Whatever happened to Lori Lovely? A novel

McCoy (The Baker's Daughter) spins an entertaining if derivative tale of a faded celebrity. In a framing device set in 1990, college student Lu Tibbott is "floundering" in her history classes, having changed majors multiple times in an effort to find out "who I wanted to be." Desperate for a senior thesis topic, she latches onto the story of her aunt Lori Lovely, a onetime budding Hollywood starlet who left show business at 23 in 1969 to become a nun. Born Lucille Hickey in Pufftown, N.C., Lori moves to New York City at 18 to live with her sister and her husband and help at their photography studio while the young couple struggles to start a family. Dazzled by the "immortality" of fame, Lori auditions for a role as an extra in a musical. She's then accepted at a school in London, where she lands the role of a lifetime in a musical film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Lori's on-screen chemistry with heartthrob Lucas, who plays Romeo, skyrockets her to fame and leads to a tumultuous affair with her costar. McCoy ably evokes the glitter and grit of mid-century moviemaking, but the melodramatic story behind Lori's retreat, which explains Lu's own life as well, is not only predictable but notably similar to that of Taylor Jenkins Reid's The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. This one doesn't quite stand on its own. Agent: Mollie Glick, CAA. (Sept.)

Teenager Lucille Hickey is "discovered" after posing for a photograph at her sister and brother-in-law's photography studio in the 1960s. Possessing magnetic blue eyes and a compelling look, she is renamed Lori Lovely by a fellow student at her acting studio and is quickly cast in a musical version of Romeo and Juliet. She falls in love with her Romeo, Lucas Wesley, but over the next several years, the perils of fame pull the two of them apart as Lori achieves success. Finally, in 1969, 23-year-old Lori makes a bold decision--she converts to Catholicism and joins a convent of nuns. Twenty years later, in the 1990s, Lori's college-aged niece Lu, who is struggling to find a topic for her senior thesis, decides to explore why her aunt made such a radical change. VERDICT McCoy's (Mustique Island) heartwarming dual-timeline novel, based partially on the life of Mother Dolores Hart, who acted in a film with Elvis Presley before becoming a Benedictine nun, is for readers who like their Hollywood tearjerkers sprinkled with themes of faith, family, and love.--Jennie Mills