New YA Novels Set in NYC: Starry Night, The Girls at the Kingfisher Club and Being Audrey Hepburn.

I just got back from my annual trip to the New York Musical Festival and am obsessed with all things NYC. Coincidentally, I have just read three fabulous novels set in the city that I would highly recommend.  Starry Night by Isabel Gillies is set against the backdrop of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night." The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine is a re-imagining of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," set during the Roaring Twenties in Manhattan.  Finally, Being Audrey Hepburn, by Mitchell Kriegman, the creator of "Clarissa Tells All," chronicles how a girl's life is upended when she tries on the dress Givenchy designed for Audrey Hepburn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

Starry Night introduces Wren, whose Father curates art at NYC's Metropolitan Museum, where she meets Nolan at a black tie event and allows him to convince her to steal off to an after-hours club.  She is an arrtist and he is the lead singer in a band, and their artistic hearts speak to each other.  Wren hopes to spend her junior year in France at Saint-Remy where Van Gogh created her favorite masterpiece. However, she lets her first love derail her plans.  Predictably, Wren gets grounded after her disappearance from the party at the Met and the fledgling romance is challenged in a variety of ways.  As she struggles to make the relationship work, she loses sight of what is really important in her life.  This cautionary tale plays out in the art world of NYC which adds to its charm and romance.

The Girls at the Kingfisher Club sets the fairy tale of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" during the Roaring Twenties in Manhattan.  The twelve Hamilton girls by day are kept prisoners in their Upper East Side home, but Jo, the firstborn known as "The General," teaches her eleven sisters how to dance and helps them sneak out to speakeasies each night.  They think they are avoiding discovery by their controlling father, until he announces he knows what they are up to and he is going to marry them off whether they like their prospective husbands or not.  They decide that they must escape before they lose their freedom and each other. However, before they can do so, they are caught in a speakeasy raid and flee separately, taking refuge in various places throughout the city.  The glitter and glamour of the underground dance halls and the girls' plucky personalities make for a fun read as they all find ways to survive in the city.

Being Audrey Hepburn stars 19-year-old Lisbeth, a waitress from the Jersey Shore, who is obsessed with Audrey Hepburn.  Her best friend Jess, a fashion design student, who works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, calls her one fateful evening to come to the museum to see the iconic dress Givenchy designed for her idol's role as Holly Golightly.  When Lisbeth tries it on and heads to a Manhattan socialite party where she does her best Audrey impersonation, she finds her life changed forever.  She rescues a suicidal "pop princess," meets a hip fashion designer, falls for a preppy party boy and photo bombs her way into a career as a fashion blogger, all in one evening! This campy book is filled with allusions to Audrey Hepburn's many films and her self transformation into a star who even today inspires women with her "can do" attitude.  Lisbeth truly embraces Audrey's sentiment that "Opportunities don't often come along. So, when they do, you have to grab them." Grab this book when it comes out September 16th!