Title: SUPERSTAR
Author: Beth Henderson
Genre: Vintage Romance
Book Blurb:
A decade-spanning tale of soulmates torn apart by each’s pursuit of a career in the late 20th century.
Paul Montgomery’s dreams are of music, of writing it as well as performing. His journey takes him from covering Beatle songs for high school dances in the mid-1960s to being acclaimed for his diversity in the world of rock ‘n’ roll. Particularly for composing a library of love songs. With sold out concerts around the world, singles and albums that repeatedly go gold then platinum, and innovative music videos on MTV, he seems to lead a charmed life. At least, professionally. Along the way there is tragedy: the loss of a friend to the Viet Nam war, the attempt to save a fellow rocker from her drug addiction, but it is winning and losing the only woman he’s ever loved – twice – that is a never healing wound in his heart.
For Aurora Chambers, it is the world of fashion that beckons. A scholarship for a summer design program in London is a carrot even her love for Paul can’t best. Hurt by his seeming denigrating of her aspirations, she throws herself into the heart of Carnaby Street in 1967, and the arms of her instructor, Trevor Harris, a self-serving man who plans to use her talent as his steppingstone to better things. Unaware of Paul’s continuing love for her, Rory binds her future to Trevor’s. It is a step she soon learns to regret though it does bring her career success beyond her previous dreams. With a clothing line that repeatedly wins accolades on the catwalks, she has only one stumbling block. Her designs all carry Trevor’s name, not her own. Aurora must marshal some of Trevor’s own devious traits to take back what is hers. Secretly, she follows Paul’s rise through the music trades, occasionally mourning the loss of what they’d had. When a second chance at happiness with him appears, she grabs it. And nearly destroys them both.Because, sometimes love simply isn't enough.
Excerpt:
Late Spring, 1967.
Rory popped the pill in her mouth, tucked the packet back in Paul’s medicine cabinet.
Should she renew it before she left or wait until she returned in the fall?
It was still hard to believe the events that had followed so swiftly in her life. Within days of getting Paul’s ring, she’d received word that her designs had won her two months in Europe attending a couturier clinic.
The trip had been for one.
She shut the mirrored door and washed the pill down with a glass of water. Of course, Paul had things to keep him busy during her absence. Since Jill Gordon had begun managing the band, the club dates had increased.
“Christ,” Paul hissed from the bedroom. He strode in. The tight black trousers he wore were a second skin. He pushed at the full flowing sleeves of his open white shirt. The ruffled cuffs slid back over his hands. “Red, see what you can do about this damned sash.”
She tied it loosely over his shoulder until it rode at his hip like a bandolier. Insisting that Paul was their drawing card, Jill had renamed the band Montgomery and Nova. It didn’t matter to Jill that the piratical costumes she promoted had little to do with the band’s name.
Aurora had to admit, with his hair still dark and curling from the shower, Paul did look like a buccaneer.
“I feel ridiculous,” he said.
“You look delicious,” she told him. “Which is the whole idea.”
He slid an arm about her waist. “You should have told me that earlier. Before I spent ten minutes getting into these goddamn pants.”
“It was under two minutes,” she corrected, “and the audience loves it.”
“Yeah, I guess they do.” He sighed. “Tonight, I’d rather stay home with you.”
She hugged him quickly, her cheek against the curling dark hair of his broad chest. “You know you love being on stage.”
He grinned. “Yes, dear.”
Aurora laughed. “Come on, we’ll be late.”
He didn’t release her. “Can you stay tonight?”
She looked away. “For a little while.”
Since he’d taken the apartment near the campus she spent more time with him than she did at home. Part of the closet was set aside for her clothing. “Changes,” she’d told her parents, so that she could go with him to the band’s gigs after her last class. She had never spent an entire night with him but had always returned home before dawn.
“Have you finished the new song?” she asked easing from his arms.
Paul turned to face the mirror, brushing impatiently at his hair. “I think so. It doesn’t debut tonight though, so you’re out there, Red.” His lips curved in the leer that Jill Gordon had noted two years earlier. “It’s still a secret. There’s a piano lick I’m trying to work in.”
“Why all the secrecy?” she demanded. “And when did a piano join the act?”
“It hasn’t,” he admitted. “Yet.”
She grinned. “Jill’s going to love getting that to gigs.”
“And you, Red, are going to love the song,” he said.
#
She loved all his songs. And there were several of them now. It had been at Jill Gordon’s urging that Nova had begun to play more original songs. While he and Rawlins had worked on a few together, it was Paul’s solo melodies with their distinctive chord changes that Jill was pushing. Aurora wondered if Jill knew the sleepless nights he spent working on them. Wondered if it would matter if she did know. Jill was so busy calling them signature songs, she had begun to think it was Jill’s favorite word.
“Close your eyes,” Jill had urged the band. “If you know you’re listening to Nova without seeing them, we’ve got it made.”
“I know it’s us,” Rawlins growled, but Jill ignored him.
“Achieve that, guys, and I can sell you anywhere,” she promised.
And Jill could sell. They’d discovered that fact quickly when she began handling bookings for the band. She charmed contacts.
One suggestion at a time, Jill honed her product. And that product was not Nova. It was Paul Montgomery.
“You’ve ruined the effect,” Jill insisted when Paul ushered Aurora through the back door of the latest club to book the group.
Paul scowled at her. “I can’t play with those damned ruffles,” he said. The wide sleeves of his shirt were now rolled up to his elbows, the ruffled cuffs nothing more than bunched fabric.
“The signature,” Jill hissed.
Signature, my foot, Aurora thought. Paul had just set himself apart from the rest of the band. Again. Something that Jill seemed intent on doing herself. Aurora thought he looked even more like a pirate now. The altered costume proclaimed him a man who went his own way, who meant business, who wouldn’t take no for an answer. A fellow who was dangerous to know.
The sort of man every woman in the audience secretly wanted.
“I’ve already got a signature,” Paul growled. “Remember, Jilly? I leer.” As if on cue, his lips curled contemptuously as his left brow soared.
“That was a sneer,” Jill said. “Save it for the crowd, huh, Paul?” A moment later she made a bee line for Steve Rawlins with another complaint.
Jim Gordon clasped Paul on the shoulder. “Hell, I think you won that round, buddy.”
Paul scowled at his friend.
“Your sleeves are still rolled up, aren’t they?” Gordon pointed out.
“Damn right,” Paul snarled and swung his guitar up, attaching it to the scarlet sash. “And they’re staying that way.”
As Paul stalked off, Aurora looked after him, a slight frown marring her brow.
Gordon grinned wryly. “She knows what she’s doing, Rory,” he assured. “When we go on stage in a few minutes, he’s still going to be pissed. And pleased with his win, too. He’ll storm on the stage. Swagger up to the front microphone.”
Aurora sighed. “And the girls will love it,” she said.
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):
Kindle www.getbook.at/SUPERSTAR
November is a time to be thankful. What are you most thankful for this year?
This year…well, after spending an unplanned week in the hospital this past spring, one of the things I’m thankful for is that though the creaky joins remain, I’ve shed some of the things the doctors were dealing with and am still here to tell more stories. The second thing is that I achieved what I decided I wanted to be when 12 years old: to be a published novelist. Yeah, it took another thirty years to actually have a publisher go to contract on a manuscript, but this year my thirty-ninth novel was released, with number forty to follow next year. It’s even better that 5*s grace the reviews for those stories. Which means, I’m even more thankful to have such intelligent readers rewarding me with them.
Why is your featured book worth snuggling up to?
Hmm…why is SUPERSTAR a book worth snuggling up with? Paul Montgomery, the hero. I’ve been madly in love with him since he first walked into my muse’s office in 1986, though it took me another 28 years to finish writing the story. I kept putting it aside because it wasn’t my usual type of book. But Paul wouldn’t let me forget him. He’s the favorite of all the heroes I’ve invented and when I need to snuggle up with a story, I reach for SUPERSTAR because I miss hanging out with him. That means, I reread my own book two and sometimes three times a year. Fortunately, several reviewers have said, “Oh, my God, Paul!” I think if he were real, I’d need to fight them off.
Well, and as SUPERSTAR was one of the award-winning books chosen by N.N. Light’s Book Heaven in 2022, that should recommend it nicely, don’t you think?
Giveaway –
One lucky reader will win a $100 Amazon gift card.
Open internationally.
Runs November 1 – 30, 2024
Drawing will be held on December 2, 2024.
Author Biography:
Beth Henderson’s fiction spinning career as a published author will celebrate its thirty-fifth birthday in May 2025. She’s written under several pseudonyms, and probably has never seen a genre niche she didn’t want to try on for size. That means she’s written romantic comedy, historical romantic adventure and mystery, romantic suspense (with and without comedy), Weird West and Victorian Steampunk, 1920s Dieselpunk adventure comedy, YA romantic comedy, and urban fantasy PI mystery comedy. She sorta likes comedy. She’s a regular online workshop presenter with several RWA online chapters, Outreach International, and Savvy Authors. She’s even written non-fiction books on how to write genre fiction.
Social Media Links:
Beth Henderson on Facebook http://bit.lywriting /2GvFyog
Beth Henderson on Twitter @Beth__Henderson