Roxanne Granville comes from a very rich family. Her grandparents own the very successful Empire movies. Her father, Rowland, is an actor in England and her mother Florence lives in Africa. Roxanne was raised by her grandparents, Leon and Julia. Roxanne always gest everything she wants, but things in life often change. And Roxanne's grandparents have been having problems of their own - Leon is having an affair with an actress named Denise. 

When things come to a head with her grandfather, Roxanne has to fend for herself After her pampered upbringing, this is harder than she imagines. She tries to become an editor until her boss tries to take advantage of her. She eventually decides to start her own business. Roxanne starts to sell screenplays to studios, but their names are kept a secret because during the McCarthy era, many are considered communists, and it could be dangerous for them. 

Roxanne meets a man named Terrance and they fall madly in love, but because he's African-American and she's white, their relationship is a struggle from the start. With her relationship strained, Roxanne's professional life also takes a turn for the worse... someone has discovered the identities of the screenwriters, and now she is blacklisted in Hollywood. Will things turn around for Roxanne, and can she and Terrance work things out?

I really enjoyed THE GREAT PRETENDERS by Laura Kalpakian. Even though I was pretty young in the 1950's I do recall some of this McCarthy era. However, I guess I really didn't think it was this bad. Kalpakian's book really got my attention that all of this was going on. I did like the romance between Roxanne and Terrance. Now a day's most people do not get upset about people of different backgrounds being together. But yet lately, there is so much hate in this world. In this book, it shows how bad things really were. If you enjoy historical fiction, be sure to check out THE GREAT PRETENDERS.