Sometimes the brightest lights cast the darkest shadows.

Imagine Me Happy moves behind the velvet curtain to reimagine the lives of Edie Sedgwick, Carole Landis, Marilyn Monroe, Dorothy Dandridge, and Judy Garland. Icons of stage and screen, they dazzled audiences around the world—yet behind the glamour and carefully constructed personas lay private struggles, fragile hopes, and fears that fame could not erase.

Through an inventive collection of forms, these stories inhabit the space between performance and reality, tracing the emotional lives of women shaped—and often consumed—by an industry built on illusion. Each voice reveals not only the cost of being seen, but the longing to be understood beyond their public facades.

Imagine Me Happy is a haunting, formally daring exploration of celebrity, identity, and the pursuit of authenticity at any cost.

Praise for Imagine Me Happy

“What a spectacular feat of empathy and imagination! With gorgeous, light-handed prose and meticulously researched detail, Heather Bell Adams breathes life back into Hollywood’s most iconic stars. Beautiful, interior, and compassionate.”

—Nina de Gramont, author of The Christie Affair

“Brilliantly researched and exquisitely reimagined…a gripping and captivating page-turning look behind the headlines. Tenderly written and packed with insight. Historical fiction at its best!”

—Brooke Lea Foster, author of Our Last Vineyard Summer

“Adams’s prose glimmers with both glamour and grit… Luminous and deeply empathetic, Imagine Me Happy sparkles like a rare diamond.”

—Julie Gerstenblatt, author of The Stargazer of Nantucket

“Expect to gasp at the humanity and weep a little over this bit of grace.”

—Kimberly Brock, author of The Fabled Earth

“Fascinating and deeply felt…plumbs dark, complicated, and deeply human depths.”

—Katherine Scott Crawford, author of The Miniaturist’s Assistant

“Heather Bell Adams’s characters leap off the page in all their exquisite imperfection. With luscious details, she deftly explores the many facets of the human beings behind the celebrities.”

—Leslie Hooton, author of The Secret of Rainy Days

“Cries out to be read and reread… Heather Bell Adams has invested her version of the starlet myth with profound insight and lasting emotional resonance, reminding us again what a richly talented writer she is.”

—Terry Roberts, author of The Sky Club and In the Fullness of Time

“Sexy, sassy, and heartbreakingly sad.”

—Dale Neal, author of Floodmarks and Kings of Coweetsee