Fame Games- The Escape by Ali Stetson

Lahnna Kris is a world famous pop star but with her 30th birthday fast approaching and, as she stands on the brink of a year off, it’s time for her to re-think her life plan. Back home in England, surrounded by her family, she begins to re-acquaint herself with old friends and their ‘real life’ problems and realises that she too needs to start laying down some roots. The problem that Lahnna faces is, ‘how do you quit a job, when you are your job’?

Having seen many celebrities attempt the retreat from fame only to end up drawing more attention to themselves, Lahnna concocts a plan that will not only see her stepping out of the spotlight but see Stacey, her body double, stepping firmly into it.

SKU: B00EJ72UUI Category: Romance Tags: Ali Stetson, chick-lit, fiction, humour

Description
Reviews (0)

Find more from this author on:

About the author:

“I like ‘easy-reads’ and light hearted novels where you can escape to another place and forget about the everyday pressures that sometimes become overwhelming. I escape into my own world when I’m writing and it’s exciting to share that world with others.”

What inspired you to write your book?

The idea of celebrity fascinates me. I have spent a little time in this industry working as a PA and it always amazed me how manipulated celebrities lives are. They seem to have the freedom to do whatever they want but from what i could see the more well-known they were around the world, the smaller their own world became. Friendship circles had to be very tight, going out had to be planned to the minute and finding love and spontaneity in this environment is almost impossible. I often wondered how i might handle that situation which is what led me to write this book as my way of exploring what i might do if it were me.

Here is a short sample from the book:

Partly because the Lynn and Lacey thought it would be good to let off some steam and partly because Lahnna had a fat lip and her manager thought that would look good for her “going off the rails” image, the girls were dressed up to the nines and out on the town. Well, out in Derby, so not a very big town but bars were bars at this stage. The last 30 odd hours had allowed the dust to settle just enough for the girls to be prepared to see past their differences and for Lahnna’s lip to get really big and swollen. Peter had made sure that the paparazzi had been informed of their whereabouts and Stacey was in full disguise. It was a great wig and glasses and always worked when she was with Lahnna as no-one was expecting to see a second Lahnna in the party. Lahnna was dressed as her stereotypical pop star self and stood out from the group, ensuring that the photos were good for the papers whilst Stacey remained in the shadows, for one of the last times.
They knew that the paps wouldn’t be arriving until around 11.00pm when they were suitably drunk so they had a few hours to kill before they were on show. It was in the first bar that Lahnna saw him. He caught her eye immediately and she did her best to hold his gaze.
“Who are you staring at?” Lacey noticed her friend was distracted,
“No-one”.
It was in the second bar that Lahnna engineered an accidental bumping into him as soon as she clocked him by the door,
“Oh sorry, it’s these heels, not used to wearing them so high,” Lahnna lied. She had danced around the stage in far higher heels where the moves were slightly more challenging than one foot in front of the other.
“It’s alright, always here if you need me,” as he smiled Lahnna was sure she saw his teeth ping! His dark hair was short and his blue eyes stood out against the dim lighting in the bar.
After about 20 minutes of snatched glances and over enthusiastic laughter on Lahnna’s behalf, he eventually came over and introduced himself, bringing with him a bottle of wine and his friend.
“So Jay, what do you do?” Lynn knew that Lahnna was after him but pushed herself forward to ask the questions, so that Lahnna could act a little more subtle with a hint of indifference.
“I’m a landscape gardener,”
“That explains the tan”. He was tanned too, very tanned, even though in typical British fashion there had been little sun this summer. The usual questions were asked in return and when Jay turned to Lahnna to ask her occupation she panicked. Thus far she had gone unrecognised, mainly because people didn’t expect to see a huge celebrity just drinking in Derby.
“I’m a… well”.
Stacey chipped in “She’s a Lahnna Kris impersonator”.
“Yea you do look like her,” Jay elbowed his mate, “We were saying at the bar how much you looked like her”.
“Talking about her at the bar were you?” Stacey tried to change the subject but it was a subject Jay clearly wasn’t comfortable with and he flipped it straight back.
“I couldn’t be doing with all that celebrity crap. They’re all up their own arses anyway. It’s all diets and money with that lot. Such a shallow existence!”
The girls fell silent but Jay and his friend didn’t seem to notice. They carried on drinking and chatting for a while, avoiding the subject of work and backgrounds. Lahnna was less coy now she knew she had no chance with the beautiful gardener and began to just be herself a little although not too much as she was, of course, only an impersonator of herself! This was already confusing! The conversation ran freely and there were only a few lies on the girls side. Most significantly; the fat lip story (walked into a door) and Lahnna’s real name which they said was Betty, (Lacey’s fault thanks to their jam making session) but they managed to get around that one saying everyone called her Lahnna as a joke because of her job and the lads believed it easily. After all, why would they lie? Time passed quickly and they began to become aware that they needed to be drunk and in a different bar by the time the instructed photographers arrived so they began to try and get away,
“We should really be heading home,” Amy executed a huge fake yawn and gestured to the others.
“We should too. Actually, we have a 6am start”.
With relief they all stood up to say their goodbyes and walked out of the bar together. Jay managed to corner Lahnna,
“There’s no subtle way to say this but I was wondering if I could get your number and maybe I could take you out for a drink sometime”.
“Why don’t you give me your number and we’ll see”. Lahnna wasn’t going to give her number out but she thought she had blown it with this guy and he really was gorgeous so she didn’t want to waste the opportunity.