Viva The Beautiful Game!

Ladies, Gents, Fans, Followers and Everyone in Between:

Allow me to introduce you to

THE  BLACK JACK GENTLEMEN
The Soccer Team of Detroit

Yes, I have finally parlayed my love for The Beautiful Game a.k.a. football a.k.a. soccer into a series of books that I am thrilled to debut today. The first book MAN ON, is available now. Also at B&N in ebook with print coming by end of the week).While it may seem like a "traditional" male romance story it contains elements of the dilemma and politics of being a gay professional athlete.  There is a fair bit of news about this now. Earlier this year Robbie Roberts, a known gay soccer player, signed with the LA Galaxy, one of the most well-known Major League Soccer teams (thanks mostly to David Beckam's playing days there).

Basically, the concept of an entire team full of unique personalities, all men who are driven and athletic but with their own stories fascinates me. Combine that with the high-tech nature of the start up club, with a front office full of aggressive marketing and public relations professionals and the plot concepts are nearly endless.

For now, I welcome you to meet a few members of the inaugural team: Nicolas Garza, an older player once at the pinnacle of the European leagues has been brought low by his own poor choices. The coaching staff has doubts about his personality but require his expertise to anchor them at midfield. And he hits the ground running as it were, becoming the Black Jack's most popular player online. Parker Rollings has rejected his parents requirement that he give up soccer for medical school. He has run from all he knows, going out on a limb on many levels. But he has a single goal: to be a pro soccer player. He knows he must also reject his budding realization about his own sexuality as a result.

Book 2: RED CARD will release this week as well. It is a slightly longer novel about Meting Sevim, a Turkish man who literally has everything--and has it yanked from him in an eyeblink. It's a story of second chances, but also the gender politics of the game. The fact that women who train and work as hard as men simply don't have the same professional opportunities as men.  I am contemplating a women's team to pair with the Black Jacks which opens up yet more plot opportunities!


Book 3: SHUT OUT will release next month...

I hope you all get a chance to check out these books. They are stand alones but will be best appreciated as a series. I have 2 more in "mental plotting" for a 2014 release.

A city and a sport with something to prove—Meet the men who take that challenge.

The Black Jack Gentlemen—Detroit’s expansion soccer team.

They play hard. And live harder.

The Black Jack Gentlemen

The newest series by Liz Crowe

Book 1:  Man On (August 2013)

Book 2:  Red Card (August 2013) 

Book 3:  Shut Out (September 2013)

And Coming Soon…

Book 4:  Set Piece

Book 5:  Hat Trick

MAN ON

Bad boy of European football, Nicolas Garza is about to hit American shores with a vengeance. Signed by the Detroit Black Jack Gentlemen as lynch pin for their expansion club, Nicco only half believes he’s making the right move. But with a past full of ghosts and rotten behavior chasing him from his homeland, he has no real choice.

Parker Rollings is a college soccer superstar, but his parents’ plans for their only son do not include professional athletics. When the Black Jacks approach him to finalize their roster, Parker leaps at the chance to keep playing, leaving behind medical school, stability and his first and only college sweetheart.

Nicco and Parker face off as bitter rivals for a coveted starting spot at midfield and are forced to channel their negative energy into something positive for the sake of the group—and themselves.

All eyes are on the fledgling team in its debut season. It’s crucial that the Black Jacks prove all the doubters wrong. They must make a good showing in the league and with new fans. But player drama, club dynamics, and misplaced priorities may tear it apart before it even begins.

RED CARD

Free will makes us human.

Choice makes us individuals.

Love makes us unique.

Metin Sevim has it all. At the pinnacle of international soccer playing success, he has managed to craft a perfect world for himself along the way.

When fate strips him of free will and the ability to choose his own path, he retreats from everyone and everything, destroying his hard-won career in the process.

Dragged back from the brink by his desperate family, Metin reluctantly agrees to coach the Black Jack Gentlemen Detroit soccer team but remains debilitated by memories and loss. When a surprising friendship emerges, it renews his passion for life, providing much needed solace… and extreme complications.

A saga of family dynamics and gender politics that cuts across cultures and circumstance, Red Card illustrates the human capacity for forgiveness through the life of one man as he attempts to rebuild his shattered existence.

SHUT OUT

A submissive once, a submissive forever?

A man on the run from the only life he’s ever known, Brody Vaughn is poised to accept the Black Jack Gentleman’s newly vacant goalkeeper’s position. It’s a desperate move, but one he must take to regain his emotional equilibrium. Reeling from his Mistress’s rejection and on the ragged edge of a total breakdown, he arrives in Detroit. Numb with thinly veiled grief, he walks into the club’s front office completely unaware that an encounter with true destiny awaits him.

Sophie Harrison has seen it all--as Domme, sub, and victim. Now that her complicated circumstances have landed her as legal counsel for the expansion Black Jacks team, she holds herself aloof in body and spirit. Nothing and no one gets past her fiercely guarded walls. Until the day she looks up to greet the new goalie standing in her doorway, his raw combination of vulnerability and strength making her breathless.

Two people, horribly scarred by the excesses of the BDSM lifestyle and hiding from their true selves, meet across a desk over a simple contract. All bets are off.

 As you might expect, I'm "on tour" for both Man On and Red Card..... so you'll be hearing from me more! Happy Reading!