Spotlight & Giveaway: Strangers in the Night by Heather Webb

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Heather Webb to HJ!

Hi Heather and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Strangers in the Night!

 
Hello, Dear Readers!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

My new novel is a book of Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner’s passionate and tumultuous love affair, and the glamour and grit of Old Hollywood. It’s a dishy, gripping novel. The pages are littered with historical tidbits and names we’ve all grown up seeing or hearing, and the ending may just elicit a tear or two.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

I had regrets— plenty of them—but loving her wasn’t one of them. Loving her was one of the things I’d done right, even if I hadn’t done it well.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• Their relationship is an absolute wild ride– a trainwreck in motion that you can’t look away from! I worked hard to convey that from the research.
• The title changed twice! It started out as Come Fly with Me, but I decided it was too jaunty for the book so it became It Had to Be You. But as it turns out, there are a ton of books (recent ones as well) with that title, never mind the fact that so many different singers have their own versions of this song so it muddied the reference to Frank. At last I settled on Strangers in the Night because that is all Frank Sinatra and there’s no guessing! Every time I read the title, I hear the song in my head. Plus, the lyrics fit the arc and the flavor of the book a bit better.
• I traveled to Palm Springs to say hello to Frank Sinatra and pay my respects. I did the same for Ava in North Carolina, and I also visited her museum a couple of times.

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

Two of the most talented people to ever pass through Hollywood? That was an easy draw for me. Plus I grew up hearing Frank Sinatra on Sundays at my grandparents’ house while we ate our family meal. And Ava–beyond being a talented actress–was about one of the most gorgeous people to have ever lived.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

I cried writing the end! Every draft of the book I finished, I cried every single time! Ha ha. I can’t share that as it’s a spoiler. 🙂

Readers should read this book….

if they love a book about old Hollywood.
if they like a good, angsty love story.
if they like a fast-paced ride through the past.
if they like lush details that sweep them away.
if they love historical fiction.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

In early 2024, my new release is called Queens of London. It’s about the first all-female crime syndicate in 1925 London, led by Diamond Annie, the most notorious female thief in UK’s history. Other characters include the first woman to be admitted to the Criminal Investigations Department at Scotland Yard, as well as a fictional shopkeeper and an orphan. I can’t wait to share it with readers!
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: One print or e-book copy of Strangers in the Night by Heather Webb

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Do you have a favorite Hollywood couple that you like to follow, either past or present? Do you have a favorite Frank Sinatra song?

 
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Excerpt from Strangers in the Night:

Every important moment of my life could be measured in notes and captured by a song. That was never truer than the first night I saw her across the room, belonging to someone else. As the brass finished and the lights went up, I stepped away from the mic. Cheers and whistles peppered the audience in the smoke-hazed room of the Hollywood Palladium. I mopped
my brow and drank deeply from a water glass, parched after the set.

“Alright, boys, see you in twenty,” Tommy said, bandleader and boss. He laid his trombone on his chair.

The orchestra wiped down their instruments, put them carefully in their cases before seeing about a refreshment or two. I ordered a drink from a cute waitress who batted her eyes at me
and asked for my autograph. I obliged. I was never one to turn
away a fan, never would be.

Whiskey in hand, I skirted the room, saying hello to those I knew and to anyone important, but really wasn’t I the most important person here? They’d all come to hear me sing, after all. I’d taken Tommy Dorsey’s Band to new heights and no one could deny it, not even Tommy, who still acted as if I should be kissing his ring in gratitude for the chance to tour with them. But it was my name the bobby- soxers screamed while waiting in a line that wrapped the building of every club or concert hall—not his.

I spotted Mickey Rooney across the room, Hollywood royalty and MGM’s number one star, and headed toward him. One of these days I hoped to be taken seriously as an actor, too.

“Hiya, Mickey,” I said, extending my hand. “Good to see you.”
“If it isn’t Frank Sinatra.” Mickey shook my hand firmly.
“That was some set. Dorsey’s band is a favorite of mine. You were pretty alright, too.”
I laughed good-naturedly. I liked this guy. “Good to hear man, thanks.”

And then I saw her, perched beside him in a white dress: dark hair, almond-shaped eyes, cleft in her chin. She wasn’t just beautiful–I’d seen plenty of women that fit that description—she was a goddess sculpted of the finest marble. The kind of woman that knocked the air from your lungs.

She also wore a ring on the wrong finger.

I cleared my throat. “Say, you’ve got yourself a real beauty of a wife.” I gestured at her. “If I’d seen her first, I would have married her myself.”
Mickey laughed, put his hand on her back. “Frank, meet
Ava Gardner. She’s one of Mayer’s love goddesses.”

Louis B. Mayer was the head of MGM and an all-around prick, but we put up with him to land a role in his pictures. It didn’t surprise me that he’d snapped up this hot little number.

“I’ll bet she is,” I said, noticing the graceful neck and the ivory swell of her bosom. As she took me in, a sharpness framed her expression. I guessed too many people underestimated her
intelligence—I wouldn’t underestimate her in anything. She was a femme fatale of the highest order. There was no denying that, even at first glance. “Hello, Ava.” I gave her my most irresistible smile.
Her eyes flashed with some imperceptible emotion. “Hello, Mr. Sinatra.” She turned then, giving me her back, and signaled to a waiter to bring her a drink.
I stiffened at the slight but tried again. “It’s going to be a good night, I can tell.”
This time she reached for Mickey’s hand. “It already has been.”

My smile froze on my face. She hated me for some reason, couldn’t care less who I was, and it was clear I should scram. “Fine, fine,” I said, waving my hand as if to get on with things.
“That’s what we like to hear. Well, folks, I hope you enjoy the
show.”

I shook off the odd exchange and stopped to make plans with Lana about where to meet when the show was over. After, I continued through the room, shaking hands with members
of the audience before making my way back to the stage.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

It was the tumultuous romance that scandalized the world: Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner fought, loved, and lived life to the hilt. Now their unbridled story is brought vividly to life by Heather Webb, the bestselling author of Meet Me in Monaco and The Next Ship Home.

In the golden age of Hollywood, two of the brightest stars would define—and defy—an era…

She was the small-town southern beauty transformed into a Hollywood love goddess. He was the legendary crooner whose voice transfixed the world. They were Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra. Separately they were irresistible; together they were an explosive combination.

Ava’s star is rising just as Frank’s career—and public image as a family man—is taking a hit. Gone are the days of the screaming bobbysoxers and chart-topping hits. Ava, however, finds herself gracing the front page of every tabloid in America. Jealousy and cheating abound, and when the two succumb to their temperaments and their vices, their happiness is threatened at every turn.

As the pair ride the rollercoaster of success and failure, passion and anger, they both wonder if the next turn will be the end of their careers, and most devastating of all—the end of all they’ve shared.

A captivating novel with a star-studded cast spanning continents and decades, Strangers in the Night brings to life the most riveting love story of the twentieth century.
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Meet the Author:

Heather Webb is the USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of eight historical novels. In 2015, Rodin’s Lover was a Goodread’s Top Pick, and in 2018, Last Christmas in Paris won the Women’s Fiction Writers Association STAR Award. Meet Me in Monaco, was selected as a finalist for the 2020 Goldsboro RNA award in the UK, as well as the 2019 Digital Book World’s Fiction prize. Heather’s newly released novel of Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner is called Strangers in the Night. To date, Heather’s books have been translated to seventeen languages. She lives in New England with her family, a mischievous kitten, and one feisty rabbit.
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