Astor Place Vintage

“It's a gem of a story.”—Laura Moriarty, author of The Chaperone

“This tale of big dreams, drop-dead glamour, and fragile hearts will have you turning pages late into the night. A timeless story inventively set at that midcentury moment in New York City when what it meant to be a woman began to change in ways great and small.”—Piper Kerman, author of Orange Is the New Black

"A fascinating joyride through 1955 Manhattan, Searching for Grace Kelly is the Mad Men of the world of the Barbizon."—Lynn Cullen, author of Mrs. Poe

For a small-town girl with big-city dreams, there is no address more glamorous than New York’s Barbizon Hotel. Laura, a patrician beauty from Smith, arrives to work at Mademoiselle for the summer. Her hopelessly romantic roommate, Dolly, comes from a working-class upstate town to attend secretarial school. Vivian, a brash British bombshell with a disregard for the hotel’s rules, rounds out the trio of friends. Together, the girls embark on a journey of discovery that will take them from the penthouse apartments of Park Avenue to the Beat scene of Greenwich Village to Atlantic City’s Steel Pier — and into the arms of very different men who will alter their lives forever.

"Reading Searching for Grace Kelly is like watching your favorite old Hollywood movie, filled with colorful characters, funny moments, tender scenes, and plenty of intrigue."—John Searles, author of Help for the Haunted

“Callahan recreates the dazzle of New York in the 1950s, but he also captures something much more subtle and elusive: the feeling of the era, and the sense of how people thought about the world and each other. It's a pitch-perfect novel."—Roberta Rich, author of Midwife of Venice

—More

"Perfect for your next girls' night."

—Good Housekeeping

"Callahan, who has convincingly researched the era. . .writes page-turning prose and gets the characters' big arcs right."

—ELLE

"You'll rip through this novel, inspired by Grace Kelly's pre-princess Barbizon stay."

—Marie Claire

"Callahan's debut is a delight."—People Magazine

“The New York of the 1950s shines through Callahan’s pages. His characters’ breathless excitement with their new lives pulls you into that time and place, and his deft plotting holds you there.”

 —New York Times Book Review

"[A] deliciously stylish, retro first novel. . .As each woman becomes entangled with mysterious, even dangerous men, Callahan suavely combines literary finesse and pulp fiction to create a fast-moving, heartwrenching tale of romance and tragedy in a time of tyrannically sexist social conventions."

—Booklist

"Callahan’s debut novel truly captures glamorous New York City from young women’s perspective in the 1950s. For aficionados of anything from the Fifties and the movie The Best of Everything (1959)."

—Library Journal

“Callahan has a knack for nailing the perfect detail to take a reader back to a particular time and place; this story of three spirited young women is full of the glamour of New York City's Barbizon Hotel in 1955. The dialogue sings, and the pacing was perfect. It's a gem of a story.”

—Laura Moriarty, New York Times bestselling author of The Chaperone

“A wonderful champagne bubble of a book—glamorous, aspirational, and relatable! The fifties never seemed so fun! Wicked, naughty and clever.”

—Melissa de la Cruz, New York Times bestselling author of Witches of East End

“This tale of big dreams, drop-dead glamour and fragile hearts will have you turning pages late into the night. Michael Callahan tells the timeless story of three very different young women on the cusp of discovering themselves, inventively set at that midcentury moment in New York City when what it meant to be a woman began to change in ways great and small.  Suspenseful, sharp and romantic, I loved every minute of it.”

—Piper Kerman, bestselling author of Orange is the New Black

"Reading Searching for Grace Kelly is like watching your favorite old Hollywood movie, filled with colorful characters, funny moments, tender scenes and plenty of intrigue. I was completely charmed by this book!"

—John Searles, bestselling author of Help for the Haunted

"A fascinating joy-ride through 1955 Manhattan, Searching for Grace Kelly is the Mad Men of the world of the Barbizon."

—Lynn Cullen, bestselling author of Mrs. Poe.

The past has a seductive allure to Amanda Rosenbloom, especially when it comes to vintage clothing. She’s devoted to running her shop, Astor Place Vintage, but with Manhattan’s rising rents and a troubled economy, it’s tough to keep the business alive. Meanwhile, she can’t bring herself to end an affair with a man who really should be history. When Amanda finds a journal sewn into a fur muff she’s recently acquired for the shop, she’s happy to escape into the world of Olive Westcott, a young lady who lived in New York City one hundred years ago.

As Amanda becomes immersed in the journal, she learns the future appeals to Olive. Olive looks forward to a time when repressive Victorian ideas have been replaced by more modern ways of thinking. But the financial panic of 1907 thrusts her from a stable, comfortable life into an uncertain and insecure existence. She’s resourceful and soon finds employment, but as she’s drawn into the social circle of shopgirls living on the edge of poverty, Olive is tempted to take risks that could bring her to ruin. Reading Olive’s woes, Amanda discovers a secret that could save her future and keep her from dwelling in the past.

It’s Olive, however, who ends up helping Amanda, through revelations that come in the final entries of the journal. As the lives of these two women merge, Amanda is inspired to stop living in the past and take control of her future.

Michael Callahan is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and a former deputy editor at Town & Country and Marie Claire. His articles have been published in more than two dozen national magazines, including Mens Health, Real Simple, Vibe, and Good Housekeeping. Searching for Grace Kelly is his first novel.