WELCOME to the official GOOD FAITH cover reveal party, hop and contest!
(with many thanks to Fran Lee for letting me switch days!)
Lots of prizes to be had....
But first, let's do a little reveal action....
Back cover blurb:
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.”
And just WHAT Is the book REALLY about???
Longer blurb:
Three families—Gordon, Frietag, and Robinson—share complex
connections previously established in the best-selling Stewart Realty series.
This stand-alone, final novel explores the characters coping with mature
marriages and challenging, adolescent children. Through shared experiences,
their inherent strengths and fragilities as individuals and as couples are
revealed forming the basis of relationships for the next generation.
Brandis Robert Gordon emerges as the golden boy from the
crowd of children that have grown up together, the apple of his family’s eye,
the kid the other kids follow — even when he heads over a cliff. He is being raised by fiercely focused
parents who are determined to succeed at everything they do, even if it means
unconscious neglect of their children’s emotional needs. Brandis’ star shines
bright, blinding family and friends to his inner weaknesses until it’s too
late.
Good Faith is, at
its core, the story of this young man’s all-consuming struggles with success
and failure. It is also a saga of his personal odyssey—his ultimate quest for
normalcy, when everything around him seems destined to thwart that goal.
The intertwining relationships amongst Brandis, his best
friend Gabe Frietag, Gabe’s younger sister, Blair, and her friend, Lillian
Robinson, bracketed by the equally compelling lives of their parents and
siblings, form the framework of this complex novel.
By the time Brandis fully grasps what Blair, the girl he’s
known his whole life, means to him, he has embarked on a life journey plagued
by multiple addictions. Recruited to play Division I football as a freshman
starting quarterback, after years of dedicated effort towards that very goal,
he attempts to focus and be the man his parents and girlfriend expect him to
be. But his personal demons already have a firm grip on him, and his downward
spiral threatens to drag everyone he loves into the vortex with him.
Blair Frietag has never considered herself strong or
independent—she’s just “Gabe’s nerdy sister” and “Lillian Grace’s best friend.”
But she is harboring a life-long obsession with Brandis Gordon. When he finally
comes to her, she welcomes everything about him—the good and the bad—nearly
destroying herself in the process. Because Brandis’ love is conditional and
anchored in dependence, she must accept or reject her role as enabler. By the
time she acknowledges the fact that her desire to help him overpowers her
inability to do so, it’s nearly too late.
After being told that the man he considers his father is
actually not, Gabriel Frietag’s final years of high school devolve into angry
confusion. The fact that he has started to question his sexuality only
compounds his misery and frustration. The love/hate relationship with Brandis,
which began while the boys were small, is sorely tested by Brandis’
increasingly bad choices and is finally severed, thanks to what Gabe considers
Brandis’ unhealthy dependence on Blair. In an uncharacteristic move, Gabe
rejects everything he knows and loves, and accepts a scholarship to play soccer for a college on the West Coast, hoping he can break from the
painful confines of his childhood home. But his connection to Lillian Grace
Robinson, another instrument in their life-long quartet of friendship, remains
seemingly unbreakable.
Lillian is Blair’s companion from birth. A shy girl at
first, “Lilly-G” seems destined to live forever in Blair’s shadow. But as she
observes her friend’s descent into emotional turmoil with Brandis, Lillian
comes to terms with her powerful feelings for Gabe. This realization of her own
inner strength molds her into the touchstone everyone reaches for: their anchor
in the storm, the friend they are all lucky to have, while remaining the one
who will forever hold Gabe’s heart in her hands — no matter how far he goes
seeking escape.
The Gordon, Frietag and Robinson ties are born of
circumstance, necessity and emotion. Yet the choices of the second generation
seem destined to destroy all they have built together. When the shocking loss
of one of their strongest members comes at the precise moment when healing
seems within reach, it threatens their tenuously rebuilt bonds. The tragedy
forces everyone to open their eyes to the fickleness of fate and to rely on
each other once more.
Good Faith holds
up a literary mirror to contemporary life with all its temptations, joys, and
sorrows. The plot’s twists and turns are designed to reflect the volatility of
human nature, with all its hopes, dreams, and unexpected setbacks.
More than just another coming-of-age tale, this compelling new
novel from best-selling author Liz Crowe is told with sympathy, humor and a
real-life voice that will not easily be forgotten.
An Official Excerpt:
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.”
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