Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Escape with Good Faith

A few months ago, I saw that Liz Crowe's Good Faith was a 99 cent download on Amazon. I snapped up that bargain! And I'm really glad I did.

Though I hadn't read any of the previous books in the Stewart Realty series, and Good Faith was my first read by Liz Crowe. Definitely not my last though. She bills her stories as "romance for real life" and this story, at least, hit a bullseye in that target. More than once I was struck with the sense of 'been there, done that' as far as marriage and raising kids.

But this story encompasses so much more than that. Good Faith follows the lives of parents and their children as they come of age. All face a myriad of challenges.

I admit I wished I had begun with the first in the Stewart Realty series, as the number of characters was hard to follow at first.

But Ms. Crowe is adept at reaching deep into each character's thoughts and heart, and revealing them thoroughly so that readers likewise get to know them thoroughly. Her characters are so well drawn out that you are intimately acquainted with their hopes, desires and dreams, as well as their flaws. There are no Pollyanna portrayals here. You might come to see them as people who possibly are neighbors or coworkers, maybe you recognize them in your own family. Like real people, they try their best but at times, stumble. For some characters, their conflicting desires clash, making life choices difficult.

Ms. Crowe wrote with such heart and tender care of these characters. Readers can't help but love them too. This is less a romance than a mainstream novel, fraught with heartbreak, loss - and redemption, my favorite kind of story.

Take the time to read and savor this novel. You will be glad you did.

About Liz Crowe
Microbrewery owner, best-selling author, beer blogger and journalist, mom of three teenagers, and soccer fan, Liz lives in the great Midwest, in a major college town.  Years of experience in sales and fund raising, plus an eight-year stint as an ex-pat trailing spouse, plus making her way in a world of men (i.e. the beer industry), has prepped her for life as erotic romance author.
When she isn’t sweating inventory and sales figures for the brewery, she can be found writing, editing or sweating promotional efforts for her latest publications.
Her groundbreaking romance subgenre, “Romance for Real Life,” has gained thousands of fans and followers who are interested less in the “HEA” and more in the “WHA” (“What Happens After?”)
Her beer blog a2beerwench.com is nationally recognized for its insider yet outsider views on the craft beer industry. Her books are set in the not-so-common worlds of breweries, on the soccer pitch and in high-powered real estate offices.  Don’t ask her for anything “like” a Budweiser or risk painful injury.

Find out more about Liz on her site or her blog.