Liz Crowe will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
If your book were made into a movie, who
would you want to play your main characters? Oooo…fun! Ok, Austin Fitzgerald would be
played by a Brit actor named Aaron Taylor-Johnson.Ross Hoffman, the sexy German “Plus One”
brewer in this menage would without a single doubt be played by Chris Hemsworth.
And Evelyn Benedict, the lucky lady in the middle of this hotness sandwich
would have to be Blake Lively.
How do you come up with the titles of your books? If I set a book in the brewing world, I use
brewing terms. “TAPPED” is pretty obvious but the follow up novel is called
“LightStruck” which is what happens when a brewed beer’s taste is shocked by
sun or too much artificial light and is spoiled. For my Love Brothers series (a
family-saga style romance series about a raucous family of 4 brothers and one
sister with the last name “Love”) I used that word (Love) in every title.
What does your writing space look like? Like wherever I am at the moment when I have
a hot second to devote to writing. That could be at my office where I am a
Realtor “by day.” Or at my kitchen table. Or at a coffee shop between real
estate appointments. Or my couch late at night. Or at a boring open house!
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not writing? I stay pretty busy with my day job (which I
enjoy) selling houses but I also am a Bikram Yoga practitioner (it’s a
“Love/hate” thing) which I try to do at least 4 times a week. I also enjoy
walking my 2 standard poodles while listening to a book on Audible (I’m
currently in the middle of Jane Smiley’s massive, Langdon family saga and I
love it!). I also love watching sports—right now it’s basketball but during the
fall I’m divided between American and “regular” football.
What is your favourite color? Yellow
What is your favourite pleasure food? Pizza
What is your favourite season? Fall—likely a function of growing up with
college professor parents!
What is your favourite television show? Depends, but lately I’m very partial to
Shameless on Showtime, Atlanta on FX, The Man in the High Castle on Amazon, and
good old Grey’s Anatomy.
What is your favourite movie? I’m a hard core Star Wars geek and love its
revival especially with all the strong women characters. But I would say that
of all time it would have to be Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop
and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Who is your favourite actor? Right now, I’m partial to Adam Driver and always
consider Michael Fassbender a go-to. I was also super impressed by Corey Affleck
in Manchester By the Sea this year.
What is your favourite song? Anything by Simon and Garfunkel….or the Rolling
Stones but lately I’ve found myself enjoying Vampire Weekend’s song "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" which is from
2007.
What is your favourite comfort clothing attire? Soft, flannel PJ pants and a
too-big-for-me sweatshirt.
What books might we find on your bedside table? Right now, you’d find Victoria,
by Daisy Goodwin as well as The Art of the Memoir by Mary Karr
Describe yourself in three words. Sassy. Driven. Fun.
BLURB
When wealthy brewery owner Austin Fitzgerald meets sexy saleswoman Evelyn Benedict, angry sparks fly. They seem destined to clash, until a hot hookup in a cold beer cooler changes everything.
For Austin, it's a life-altering moment that sets him on a path away from his birthright, while Evelyn must face her fears about committing to a man considered the playboy of the micro-brewing world.
The power of preconceived notions nearly tears them apart—until they meet up with brew master Ross, who opens their eyes to a deeper, even more erotic connection. But three strong personalities don’t always make for the best emotional mix and when a simple misunderstanding causes chaos, it’s up to Ross to repair the tattered shreds of their relationship.
EXCERPT
Sensing the heat of Evelyn’s fury as he finalized another large order, he excused himself and made his way toward the restroom. The tuning-fork sensation had morphed into a dull ache centered in his gut, which steadily made its way down to his balls.
When he emerged—after splashing water on his face enough times to calm the hardening in his jeans—he almost plowed straight into her. He gripped her arms to keep her from falling and the impulses that had bounced around in his brain since the morning nearly brought him to his knees. He dropped his hands and looked away, swallowing back the urge to say something, anything, to convince her he wasn’t such a bad guy.
“Sorry.”
Her voice was flat. He took a step back, stopped only when his butt hit the wall. The space between them filled with near-visible silence, but he didn’t move.
“I don’t know how I’m doing it, but the longer we work together, the more sales I make, and the more you hate me. Clue me in here, Benedict. I thought sales were the goal of the day.” He crossed his arms, holding them close to his chest so she couldn’t gauge how shaky his hands had gotten.
She swallowed, and he watched the exquisite warm peach hue of her skin redden. Admiring the line of her neck, her jaw, the plump fullness of her lower lip as she bit it, a nervous tic he’d love to come to love, if she’d let him, Austin sensed himself falling deeper into a very scary hole. Her ongoing silence took on a life of its own.
“Well? I left my secret-sales-goal decoder ring at home. You obviously have a different agenda for today. I get it. ‘Prove to the rich boy he doesn’t have what it takes’ is fine, but we could have saved some time if you’d just told me first.”
She opened her lips, then pressed them together and shouldered past him. He watched, fascinated, as his hand reached out of its own accord and snagged her arm. She stopped, stared at it, then up at him. When he realized the blue of her eyes was brighter because of tears, he hesitated. Female tears always unnerved him, but his chest tightened in a thoroughly alarming way at the thought of having caused her unhappiness.
He let go. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to…”
In a split second, her beautiful face was within inches of his. “Don’t flatter yourself. I’m just pissed off. You’ve had that effect on me since I first laid eyes on you, so yeah, I guess I set you up. But apparently, all your country-club, private-school time has been worth it. Bullshitting comes naturally to you. And that’s all this job is. A whole barrel of bullshit.”
She stomped away before he could speak or, even better, grab her and kiss her. The space she vacated quivered with anger. But her crisp perfume stayed in his nose and he had to clench his hands into fists to keep from shoving her up against the wall and kissing her until she saw it his way.
AUTHOR Bio and Links
Amazon best-selling author, mom of three, Realtor, beer blogger, brewery marketing expert, and soccer fan, Liz Crowe is a Kentucky native and graduate of the University of Louisville currently living in Ann Arbor. She has decades of experience in sales and fund raising, plus an eight-year stint as a three-continent, ex-pat trailing spouse.
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 at 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.
Don’t ever ask her for anything “like a Budweiser” or risk bodily injury.
Thank you for hosting today!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the tour and thanks for the chance to win :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for hosting me!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great story. Enjoyed your comments.
ReplyDeleteGreat excerpt, I enjoyed reading it - thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a fantastic book. Thanks for hosting.
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