While Tori battles the vile memories of her own kidnapping as a child, she accepts the help of widowed father, Mark Bolton. As he and Tori join forces with the local police, their attraction and intimacy grows…along with their fears for Abby.
Links are uncovered between Abby’s disappearance and Tori’s kidnapping, and Tori is forced to accept the monster who held her captive is back. But this time, Tori is all grown up, and there is no way she will let him hurt another little girl.
Setting – Fictional or real
I’d love to utilize my visit here to talk about the setting for my latest novel, IF I WANT YOU. I think setting is one of the most important aspects of writing fiction and something many authors use, not only as a backdrop for the plot, but almost as another character they can use to add depth, emotion and color to the overall story.
Even though IF I WANT YOU is my fifteenth contemporary romance, I am yet to use a real place as the setting for one of my books in this sub-genre. I’m not entirely sure why, as I’ve used Bath and its surrounding villages for my historical work and gladly named them as the real thing.
I think as contemporary work is set in the here and now, I worry that details in my work could be inaccurate and readers will be compelled to write to me telling me my mistakes and I’ll forever know something I wrote is out there and wrong, lol!
Having said that, even though I use fictional names for my contemporary towns, all of them have been inspired by real places I’ve visited, loved or lived in my life.
For IF I WANT YOU, I used a place very close to where I grew up on the outskirts of Bristol. I played in this borough from the age of seven to eleven and it was such a fabulous place that I used to long to move there with my family. The childhood memories I have of playing in the woods, longing to live in some of the huge houses along its many affluent streets and even getting up to mischief that I will never admit publicly…Barlington (as I’ve named it in the book) served as the perfect backdrop for IF I WANT YOU.
As a small town, everything from the schools, to the cemetery, to the parks and police station are all in a close distance of one another, allowing me the freedom to keep pace moving even in the characters had to drive or walk anywhere. But it was more than that which led me to setting this darker romantic suspense here.
It came from having to draw on the emotions of not just adult characters, but a child’s too. I needed to transport myself back to my childhood – think and act on the page with the thought processes of a young girl rather than an adult woman. How else could I portray how and why this particular child abduction could, or could not, have happened?
The setting and my memories of it were a powerful source of emotion, color and depth that I drew on again and again. As I was writing the book, I often visited ‘Barlington’ as it is today and looked at everything through adult eyes, before remembering it through my childhood eyes. It really helped the writing to move along at a faster pace than some of my other books.
I have already been asked if another book/s will be following IF I WANT YOU and I think that’s because my Templeton Cove series has proved to be so popular, which is fantastic. Although I’ve no plans for a sequel to IF I WANT YOU, never say never! I LOVE writing small-town series and if an idea appears that would be perfect against Barlington’s backdrop then, of course, I’ll write it. That’s the best thing about writing, no author can predict what they might write in the future, who their characters will be or where the story will be set. Those things come along when they’re ready…no matter how much we might sometimes beg them to appear NOW!
Even though IF I WANT YOU is my fifteenth contemporary romance, I am yet to use a real place as the setting for one of my books in this sub-genre. I’m not entirely sure why, as I’ve used Bath and its surrounding villages for my historical work and gladly named them as the real thing.
I think as contemporary work is set in the here and now, I worry that details in my work could be inaccurate and readers will be compelled to write to me telling me my mistakes and I’ll forever know something I wrote is out there and wrong, lol!
Having said that, even though I use fictional names for my contemporary towns, all of them have been inspired by real places I’ve visited, loved or lived in my life.
For IF I WANT YOU, I used a place very close to where I grew up on the outskirts of Bristol. I played in this borough from the age of seven to eleven and it was such a fabulous place that I used to long to move there with my family. The childhood memories I have of playing in the woods, longing to live in some of the huge houses along its many affluent streets and even getting up to mischief that I will never admit publicly…Barlington (as I’ve named it in the book) served as the perfect backdrop for IF I WANT YOU.
As a small town, everything from the schools, to the cemetery, to the parks and police station are all in a close distance of one another, allowing me the freedom to keep pace moving even in the characters had to drive or walk anywhere. But it was more than that which led me to setting this darker romantic suspense here.
It came from having to draw on the emotions of not just adult characters, but a child’s too. I needed to transport myself back to my childhood – think and act on the page with the thought processes of a young girl rather than an adult woman. How else could I portray how and why this particular child abduction could, or could not, have happened?
The setting and my memories of it were a powerful source of emotion, color and depth that I drew on again and again. As I was writing the book, I often visited ‘Barlington’ as it is today and looked at everything through adult eyes, before remembering it through my childhood eyes. It really helped the writing to move along at a faster pace than some of my other books.
I have already been asked if another book/s will be following IF I WANT YOU and I think that’s because my Templeton Cove series has proved to be so popular, which is fantastic. Although I’ve no plans for a sequel to IF I WANT YOU, never say never! I LOVE writing small-town series and if an idea appears that would be perfect against Barlington’s backdrop then, of course, I’ll write it. That’s the best thing about writing, no author can predict what they might write in the future, who their characters will be or where the story will be set. Those things come along when they’re ready…no matter how much we might sometimes beg them to appear NOW!
Her nails dug into his shoulder and he pretended she held onto him because she needed him, that he provided something, no matter how small, that she couldn’t find within herself.
She pulled back and their gazes locked. He recognized the yearning—the need for blessed escape—in her eyes, because time and again, the same need had ripped through his body since Abby’s abduction.
He gently eased Tori back onto the sofa and brought his face to hers, closing his eyes as he kissed her. She eased her tongue into his mouth and he savored her taste, letting it drift through his body and into his heart, regardless of the repercussions once they hurtled back to the terrifying reality currently surrounding their every thought and action.
For now, they were alone, together, and closed off from the rest of the world. He would ensure she enjoyed this time, remembered it, and came to believe she deserved a man’s unending and reassuring adoration. He kissed her jaw and neck as he flipped open her shirt buttons. She slid her hand over his waist and pulled his t-shirt from his jeans, gliding her hands across his back and raising the hairs on his body.
Her breast was full and heavy in his hand and he thumbed her nipple until it peaked. She trembled and a surge of possibility of what he could be with this amazing woman by his side urged his need for Tori’s happiness higher. He trailed his fingers over her ribcage, to the slender dip of her waist as she lifted his shirt.
She pulled back and their gazes locked. He recognized the yearning—the need for blessed escape—in her eyes, because time and again, the same need had ripped through his body since Abby’s abduction.
He gently eased Tori back onto the sofa and brought his face to hers, closing his eyes as he kissed her. She eased her tongue into his mouth and he savored her taste, letting it drift through his body and into his heart, regardless of the repercussions once they hurtled back to the terrifying reality currently surrounding their every thought and action.
For now, they were alone, together, and closed off from the rest of the world. He would ensure she enjoyed this time, remembered it, and came to believe she deserved a man’s unending and reassuring adoration. He kissed her jaw and neck as he flipped open her shirt buttons. She slid her hand over his waist and pulled his t-shirt from his jeans, gliding her hands across his back and raising the hairs on his body.
Her breast was full and heavy in his hand and he thumbed her nipple until it peaked. She trembled and a surge of possibility of what he could be with this amazing woman by his side urged his need for Tori’s happiness higher. He trailed his fingers over her ribcage, to the slender dip of her waist as she lifted his shirt.
Rachel is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association and Romance Writers of America, and was selected to mentor the Superromance finalist of So You Think You Can Write 2014 contest. When she isn’t writing, you’ll find Rachel with her head in a book or walking the beautiful English countryside with her family. Her dream place to live is Bourton-on-the-Water in South West England.
She likes nothing more than connecting and chatting with her readers and fellow romance writers. Rachel would love to hear from you!
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