JANE LARK - DON'T JUDGE A BOOK BY IT'S COVER

The moral of The Starting Out Series – Don’t judge a book by its cover- I know it’s cliché but…

I don’t want to write a book that you’ll whizz through and get to the end of and throw aside and say, well that was good, maybe amusing, certainly a pleasant way to spend a day or two absorbed in. Nope, I want you to travel a road through my books on a journey with my characters that will take you up and down, and make you want to sigh, wring their necks sometimes maybe, and cry or laugh occasionally, at the end of the book I want people to set it down and feel wow that was a hell of a ride, a ride you won’t find it easy to forget, and the reviews and messages I get from readers often tell me that my aim works for many people.

So when you begin one of my New Adult books you’ll probably meet my characters and make a judgement, then I’ll spend the rest of the book making you challenge it. In I Found You Rachel is a promiscuous woman, so some readers might have cause to dislike her initially, but when you discover she has Bipolar you begin to understand why she is the way she is, why some days she is down and crying for no apparent reason and sometimes she’s up and full of fun, and why she makes some really bad judgements. My favourite review for that book was a 5* from a reader who said they have Bipolar, which was great because it told me I had Rachel’s character right.

The particular moral of Rachel’s character, though, is to help people see that someone with bipolar can lead a relatively normal life, they aren’t excluded from society, and people around us will suffer with it and we don’t even know unless we’re close to them.

Excerpt

I didn’t say anything. It would cause more trouble. I went into the bathroom and stripped off in there. I let the shower run over my head, and then I cried so my tears merged with the water. Even if she came in she’d never know. Yes, I did love her and Saint, but I wasn’t sure loving her was enough forever.

I’d told myself I could live on a fault line, but how the fuck did I know? I wasn’t coping now. I wasn’t coping.

We were both quiet when we dressed to go out.

When she went into the bathroom to put her make-up on I had a look at the packet of meds. None were missing.

Shit.

I wanted her to make the choice. I didn’t want to police her.

My hands were in the pockets of my leather jacket when we walked along the hall to the elevators. Rach gripped my arm. I wasn’t silent to be mean, I just had too much spinning in my head.

When we got down to Joe’s, Justin and Portia were there already, sitting at the bar, waiting for us.

“Hey,” I said weakly. I’m sure Rach and I had carried an atmosphere into the room. If Justin and Portia didn’t feel it then Joe must’ve. He’d known us last year, when I’d come down here to eat just to have a few moments of her company, and to see her smile at me, rather than stay home alone. Those had been the days when I’d been pretending to myself that I could keep Rach in the friend zone. I’d been kidding myself on that score, she and I had had something going from the first moment she’d looked me in the eyes, her gaze suddenly telling me she’d realized she should be wondering who I was and if I was safe.

“It didn’t go so well, I take it.” Justin put a hand on my shoulder briefly, in a gesture saying, hi, and expressing empathy. Rach was clinging to my other arm.

“Nope.”

Buy link: http://amzn.to/1pKaunM

Author Bio

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.