Fiona Harper - The Doris Day Vintage Film Club - A hilarious, feel-good romantic comedy

As a child, FIONA HARPERwas constantly teased for two things: having her nose in a book and living in a dream world. Things haven’t changed much since then, but at least she’s found a career that puts her runaway imagination to use!

Fiona loves dancing, so clear the floor if you’re ever at a party with her, and her current creative craze (one of a long list!) is jewellery making. She loves good books, good films and good food, especially anything cinnamon-flavoured, and she can always find room in her diet for chocolate or champagne!

Fiona loves to hear from readers and you can contact her through fiona@fionaharper.comor find her on her Facebook page (Fiona Harper Romance Author) or tweet her! ( @FiHarperAuthor)

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Cover

About the Author As a child, FIONA HARPER was constantly teased for two things: having her nose in a book and living in a dream world. Things haven’t changed much since then, but at least she’s found a career that puts her runaway imagination to use! Fiona loves dancing, so clear the floor if you’re ever at a party with her, and her current creative craze (one of a long list!) is jewellery making. She loves good books, good films and good food, especially anything cinnamon-flavoured, and she can always find room in her diet for chocolate or champagne! Fiona loves to hear from readers and you can contact her through fiona@fionaharper.com or find her on her Facebook page (Fiona Harper Romance Author) or tweet her! ( @FiHarperAuthor )

Title Page www.millsandboon.co.uk

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I’d like to thank everyone at Mills & Boon, especially Anna Baggaley, my very patient editor, and the lovely Victoria Oundjian, especially as it took quite some time to help this author see the wood of this book through the trees of her wayward imagination. I also want to say a huge thank you to all of M&B’s marketing and promotion team, for their enthusiasm and hard work from day one. Big thanks to my amazing agent Lizzy Kremer and also to Harriet Moore at David Higham Associates, for her calm encouragement in the midst of a deadline panic and her insightful suggestions. My family definitely deserve my gratitude, especially my husband, Andy, who patiently listens to me warble on about difficult plot matters so I can get things straight in my head, even though he hardly ever knows who these people I’m talking about are, and to my lovely daughters, Sian and Rose, who cheer me on all the way, and who didn’t moan (much) when I hogged the TV for months, watching every film of Doris’s I could get my hands on. Thanks to all my Facebook friends who helped me with football-related stuff. Sorry, those scenes ended up on the cutting room floor, but at least you have educated this football dunce a little. Lastly, and most importantly, I want to thank Doris Day, for her captivating and charismatic performances that have charmed generations and continue to bring us joy and happiness, but also for her strength of character and resilience. The true story of the woman behind the Hollywood icon was the inspiration for this book.

Chapter One: Nobody’s Sweetheart

Chapter Two: Just One Girl

Chapter Three: Never Look Back

Chapter Four: I Can Do Without You

Chapter Five: Anything You Can Do

Chapter Six: Ain’t We Got Fun?

Chapter Seven: There’s Good Blues Tonight

Chapter Eight: Teacher’s Pet

Chapter Nine: By the Light of the Silvery Moon

Chapter Ten: Ready, Willing and Able

Chapter Eleven: Send Me No Flowers

Chapter Twelve: I’ll See You In My Dreams

Chapter Thirteen: A Wonderful Guy

Chapter Fourteen: That Touch of Mink

Chapter Fifteen: Three at a Table for Two

Chapter Sixteen: There Once Was a Man

Chapter Seventeen: Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered

Chapter Eighteen: A Woman’s Touch

Chapter Nineteen: You’re Getting to Be a Habit With Me

Chapter Twenty: Everybody Loves a Lover

Chapter Twenty-One: Let’s Take an Old-Fashioned Walk

Chapter Twenty-Two: I’m Beginning to See the Light

Chapter Twenty-Three: Young At Heart

Chapter Twenty-Four: I Got It Bad (and That Ain’t Good)

Chapter Twenty-Five: Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps

Chapter Twenty-Six: Julie

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Cuddle Up a Little Closer

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Won’t You Dance With Me, Papa?

Chapter Twenty-Nine: What Does A Woman Do?

Chapter Thirty: Between Friends

Chapter Thirty-One: The Party’s Over

Chapter Thirty-Two: It’s Better to Conceal Than Reveal

Chapter Thirty-Three: I Love the Way You Say Goodnight

Chapter Thirty-Four: The Thrill of It All

Chapter Thirty-Five: The Man Who Knew Too Much

Chapter Thirty-Six: I’m Not At All In Love

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Love Me or Leave Me

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Quiet Night of Quiet Stars

Chapter Thirty-Nine: You Should Have Told Me

Chapter Forty: Do Not Disturb

Chapter Forty-One: I Didn’t Slip, I Wasn’t Pushed, I Fell

Chapter Forty-Two: I’ve Only Myself to Blame

Chapter Forty-Three: Foolishly Yours

Chapter Forty-Four: My Kinda Love

Chapter Forty-Five: The Game of Broken Hearts

Chapter Forty-Six: (Now and Then There’s) A Fool Such As I

Chapter Forty-Seven: Softly, As I Leave You

Chapter Forty-Eight: It’s Magic

Chapter Forty-Nine: Sentimental Journey

Chapter Fifty: I Don’t Want to Be Kissed By Anyone But You

Chapter Fifty-One: Hooray for Hollywood

Chapter Fifty-Two: He’ll Have to Cross the Atlantic

Chapter Fifty-Three: Que Sera, Sera

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Copyright

I’d like to thank everyone at Mills & Boon, especially Anna Baggaley, my very patient editor, and the lovely Victoria Oundjian, especially as it took quite some time to help this author see the wood of this book through the trees of her wayward imagination. I also want to say a huge thank you to all of M&B’s marketing and promotion team, for their enthusiasm and hard work from day one.

Big thanks to my amazing agent Lizzy Kremer and also to Harriet Moore at David Higham Associates, for her calm encouragement in the midst of a deadline panic and her insightful suggestions.

My family definitely deserve my gratitude, especially my husband, Andy, who patiently listens to me warble on about difficult plot matters so I can get things straight in my head, even though he hardly ever knows who these people I’m talking about are, and to my lovely daughters, Sian and Rose, who cheer me on all the way, and who didn’t moan (much) when I hogged the TV for months, watching every film of Doris’s I could get my hands on.

Thanks to all my Facebook friends who helped me with football-related stuff. Sorry, those scenes ended up on the cutting room floor, but at least you have educated this football dunce a little.

Lastly, and most importantly, I want to thank Doris Day, for her captivating and charismatic performances that have charmed generations and continue to bring us joy and happiness, but also for her strength of character and resilience. The true story of the woman behind the Hollywood icon was the inspiration for this book.

When Claire Bixby was nine, she decided that one day she’d like to live in Hollywood, because she wanted to be in movies. Not that she wanted to be an actress. Far from it. No, Claire wanted to actually be in the movies, to live there, a place where the sun always shone, everything was Technicolor bright and families lived happily ever after together. There would be no more shouting, no more crying. No hearing the front door slam, one parent leaving never to return – even if she’d discovered she could breathe out more easily after he’d left.