Such A Pretty Girl by T. Greenwood

 

Ryan Flannigan and her ambitious mother had moved to New York from Vermont in the 1970's when Ryan was a young teenager.  They shared an apartment with a family that they had met in the summers at the community theatre where Ryan had been born and grew up and the family of Ryan's best friend.  Although Fiona, Ryan's mother, had only been a bit player, she was sure if she could only get to New York that she would be discovered and have the acting career she had spent her life chasing.

But it is Ryan who is discovered.  She is noticed in a restaurant by a woman who runs a modeling agency and after an interview, signed up.  A movie producer sees her ads and thinks she is perfect for the part of a young girl in his upcoming movie.  That movie catapults her into the limelight and she soon has the career her mother had always wanted.  Ryan isn't sure how much she likes it and after some scary things happen, she had given up acting as an adult and moved back to Vermont.  She and Fiona have been estranged for years, Fiona never forgiving Ryan for her fame and Ryan never forgiving Fiona for her poor mothering, leaving with men and not returning, taking drugs, etc.

But now a scandal has erupted.  A nude picture of Ryan as a young girl which was taken for her to give her mother as a gift, has been found in the home of a wealthy man who has been outed as a pedophile.  He has connections to the woman who discovered Ryan and to Ryan's mother, who has inscribed the picture as a gift to the man.  What was their connection?  The press is chasing the story and Ryan has to return to New York to settle things with her mother once and for all.

T. Greenwood is an American author whose work often focuses on events in American history.  In this recent historical fiction, the reader discovers the excitement of New York's West Side and the artists and actors who lived there.  It also touches on the 'me-too' revelations of recent years when men who dealt in corrupting young girls for favors have been outed; their crimes now on full display.  The relationship between Ryan and Fiona asks the question what will ambition do and where does one draw a line?  This book is recommended for historical and literary fiction readers.