Review - Please Don't Stop The Music by Jane Lovering

Please Don’t Stop The Music by Jane Lovering is a thoroughly enjoyable read which I knew I was going to enjoy when the word “willy” cropped up on Page 4! 

Jem is a loner, a spiky, sarcastic twenty something girl, trying desperately hard to forget and hide a past that she doesn’t want to think about, making jewellery to earn a living.  She lives in York in her friend Rosie’s house, and helps Rosie by looking after her young baby Harry so that she can make cards to stock a local shop.  She shares a workshop with the fun loving, woman loving Jason who is a fabulously charming character with some really amusing moments.    

When shopowner and complete prize Superbitch Saskia announces that she no longer wants to stock Jem’s items, she is devastated and trawls the streets of York to find someone else who can stock her creations.  When she finds a guitar shop and goes in to see if they are able to stock her belt buckles, she meets Ben Davies, who is an odd character, very secretive and prickly.  He starts to stock her work and she in turn starts to work in the shop covering a few hours for him, but after developing a somewhat unusual friendship, she discovers that he’s hiding some pretty dark secrets of his own. 

This is a story that highlights that no matter what you think you’ve done, and how much you think that people would think terribly of you, it might not actually be as bad as it seems and that lots of people have issues, it’s how you deal with them that’s important.  These issues are the things that make you the person you are today and you can never really hide from things, no matter how hard you try. 

This was such an easy book to read, and the story flowed so well, that you didn't realise just how much long you'd been reading it.  Jane writes in a way which is so easy to follow, she describes the characters so well that you feel that you know them inside out, and feel their every thought and emotion as if they were your own.  The secrets were very well hidden leaving you guessing what Jem was hiding for the majority of the book.  The first book of Jane's that I have read has made me definitely wanting to read more of her work and the cover of her upcoming book Starstruck (which will be available in Autumn 2011) looks to be a treat in itself. 

Jane Lovering was born in Devon, now lives in Yorkshire.  She has five children, four cats and two dogs.  She works in a local school and also teaches creative writing.  Jane is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and has a first class honours degree in creative writing.   She has also written Slightly Foxed and Reversing Over Liberace - Life Love and Unlikely Legacies.  

You can read more about Jane, her writing and her other books at her website http://www.janelovering.co.uk/.