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Monday, July 13, 2015

Blog Tour:Excerpt and Review: Hat Trick by Liz Crowe

Author: Liz Crowe
Publisher: Tri Destiny Publishing
Release Date: July 7, 2015

Detroit’s expansion pro team has a hot star forward, fresh from the English Premiere League. Thanks to a series of fatal misunderstandings coupled with his famous temper, Declan MacGuire only has one thing left to him—soccer—and he’s determined not to make the same mistakes in his new life stateside. 

Emily Keller, an accidental low-level PR flunkie for the team watches as Declan gets sucked into a whirlwind romance with Cassandra Dean, the team’s Queen Bee groupie, trying not to be jealous while the woman maneuvers him into a sickeningly familiar situation.

When things escalate, the team is forced to take sides, and Declan faces the toughest choice of his life.

Hat Trick is the 4th book in the Black Jack Gentlemen series and the first one that I have read.  Although it is supposed to work well as a stand alone, I did fell like I as missing some back story with some of the characters and with the soccer team.  I really wanted to like this book.  I even read it all the way through hoping that I would ultimately like the story.  Honestly, I really didn't.  Just a warning there may be a couple spoilers in this review, so stop reading if you aren't a fan of them.

I'll start by saying that the writing style was fine.  I didn't mind the back and forth between Emily and Declan's point of view. In fact, that is a style that I enjoy. The problem was that none, and I mean none, of the characters were likable.  I also kept looking for the love story, but never really felt like I got it.  In  fact through most of the book Declan and Emily are with other people.  The story takes place over several years and shows the struggles each has with their horrid relationships.  Then it felt like all of a sudden Declan and Emily are friends, lovers and getting married. 

It seemed like there weren't many characters that displayed respectful behavior toward anyone.  I couldn't reconcile Declan's behavior when he first finds out about Cassandra's cheating.  Instead of breaking things off, he forces her to have sex with him and still wants to marry her.  Huh?  She slept with other men on your soccer team!  That is just gross. In fact, the entire team disgusted me.  How can they play well together and function as a team when they are screwing each other over off the field?  Then his behavior after he caught her the second time was just not acceptable nor justifiable.  I don't care what Cassandra did,bad as it was, it didn't excuse his behavior. Emily is just as bad.  After finding out that her husband was a cheater, she has revenge sex with the pool boy, then asks for a divorce.  I was stunned by Marcus's confession about what he didn't do regarding the divorce.  Can that even happen?  Wouldn't she realize that she never got a decree from the courts?

I could go on, but I won't.  I have seen rave reviews for this story, so maybe I'm missing something.  I just can't get behind a book when I don't respect any of the characters.  If you are a fan of the series, then you'll probably like this one.  It just wasn't for me.

Excerpt:

Declan grabbed his teammate’s arm and shoved him through the locker room door. “Don’t flirt with that poor girl, mate. She’s besotted with your sorry, diseased self. Don’t make it worse.”
Coop yanked his arm out of Declan’s grip and glared at him. “Fuck off, Scotty.”
Declan’s hackles rose, but not nearly as much as they normally would have. It was as if the past seventy-two hours had been a sort of temper purge, leaving him deflated, not his usual prickly self.
“I saw you doing the same with Emily, the hot PR cougar. She loves to pamper her pet.”
“Her what?” He was yanking off his tie and coat and wasn’t sure he’d heard the guy correctly.
“You, my fine troublemaking friend, are Emily Keller’s pet. Her toy. Her fantasy player, whatever.”
“You’re full of shite.” But his face burned hot yet again at the idea that Emily considered him anything but the latest in a long line of problem children for her particular function—that of shielding the team from the bright light of negative media attention. He was putting his shoes inside his locker when the door flew open, revealing his two coaches, Metin the Turk and Rafe the South American.
“MacGuire,” Rafe barked. “Office. Now.”
Dec looked around as if perchance there might be another “MacGuire” in a shit ton of trouble. Coop turned away from him and stripped out of his shirt. He noted all the other players similarly ignoring him like the leper he was.
Jason met his eyes from down the row of men in various stages of undressing. The place was so quiet he could hear melting ice in the baths next to the locker room. Both Metin and Rafe stood in their suits, arms crossed over chests, identically dark eyes narrowed and focused on him.
“Okay,” he muttered under his breath. He’d already begun taking off his shirt so he slid his arms out of it and was hanging it on the hook designed for the daily dress shirt when a throat clearing behind him made him stop and turn. Desmond, the tall, dark and legal, had joined the coaches.
“You can leave your shirt on, Dec,” the man intoned in his James Earl Jones voice. “You won’t be practicing today.


About the author:

Amazon best-selling author, mom of three, Realtor, beer blogger, brewery marketing expert, and soccer fan, Liz Crowe is a Kentucky native and graduate of the University of Louisville currently living in Ann Arbor. She has decades of experience in sales and fund raising, plus an eight-year stint as a three-continent, ex-pat trailing spouse.
Her early forays into the publishing world led to a groundbreaking fiction hybrid, “Unconventional Romance. Worth the Risk,” which has gained thousands of fans and followers interested less in the “HEA” and more in the “WHA” (“What Happens After?”).
With stories set in the not-so-common worlds of breweries, on the soccer pitch, in successful real estate offices and at 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.
Don’t ever ask her for anything “like a Budweiser” or risk bodily injury. 
 Connect with Liz:

Beer, Books & More Blog - http://www.brewingpassion.com/

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