilyn Monroe which was nicely satisfied with this book. I enjoyed the depiction of life inn the 50s and 60s.

📖 Book Review 📖

📱”Blonde Dust" by Tatiana de Rosnay

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Published June 3, 2025

Thank you to @netgalley, @grandcentralpub, and Tatiana de Rosnay on a beautiful, well-written historical-fiction novel about the famous Marilyn Monore.  Set in Nevada in 1960 at the Mapes Hotel in Reno, readers are taken into the world of Marilyn Monroe as she films her final film, The Misfits. She is also separating herself from her husband Arthur Miller, and battling her alcohol and pill addiction. When she meets the young chambermaid, Pauline they form an unlikely bond that changes Pauline's life forever. 



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Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for an advance readers copy of this book.

This book should be enjoyed by lovers of horses, mid-century Hollywood, and stories of women rising above the men who dominate them.
Set primarily in 1956-1960 Reno, Nevada, Blonde Dust introduces Pauline, a young, unmarried mother, who cleans the hotel suite where Marilyn Monroe stays during the filming of “The Misfits.”

Monroe is presented as a troubled but warm and caring woman, and she and Pauline form a bond that helps Pauline find the courage to pursue her own dream to be an equine veterinarian. (There is an engaging sub-plot about her life-long friend Billie-Pearl and their commitment to saving wild mustangs.)

Ultimately, there is a sad difference between Pauline and Marilyn Monroe: “Mrs. Miller,” as she is known at the hotel, is powerless, unable to stand up for herself, despite an entourage of people who seem to care for her. Her situation is echoed by Pauline’s mother, a French war bride who experiences the same sense of emptiness and loneliness, though in her case, there is a loving husband and family. Caring for both of them, Pauline finally finds the self-respect and assertiveness to walk away from her own emotionally abusive relationship.

The alternating timelines, focusing on 1960 and 2000, work well, as the mature, fulfilled Pauline recalls her younger self and the dreams and predicaments she had. However, adding in the sub-plots of Pauline’s mother, and the fate of wild mustangs, lessened the story’s grip for me. Though it is told well, it lacks the depth of description and emotion that I associate with Ms. De Rosney’s other well-known book, Sarah’s Key.

BLONDE DUST by Tatiana De Rosnay is a spellbinding mash-up of historical fiction and women’s fiction that features a first-generation young French woman’s life as well as how in the heat of Reno, Nevada in 1960, a mega movie star’s unlikely friendship changed the course of her life. This standalone story will pull you in and take you on an emotional and nostalgic journey.

This story features three timelines while telling Pauline’s life story. You have the description of how Pauline came to America, fell in love with the wild mustangs, and became a single mother and maid with no prospects at The Mapes Hotel and Casino in Reno, Nevada. You also have a timeline which shows the development of Pauline and Marilyn Monroe’s friendship as she cleans Marilyn’s Suite 614 while she is filming on location for The Misfits, her last full-length movie. And the final timeline has Pauline looking back on her life and friendship with Marilyn as she attends the January 30, 2000, demolition of The Mapes.

The descriptions of both downtown Reno in 1960 and the landscapes outside of town on the film set and the mustang rescue ranch made me feel as though I was right there. As the timelines interweave, I was never lost or confused because each part of the story always left me wanting more. The research is obvious and blended throughout the story without interrupting the story.

There are so many aspects of this story to love; the unlikely friendship, the trajectory of a life changed, both emotionally and physically, the wild mustangs of the West, and a researched look into three short months in Marilyn Monroe’s tumultuous personal life. There are also dark moments of alcoholism and drug abuse, sexual coercion, and animal cruelty interspersed throughout.

I recommend curling up in a comfy chair and letting this mash-up of historical fiction and women’s fiction take you away.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book.

It is summer 1960 in Reno, Nevada. Pauline Bazelet, a twenty-year old single mother, is on her way to work at the famous Mapes Hotel. She has been hired as a maid there by the Assistant Manager, who also happens to be the father of her 3-year old daughter. But she gets no special treatment and in fact is assigned to cleaning the public restrooms on the main floor, one of, if not THE, worst jobs at the hotel. But one day another maid breaks her arm, leaving the head housekeeper short-handed, so Pauline is sent up the room 614, a suite assigned to Mr & Mrs Miller, in town for the filming of the movie The Misfits.

Unknown to Pauline, Mrs Miller is Marilyn Monroe - and her vacuuming wakes the young woman, sleeping in the bedroom!! From that fateful meeting a sort of friendship forms and Pauline is even invited to the movie set for Marilyn's last scene on location in Nevada. Two years later Marilyn is dead, but Pauline never forgets her and that summer and the wonderful gift she received from the actress.

Now Pauline is 61, a well-respected veterinarian in California and the Mapes Hotel is about to be imploded. Her longtime friend Billie-Pearl has convinced her to come back and witness this end of an era. As she waits to see the beautiful hotel come down, Pauline can't help but relive her time there, her family, her friends and where he life has taken her.

A great imagining of how that summer might have been, both for Marilyn, in the throes of filming a movie written and endlessly rewritten by her soon to be ex-husband, and a young naive girl who has only ever lived two places in her life.

One of the first books that sparked my passion for historical fiction was 𝘚𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘩'𝘴 𝘒𝘦𝘺, an international bestseller by Tatiana de Rosnay. So, when I stumbled upon news of her latest project, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it! This captivating story is set in Reno, NV, in 1960, at the iconic Mapes Hotel and Casino, the epitome of vintage glamour in the west.

What unfolds in this narrative is quite unexpected. We follow Pauline, a young maid at the hotel, as she forms an unlikely friendship with Mrs. Miller. To her surprise, Mrs. Miller happens to be none other than the legendary Marilyn Monroe! What unfolds is a multi-layered story with wild mustangs, intriguing movie history, and a life-altering experience for sweet Pauline.

I was genuinely moved by how the author portrayed Marilyn Monroe's humanity. It offered me a new perspective on her life and the misconceptions that surrounded her. Plus, the behind-the-scenes glimpses into the filming of her last movie, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘪𝘴𝘧𝘪𝘵𝘴, were absolutely fascinating. Hats off to you, Ms. de Rosnay!

Many thanks to partners, Grand Central Pub & NetGalley for this gifted review copy!

My Rating: 3.5⭐️

Blonde Dust is an atmospheric novel that imagines the friendship between a quiet hotel maid and Marilyn Monroe during the filming of The Misfits in 1960. I loved the descriptions of Nevada, the Mapes Hotel in Reno, and the bond between Pauline and Marilyn.

That said, the plot tends to wander. Marilyn isn’t as central as I expected or hoped, and some side plots (e.g., Pauline’s family drama, Pauline’s adulthood, Billie-Pearl’s efforts to save the wild mustangs, etc.) don’t feel fully developed. The story feels more like Pauline’s coming-of-age tale than a deep dive into Marilyn’s world.

If you enjoy slower historical fiction more centered on character evolution than full of action, I recommend this!

Thank you again to @tandemcollectiveglobal and @grandcentralpub for the gifted copy and readalong!

Blonde Dust
I loved this book! All the characters in this book stole my heart. I will be gushing about this book on my socials!

A historic chunk of Reno, Nevada’s past became a pile of rubble on January 30, 2000 when the Mapes Hotel, built in 1947, was bulldozed. Footprints of the past vanished when preservationists were unable to prevent its demise. Although the hotel had been abandoned since the 1980s, TV crews, as well as many folk who had stayed or worked at the hotel, gathered to pay an emotional tribute and reflect upon the hotel’s heyday. The Mapes Hotel had hosted Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Montgomery Clift and director John Huston during the filming of “The Misfits” in 1960.

Pauline Bazelet’s mother was a war bride who met her American husband in Paris. In 1946, war brides were brought to the United States with the help of the Red Cross and financed by the American Government. Marcelle and her seven year old daughter Pauline were able to join Doug in Reno, Nevada. Marcelle used her Parisian esthetics to decorate the beauty parlor she opened, however, she never embraced the American way of life. She wistfully looked back at Parisian life where she frequented the cafes, theaters and museums . On the train ride to Reno, Pauline noticed untamed, free wild horses while glimpsing through the train windows. Her step-dad Doug encouraged this interest by driving her to the Double Lazy Heart Ranch. Ranchers Velma and Charlie Johnston were active in an organization to prevent mustangs from being hunted and captured. At the ranch, Pauline met tomboy Billie-Pearl who had “grown to love and respect the wild horses; they were part of the Old West legend.” It seemed that Billie-Pearl “was born on a mustang.” Doctor O’Brian frequented the ranch to attend to wounded animals. Pauline took advantage of every opportunity to learn horsemanship from Billie-Pearl and veterinary care from Dr. O’Brian.

In 1957, Doug decided to take his wife Marcelle and children, Pauline and Jimmy, for a special dinner at the Mapes Hotel. The evening would captivate but also imprison Pauline: A tryst with the hotel manager resulted in an unexpected pregnancy at 17, this same manager threatened to withhold child care payments, and controlled her by assigning her a job as a cleaner at the Mapes. After three years of the most undesirable cleaning assignments, she became a cleaner for Suite 614-Mrs. Miller’s suite. Mrs. Miller turned out to be Marilyn Monroe!

“She seemed disconsolate, and her apparent misery portrayed a very different picture than the glamorous photos in…glossy magazines. (She) was a person hardly anyone really knew…How was it possible to be so famous, and yet so vulnerable and insecure?” According to author Tatiana de Rosnay, Marilyn and Pauline “share a form of sisterhood, a complicity. The woman in the limelight notices the girl in the shadows, and that kindness will give Pauline her wings.” They would find a commonality and bond over the plight of the wild mustangs of Nevada.

A most enjoyable read of historical fiction I highly recommend.

Thank you Grand Central Publishing and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Blonde Dust is a fiction book imagining a friendship between Marilyn Monroe and a maid, Pauline. Pauline was born in France and moved to Reno as a small girl. Pauline dreams to be a horse veterinarian but does not have the means and is working at Mapes Hotel.
In her spare time, she volunteers at a farm where they tame mustangs. There, she forms a friendship with a girl her age, Billie Pearl. Their friendship was my favorite part of the book. Billie Pearl helped her believe in herself and become a better person.

I did enjoy the historical aspect of it, as Marilyn Monroe was before my time.

This book was such a wonderful read. It really brought you back to to the time when the books takes place. I love how it all connects in the end, It is a beautiful story about how a hard working single mom can do amazing things. You mistakes do not have to define you! This was so well written and overall an amazing read!

What Remains in the Dust

"Just head for that big star straight on. The highway's under it; it'll take us right home." —Arthur Miller, The Misfits

Blonde Dust opens with this quote, and it sets the tone for the novel’s haunting meditation on regret, reinvention, and longing. Tatiana de Rosnay draws from fiction, biography, and social history to weave a mythic narrative that echoes the emotional gravity of Marilyn Monroe’s final film and the lives it brushed against.

At its heart is Pauline, daughter of a Parisian war bride, who finds herself adrift in the Nevada desert—until the arrival of a film crew and a woman known only as Mrs. Miller rekindles long-buried dreams. Monroe becomes less a character than a force: mythic, magnetic, and quietly devastating.

While the novel leaves some emotional threads unexplored—especially between Pauline and her family—this feels intentional. Like ghosted memories, they linger on the periphery, suggesting more than they say. The result is a story that reads like a score—imperfect, aching, and quietly luminous.

In the end, I knew the dust would settle to reveal a different picture—one that would always haunt me, just on the edges of my vision, beckoning me to discover more, but always separating me from what had once been there.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the book I read!

3.5 stars | Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for a copy of Blonde Dust, which just came out June 2nd!

Pualine holds the dead-end job of cleaning toilets at the very glamorous Mapes Hotel in Reno, NV. Seemingly out of the blue, her boss tells Pauline to fill in for a co-worker cleaning suite 614. As she begins cleaning, a beautiful woman emerges from the bedroom. This chance encounter leads to a tender friendship between her and Marilyn Monroe.

Broken down into three periods, we get to see Pauline’s life as she immigrates from France to America, her time at the Mapes Hotel as a young single mother, and decades later as the abandoned Mapes Hotel is demolished. The majority of this coming-of-age book focuses on Pauline as she fumbles through life—discovering her love for wild mustangs, her loyalty to Monroe as rumors spark, and ultimately growing into who she wants to be. I was most pulled into the parts with Marilyn Monroe, as most of what I know about her largely centers around her legacy as an Old Hollywood movie icon, a blonde bombshell, and a sex symbol. Blonde Dust shows us a glimpse of what she may have been like behind closed doors: a quiet woman raging within herself, yet sweet and kind to those around her.

For lovers of historic Hollywood, a slower plot, and how female friendships can shape someone.

tw: death, drug abuse, addiction, animal cruelty

Somehow despite being shy of 300 pages, this one manages to have a sweeping feel that honors the feeling of the mustangs and 1950s Reno, balancing the freedom and wildness of the horses with the repression of young women's choices in the era. I did expect this book would focus somewhat more on Marilyn Monroe as a character, but instead she is more of a side character, with her serving as a surprising influence on Pauline.

The wild west, old Hollywood and a hotel's rich history in Reno tell the story in Blond Dust.

Mapes Hotel is being demolished, and those who created its history return to see its demise. The sight of the building stirs memories long forgotten as the story alternates from the past and present. The hotel's shining moment was when Marilyn Monroe befriended a young worker and giving her chance to fulfill her dreams after staying at the hotel during a movie shoot.

Marilyn's life is still intriguing today as she was back in the 50's/60's.

Blond Dust is loaded with heartbreak and hopefulness.

Thank you Grand Central Publishing

I couldn’t put down BLONDE DUST by Tatiana de Rosnay! It just swept me up in a more quiet side of Hollywood in the 1960s.

Single mom, Pauline Bazelet, a lowly chambermaid at the Mapes Hotel in Reno. Nevada is assigned to clean a vacant room, however she stumble across Mrs Miller, a.k.a. Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn is in town working on what was to be her last movie and dealing with the final days of her marriage to Arthur Miller. Asked for opinions, invited to gatherings and keeping mum about their encounters has unexpected consequences for Pauline and her daughter for the rest of their lives. What follows in the next few weeks is the enduring power of female friendship and how Marilyn changed Pauline‘s life. When the Mapes is due to be demolished, some of the former staff are returning to reminisce about their time there. None have a better story than Pauline but she is still protecting what Marilyn did for her.

Although I realise this was fiction, I loved seeing a softer side to Marilyn and I’d like to think it is at least possible in today’s Hollywood. I’m a sucker for glitz and glam and the enduring faith that one woman can place in another, the wild parties, the beautiful clothes, and how the meek shall inherit. I could not put this book down and my heart was racing like the Mustangs in the desert. I will certainly be looking into the authors other works. They say that people come into your life for a reason, a season, or lifetime and Marilyn did all three for Pauline.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for this ARC opportunity. All opinions are my own and given voluntarily.

Loved this book !
First time reading this author and won’t be the last time
Great insight into the life of people jn Hollywood
Liked that some of the story was a true account of Marilyn Monroe

Tatiana de Rosnay's Blonde Dust is a haunting and beautifully imagined story of friendship, loss, and transformation. While I don’t often reach for historical fiction or reimaginings of real figures, the striking cover and themes pulled me in—and I’m glad they did. At the heart of the novel is a nuanced and emotionally rich portrayal of a fictional friendship between Marilyn Monroe and Pauline, a young French immigrant maid whose life is forever changed. Pauline’s backstory is layered and compelling, and I was especially drawn to the 1960s Old Hollywood storyline, which felt both intimate and cinematic. The subplot involving wild mustangs didn’t resonate as strongly and slowed the already quiet pacing, but the core of the novel—the bond between two women across lines of class and fame—makes it worth the read. This is a story about the unexpected ways women can show up for each other, and how one act of care can leave a lasting imprint.

I love Marilyn Monroe, old Hollywood, and some historical fiction.

This book was great. Beautiful character development with Pauline. I love the historical tie in with the Mapes Hotel and seeing the behind the scenes of glitz and glam.

This is a story about how one person can completely change your life and the story of female friends. Add Monroe on top and it was a great story!

Thank you NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the gifted copy!

Blonde Dust is an intriguing book that hooked me quickly. The story is composed of a few very different threads that came together in a surprising perfect way. The life of a young woman, Pauline, working as a hotel maid to support her daughter, is presented in contrast to that of actress Marilyn Monroe, at the height of her fame. Their paths cross in Reno, where the addition of Pauline’s friends who are trying to help the wild mustangs brings to story to a dramatic climax. Tatiana de Rosnay is an incredible writer, and this book proves to be another hit. Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.