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Liz Crowe

SBB & Giveaway – Mutual Release by Liz Crowe

By Barb Drozdowich 25 Comments

Welcome to Sugarbeat’s Books – The Home of the Romance Novel!

SBB Mutual Release Banner copy

Today we are welcoming Liz Crowe to the blog! She is the author of Mutual Release and is touring today with Goddessfish Promotions. She is here to share some information about her book, as well as give away some cool prizes.

Liz will award the following prizes at the end of the Tour:
Grand Prize:  Paperwhite Kindle (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008GEKXUO/ref=fs_cl)
1st Prize:  Signed set of first 6 books (Includes all books in the series *except for* Mutual Release)
2nd Prize:  boxed set of first 3 Stewart Realty ebooks  (Floor Time, Sweat Equity, Closing Costs)
3rd Prize:  Zazzle store Stewart swag pack (including canvas tote bag, mug, t-shirt, keychain)

To increase your chances of winning, click HERE to get a larger list of blogs to leave comments on. Good luck!

MUTUAL RELEASE

By

Liz Crowe

 

BLURB:  

Disclaimer:  This is an 18+ book with erotic BDSM scenes and explicit language.

 

Can two dark souls ever make a light?

 

As president of her own distribution company, Julie Dawson has all she ever wanted — money, power, and respect. But her carefully crafted façade conceals a  torment of abuse and helplessness.  After years remaining emotionally aloof, she is finally independent, but alone. Because she refuses to rely on anyone but herself ever again.

 

Evan Adams is no stranger to success, or personal demons. The horrific trauma that destroyed his twin sister, and tore his family apart, forced him to craft a new life from the ashes of the old. He’s content enough, focusing ahead and not dwelling on his murky past. But something important is missing. He knows what that thing is but refuses to acknowledge it.

 

When a chance encounter brings these two strong-willed but damaged people together , what seems like a long, erotic journey through hell could lead them to a match made in heaven.

 

MUTUAL RELEASE

 

 

A coming of age novel about trust…on the long road to love.

 

 EXCERPT

 

Monday dawned bright, clear, and cold, even for an October morning. Evan ran his usual route around the west side of his newly adopted town, relishing how strong he felt and looking forward to his workday – the one where he had a tight grip on his own destiny for a change. After a long hot shower, two huge cups of coffee, and an apple, he grabbed his presentation thumb drive and laptop and headed out.

One of the things he’d inherited from his father was a love of classic English cars. He had sold two of the three Jags, kept his favorite and bought an MG Spyder, not giving a shit at how much it cost to keep the damn thing running properly. As he sped in his sports car across Interstate 96 on his way to the far-flung Northern Detroit suburbs to sweet talk, finagle, and wow the big-time distributor, he was on top of his own personal mountain. Nothing would spoil the day. He refused to allow it.

He pulled into a visitor’s parking spot, tucked his Ray-Bans over the visor, and smoothed his hair before jumping out and striding to the glass front doors. “Dawson” was etched in the glass, nothing more or less, as if it were a boutique law firm or ad agency. Nothing out front indicated that it was one of the most successful craft beer and domestic wine distribution companies in the Midwest.

Tucking away a shiver of intimidation, he pushed the door open and saw a small shrine to Michigan craft beer. The front receiving area was full of faux six packs, cases, kegs, and displays representing every brand, including some that were nationally known. A single desk sat near another set of doors. Through its clear glass he could see a bustling group of people, men and women, all dressed in top-notch suits, getting ready to go out on their sales day. The place oozed professionalism, even a bit of snootiness that surprised him.

But he shook it off, walked up to the stunningly attractive blond woman at the front desk. She sat frowning at a large computer screen. He stood for a few seconds, thinking she would acknowledge him. Finally he had to clear his throat to make her look away from whatever had her mesmerized.

“Oh, hello. Sorry about that.” Her smile made her already gorgeous face light up and left him slightly breathless. Looking back, he figured he must have looked like a complete ass as he stood there, unable to form coherent words, his brain awash in sensations he had not allowed himself to experience in a damn long time. She arched one perfect eyebrow. He gulped, knowing he should say something.

“Uh, so, I have an appointment?” He winced at the upturning of his sentence as if he were asking her a question. Clearing his throat, he started over, pasted on his best “Evan Adams, Charmer” smile and held out a hand. “Evan Adams, owner of Big House Brewing in Ann Arbor, here to see Mr. Dawson. I’m a little early.”

She tilted her head, then shook his hand matter-of-factly. But he had to stop himself from stumbling backwards at the thoughts coiling up in his lizard brain at her touch. His mouth dried out and an odd yet familiar roaring sound fired up between his ears. She frowned. “You okay, there, Evan?” Her lips caressed his name, making him repress a shiver.

“Yeah, sorry. So, anyway, I’ll just sit… over here… until Mr. Dawson is ready. You know, since I’m, uh, early.” He winced, marveling at the depth of his dorkiness. She put her elbows on the desk, eyeing him closely. He observed that she seemed a little overdressed for a receptionist but figured this place must have a strict dress code.

“Sit here,” she said, patting the seat nearest her desk. “Keep me company for a while.”

“Um, sure,” he said, flushing red to the tips of his ears, then moving closer to her while trying to look cool, casual, not ready to jump up and escape.

She smiled. “So, tell me about your company. You know, while we wait for Mr. Dawson.”

He relaxed and launched into the tale, thankful to have a reason to talk and not sound like the world’s oldest high school geek trying to flirt with the prom queen. She asked a lot of questions, kept him talking. And after about a half hour, he was laughing with her at his tale of trying to empty a brewing vessel full of wet grains and dumping about ten pounds of the stuff all over himself.

At one point she brushed her hair back, and his breath caught in his throat at the glimpse of her long neck and the small indent between her collarbones. He had no idea what that was, that soft spot that seemed to pulse with her heartbeat. But he wanted to put his tongue there very, very badly. Allowing his eyes to flicker over her profile, the striking angles of her face, he gulped, looked away.

Getting a grip, he pulled a business card from his portfolio and handed it to her. “I’d love to talk with you more,” he said, trying to ease his voice down from its high-pitched nervous whine to a sexier, more natural tone. “But since I don’t even know your name…” He looked at the nameplate on the desk. It was blank.

She leaned back, propped her high heels on the desk in a strange move that had him instantly on edge and practically panting with horniness.

“Uh, so,” he glanced at his watch, his nerves dancing up and down his spine once more, “if you are interested, maybe we could, you know, go out. Have a beer? Keep chatting?” He closed his eyes, unable to bear his own flop sweat another minute. “Never mind.” He slumped back in his seat. Where the “Master Dom” Evan Adams had hidden he did not know, but damned if the guy was staying there and leaving this ridiculous, stuttering loser in his place.

The silence spun out about a minute longer than was truly polite. He finally looked up at her. She was staring at him over the tops of her shoes, her head tilted to the side as if wondering why the hell he was even cluttering up her space. Finally, the doors to his left opened and a tall, good-looking guy in a suit stood there, surprise clear on his face. “Julie,” he said. “We’ve been looking all over for you. Your nine o’clock appointment isn’t here yet but…”

The woman held up a hand, silencing the man but keeping her eyes pinned on Evan’s. His heart sped up and that familiar, yet nearly forgotten, roaring sound started up in his ears once more.

Julie Dawson. J. Dawson. The person he’d been communicating with through his… or her… secretary.

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

He stood, furious that she’d sat there and let him babble on like a bloody idiot for nearly forty-five minutes. “Well, that was fun,” he said, staring her down, or attempting to. But his skin was both on fire and cold at once. Something about the woman made him have to hang on to his laptop case tight, just to keep from stepping close and kissing those full red lips so hard she would be his in an instant. “Or not. Thanks for your time.”

“No, no, don’t go,” she said, getting to her feet in one fluid, sexy move. She was over six feet tall in her shoes, curvy, womanly, and sending out the sort of signals he had not intercepted in a long time – too long, if the way he was overreacting was any indication. “Really, I want to know why you think my company would be in any way interested in yours.”

He processed her barb, clenched his jaw, and poured out the reasons behind why Dawson would benefit from jumping on his bandwagon now, in the early days, so they could grow the brand in a key market together. She listened, standing behind the stupid receptionist’s desk, her assistant wildly typing notes on his tablet.

Finally, she held up a hand again. “How very… creative.” She walked around to the front of the desk, giving him an eye-popping full view of her. She was like sex on two perfect female legs, the exact body type he craved – full breasts and hips, cinched in but not obnoxiously small waist, long hair, and legs that went on and on… and on. “And, um, Evan?”

He jumped back, hearing his name again.

“Yeah, my eyes are up here. But never mind. I’m used to being ogled, and by way more successful brewery owners than you.” She held his business card between thumb and forefinger, as if it were made of dog shit. “Tell you what, why don’t you let me ponder your… proposal. And assume that your eye-fucking session won’t happen again.”

She turned from him and walked away without a word. Her assistant shrugged and followed her back in, leaving Evan breathless, furious, and never more aware of his neglected libido.

 

 *   *   *

 

MEDIA KIT Author Photo-2AUTHOR INFORMATION:

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.

 

www.lizcrowe.com

www.brewingpasssion.com

www.a2beerwench.com

www.facebook.com/lizcroweauthor

www.twitter.com/beerwencha2

www.facebook.com/groups/romanceforreallife

www.facebook.com/jackgordonrealtor

 

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BLB eBook Tour – Guest post by Liz Crowe of Brewing Passions

By Barb Drozdowich

Welcome back to Sugarbeat’s Books! Today we are going to hear from Liz Crowe – the author of the Brewing Passions series that I reviewed yesterday.  She is on tour to promote her books.  For more stops on the tour and the chance to win a copy of one of her books, click HERE.  All three of the books of Liz’s that I read were set in the beer industry and she is also part of that industry.  I asked Liz where she gets her inspiration.  Here’s what she had to say!

Brewing Up Some Inspiration

Why Beer? Why Not?
I’ll admit that five years ago in May I would probably not have darkened the door of a “beer bar”. My personal tastes went more towards bourbon, or red wine. But when I was approached by Matt and Trevor, the two gentlemen who founded Wolverine State Brewing Company that was my question…I’d spent several years making a very good living as successful Realtor, the years before living overseas following my spouse around to three different countries, dragging the spawn, waiting up at night a lot for him to come home from yet more travel (a whole ‘nother story I assure you).

So…why beer?

Craft beer is a hot commodity. Its market share grows annually, and while it’s nowhere near The Big Boys (macro-brewing is something like 90% of the market—those are the Budweisers, Millers and Coors none of which are owned by American companies anymore just as a useful aside). It possesses a “cool factor” that I found when doing my research, and one that was fairly short on females. Taking our company to the next level required professional marketing. I’m a professional market, never afraid to try something new (and fun). The Boys taught me all I needed to know about beer.

Why not indeed?

I am living proof that there is no better advocate than a convert. I spent hours (hours) with Matt, the prez (or “The Man” as I call him in my role as “The Wench”) who has brewed beer for years at home but takes time out to be a big shot VP at a finance company and with our new head brewer Oliver as they patiently taught me the Big Differences (between an ale and a lager) and the more subtle ones (why you can’t call it “bock beer” unless you used “bock yeast” to ferment it) and everything in between. Why, I have even brewed two, 10 barrel batches of my namesake beer for our Tap Room: The Wench’s Westside Wheat. A barrel of beer is 30 gallons so we are talking about no small amount of malty goodness.

As The Wench I blog, I talk, and give interviews and am in constant promotions and marketing mode. Writing is a passion that allows me to sink down into the warm blankets of my imagination and fire up some stories that feature this hot new industry and the slightly strange position that women have in it. Women were the FIRST brewers of beer. We kept the hearth and brewing beer was part of making food. Men, as they do, took over at some point, handed us a collective comso and told us to take a hike.

Men still make up the majority of beer drinkers although that is also changing. I am on the forefront of a movement to bring more women into the craft beer drinking fold by holding Women only events in my Tap Room, speaking at beer appreciation societies advocating for women in the biz and have just been asked to be on a national board: Women Executives in the Beverage Industry as the sole beer industry representative.

Yeah, it’s exhausting but I love taking my experiences and parlaying them into hot, steamy fiction. The “What if?” factor of my daily life working in and among men, who have learned that I’m no delicate blossom and cuss and talk to me like one of the boys, lends itself to some seriously hot mental scenes.

Enjoy The Brewing Passion series, and remember The Tap Room, the “choose your romance” interactive novella which is the Whole Story of Erin and her business partners, brewer and crazy complicated life will be released from Breathless Press in fall 2011 in print and ebook format!

Cheers and enjoy American Craft Beer Week (cool coincidence, no?)
Feel free to check the Wench’s blog too—she has quite the fan club and is always looking for ways to educate and titillate.

Liz Crowe
www.brewingpassion.com
www.a2beerwench.com
www.breathlessblog.com

Twitter

The Rookie
XXXMas Ale
Jockey Box
Coming soon: The Tap Room all from Breathless Press

Player Conference coming in November as part of Rebel Ink Press’s Claw Marks Cougar anthology.  Beerwench1966@yahoo.com

I’d like to thank Liz for dropping by the blog today. Here are the links to her books.
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=sugsboonoo-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B0042P53S8&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=sugsboonoo-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B004GNFJF8&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=sugsboonoo-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B004OEIVG8&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

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BLB eBook Tour – Brewing Passion Series by Liz Crowe

By Barb Drozdowich

Welcome to Sugarbeat’s Books!

Today  I’m going to have a quick look at three books by Liz Crowe.  Liz is touring as part of a BLB eBook Tour.  For more stops on this tour, and for the chance to win a copy of one of her books, click HERE.  I’ve read all three books in this series and loved all three!  Tomorrow, I’ll be posting a guest post by Liz.  Drop back by and see what she has to say about inspiration!

Jockey Box by Liz Crowe

Published by  Breathless Press

Successful business owner, Erin Brady is holding her own and then some in the male-dominated beer brewing industry. But her twenty-year marriage is crumbling as a result. She makes a last ditch attempt over one summer weekend to reconcile with her husband, only to finally accept the truth: It was over. When duty calls in the form of a last minute beer festival she must attend, Erin recognizes the futility of her efforts and leaves, knowing when she returns, her husband will be gone for good.

Vulnerable and emotionally raw, she arrives at the event with more issues than she can handle and finds herself distracted by the hot young brewer she wants to hire. Dedicated and loyal to her business, she tries to ignore the inevitable, but Jeff’s many skills serve as a balm to Erin’s battered psyche, as he helps with the beer booth and somehow works his way into her fantasies.

Jockey Box is 35 pages of steamy heat!  This short story is about Erin, who’s high maintenance husband has just left as she has to work a festival.  The marriage started crumbling several years before when Erin took a position with a growing brewery.  With her her failure to appear for a last-ditch effort of a weekend, her husband texts her that he has left.  While this is going on, she has equipment that isn’t working and a potential new employee show up to help her.  The potential new employee is Jeff and he’s young and super hot!

This story has well developed characters that shoot sparks off one another from the start!  Erin is afraid of looking like a cougar, but Jeff doesn’t seem to have any concerns about her being older than him.  The details about the brewing industry that the author brings into the story add fullness to it.  Certainly a well written, short little erotic story.  Well worth picking up for a quick read.

XXXmas Ale by Liz Crowe

Published by Breathless Press

It’s Holiday Party time, and the employees of Winter Street Brewing Co. are doing it up right, with a special ale brewed just for them by one of the owners. High in spice and alcohol, XXXMas Ale gives Blake, the handsome and shy warehouse manager, the liquid courage he needs when he encounters Danielle, the new female brewer. Dani’s determination to see what Blake has to offer after their first introduction brings him out of his shell—long enough for him to appreciate not only her expertise with rare Belgian beers, but what passion she offers that may threaten his heart.

XXXmas Ale is set at Winter Street Brewing’s annual Holiday Party.  Blake, the brewing company’s warehouse manager is normally a pretty shy guy, and parties aren’t his thing.  Suzanne, the new sales director tries hitting on him, but it is Dani, the new female brewer that catches his eye.  A little liquid courage in the form of the company’s newest brew and he finds the confidence to say hi to her.  Luckily, Dani is more confident and takes Blake into the Brew House for a private party.

I like the writing of this little gem.  It may only be 22 pages, but it packs a wallop!  Again, the author does an excellent job of forming well developed characters in a short period of time.  The larger than life, pushy Suzanne is well done.  The character of Blake is the shy silent type, and Dani seems to be somewhere in between.  The action between them is hot, hot, hot and literally blows up from the chemistry that burns between them.  Again, a great little story!

The Rookie By Liz Crowe

Published by Breathless Press

Lisa loves her job in the male-dominated beer sales industry and has built a reputation as one of the best. But she dreads the “ride along” days when beer companies sends their least experienced representatives to see how she operates—until her one bad day turns into something more with The Rookie.

Undercover for his own brewery, Trent has heard of Lisa’s prestigious sales prominence and sets out to see for himself—to show Lisa what he is capable of—in business and pleasure. Their attraction leads them to an amazing encounter in the most unlikely place, but will Lisa accept Trent’s true identity once it’s revealed? Or will she finally surrender and reach out for the unexpected?

The Rookie is a great little vignette.  Lisa is having a bad day!  Not only has her day started badly with a broken heel and a barfing dog.  Now she has to take a newbie along on sales calls.  Desperately needing some caffeine, Lisa comes face to face with Trent, the hunk she’ll be spending the day with.  The surge of chemistry between them has her blithering like an idiot and stumbling around while Trent comes off as a seasoned pro.  By lunchtime she feels like she’s coming unglued;  something has to give!

Like the other two short little stories, this one is also impeccably created.  The characters sizzle and the action builds towards the explosion at the end.  It’s a wonderful little happily-ever after that warms your heart while steaming your glasses!

All-in-all, three great, steamy reads.  Pick them up and enjoy some quick little reads!

Come back tomorrow and we’ll be talking to the author of these great books – Liz Crowe!

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