Dolores del Rio bursts to life in this vivid, well-researched portrayal of her challenging life during Hollywood’s golden era. Her iconic feline elegance and brash spirit dominates every page, but it’s her defiance to live life on her own terms that sets her apart–and what an extraordinary life she led.
–C.W. Gortner, author of Marlene
1910, Mexico. As the country’s revolution spreads, Dolores, the daughter of a wealthy banker, must flee her comfortable life in Durango or risk death. Her family settles in Mexico City, where, at sixteen, she marries the worldly Jaime del Rio. But in a twist of fate, at a party she meets an influential American director who recognizes in her a natural performer. He invites her to Hollywood, and practically overnight, the famous Miss del Rio is born.
In California, Dolores’s star quickly rises, and her days become a whirlwind of moviemaking and glamorous events. Swept up in Tinseltown’s glitzy inner circle, she takes her place among film royalty such as Marlene Dietrich and Orson Welles. But as her career soars to new heights, her personal life becomes increasingly complicated, with family tragedy, painful divorce, and real heartache. And when she’s labeled box office poison amid growing prejudice before WWII, Dolores must decide what price she’s willing to pay to achieve her dreams and if her heart and future instead lie where it all began…in Mexico.
Spanning half a century and narrated by Dolores’s fictional hairdresser and longtime friend, Miss del Rio traces the life of a trailblazing woman whose legacy in Hollywood and in Mexico still shines bright today.
Barbara Mujica dazzles us once again, telling the story of another great Mexican woman. She takes us on a journey through an era of wars and movies, and unforgettable characters that made Hollywood what it is today.
–Maria Amparo Escandon, New York Times bestselling author of L.A. Weather
