It’s Now or Never…In the summer of 1960,
eighteen-year-old Rose Featherstone took a trip to Memphis that changed her
life. Now, Rose confesses to her granddaughter, Daisy, that she returned home
with more than just memories all those years ago – she was carrying Elvis
Presley’s child!
Daisy is sure the claim can’t be true, and yet,
what if it is? When her grandmother passes away soon after her startling
revelation and leaves Daisy with a ticket to Memphis, Tennessee, Daisy decides
it’s time to discover the truth. She’s always struggled to fit in but this trip
might just show her the benefits of being born to stand out and is a moody
motorcycle cop called Blue the answer to all her dreams?
Her adventures in Memphis take her behind the
famous music gates of Graceland. Pack your Blue Suede Shoes for a rockin’
rom-com.
Book Extract, from Chapter 1
A flash of fluorescent yellow made them both gasp as the shop door to Blue Moon Vintage was opened just then by a female police officer wearing a hi-vis vest.
‘Does
this belong to you?’ she asked as she led a dishevelled Nana Rose into the
shop.
The
policewoman appeared weary and only stopped long enough to confirm that Rose did belong to Lilian and Daisy before
she disappeared back to more serious police matters. Her powers of deduction
had been severely tested as Rose had refused to volunteer any information when
she’d been spotted stealing someone’s coffee from a table outside Costa. It was
only when the old woman insisted on repeatedly singing the song ‘Blue Moon’
that the enterprising officer remembered the name of the shop around the corner
and reached a logical conclusion. Promotion to CID was surely just a matter of
time.
Once
the policewoman had gone, Rose stood smiling sweetly at her daughter and
granddaughter as if butter wouldn’t melt. Lilian chose that moment to ask the
least important question.
‘Why
were you stealing someone’s coffee? You don’t even like coffee?’
Rose
shrugged. ‘Yes, as the saying goes, I’m a cup of tea in a world of skinny
lattes.’
Lilian
goggled at the lucidity of the old lady’s response and simply turned and headed
to carry out the one activity guaranteed to bring a semblance of normality to
any given situation. She put the kettle on.
Daisy
guided Rose into the changing cubicle, sat her on a high-backed chair and looked
for something more suitable for her to wear.
‘Here,
Nana, try this.’
She
handed her a pale-blue twinset in soft cashmere and Rose stroked the fluffy
fabric with her cold hands.
‘Oooo,
lovely.’
‘What
were you up to, Nana? You know you really can’t wander around the town like
this. You’re not properly dressed or anything?’
Daisy
tried to keep her tone light, but her voice caught in her throat as she watched
Rose pluck at the pearl buttons on the cardigan. Seeing her nana like this was
excruciating, there was no denying something was very, very wrong. Rose was
looking at her with such a strange expression on her face, as though she was
trying really hard to remember something. The old lady opened her mouth to
speak but then closed it again and shook her head as though whatever it was had
disappeared from her mind, again.
Daisy’s
attention was suddenly caught by the sight of what looked like a massive wound
on Rose’s bare upper arm.
‘Oh,
Nana, what have you done?’
Rose
followed Daisy’s gaze and then bizarrely started to chuckle. She looked up with
a fresh light in her eyes as though she now knew exactly what she wanted to
say. She put a finger to her lips.
‘Shhhh,’
she said, her eyes darting towards the back room where Lilian was still making
tea. ‘Promise me you won’t tell your mother?’
Daisy
made no such promise but Rose carried on anyway.
‘I’ve
kept this a secret for years. I don’t know how I’ve done it but once you keep a
secret for so long…’
She
tailed off as she turned her body and stuck out her arm so that Daisy could get
a better look. There on the freckled skin at the top of Nana Rose’s wrinkled
skinny arm was the last thing Daisy expected to see, a rather faded but still-beautiful
tattoo of a blood-red rose.
Daisy
stood in open-mouthed shock as she stared at the tattoo on her grandmother’s
arm. She barely noticed Lilian pull back the velvet curtain of the changing
cubicle and take in the scene with one cursory glance.
‘Oh
for heaven’s sake, cover that up!’
Daisy
whipped her head towards her mother, ‘You knew
about this? You knew she had a… tattoo?’
‘Of
course I knew, but I made her promise not to show it to you in case it gave you
any more silly ideas.’ Lilian put down the mug of tea and deftly pulled the
blue cardigan sleeve over her mother’s skinny shoulder. Her careful actions
were in marked contrast to the coldness in her tone.
Nana
Rose reached out and patted Lilian’s hand. ‘There’s something you don’t know though, my girl.’
Lilian
remained brusque, but the concern in her voice for her mother was beginning to
break through. ‘I expect there are many
things I don’t know, but let’s see about getting you home, shall we? I think we
ought to call the doctor.’
‘NO!’
Lilian
and Daisy were taken aback as Rose raised her voice, her whole body now
clenched and taut.
‘I
have to tell you… before… too late.’
‘What
is it, Nana? You’ve not had your belly button pierced as well, have you?’
If
in doubt, make a joke. It was Daisy’s default setting, but Lilian shot her a
look that said, ‘Not now’. Rose took no notice of Daisy’s lame attempt at
comedy anyway.
‘It’s…
your father…’
Now
it was Lilian’s turn to look confused.
‘My…
what?’
Daisy
could not imagine where this was going. Her mother didn’t have a father, she
didn’t have a grandfather. Rose had been a single mother in the Sixties and no
one had ever wanted to talk very much about all that.
‘His
name…’ Rose left a dramatic pause that Lilian found completely maddening.
‘You
have never told me my father’s name… never once in my whole life…’
Daisy
flapped her hand towards her agitated mother. ‘Let her finish.’
Rose
looked steadily at them both; she suddenly seemed composed.
‘His name…’ She took a steadying breath in and out before continuing. ‘… was Elvis Presley.’
Real rock wife Suzan, wife of former Slade frontman Noddy Holder,
has written another ‘rock n’ roll rom-com’ to follow her Beatles themed debut
‘Shake It Up, Beverley’.
Journalist and TV producer Suzan once again weaves her love for
music into a hilarious and heart-warming story that is uplifting and
laugh-out-loud funny.
Suzan says: “I love that my books celebrate music and have been
inspired by my own life experience of living in a slightly crazy, rock ‘n’
roll, rom-com world…some of the weirdest and funniest stories in the books
really have happened to me!”
Suzan Holder trained as a newspaper journalist and worked on regional
and national newspapers before moving into TV. She produced a variety of
television news and lifestyle programmes and was executive producer of ITV’s
daytime network show ‘Loose Women’. She is a monthly columnist for Cheshire
Life Magazine and appears regularly on radio.
Suzan has one son, two step-daughters and two step grand-children.
Originally from the West Midlands Suzan now lives with Noddy Holder in
Cheshire, they have been together for 32 years.
Social
Media Links
.Facebook
– https://www.facebook.com/HolderSuzan
Twitter https://twitter.com/HolderSuzan
insta – https://www.instagram.com/SuzHolder15/
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