Garbo and Gilbert: they made magic on the silver screen, and off—and this is the story of their ill-fated romance. When John Gilbert, the hot Hollywood star of the silent era, first met Greta Garbo, the icy young Swede, she snubbed him. Not long after, Louis B. Mayer, head of M.G.M., forced them to work together: he felt that the exquisitely beautiful young starlet could only benefit by playing alongside the more experienced Gilbert.  There, on set, in front of everyone, they fell madly in love. What followed was as turbulent, dramatic, and public as any Hollywood melodrama.

If you don't care about facts and want to read a fantasy, then this book will do. Otherwise, don't bother. The author acknowledges "this is a non-fiction novel based on real events. It contains imagined conversations, but they have been written only after extensive research." The author actually recreates bedroom conversations between Garbo and Gilbert which of course, he has no knowledge of, nor does he cite any instances where he got any of his presumed facts. Ever. This goes on throughout the book. There is no documentation or quotes by anyone else who might have known what really took place between these two people. We are left wondering what he is pulling from his imagination and what he is writing from his 'extensive research.' It is common knowledge that Gilbert was crazy about Garbo and over the years she said different things about him, depending on her mood and how much time had passed since his death. No doubt, he was a friend to her against Mayer and the MGM machine and he helped her make some wise choices in the business, and she was very upset by his death at the age of 36, but this book seems to dwell on and swell up the Garbo-Gilbert affair, which ignited and burned out rather quickly for Garbo, if you cite other biographies on her. This book reads like the MGM publicity department trying to cash in what people want to hear rather than the truth.