Olympus Nights on the Square (Juliana, #2) (2024)

This book has received a Discovering Diamonds Review:
Helen Hollick
founder #DDRevs
"The plot, the writing and character development are excellent."

Extremely well written and difficult to put down. In this second of books in the series, Vanda continues the story of the lives of Al, Juliana, Max, Shirl, and others that began in the late 30s (Book 1) and now continues beginning in the '50s, during the height of the McCarthy era. The book describes the hatred and shame placed on anyone suspected of being gay, and the hardships the LGBT community faced, including loss of livelihoods, incarceration, beatings, ostracisation, and 'curing treatment' at the hands of mental institutions.

Set within that framework, we see Al's growth, development, and maturation, which started in Book 1 when she was a timid late teen, as a young woman in her twenties and early thirties. She slowly comes to the recognition and acceptance of her sexuality as a lesbian, amidst her increasing love and admiration for Juliana. We see Al continue to be disturbed by the press's and society's constant villainizing of the hom*osexual community--a community Al has found to be her 'home' and family. The book has many twists and turns as we watch Al skillfully learning the tricks of running a nightclub, being a talent scout, and using her abilities to help Juliana launch a professional career.

Al is the polar opposite of the enigmatic Juliana, who is so push-pull and self-centered. Everything revolves around her and her career, and she often treats Al as if she is her personal love toy that she can use at her bidding. In reality, she does admire Al for her keen abilities as a talent scout and does seem drawn to her. While I get Juliana's over-cautiousness, I find Juliana's character super unappealing and outright abusive of Al, and don't understand why she continues to be abused and hurt. I think the answer lies in the fact that she truly loves Juliana, despite Juliana's mostly unrequited love.

This series is very insightful, poignant, and a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the struggles of the LGBTQ community in 20th century America, and the forced hiding the LGBTQ community faced then is still seen today in so many places in the U.S. and world, where hom*ophobia is very much alive.

I received an advance ARC from the author for my honest review and I purchased it from amazon.com.
Something I like to do to support my favorite Indy Authors.

Olympus Nights on the Square is historic read, that expertly researched, an educational read even as much of what Vanda writes about telling lesbian/gay history, how they were lumped as Communist's or thought that they be criminals, drunks or that lesbians would be killers. I wasn't a ware of it and it makes the read all that more important to read.

I liked Vanda's writing style, she writes an engaging story, she puts the reader right in the pages, has unforgettable characters, your at the Copa drinking a martini, watching Juliana singing on the stage, sitting at the bar drinking a beer at the Olympus and reads like a play or a movie even.

Even if your not into the reading LBGT books, but like reading post World War 2 books, the author keeps it relatively clean, scenes change before they get to graphic and think you like this one.

She writes it for the time period of post War World 2, the late 40's, early 50's, the racial wordings are done in a way that to me wasn't offensive and found the psychology used in the institutions to be more brutal to read.

The method they used to try to cure Scott's being attracted to men, was pretty scary reading, can't believe even at that time that a Psychologist or anyone in the Mental Health profession would think that it would actually work.

I liked that it's set in New York City, like how Vanda took actually history regarding the celebrities from that time period, added real places, and expertly blended it with her fictional characters.

My favorite character is Alice 'Al' Huffman, she's grownup into a tough, strong women for that time period, found her place in the City and the opposite was what you usually read about women characters from that era.

Definitely give this one a try, you might just end up liking it.

In the post-war years, Al (Alice) becomes a career girl, first working for her friend, Max, helping him manage a new nightclub and then as the manager of the second club they open. But these years also see repression. It was never easy to be gay, but the late 40s and 1950s make it even more difficult, with government and Hollywood purges and increased awareness of what is called "perversion." Throughout it all, Al harbors her ongoing love for the singer, Juliana, and even begins to manage her career in the background, with Juliana's husband, Richard, being the visible manager.

I loved the original two book volume, Juliana, which spans the pre-war and WWII years, introducing us to Al, Max, Juliana and the other major characters. This book is also wonderful, but it feels more like a bridge to the next era or possibly a later one. There's just not that much plot, though many fascinating incidents and again great historical detail. I learned a lot but there just wasn't much of a story beyond watching Al's career blossom, the set-backs others experienced because of the Red and Lavender Scares and standing by as Al still can't make things work with Juliana. Still, this is worth reading and I'm looking forward to the next installment.

Loved this book! Given all that happened to Al in the first book, this one really showed Al’s growth from her “country girl” persona. She quotes magazines less and instead starts to rely on her experiences. It’s really fun to read her confronting what she thought she knew about the world versus what she’s actually experiencing. And then her internal struggle to unlearn really ignorant things about the very people she spends all her time with really grounds the book. You really feel like you’re watching her grow in a positive way and soon she starts making her own decisions instead of constantly relying on others to do that for her. Also, her foray into club management keeps you on your toes. My word! You’re never really sure what to expect but man, you are NEVER disappointed!

To read my full review of Volume 2: https://natachabooksreview.wordpress.... Don't miss also my full review of Juliana (Volume 1) which can be found on my blog by going to the category Vanda.

I absolutely loved reading volume 2, i already cannot wait for volume 3 and others to come if there are any after that. I was happy to welcome back Alice and Juliana into my reading life, two beautifully written LGBT characters. While there are some sexual and sensual passages, what i appreciate the most is that the book doesn’t need to be an erotica to allow LGBT characters to be taken seriously.

For the excellent penmanship that Vanda proves by her experience as a writer and for the wonderful story, giving a 5 stars rating is very easy to do.

Olympus is the kind of book that I begin when I know I have time to read it through to the end. I looked forward to this continuation of the stories of Juliana (Vol.1) and her friends as they moved into the 1950’s with its post-war constrictions on social norms. Vanda expertly captures the time and place. The risks and dangers these LGBT people faced as they navigated through Greenwich Village provides the kind of suspense that keeps me up all night as I kept them company on their journeys. I look forward with excitement to Vol.3.

I read Juliana (Books 1 & 2) and couldn't resist finding out what happens to Al so I bought Book 3. I was not disappointed. Olympus Nights introduced me to post war time in the United States and painted a realistic picture of what it meant to be a hom*osexual during the time of the McCarthy witch-hunt for communists and the dangers of being lumped together with other undesirables.
I cannot wait for Book 4 to find out where this journey with Alice takes us.

Great follow-up book to Juliana! It's more anxiety-inducing with the red scare going on, and Alice is a bit less of a sympathetic character than she is in the first book, making the story seem even more realistic and engaging. As with the first book, all of these characters seem like real people! I keep forgetting that this isn't a true story and that all of these people came from one person's imagination. I can't wait for next installment!

The book is too mired down in being a history lesson to move along at a decent pace. Very little of the story has to do with Al and Juliana. Instead it focuses too much on rehashing history and the other characters. Would have been nice to see Al actually evolve and develop a bit but that was lacking as well.

Another great novel!!!

It deserves five stars because the novel is well written. I am certain the research to create the era took long long hours. I felt the period, the music, and the dress code for men and women. Yet, I like the first book of the series a bit more. Nevertheless, this is another great novel that will make you crave for more.

Fantastic

This book and it's predecessors are absolutely fantastic. I spent most of the book mad at Juliana, but I want them together so bad. Other times, I just want her to move on. I want to know more, I need the next book!

I’m really enjoying this series! On to book three!

Excellent

I love all the characters but some of the things that happened to them, just because they are LGBT, was absolutely awful

Yeah I definitely love these characters. Great writing.