Blog-Tour: I'm Keeping You by Jane Lark

My turn today on the Blog-Tour of I'm Keeping You by Jane Lark. A provocative mixture of romance and mental health issues.

About the Author
Jane is a writer of authentic, passionate and emotional Historical and New Adult romance and author of a No.1 bestselling Historical Novel,'The Illicit Love of a Courtesan', as well as a Kindle overall top 25, bestselling author in the United States of America.

She began her first historical novel at sixteen, but a life full of adversity derailed her as she lives with the restrictions of Ankylosing Spondylitis.

When she finally completed a novel it was because she was determined not to reach forty still saying, I want to write.

Now Jane is writing a Regency series as well as contemporary, new adult, stories and she is thrilled to be giving her characters life in others' imaginations at last.

You might think that Jane was inspired to write by Jane Austen, especially as she lives near Bath in the United Kingdom, but you would be wrong. Jane's favourite author is Anya Seton, and the book which drew her into the bliss of falling into historical imagination was 'Katherine' a story crafted from reality.

Jane has drawn on this inspiration to discover other real-life love stories, reading memoirs and letters to capture elements of the past, and she uses these to create more realistic plots.

'Basically I love history and I am sucker for a love story. I love the feeling of falling in love; it's wonderful being able to do it time and time again in fiction.'

Jane is also a Chartered Member of the Institute of Personnel and Development in the United Kingdom, and uses this specialist understanding of people to bring her characters to life.

Below Jane talks about the use of music in her books and the New Adult genre.

Stories, music and my New Adults?

I love committing a cardinal author’s sin, putting current music in books. We really aren’t meant to. It sets the book in a time slot and makes it harder to sell later. So what, I say. I like to be a rebel and music goes so well with the New Adult genre. Maybe that is part of why I like the genre as I also love current music. So you’ll discover it sometimes glaringly obvious in the books of the Starting Out Series, but in other ways a little hidden, like in ringtones, (she coughs, Just You) and then the occasional book will have an album soundtrack (she coughs again, Free Me). I’ll let you discover and work out what’s what in the books. But the thing about music is that it is frequently written by young people in the midst of their New Adult years and so the angst and emotion this generation churns through pours into the songs they create and the songs then become such a brilliant inspiration.

Two of my current loves as far music goes are The Weekend, his songs did not appear in I’m Keeping You and yet the emotion behind his song In the night was a strong focus, there is a real darkness inside Rachel when she looks back at her past in I’m Keeping You and this song seemed to represent that, and the emotion within the song helped me focus on the character. It is generally the songs the I’ve gathered emotion and ideas from that end up in the books though.

So look out for this other current musical love of mine, ideas are already forming from this one, DNCE, Cake by the ocean, I think it’s the licking frosting from her fingers that has generated ideas ;) Although basically there’s a whole story in there…

Connect with Jane at janelark.co.uk, Facebook, Goodreads or follow @JaneLnabooks and @HarperImpulse

About the Book

The sequel to the US bestselling NA romance, I Found You.

The sun was warm on my hair and face. The river looked cool and inviting. I felt superhuman. I was the best mom in the world…

I’ve faced many demons in my life, but my bipolar brain is the enemy inside me. Even my fairytale knight in shining armour, my husband, Jason, cannot always be there to save me from myself – and since the day I walked into a river with our precious baby son, Saint, our relationship has changed, no matter what he tells me.

Now we risk losing our innocent boy again, but this time to his biological father, my sleazy ex, Declan. So I'm going to New York to fight for my family, but I'm scared because I have to fight myself too. I ran away from my life in New York it feels like going back could ruin everything but if I don't go we might lose Saint. I can't lose Saint…or Jason…

Review

Rachel faces an inner battle every day, actually make that two battles. Being bipolar is like riding an emotional roller-coaster. Ups and downs, from manic episodes to deep dark pits of depression.

The other daily fight is choosing between being medicated and feeling like a walking zombie, and not taking the meds and feeling like her normal self.

Her euphoric self nearly kills her son, which triggers concerns about her capabilities as a mother. Her ex raises his ugly egotistical head and threatens the happy family life Rachel has with Jason.

As is often the case Declan the ex is more interested in revenge rather than the welfare of the child.

Jason is an interesting character, he has this strange kind of co-dependant relationship with Rachel. He likes the zany, the crazy and the impetuous side of Rachel, aka her manic episodes. On one hand he wants her on the medication, and on the other he really misses the other non-medicated Rachel. This has got to send out mixed signals to the poor woman.

I'm Keeping You is the fourth in the Starting Out series. It is a mixture of romance, steamy bedroom antics and mental health issues.

Buy I'm Keeping You at Amazon UK or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

To follow the Blog-Tour and read what my fellow bloggers have to say about I'm Keeping You:
Cosmochicklitan
Harper Impulse
Ali the Dragon Slayer
Jane Hunt Writer
Charlotte McFall