Dual-timeline historical fiction following the lives of two estranged sisters, once the most famous performers in midcentury Halifax, who now must come together to save their beloved theatre from ruin.

We were stars standing in tall shadows every night at the Majestic Theatre.

1939. Majestic Melly is one of Halifax, Nova Scotia's biggest It Girls. As one half of the all-singing, all-dancing Majestic Sisters duo, she knows she's poised for stardom— she just needs to get off the stage of the Majestic Theatre, where she performs nightly with her sister, Missy, and find a way to Hollywood. As the curtains close on the decade, Melly disappears from the seaside city, missing Missy's wedding and leaving her sister heartbroken, and winds up on the front pages of international newspapers a few days later with Clark Gable.

1963. Melly Calvert, Hollywood's box office queen, learns that her beloved Majestic Theatre is closing its doors. After nearly twenty-five years of estrangement between the legendary Majestic Sisters, Melly returns home to convince her socialite sister, now the wife of Halifax's most successful hotelier, to try and help her save it. But old wounds are still fresh, and as the clock ticks toward the new year, the Majestic Theatre—and the Majestic Sisters—are in danger of disappearing forever.

Suffused with backstage gossip and cinematic history, and written in the style of a tell-all Old Hollywood autobiography, The Majestic Sisters is an authentic and stirring portrait of sibling rivalry during the Golden Age of Cinema and an impeccably drawn portrait of mid-century Halifax that will appeal to fans of Beatriz Williams and Brooke Lea Foster.

Jessica Ilse is a communications professional who moonlights as a freelance writer. She lives in Halifax by way of Cape Sable Island, and has a journalism degree from the University of King's College. The Majestic Sisters is her first novel.

Jessica Ilse's profile page

"The Majestic Sisters explores fame, fortune, and the sticky bonds of sisterhood with authenticity and cinematic flair. A dazzling story about ambition and duty, love and loss, and how the dreams that take us away are often the same dreams that bring us home. A debut worthy of its own marquee."

—Ali Bryan, award-winning author of The Figgs and Coq

"A master storyteller, Jessica Ilse has woven a spellbinding tale full of charm, wit, and nostalgia that takes the reader from Halifax in the 1930s to Hollywood at the tail end of the Golden Age. It's impossible not to fall in love with the inimitable and delightful Majestic Sisters—both the novel, and the dynamic duo themselves, who spring to glorious life from every page. This is a sparkling debut that will have you cheering (and maybe shedding a few tears) at the end. And if you're a displaced Haligonian like me, beware: this novel will make you terribly homesick—both for what is, and what could have been."

—Amy Jones, bestselling author of Pebble & Dove

"A tender, passionate, heartbreaking tale of what it takes to follow a dream. The Majestic Sisters pulls back the curtain on a pre-war Halifax that sparkles with glitz and glamour."

—Louise Michalos, author of Marilla Before Anne

"In glorious technicolour, an adoring homage to the sumptuous movie palaces of a bygone era, classic films of the silver screen, and Halifax on the brink of war. A novel masterfully alive with history—the allure of fame, the bonds of family, and the balm of forgiveness—a dazzling debut!"

—Stephens Gerard Malone, author of Jumbo

"A tale of two sisters separated by the pursuit of success, The Majestic Sisters is an engaging and engrossing tribute to the power of revisiting the past and asking for forgiveness. Enchanting, full of period details and pluck, you'll find yourself on a seductive journey through Old Hollywood, ambition, and a young woman'?s desire to start over. I missed these characters long after the book ended."

—Brooke Lea Foster, bestselling author of All the Summers in Between