The city had been divided a decade earlier into East and West boroughs, the lines between Communism and Capitalism firmly drawn. In 1961 there was a lot of unrest in Berlin. Intrigued by the possibility of freedom, and career redemption, Pagan signs the contract and is whisked away to the filming location, West Berlin, Germany. The other, Devin Black, is her new guardian assigned by the film studio who will ensure that she delivers the goods. Jerry is her father's lawyer a man with a deal from a studio that has offered Pagan the role of a lifetime along with her freedom.

She is removed from solitary confinement when she gets the offer of her life while two men, one name Devin Black and one named Jerry Allenberg, come to visit her. Now, nine months later, she has been sentenced to the Lighthouse Reformatory School for Wayward Girls for manslaughter. While drinking and driving, she inadvertently caused the death of her father and her younger sister. Pagan Jones didn't have the sweetest of 16th birthdays. This book is an utter whirlwind of a ride. I was intrigued by the premise and when an ARC showed up I jumped into it and was very glad that I did. It begins a series about a 16-year-old Hollywood starlet, Pagan Jones, with a tarnished reputation.

Agent: Tamar Rydzinski, Laura Dail Literary Agency.The Notorious Pagan Jones is a new book by Nina Berry. Pagan is realistically flawed and complex (“Who was she tonight? Actress or drunk? A movie star, or a villain?”), using her skills on the stage to manipulate men, gain state secrets, and make a daring escape from the divided city. Chapter titles blare like the headlines of inky tabloids (“Killer Starlet Refuses to Shack Up with Guardian”), and Pagan’s trousseau is peppered with designer labels such as Chanel, evoking a bygone era of glamour and sophistication. Berry’s (the Otherkin series) noirish writing blends the blinding spotlight of Hollywood, the sexy world of espionage, and a smattering of real-life events and figures to create a fast-paced spy thriller. The film shoot lands 17-year-old Pagan-a struggling alcoholic who killed her father and sister in a drunk-driving wreck after her mother committed suicide-in Berlin, the city of her mother’s birth, where she seeks clues to her past while untangling a nefarious political plot unfolding in troubled 1960s Germany. Fallen starlet Pagan Jones has a chance at redemption when a mysterious film studio flack springs her from reform school with another shot at stardom.

The Notorious Pagan Jones by Nina Berry