When Gabby first met Elliott she knew he was the man for her. In twenty years of marriage she has never doubted her love for him - even when he refused to give her the one thing she still wants most of all. But now their two daughters are growing up Gabby feels that time and her youth are slipping away. For the first time in her life she is restless. And then she meets Matt . . .
Intoxicated by the way this young, handsome and successful man makes her feel, Gabby is momentarily blind to what she stands to lose on this dangerous path. And in one reckless moment she destroys all that she holds dear.
Consumed by regret, Gabby does everything she can to repair the home she has broken. But are some betrayals too great to forgive?
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Jane thank you so much for taking the time to answer questions about your latest book
Tell us a little about Tempting Fate and what’s in store for your main character Gabby.
I am fascinated by the number of women around me, in their forties, who are teetering on the brink of a mid-life crisis. Something seems to happen to women during our forties,when we look at our lives and ask ourselves whether this is what we expected, or perhaps really wanted. Marriage, kids, life, all feel a little 'pots and pans'; we love our husbands and kids, but we miss feeling beautiful, seductive...alive; we miss feeling excited. If we're lucky, we move over that hump and settle into the afternoon of life, but should someone come along who sees us as we used to be seen, who makes us feel all the things we miss about being young, that can be dangerously intoxicating. Gabby is a woman in her forties who would never be unfaithful, who loves her life, but when a younger man comes along who makes her feel beautiful, she plays along, flattered, intoxicated, not planning on doing anything, just wanting to feel this way for a little bit longer... Tempting Fate is about cherishing what we have before it's too late, and whether we can ever fix it once we have made a mistake.
When you are writing, do you use any celebrities or people you know as inspiration?
I draw from everyone and everything. I can't specifically think of instances where I've used celebrities, but I'm sure it has happened. Certainly I have used characters from non-fiction memoirs, and people in my life, although the characters are never entirely based on any one person. Years ago, when I thought I was writing characters based on friends, I realised very quickly they developed into their own character within a few pages, nothing like the visual snapshot of the real person I held in my mind.
With over 10million copies sold, you are one of the biggest brand women’s fiction authors of all time. What has been your most memorable experience as an author to date?
It is mostly the little things that blow me away. Someone recognizing my name from my credit card in a shop and saying, 'wow, you have the same name as my favorite author!', or being shown to a table in a restaurant and have someone whisper that Jemima J was her most favourite book ever. But I have to confess, being sent to meet Harrison Ford and have him fly me up to Malibu in his helicopter, probably won't ever be matched. He was the real deal: an old school movie star with buckets of humility and charm.
Can you tell us a bit about your average working day?
I am usually up at the crack of dawn, often running to an early meeting - I am in a fellowship of people that meet several times a week - before hitting a small writer's room in town with my laptop and a giant cup of coffee. I'm usually at my desk by 8.30, and sit and write until lunchtime. I set myself a daily quota of words, and won't leave the computer until those words are on the page. The last couple of years I have also taken myself off to a self-imposed writing retreat a couple of times a year. I go to little Inns, or to houses on lakes belonging to friends, and do nothing but write for five days. Those days are much more intensive - I write for around eight hours a day, and am completely exhausted afterwards - the beauty of going by myself is I don't need to do anything afterwards except crawl into bed. I'm now thinking about buying somewhere - a little tiny cabin on Golden Pond does sound rather delicious...
What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
I cook, garden, decorate, entertain, keep chickens, look after children, dogs and cats, make candles, make jewelry, read... I'm the ever-ready bunny. I keep going until the batteries run out. Which they do at around 8.30pm. I am good at many things, but late-night partying is sadly not one of them.
My thanks to the team at Michael Joseph for the opportunity to feature this interview with Jane Green on my blog.
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My review of Tempting Fate
I've been a fan of Jane Green’s writing for quite a few years, and am always reliably reassured that whatever she writes will be both entertaining and enjoyable. In this latest book she has taken the idea of a slightly more mature female protagonist and has developed the idea that familiarity in a marriage can sometimes breed contempt.
Forty-something Gabby has been married to her husband Elliot for twenty years, and as she experiences her children growing up into adulthood, Gabby also begins to see her own youth sliding away from her. When she meets, and is attracted to Max, a much younger man who is not just charismatic and successful, but who also manages to make Gabby feel special, we sense that Gabby, already vulnerable in middle age, will find that Max’s appeal is too much to resist.
There is no doubt that Jane Green has captured the intimacy and the inherent danger that all too often heralds the temptation of an extra marital fling, and she mixes it into a believable account of cause and effect. As always the writing is impeccable with a believable set of circumstances, and as the story draws you into the disintegration of Gabby’s reckless year, you experience such a sense of familiarity amongst the characters that you almost find yourself pleading with Gabby to just take a more realistic look at her life, but of course this can’t happen, and such is the power of storytelling that you really have to read on until the conclusion of the book.
And here's your chance to win a paperback copy of Tempting Fate.
