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OMG, OMG, OMG!!! It's almost here!! After delighting us with her delectable stories in the Stewart Realty Series, Liz Crowe's highly anticipated final installment, Good Faith will be here in just thirty days!
I first came across Liz's books and this series when I picked up Sweat Equity. At the time I was having a dork-o-saurus moment and didn't pay attention to that little number 2 at the end of the title. Which, had I been paying attention I would have realized that this was the 2nd book in her Stewart Realty Series. I just liked the look of the blindfolded gal on the cover and the blurb sounded good. Well, little did I know that Jack and Sara would set set the pages on fire. Like most of us, I love a good book, so when I found this book I fell in love with Liz's writing style. She has a unique way of spinning a tale which doesn't fit the typical mold of so many books on the shelves these days. As wonderful as her story telling is though, there is something even more awesome that I got to find out when I became a member of Romance Books 4 Us. Liz is a delight to chat with. She has a wit and charm about her that not many have these days. She doesn't take herself too seriously and has a true passion for her characters and their stories. Plus, she brews beer! I mean... Hello!! She writes amazing books and brews beer? Does it get any better than this? Well, if you ask me, I would say I think not!
Now, I'm told that this final novel can be read as a stand alone, but really why would you want to? These stories were meant to be read and enjoyed many times over and over again. Don't believe me? Take a look at this peak into this upcoming novel which will be absolutely, positively not what you are expecting...
Good Faith
Strong personalities—volatile marriages—stressful
careers—conflicting goals—difficult children.
Contemporary challenges facing close-knit families form the
crucible that forges a new generation.
Brandis, Gabriel, Blair and Lillian emerge from the entanglement
of their parents’ longstanding emotional connections, but one’s star will burn
brighter – and hotter – than the others.
With a personality that consumes everyone and everything in
its path, Brandis Gordon struggles to maintain control as he ricochets between wild
success and miserable failure. His life proves how even the strongest relationships
can be strangled by the ties that bind.
Brandis and Gabe Frietag are as close as any brothers, bound
by both loyalty and fierce rivalry. The strength of their ultimate alliance is
tested time and again by Brandis’ choices.
Companions from birth, Blair Frietag and Lillian Robinson
share loner tendencies, but come to rely on each other through adolescence. As
they mature, both are forced to confront their feelings for the men they knew
as boys.
Somewhere between the tangle of good memories and bad,
independence and addiction, optimism and despair, the intertwined destinies of
the new generation finally collide, leaving some stronger, others broken, but none
unscathed.
As a chronicle of three
families navigating the minefields of teen years into the turbulence of young
adulthood, Good Faith holds up a
literary mirror to contemporary life with joys and temptations unflinchingly
reflected. Its fresh, real-life voice portrays the sheer volatility of human nature,
complete with the hopes, dreams, and unexpected setbacks of marriage,
parenthood and “coming of age.”
Good Faith (Advanced Excerpt)
by
Liz Crowe
© 2013 Tri Destiny
Publishing – All rights reserved.
Limited duplication allowed for pre-approved promotional purposes
only. This content may not be shared or
distributed in any capacity at any time outside the scope of the original
intent without express written consent of Tri Destiny Publishing or their
representative.
That morning his father had
roused him from a sound sleep. He’d blinked, confused, by the angle of the
sunlight. He rarely slept much past eight since he usually had some sort of
training or the other.
“Let’s go son. Time for
lunch.”
Brandis had dragged himself
up, his limbs feeling like they weighed a thousand pounds each. His brain
buzzed with a strange sort of energy, his typical state, and not at all welcome
considering it normally didn’t hit him until later in the day. The conversation
his father began as soon as they were seated at their usual diner did not help.
“So, listen, Brandis. These
girls…Katie’s friends from college….”
Brandis sipped his ice water,
waiting for his father to finish the thought. His heart pounded, and his face
flushed hot with embarrassment.
Jack sighed, as if exasperated
that Brandis didn’t pick up the thread on his own, leaving him to carry on with
the awkwardness about to ensue. Then he leveled his gaze, his face open, not
angry or judgmental. “I think that you may be in for some…I mean,
they’re…shit.”
“If you are gonna tell me
where babies come from again,” Brandis said, after deciding to ease his father’s
obvious distress. He cocked an eyebrow and half a smile. Jack seemed to relax
somewhat as Brandis continued. “Don’t bother. I already know.”
He flashed his brightest smile
up at the middle-aged woman who stood at their table, coffee pot in hand. She blinked
rapidly at him, and at that precise moment, Brandis got his first flash
of…something…about his power. Up until now he’d merely been “Brandis the
trouble maker, the causer of strife.” Suddenly, he felt strong, amazingly so,
stronger than even the man sitting across from him, a taller, older version of
himself. His body tingled all over, as he tested the smile out again on the
woman, making her slop some coffee out onto the table. His father frowned, but
then chuckled as the woman walked away after they gave their orders.
“Son,” he said, leaning back
and cradling the coffee mug to his chest. “Your adventure has only just begun.”
“Huh?” Brandis picked up his
cup but didn’t drink any. He hated coffee, but had ordered it in a burst of
need to be more like Jack. As he sipped the bitter stuff, he was transported
back years before when he and his dad would spend every single Saturday morning
together, eating breakfast at this very diner. He had adored the man, he
remembered distinctly. His chest hurt at the simplicity of their relationship
then. He looked away from Jack’s deep blue, knowing gaze.
The subject changed of its own
accord, and Brandis let it. Although part of him wanted to ask for advice, a
much bigger part would not allow the words past his lips.
They ate, discussing the
upcoming football season and Brandis’ part in it. The recruiting company Jack
had contracted last year to video his every move would start up with the first
game. He’d made varsity again, technically as backup quarterback to a senior
boy. Brandis didn’t see this as a setback and had every intention of starting
under center by the second or third game.
Finally, when they pushed
their empty plates back and sat looking at each other, Brandis felt more
comfortable in his father’s presence than he had been in a long time. Jack
said, “I am pretty sure at least one of those girls sleeping in the basement is
determined to change the status of your virginity for you probably as soon as
tonight.”
Brandis choked on the last sip
of lukewarm coffee. His face burned, and his body tingled again.
“I’m…it’s…uh….” He clutched the napkin in his lap unable to meet his father’s
eyes.
“No need to say anything.
Let’s just say your mother is an astute reader of female intent. While I was
busy admiring your sister’s friend’s ass, she apparently read the girl’s mind
or something.” Brandis’ face flushed even hotter.
He resisted the urge to
protest, to proclaim his innocence of such things. Because he wanted it
back—those mornings between them, father and son, man and boy, not this
awkward, man and almost-man bullshit. Because while the thought of one of his
sister’s college friends popping his cherry remained a pleasant fantasy, it
also made him feel older than he wanted to be right then.
“So, I bought a box of condoms
this morning,” Jack went on. “Put some downstairs in the side table drawer and
the rest in your room. Use them please.” He sipped the last of his coffee,
looked as if he were about to get up, then leaned forward, touching Brandis’
wrist. “Have fun. Don’t be an asshole to women. Let every experience teach
you…something. Because you are nothing as a man if you don’t learn from every
woman you…love.” Jack looked out the window onto the nearly empty parking lot.
Then he turned back, tightened his grip on his son’s arm. “God, you are
so…young.” His face fell a moment, then he perked up again, his eyes twinkling.
“Okay, so, your mother told me to tell you not to let them corrupt you. But all
I’m gonna say is this: always wear protection, no matter what, no matter how
much you don’t want to. And don’t let your mom catch you in the act. I’ll
handle her otherwise.”
Then he let go, stood and
smiled, draping a friendly arm around Brandis’ shoulders as they exited the
restaurant.
“You really didn’t tell me you
were admiring Katie’s friend’s ass, did you, Dad?”
“No, son. I most certainly did
not. You obviously misheard me.” Jack winked as he stood by the passenger’s
side of his classic Corvette convertible and tossed the keys to Brandis. “Remember
what I told you. Don’t ride my clutch.”
About Liz Crowe
Amazon best-selling
author, beer blogger and beer marketing expert, mom of three, and soccer fan,
Liz lives in the great Midwest, in a major college town. She has decades of experience in sales and
fund raising, plus an eight-year stint as a three-continent, ex-pat trailing
spouse. While working as a successful Realtor, Liz made the leap into writing
novels about the same time she agreed to take on marketing and sales for the
Wolverine State Brewing Company.
Most days find her sweating inventory and sales figures for
the brewery, unless she’s writing, editing or sweating promotional efforts for
her latest publications.
Her early forays into the publishing world led to a
groundbreaking fiction subgenre, “Romance for Real Life,” which has gained
thousands of fans and followers interested less in the “HEA” and more in the
“WHA” (“What Happens After?”). More
recently she is garnering even more fans across genres with her latest novels,
which are more character-driven fiction, while remaining very much “real life.”
With stories set in the not-so-common worlds of breweries,
on the soccer pitch, in successful real estate offices and many times in exotic
locales like Istanbul, Turkey, her books are unique and told with a fresh
voice. The Liz Crowe backlist has something for any reader seeking complex
storylines with humor and complete casts of characters that will delight,
frustrate, and linger in the imagination long after the book is finished.
If you are in the Ann Arbor area, be sure and stop into the
Wolverine State Brewing Co. Tap Room—but don’t ask her for anything “like” a
Bud Light, or risk serious injury.
Would you like the opportunity to meet Liz?
2 comments:
This sounds amazing! Liz writes "real" so well.
thanks so much for participating in the blog hop!
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