Please Don't Stop the Music

by Jane Lovering

Jemima Hutton is determined to build a successful new life and keep her past a dark secret. Trouble is, her jewellery business looks set to fail - until enigmatic Ben Davies offers to stock her handmade belt buckles in his guitar shop and things start looking up, on all fronts.

But Ben has secrets too. When Jemima finds out he used to be the front man of hugely successful Indie rock band Willow Down, she wants to know more. Why did he desert the band on their US tour? Why is he now a semi-recluse?

And the curiosity is mutual - which means that her own secret is no longer safe ...

Genres: Romance, Chick Lit, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Fiction, New Adult, Adult

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 31, 2011

About the author

Jane Lovering was born in Devon, England but, following extradition procedures, now lives in Yorkshire. She has five children, four cats, two dogs and doesn't believe in housework so the bacteria and dust are approaching sentience and now rank among the pets. Incidentally, she doesn’t believe in ironing either, and the children all learned self-defensive cookery at early ages. She works in a local school and also teaches creative writing, which are extreme ways of avoiding the washing up.

Published since 2008, she writes romantic comedies which are often described as ‘quirky’. One day she's going to find out what that means. Jane is a member of the Romantic Novelists' Association and has a first class honours degree in creative writing. In 2012, her novel Please Don't Stop the Music won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the RNA.

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow... Just wow! I am almost speechless about how much I loved this book.

I have to admit that I was rather sceptical at first, but since it won the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year award I wanted to give it a go. By the time I was 20 pages in I was 100% hooked!

There is so much abut this book that is simply brilliant - the honest and hilariously funny dialogue, a brilliant cast of characters, and the hints to the secrets were weaved throughout the story like a master.

Oh, the hero's story is so heartbreaking. I guessed pretty early on in the book what might be his secret but it didn't make it any less emotional and I found myself very choked up when it was finally revealed.

The author handles these two characters, and their lives, like a dream. I adored the heroine right from the start.

This has a lot of 'funny' moments, but don't be fooled into thinking it is a light-hearted romantic comedy. It is not. This isn't always an easy book to read, at time it is very dark, but it is certainly a book that will stay with you and leave you with tears and a sigh.

Reading this book is worth it, believe me! I can't recommend it enough.

The only thing I don't like about this book is the cover. The image of the girl on the front looks a bit like an afterthought, kind of out of place, and she seems very young - I thought this was a YA book when I first saw on Amazon! But, lesson learned, never judge a book... etc!

Originally posted at http://everyday-is-the-same.blogspot....

[Stephanie Davies · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not going to lie – I'm not a fan of chic lit. However, I was pleasantly surprised at the beginning of Please Don't Stop the Music. It began as an engaging read with interesting characters. I liked that Ben Davies (how's that for a rock star name...) isn't your usual dreamy hulk of a man, and I was intrigued by the secrets central to the characters of Saskia, Ben and Jemima. But I discovered that the only reason that you can't guess the twists is that they are utterly, inconceivably unbelievable.

The novel started to drag a bit for me about a third of the way in, because Jem is constantly running. Every second page she starts to pack her bags, and it gets tiresome. And then the big reveal: she was in a street gang? Really? Her style of narration just didn't indicate this at all. It reminds me of the film adaptation of Great Expectation in which Pip laughably laments how he “wants to be a gentleman,” in his little toffy-posh accent. She is just not street and it doesn't make sense.

And Ben is deaf, that's his secret. You don't know this for most of the book, probably because it makes no sense either. Absolutely none. And as a literary device it just reeks of privilege – it's patronising and actually works to diminish the experiences of real deaf people. (If you're into romance novels with believable and well-drawn deaf characters, I suggest you read this blog post and read one of the books highlighted there instead.)

But the part about Please Don't Stop the Music which I found most abhorrent was the way in which the event leading to Rosie's conception of Harry was just glossed over. She was literally raped. It doesn't make it okay that he was drunk, that it 'didn't last very long,' or that the rapist 'mistook her for his wife.' Rape.

In closing, Jane Lovering, if you're not going to adequately address the issues which confront the homeless, rape survivors, or the deaf, please stop publishing Please Don't Stop the Music.

[Georgie-who-is-Sarah-Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know the plots you've read 110 times before - the ones you can see coming a mile off? This isn't one of them. It's got "real" people, with proper problems, and an unsettling sense that this time Happy Ever After might just not be on the cards. So when h.e.a. does arrive, it's with a sense of real achievement - and not a little humour. There's also at least one Person You Love To Hate - though perhaps a little more could be made of their involvement (just a leetle farfetched). I've gone back to this book a couple of times, and got more out of it each time. A keeper. Oh, and I've forked out real money for Jane Lovering's other books - they're worth it too.

[Zili · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the winner of the 2012 Romantic Novelists' Association Romantic Novel of the Year Award I was expecting a great read and was not disappointed! I'm a sucker for a swoon worthy bad boy in tight jeans!

Jemima and Ben's story is sweet, sad, funny and at times heartbreaking! The story begins with struggling jewellery designer Jemima having a really bad day. A series of unfortunate events lead her to the withdrawn and also secretive former rock god Ben. Jemima is secretive and beautiful, with bucket loads of wit and the most difficult of pasts.

Please Don't Stop the Music is full of twists and turns which I wont ruin, but I can honestly say that I did not expect Ben's story to take the turn it did. Ben's story was so heartbreaking and well written that I cannot believe I missed Jane's clues and subtle hints as to his secret. Jemima's story was also really sad and unexpected. So many romances are obvious and overdone these days and I loved how unpredictable the plot was.

Jem's friends Jason and Rosie were hilarious and engaging (Jason gets the best lines). Unlike with most romances I cared about the other characters and wanted a HEA for them all. I wasn't convinced by the bitchy Saskia until near the end when her motives are explained!

There were times when I was beyond frustrated with Jemima's constant running or Ben's standoffishness, but altogether a great read!

See my blog for more reviews

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jemima Hutton is a talented jewellery designer with a dark past, but after being dumped by her only buyer, she has no idea how she’s going to carry on making money. Until she walks into Ben Davies’ guitar shop and her offers to carry her belt buckles as long as they sell. Jemima is intrigued by Ben, who shies away from people, and when she learns he was once part of uber-successful band Willow Down, she can’t help but wonder why he quit in the middle of their American tour. But if Jemima wants Ben to open up to her, she’s going to have to open up about her secrets, too. As they tiptoe around each other, could they finally have each met someone they’re able to fully open up to or will it be over before it’s even begun?

When I first heard of Please Don’t Stop The Music I was very intrigued to read the book. I liked the cover, I thought it sounded great and I’d already reviewed and enjoyed a couple of books with the Choc Lit publishing imprint. I was thrilled to receive a copy to review but because I’ve been very so-so about Chick Lit recently, I’ve let it sit on my shelf for a couple of weeks, only browsing the first page before putting it back again. The publication date is finally coming around, though, and I thought it was high time I read the book, and I’m pleased that I did.

As soon as I started the book, I was pulled in right from the off and we’re introduced to Jemima and those who inhabit her world: Saskia, who buys Jemima’s jewellery, Rosie her best friend along with her son Harry and Jason, who Jemima shares a studio with. I was transported instantly into Jemima’s story as she struggles to find someone to show off her belt buckles, until she happens on Ben Davies’ guitar shop, down a York side street. The sparks fly off the two since they first meet and I found their interactions very entertaining as they took the Mickey out of each other constantly. It made for amusing reading, and when I learnt that they both were keeping secrets, I was dying to know what they were and it definitely kept me turning the pages as they both kept almost blurting it all out.

I loved all of the characters. Jemima is a very intriguing character right from the off. I knew she had a secret, as the synopsis says so, and I was desperate to find out what it was. Despite her secrets, I loved Jemima, she’s very sarcastic, and she’s someone I could definitely see myself being friends with. She’s exactly what I look for in a main character and she carried the book with aplomb. At first, I wasn’t completely taken by Ben. He interested me, but the description Jemima gives of him makes him sound very skinny and a bit scruffy, but as Jemima changes her opinion of him, I did too and by the end of it, I loved him. I also really liked Rosie and Jason, Jason in particular were hilarious and they were such good friends to Jemima despite not knowing her as well as they might have liked.

Please Don’t Stop The Music is really well written, and I flew through the pages and the book just seemed to pick up steam the more I got into it. It’s told entirely from Jemima’s point of view with regular diary entries from Ben and I liked that small addition, because it gave us a bit of an insight into Ben’s head. As I’ve mentioned, both characters have big secrets and while I eventually guessed Ben’s, I had no idea of Jemima’s. We’re told a little bit about Jemima during the book, just snippets, so while I was expecting something a bit different to what you normally find in a Chick Lit book, I wasn’t expecting what I got! It was very much a surprise. I absolutely loved reading Please Don’t Stop The Music, I loved the writing style, I adored the characters and I loved the humour within the pages but most of all, I loved the romance. I’m a sucker for a happy ending, and I was rooting for Jemima and Ben throughout, practically from their very first meeting. Jane Lovering is definitely an author on my radar and I really hope she’s working on a new novel. I hugely recommend you pick up this book, it’s really great.

[Susan Gottfried]

I really liked this and even had trouble putting it down with less than fifty pages to go... and then came the big showdown with Saskia and... Hard left turn, man. The last twenty or so pages, maybe not even that many, destroyed a fabulous read.

The first problem was with the Saskia situation. THAT was the reason she destroyed the lives/careers of two women? Seriously? Talk about a woman taking out her anger on two other women when it was the man, her husband, who gets the free pass and was in the wrong -- although he knew it and was trying to do the right thing, albeit badly.

So we've got this normalization of women being shitty to other women. That might have been something we didn't think about much when the book was written, but the cultural climate has changed and we're starting to really pay attention to these things. Protecting the man -- even if he's our spouse -- while we hang other women out to dry is beyond problematic.

There's not even a comeuppance for Saskia. She's caught doing all these shitty things and what happens to her? What are the consequences? Absolutely nothing. She keeps her husband. She's allowed to keep her shop, to keep all the other property and influence she has in town. She doesn't even make anything more than a weak attempt to stop doing what she's been doing, and with her track record? She's not stopping so fast.

Ugh. That was enough to completely ruin a fabulous book.

But then, we have to go one step farther, right? After all, there's still the romance to resolve! And... for someone who says he gets Jem, gets where she's coming from, gets her need to not feel tethered, his brilliant idea is SO FAR off base, he's playing in a different ballpark altogether. "I love you. I care about you. I get you. So here's what I want to do with the rest of our lives and it is the exact opposite of what I say I know you need but I don't care. Let's do it anyway and hey, why are you freaking out? Don't you see how wrong you are to freak out?"

No. Absolutely not. Dump his ass, Jem.

So if you pick this up to read it, just stop early. Stop at the end of Glasglow. Accept that it's all going to be okay, make peace with no resolution to the Saskia situation.

Oh, and if you entirely buy the situation with Ben, let me know. I'm not convinced by it. I think there are too many times when the behavior doesn't match the stated reality. I'd like to hear from others what they think about it, pun intended...

[Nisha-Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's strange. I absolutely adored this book when I began, was snorting out loud at one in the morning because the writing was so shockingly hilarious and the voice so fabulously strong. An unmistakeable voice which is something I highly highly appreciate in any writer but especially one writing here and now. So I loved it, loved it, loved it.

The spelling of Iggy Pop with an 'ie' kinda made me blink. But I did love the musical references. Actually I loved all the pop culture references, totally reinforced why I vastly prefer and thoroughly enjoy UK popular literature as opposed to the US kind where the pop culture references seem boring and hackneyed. And I totally totally related to the weird attraction to our skinny muso. I loved that that emphasis was made, that he wasn't conventionally hot, that he was indeed painfully thin and still attractive. Most of all, I adored both their sarcasm, the way they bit at each other. Nothing hotter and more pleasing than that.

So I was a little puzzled that the eventual reveals didn't actually have as much power as I had thought they would. Maybe that's my own background, that what I could imagine was quite worse than what it was, at least in his case. In her case, yes, the reveal was quite shocking but again the detail was more on the tactful rather than the ruthlessly brutal. The focus really was more on our heroine's psychological scars rather than the detail of the past trauma which, okay, I can appreciate as a writer technique but I don't know, it left me kinda cold as a reader.

The sex scenes definitely had me wincing a bit with some truly horrible phrases, inadvertent I'm sure. Likewise, there was an occasional clunkiness to the sentences that made me wince, like saying "the ex-guitarist" instead of just "him" when we know full well it's our hero being indicated. Mere specks on the relative brilliance of the orb but they did make me wish I could have done a final edit of the MS before it went out.

As a result, the last half of the book left me vaguely detached, a bit impatient and nowhere as engaged as the first half. I'm not sure if that was me or the book but by god, will I be getting every Jane Lovering novel I can lay my hands on because that voice! That's quickly catapulted her into the list of auto-buy writers. *nods*

And yes, again thanks entirely to the Dear Author review.

[Heather Dochylo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread Heaven

This is going to be a weird review: The lovely and talented author Amy J. Heart and I were chatting about our love of Mhari McFarlane books (inspired by the release of her latest Just Last Night) when Amy mistakenly started to describe a plot line about an impaired washed up Rockstar. Down the book-discussion-rabbit-hole we went to figure out which book we were actually talking about. Finally determining it was Jane Lovering's book, Please Don't Stop the Music, we were recalling. I read a sample and recognized the story as something I'd read originally several years ago. None of which has anything to do with this terrific book, but it does lead me to acknowledge that when I have enjoyed a book as much as this one, that hitting 5 stars is not enough of an acknowledgement. Words are needed too to sing its praise, and thus this slightly bizarre review.
Our tale opens with a slim, compelling, jaded guitar-shop-owning hero encountering a funny jewellery-craftsman heroine who is searching for new venues to hock her products while she's babysitting a friend's infant, whose diaper exploding bowel movement sets off a truly eccentric and hilarious meet cute. But don't let the humor fool you, scratch the surfaces of these two and you're in for a world of challenges and emotional scars to overcome before an HEA. Jane has that same knack that Mhari McFarlane does for sketching vivid character development through conversation laced with Brit humor and small town vs city life that is completely addictive. Our romantic leads have dark and twisty pasts that are hinted at through their behaviors which adds a really enticing layer of discovery here and "feels " you won't see coming. If you get off on a hero who never gives up on his pursuit of a love that bowls him over (reflected in an emotional journal his therapist has him keeping) then this is the book for you. Ben is a surprising addition to my list of favorite Rockstar leading men, but one that still reflects the spoiled raunchy character of these romantic heroes while he adds the fragile strength of a recovering addict who has the emotional awareness of a great lyricist. He's just truly lovely, and so is this book!

[❃**✿【Yasmine】✿**❃ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jemima (a jewellery maker) met local artist Jason when she moved to York a year and a half ago, and in turn, moved in with a new friend Rosie (who makes cards). All three share a workshop and Jason and Jemima help with Rosie's little baby boy. Rosie and Jason know that Jem is secretive and isn't interested in romantic relationships, but always question why.

When Saskia, a snotty shop owner who stocks Rosies cards and Jems jewellery, decides to drop Jem as a supplier, Jem trys to convince local York shops to sell her things. Jem meets Ben Davies (an ex-guitarist for a hugely successful Indie rock band called Willow Down) in his music shop. He's quirky and strange, dresses oddly and doesn't like people. Ben stocks some of her belt buckles and hires her to work there part time.

Jem and Ben both have a whole bunch of secrets. Slowly they both try to figure one another out and fight their attraction.

As readers, we are kept in the dark, we don't know why Jem has no-one, or why she has nightmares, we don't know why Ben is a recluse or why he refuses to play guitar, we don't know why Saskia is attempting to ruin Jem or who is Rosie's baby's daddy.

There's plenty of dialogue. 80% of the story is told from Jems POV while the other 20% is filled with Bens diary entries. It's not one of them books that is so simple to read that you're able to skip whole paragraphs. It's British and quirky. It's a nice change to the American contemporary romance's at the moment.

[Susan Scribner · Rating 2 out of 5]

First and last lines of the book are great, but everything in between is a melodramatic mess. I'm a sucker for romances with a music theme but sadly although the hero is a former rock star there are almost no scenes related to music. Just two incredibly wounded people who keep running away from each other - first he's too damaged, then she's too damaged, etc. etc. And considering the heroine is supposed to be a jeweler, wouldn't it be a good idea if the author had learned how to spell "jewelry?"

Edited: Okay, after reading the second British book that uses "jewellery," I realize that it's an American/British spelling difference, not an error. My apologies to the author, but the rating stands.

[Skaistė Girtienė · Rating 4 out of 5]

Senokai beskaičiau romantinį romaną. Pabandžiau šį, jis įvardinamas kaip geriausias 2011 metų romantinis romanas. O tai skamba daug žadančiai. Ir iš tikrųjų, tai ne kokia paprasta ar lėkštoka istorija. Nuo pirmų puslapių vykstantis veiksmas ir veikėjai suintriguoja, romantika ne per saldi ir jos ne per daug, o humoras nuolat šmėkščioja šalia. Ir darosi sunku atsitraukti nuo istorijos, nes vos tik įtampa nuslūgsta ar kokia paslaptis atskleidžiama, tuoj pat atsiranda kažkas kito, ko dar nežinau, ir ką degu noru sužinoti. Puiki knyga.

[Barbara Elsborg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahh - really liked it. It's a study of the sort of damaged characters I love. I think it's a bit like my stories but there's a lot less sex in this! Some great one liners, fascinating characters. I loved the angst, the reveal, the language. A definite keeper for me. It's an ebook and I want the paperback! I don't even want to give the synopsis - you have to read it not knowing anything except for the fact that it's a sweet romance with dark secrets and it ends happily.

[Kristie Scarle · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have no idea what the title has to do with the story. Okay, that's not quite true - but it's a very tenous link.

I also guessed the baby daddy very early on.

It reminded me of the only time I've tried to write a book - when I was 16. Luckily for you I threw the 2 chapters straight in the bin!

[Ross Leckridge · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't know why I bothered finishing this book, as I didn't enjoy it from pretty early on. The story line was totally unbelievable, which had me shaking my head and dismissing several of the key points. It did have a few funny lines, but not enough to make up for the poor story....

[Tina Reber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed it very much. 4.5 for almost making me cry at one or two places.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a chic-lit book, the two main characters have such a screwed up life.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without a doubt, the best impulse buy of the past twelve months.

A positive review and an intriguing blurb led me to hope for a slightly unusual romantic mystery. A few pages into the book I realised that it was far, far more. Behind the smooth, captivating development of the plot and characters lies a firm, confident and very skilled hand.

Ms Lovering pulls off some extraordinary technical feats with such ease and panache that they almost slip by unnoticed. Holding back the revelation of the first-person narrator's dark secret for so long without irritating or annoying the reader was masterly, as was adding a second POV in the form of brief diary entries -- just short enough to provide a foil to the main narrative without distracting from it. And to juggle with so many traumatised personalities while keeping the dialogue completely natural -- the humour is spot-on and totally unforced, not the canned-laughter quips that infest so many recent novels.

In attempting to describe my reaction to this book, the word 'real' keeps intruding. Most books in this genre require some suspension of disbelief, some acceptance of stereotyped characters and situations. This book was different. The people and the places were utterly convincing.

I was tempted to award this book 4 stars, if for no other reason than there must have been something lacking, somewhere. But after a few minutes' reflection, I realised that the book stands complete, all loose ends tied off, all beautifully balanced. Five stars it is.

[Emmie Dark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book on the strength of a really positive review on Dear Author and because I was looking for some smart, humorous single title romance to read.

When it arrived in the mail the day before yesterday, I read the first two pages and thought, Uh Oh. This book did not grab me. Also it's in first person, which I have a personal aversion to.

I had already gone and bought the book though, so I perservered. And so glad I did. Once the book hit its stride (and for me, that wasn't until well into Chapter 2) it was a brilliant ride - funny, sweet, romantic and emotional. I read it until I finished it.

Jem is a believable, broken heroine. Ben is a flawed and sexy hero. His story is especially affecting -- and I won't give it away, although I did guess it quite early on, and I think most people would.

The sub-plot -- almost a mystery -- was well done, although the denoument wasn't quite as spectacular as I might have wanted, but that's probably more because I wanted the nasty Saskia to get more punishment than she did in the end.

Definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a nice, angsty bit of romance.

One thing -- it has nothing to do with the writing of this book, and I guess it's really nit-picky -- I didn't like the way the pages were laid out. The left and right margins were too wide, while the top and bottom ones were too short. It meant the text is right up close to the top of the page, but a couple of centimetres in from the edge. I don't know why I found this annoying, but it bugged me from the first page to the last.

[Carol W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meet Jemima Hutton - Self employed belt buckle designer who lodges with her friend Rosie and Rosie's young baby Harry.
Whilst searching the streets of York for stockists for her belt buckles Jemima meets Ben Davies - One time Indie Rock Star who now hides in his little out of the way guitar shop.


Add Jason, the resident artist, Saskia, business owner (what is her hold over Jem and Rosie?) and hubby Alex and you have a mix of lovable characters all with their own secrets. Some deeper than others.


Ben and Jemima build up a friendship but are they really who they appear to be?
Both want to get closer and delve deeper into each other's past but that would mean sharing their secret. Dare they open up?


I enjoyed the way each character's story unfolded around a series of events that forced the characters to confront their pasts and, eventually, reveal their secrets.


This Rom-com is a real page-turner littered with funny one-liners. The clues are there, but not too obvious, making it a gripping read.


I didn't want to put it down...but the children had to be fed!


Look forward to more from this author.

* I received a copy of the novel from the Publisher for review.


5/5 for me!

[Kaza · Rating 3 out of 5]

Please Don't Stop The Music was a good, well written read.

There was one issue I had with it though. Be warned that this is a big spoiler!

When Ben said that there wasn't anything that could be done to help his hearing I was seriously annoyed. I'm not an Audiologist, I'm a Speech Pathologist otherwise known as a speech language therapist but I know a fair bit about audiology since we had a fair bit of it taught to us at university. So anyway, one thing I know without a doubt is that there is a way to completely bypass the middle ear and transmit sound directly to the cochlear. Audiologists use it for assessment purposes to find out if a hearing loss problem is situated within the middle ear or otherwise. Its a simple method of putting the sound vibrations on the bone of skull just behind the ear. Therefore, I seriously doubt that if the hearing loss was only about the middle ear, that his hearing couldn't be enabled through this type of aid.

This lack of research annoyed me since it was an integral part to the whole plot. If your going to make it a pivotal plot complication, make sure you know what your talking about!

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary: The owner of the shop that sells Jemima Hutton’s handcrafted jewelry suddenly decides to drop her. Jemima trudges through the streets of York to find another store that will sell her stuff. She doesn’t have any luck until she finds the out-of-the-way music store of Ben Davies. Even though he doesn’t think his type of customers will be interested, he agrees to try to sell the music-themed belt buckle she has with her. If he succeeds, he will consider stocking her other pieces.

Ben is a mysterious figure with a shop that has few customers. Jemima is surprised to find out that he was a in a very popular Indy band, which he left in the middle of an U.S. tour. No one seems to

read the rest of the review at Love Romance Passion

[Fref · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a freebie from iTunes, and a pleasant read, a well crafted romance. Jemima was intelligent, interesting and a good friend, with a lot going on in her life. Ben is a washed-up rock star, attractive but apparently neurotic. The romance between them is organic and believable, growing slowly while Jemima tries to sort out her small business, help her friend and flatmate with her mothering woes and keep on top of the rest of her life. Of course there are more melodramatic plot twists and turns, but the base of the story is solid characterisation.

The only quibble I have is that the characters all seemed older than they were supposed to be, reading as middle-aged rather than people in their 20s, Ben especially. I kept on seeing him as on old rocker from a great 70's or 80's supergroup.The small village setting and the Saskia subplot added to that impression.

[Hazel · Rating 2 out of 5]

So this one has been on my kindle since *checks amazon* 2013 and thankfully it was free.

It's not a bad book but it was all round a bit meh. It felt like it took forever to get to the "Ben used to be on a rock band" part that was mentioned in the blurb, Jemima is a boring character who has a truly unbelievable back story and I know Saskia was meant to be unlikable but she was like an evil villain!

Ben was actually sort of sweet and had the most believable story out of the lot. I felt a bit lost about what he looked like though as none of Jemimas descriptions were particularly flattering but then she also seemed to find him ridiculously hot....

A good bit of editing would have gone a long way with this book to make it a little smoother and more believable.

[Rob Jinkerson · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, I was at a loss for what to read and pulled this one off the shelf. I figured it would be a bit of a romance type but was drawn in by all the stuff about mystery in the blurb.

Overall, I liked it. The plot line was good with secrets gradually revealed throughout the book (although Ben's secret is presented in such a way that we are supposed to think 'of course!' but actually its not entirely plausible, I don't think). I guess the sense of mystery counters the romance a bit, turning it into a neutral(ish) book. I suppose the mystery bit made it readable for me!

A quick read- its worth a go.

[Lyndaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I good romance story about a famous rockstar who suddenly, inexplicably quits the band and disappears into oblivion and a woman running away from her past. One day she calls into a guitar shop in York to see if they will sell her jewellery designs and meets the skinny, scruffy shop owner. I read this in 1 day and really enjoyed it.

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slightly melodramatic bit of romantic nonsense which served the purpose...I kept reading to the end, not necessarily because it was an excellent read but it was an excellent distraction and I liked the main character.

[Jasmine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent read. I cannot find any more words to articulate how much I thoroughly enjoyed this story - of love, fear and secret past.

[Natalie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gave up after a few chapters. Point made.

[Simona Ithil · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 stars

[Socrate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Când dracu’ îţi mănâncă şi ultimul biscuit cu cereale, atunci ştii că ai în faţă o zi grea.
Ei bine, de fapt era Saskia, nu Împieliţatul, şi orice tendinţă spre copite era bine ascunsă în
sandalele cu barete şi tocuri foarte înalte marca Manolo Blahnik, dar dincolo de asta,
asemănarea era remarcabilă, până la ochii uşor injectaţi şi aerul de superioritate imorală.
– Mă tem că am veşti proaste, Jemima. Adică, sigur, proaste pentru tine, nu pentru mine!
A râs cristalin, de-mi venea s-o lovesc cu o cărămidă.
– Am decis să-mi găsesc furnizori în altă parte.
Buzele ei subţiri şi strânse au mai ciugulit câteva firimituri, ronţăind încet biscuitul de jur
împrejur, până când aproape mi-a venit să ţip: „Dar mănâncă-l o dată!”, numai că n-am
îndrăznit.
– Iartă-mă, ce spuneai?
– Bijuteriile tale sunt foarte... sunt superbe, fără îndoială, foarte complicate ca design, dar
să ştiică sunt şi foarte scumpe.
Dura săptămâni întregi să fac un astfel de obiect. De aceea acceptase Saskia să le primească
în magazinul ei, pentru că erau prohibitive ca preţ.
– Am discutat cu vreo două persoane din Statele Unite, care confecţionează obiecte foarte
asemănătoare şi mi le pot furniza cam la jumătate preţ faţă de tine.
Jumătate? Ce materiale folosesc, aş fi vrut s-o întreb: plastic şi aracet? Deja ajunsesem cu
finanţele la limită, fiindcă închiriasem o cameră în căsuţa lui Rosie şi-mi făcusem atelier în
hambarul lui Jason.