Exclusive first look at cover of Maureen Lee Lenker’s ‘A Star Is Scorned’

A supporting character steps into the spotlight in A Star Is Scorned, Maureen Lee Lenker’s third historical romance novel set in 1930s Hollywood.

Set in the same world as her debut novel It Happened One Fight and followup His Girl Hollywood, Lenker — an Entertainment Weekly senior writer — focuses her latest love story on the rakish action star Flynn Banks, best friend of Fight‘s leading man Dash Howard. And EW has an exclusive first look at the cover of the new novel, published by Source Books.

As described by Lenker, A Star Is Scorned is a “fake dating” story: “Flynn is the consummate rogue of Hollywood, says he’ll never fall in love or marry, known for sleeping around, heavy drinking, all sorts of antics. And his new co-star Liv de Lesseps, whose real name is Olivia Blount, is new to Hollywood. She’s got a squeaky clean image and is a little bit naive. And the studio boss — when he is threatened with Flynn’s career being ended by the Production Code Administration [or Hays Code] — decides that Flynn is going to pretend to date Liv to clean up his image. But then Flynn discovers that Liv is an intriguing woman and unlike anyone he’s ever met before, and he can’t quite get her out of his system.”

Ahead of the novel’s Oct. 14 release, Lenker reveals to EW how Errol Flynn inspired her new leading man, what was difficult about elevating a secondary character into the main love story, and what’s next for her after A Star Is Scorned, which she describes as “my most complex but fun book yet.”

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Publishing your third book must feel like such an accomplishment.

MAUREEN LEE LENKER: It’s wild. I mean, it was a three-book deal, so I knew eventually it would happen, but I can’t believe that it’s already here. And this third book was really the hardest for me to write of the three. But it’s also, partly because of that, the one I’m proudest of. I’m just really excited for people to read it and to watch Flynn fall in love.

What made this one the hardest?

I was promoting the first book, editing the second book, and then also trying to write a third book —while also having a full-time job, of course. My attention was pulled in so many directions. But I also think it’s because I loved Flynn as a character. I knew I wanted to write his love story, but it took me a while to figure out what exactly that should look like. And when you’re writing a book where you’re reforming someone who has been a pretty blatant cad for the first two books, there’s a little more rehab you have to do for them, while also not losing what makes them who they are. How am I deepening and humanizing this person so that you’re rooting for them to get their happily ever after?

What was key to Flynn’s transformation into romantic lead?

The hardest thing working against it was that he’s very obviously inspired by Errol Flynn — and Errol Flynn did not rehabilitate his image, and is extremely problematic. And so whereas in my past books I could kind of look at aspects of the real people’s lives [who inspired the characters, like Clark Gable and Gene Kelly] as a blueprint, this one much less. But mostly it was a lot of walks and swims and showers where I was just trying to untangle my brain in terms of his transformation. I think people will see a man who has a lust for life, and has perhaps maybe been directing that to toxic or self-damaging ends, and needed someone to come in and shake him up — and that’s what Livy does.

How do you feel you stretched yourself as a writer with A Star Is Scorned?

I never have really thought of myself as an action writer. It was something that I dipped my toe into with the second book, with a whole rescue sequence between Don and Arlene. But this, it’s like they’re fencing, they’re sailing. There’s a whole epic, swashbuckling climax to the book. It ended up being something that I really enjoyed writing and just kept coming up in the process — which I maybe should have expected, given that he is an adventure hero.

You are already such a fan of and expert about the Old Hollywood era, but what did you learn about the period during this writing process?

There is a B plot — but which is very important to the overall plot — about Liv’s sister, involving sexual assault and harassment in Hollywood. I learned about a quite prevalent practice of studios having sales parties once a year, and these salesmen who would represent the studios to theaters around the country would all come to Hollywood and get to go to this party. There were a lot of women who were hired under false pretense, being told they were location scouting or doing certain things, that were hired to dance and be the entertainment at these parties.

But, of course, a lot of men thought that entitled them to more. One woman whose story I learned about was Patricia Douglas, who was one of the very first women in Hollywood to sue over sexual assault. I hadn’t realized that anyone had had the means or the courage to speak out about that as far back as 1937. It was nice to include that in addition to all the swashbuckling and fun in the book.

What do you hope readers take from finally seeing the cover for the novel?
The thing I’m most excited for people to discover is Flynn has a monkey sidekick. He’s a little capuchin monkey who has own monkey-sized rapier and he’s in all these swashbuckling films with him. His name is Rallo and they’re also great friends off set. Writing Rallo was my favorite part of writing all three of these books. And if you look in the crook of the girl’s arm on the cover, there is a little monkey in the design in the background, as an homage to Rallo — how much I love him being a part of this book and can’t wait for everyone to meet him.

A Star Is Scorned is the third of a three-book deal. But is this the end of your stories in this It Happened One Fight world? What’s next for you as an author?

Going into this, I already knew that book two would be Arlene’s book, and I had pitched that Flynn would be the third book. I have an idea for a fourth book in this world, I’m just waiting to see if the publisher is going to pick that up or not. And then I’m also working on something super different, a thriller. I’m trying my hand at a different genre. Whether or not that ever sees the light of day, we’ll see!

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