About the Book
Born Barron, Living paycheck to paycheck in a dingy apartment with an oblivious husband, twenty-three-year-old Shane Lacy is going through the motions of her mundane life in an opiate-induced haze when a national news story and a call from her estranged mother threaten to send her spiralling back to a past she’s worked hard to forget. It’s been five years since she left home, and now Shane returns to confront her asylum-worthy mother and her former best friend, Simone Barron, sole heiress to the Barron fortune, whose billionaire father has just died in prison and left secrets and scandal in his wake.
Over the course of two weeks, Shane embarks on an adventure that reveals the extreme disparities between the überwealthy and the shanty poor. From bartending at a local dive to being intoxicated by the world of the mega-rich, Shane can’t resist the pull of this other life, always just out of reach. To keep up with Simone, Shane finds herself under the spell of Sebastian Kane, a millionaire male siren whose powers of seduction literally leave her breathless.
As Shane puts together the pieces of her tormented past, she must answer questions about morality, dependency, loyalty, and what it means to be BORN BARRON.
About the Author
Crystal Kane grew up in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts, but spent much of her childhood on the beaches of Florida and in the South of France. She graduated from UMass Amherst and has worked as a real estate agent since 2011. Kane lives with her daughter, Lily, in Southampton, Massachusetts. This is her first book.
Qn 1: Can you tell us more about your book, Born Barron, What is it about?
Born Barron means exactly that. Those born with nothing, i.e., Shane Lacy the narrator of the story and those with everything, Simone Barron the wealthy billionaire heiress and how their friendship since children are connected. There is a fun cast of characters from the dive bar regulars to the rich socialites and a homeless man and his mangled pit bull that is intertwined in such a way it takes you on a roller coaster of emotions, relating to them, despising them and even falling in love. Born Barron is written over a two week period of time when Shane’s husband leaves for a camping trip leaving her to work on her community college assignments and work two full-time jobs. Every day is set up as a new chapter making it hard to stop reading because the next day is always a new adventure teasing its way to a surprise ending that no one sees coming. The very end of the book is in the form of a true college essay which Shane has been grappling with throughout the book and answers anything and everything within the chapters that a reader may have been asking. It was a fun way to shine a light on one specific character who truly deserves the spotlight. (spoiler alert–don’t skip to the end and read this…)
Qn 2: Who do you think would be interested in this book, Born Barron, is it directed at any particular market?
This book without a better way of stating it really is a “chick book” though lots of men have surprisingly read it and with great reviews. It’s written by a woman in the eyes of a twenty-three-year-old female and has a fair amount of “spicy” scenes that some men may or may not like. Though I am learning, lot’s do!
It’s also a beach read! You probably won’t join MENSA after reading it but you will have a lot of fun getting lost in it. It’s roughly 400 pages but readers are saying they’ve finished it in two days, and many of them are re-reading it for a second time! Overall, the consensus has been if you start it, you can’t stop it. It truly humbles me to know people are enjoying reading about the characters as much as I enjoyed creating them!
Qn 3: Out of all the books in the world, and all the authors, which are your favourite and why?
I can be a serious nerd with this and read lots of health books from Micheal Pollen or Dr Andrew Weil or I can sink into a fun read by playing around with different authors. I’m always open to suggestions and something that will get me interested right away. I wish I had one specific author to name but they are all good at different things. My guilty pleasure would be something enticing, thrilling and a bit sexy….kind of like my book (if I really think about it.) I guess you write the way you read!
Qn 4: What guidance would you offer to someone new, or trying to enhance their writing?
Well, it took me ten years of writing, reading, putting it back down, questioning myself, re-writing and finally getting published. I was so afraid of rejection that I would question myself and then there were years where I wanted to forget it altogether. In the long run, I decided that I wanted to do it for my daughter. Almost everyone in my family has passed away, so this was my way to make the people still here proud of me. I wanted my daughter to see that girls can do anything!
Qn 5: Where can our readers find out more about you, do you have a website, or a way to be contacted?
Sure, I would love to talk to readers, my email is bornbarronbook@gmail.com
I check it regularly and would love to start some sort of website or chat room where people can share thoughts, talk and connect. It seems like the book may be a surface fling but the characters are so much deeper than they appear and once you are connected, you can’t stop thinking about them and imagining them in real life. I had someone tell me they saw Simone in TJMaax and I laughed because one she doesn’t exist and also, she’s a billionaire, she would never shop there! hahaha. I have also had multiple requests to have a book club chat where people who read it could all talk and discuss the complexities of the characters. I would love to put something like this together!!!
Be the first to comment