Synopsis:
The Stewart Realty series is a sweeping epic, encompassing many years in the lives of two people who know how to love with their bodies, how to please and get pleasure, to control and be controlled. When it comes to the deeper meaning of the one word they both need, backgrounds and personalities get in the way. While their physical connection sizzles they somehow manage to continuously disappoint one another on an emotional level.
Jack Gordon has it all—money, success, a string of women—but also a deep longing for something more. When he thinks he finds it with Sara Jane Thornton, his world is never the same again. Sara releases a side of himself he considered buried out of frustration and unhappiness. Sara soon learns that she must trust him implicitly, something she cannot do, no matter how many times she tries...and he fails.
With a rich cast of secondary characters, including a young man who presents a near-perfect foil to Jack's intensity, and who falls hard for Sara, The Stewart Realty series is a saga with an emphasis on contemporary life with a healthy dose of realistic eroticism. A tale of modern, busy, driven people seeking the ever-elusive and highly coveted combination—a friend, lover and trusted companion who will be there for the long haul.
Start at the beginning, with the Jack and Sara Trilogy, now for the first time ever in a print anthology. The Stewart Realty series is a best seller in family saga and urban fiction categories. See for yourself what the buzz is all about.
Excerpt:
Sara put her palms against the ice-cold glass of the floor-to-ceiling windows. She smiled, observing the entire downtown of Ann Arbor spread out below her like a child's carpet map. The heat rose visibly from the pavement as the crowds scurried in and out of restaurants and shops.
Adam's arms around her waist startled her. As she turned, a niggling voice at the back of her brain made her hesitate before brushing his lips with hers. They'd been in the vacant condo way too long. Now that he'd teased a satisfactory orgasm from her neglected body, an antsy, nervous sensation wormed through her psyche. She sighed and disentangled herself from his embrace.
When the doorbell echoed through the cavernous space, she broke out in a cold sweat. Fumbling with blouse buttons, she pushed past Adam on her way through the kitchen and to the door, cursing under her breath. She looked back to make sure he was pulled together – not a tough thing since neither of them got completely out of their clothes – and scowled as he gave her a knowing smile.
Shit. You should not have done this. You don't even really like him. But it had been so long and he was pretty good looking. Jesus, slut much Sara?
Sara let guilty thoughts clang around her head long enough to hear the doorbell ring once more before yanking it open, her perfect pleased-to-see-you sales smile fixed in place, keys clutched in one hand.
Jack had a hot date, one that was going to yield him a kick-ass listing, but due to the unwarranted dawdling of the condo-shopping couple he had been dragging around, he'd be lucky to make it in time. The empty lock box on the door of the penthouse unit provided the real icing on the cake. He leaned on the doorbell, hoping they could skip this one and stop wasting his time while mouthing platitudes to his clients. He had hoped that the relocating, executive couple like the ones he was courting at that moment wouldn't spend so much of his valuable time arguing over granite colors and the relative benefits of central vacuum cleaners. God, he hated this job sometimes. He smiled, and turned, hearing the click of the deadbolt. Finally.
When the heavy door swung open, the vision standing there froze him mid-sentence. Sara Thornton, one of the newer, and more successful, realtors at Stewart Realty, stared at him, eyes blazing in a strange combination of aggravation and satisfaction. Jack clenched his jaw at the sight of her smoking hot body encased in skintight short black skirt, creamy silk blouse and four-inch stilettos.
As one of the few chosen to populate the downtown storefront office, based upon her good looks and the ability to rope in new buyers and sellers off the streets of Ann Arbor, Sara had serious sales skills. He'd studied the branch's numbers, as part of a management decision-making process, to ultimately turning down the offer to handle that stable of prima donnas. But at that moment Jack couldn't believe he'd never noticed her before – really noticed her. Where had she been hiding? And what was that amazing sexy aura that permeated the air? Jack's heart jumped in his chest.
"Um, hi Jack." Her voice was hoarse, making him blink. He made a conscious effort to wipe the idiotic look off his face, aware of the annoying clients still standing at his elbow. He held out a hand, needing to confirm that her skin felt as hot as it looked. Surprised no one else saw the sparks pass between them, he couldn't suppress a grin at the look on her flustered face.
So, she sensed it too. This could get interesting.
"Sara." He heard his own voice, sounding a hell of a lot more confident than he felt at that moment. And he did not rattle easily. "Sorry to barge in but…” He was struck dumb once again by the sight of Adam Donovan, mortgage broker tool, at Sara's shoulder. Jack gave himself a mental shake. The sudden realization of what had undoubtedly happened, in the same condo he was about to show, made his head pound. Reluctant admiration mixed with something resembling jealousy fogged his brain. He raised his eyebrows at the tall blond man whom he could have sworn was engaged to someone else.
"Jack." Adam moved around the beautiful woman who still blocked the doorway. "Good to see you."
Jack shook the guy's hand, never taking his gaze from Sara, reserving his smile for her. His brain engaged, focus locked on Sara Thornton, and the world shifted under his expensively clad feet.
Donna's Thoughts:
Floortime:
John Patrick (Jack) Gordon is something else entirely. He is described as “self-centered, man-whore, intent on his own satisfaction every minute of the day.” And that he is, but he is so much more. Jack is a natural Dom or Master but he tries to push those tendencies down. He’s not entirely comfortable with that side of himself. This might stem from his first Dom/sub relationship and how badly it ended. This is also the likely reason he doesn’t stay with one woman for very long.
Sara Jane Thornton is self-described as “more than a little emotionally constipated.” She has not been very successful in the relationship department and has sworn off of having anything more than a physical relationship with the male species. Can she survive the most successful, most eligible bachelor of Stewart Reality and Ann Arbor Michigan?
Liz Crowe is an extremely talented erotic writer. Her sex scenes had me reaching for, well you don’t really want to know but what I will say is this book is H-O-T!!! In the beginning I found it a bit slow and hard to keep up with. It didn’t seem to flow and there is quite a bit of real estate jargon that I didn’t quite understand, but that is the setting for the book. Once I got past that I could not put this book down. I wanted to throttle Jack at times but most of the time I wanted to be Sara. This man is aggravating but ohhhh soooo sexy. I give this book 4 stars with 4.5 hands down the pants and am looking forward to starting the next in the series.
“She wanted his constant attention, sent him texts all day long,
and had seemingly taken a vow to drain every ounce of his
sexual energy. He always thought that well
was pretty deep. . .”
Sweat Equity:
OMG, when we left Sara and Jack things were looking good, they looked like they were heading towards their Happily Ever After. But can you ever truly trust a man-whore to change his wicked ways? Sara is not so sure. Plagued by bad dreams, past conquests popping up everywhere and her brother whispering in her ear she just may make a decision she could regret for a very long time.
“you fucking self-centered asshole.”
Sara is a strong, motivated and competitive woman. Those are the things that Jack loves most about her, but they are also aspects of his own personality and being that much alike may be just the thing to tear them apart. “Christ in a sidecar, he wanted her again. Her temper, her honestly earned outrage, he fucking loved that about her.” This book is a turbulent look at their relationship or lack thereof. It’s up and down, on and off, this way and that way, can we or not? These two people are the definition of “love is not enough”? Holy cow I almost had heart failure the way they ping pong back and forth and Sara, wow I just wanted to smack her most of the time! I had a feeling the book was going to end the way it did but it still left me feeling a bit OMG! I am looking forward to reading the next book in this series Closing Costs and give this book 4 stars.
“Fuck her and her goddamned independent streak.”
Closing Costs:
Holy Drama book lovers! This story had me wanting to check into the funny farm. I will admit that I don’t like when characters in a book fall madly in love and everything is peachy from that day forward. All relationships have problems and they all take work. I do like that this story reflects that however the amount of time spent on back and forth is insane (to me). If it took that long to get it together I would have been out of there years ago! I also don’t like that Sara wouldn’t find out who the dad is. That’s so not fair to the child. Every child needs a daddy and if you can find that person you owe it to the child to do so. That being said yes I realize it’s fiction but it bothered me and made me not like Sara very much. I want to nominate her as worst book girlfriend.
“. . .seeing her flirt with that oily bohunk of a soccer coach had solidified it. . .”
The story of Jack and Sara is intense. This book covers a large time span and feels like a loopdy loop roller coaster with all the back and forth and bouncing between this one and that one. But all in all it is a good story, I found myself having strong feelings (good ones for Jack, not so good for Sara) and isn’t that the mark of a well written book? I have enjoyed the series thus far and from what I have read about Essence of Time it looks to be HOT (Jack and Rob in college ooooo) I give Closing Costs 4 stars with 3 hands down the pants.
Liz Crowe’s Bio:
Amazon best-selling author, beer blogger and beer marketing expert, mom of three, and soccer fan, Liz lives in the great Midwest, in a major college town. She has decades of experience in sales and fund raising, plus an eight-year stint as a three-continent, ex-pat trailing spouse. While working as a successful Realtor, Liz made the leap into writing novels about the same time she agreed to take on marketing and sales for the Wolverine State Brewing Company.
Most days find her sweating inventory and sales figures for the brewery, unless she’s writing, editing or sweating promotional efforts for her latest publications.
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 many 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.
If you are in the Ann Arbor area, be sure and stop into the Wolverine State Brewing Co. Tap Room—but don’t ask her for anything “like” a Bud Light, or risk serious injury.
Find Liz online at the following places:
Website: www.lizcrowe.com
Writing Blog: www.brewingpasssion.com
Beer Blog: www.a2beerwench.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/beerwencha2
FB Author Page: www.facebook.com/lizcroweauthor
FB Fan Page: www.facebook.com/groups/Lizcrowefans/
Jack Gordon’s FB Page: www.facebook.com/jackgordonrealtor
No comments:
Post a Comment