The Black Jack Gentlemen
The newest series by Liz
Crowe
A city and a sport with
something to prove—Meet the men who take that challenge.
The Black Jack Gentlemen—Detroit’s expansion soccer team.
They play hard. And live harder.
Title: Red
Card (Black Jack Gentlemen #2)
Author: Liz Crowe
Genre: General Fiction,
Adult
Publication Date: August 14,
2013
Cover Design: Mina Carter
Publisher: Tri Destiny Publishing
Event organized by: Literati Author
Services
Source: Digital ARC provided by author in
exchange for honest review.
Synopsis
Free will makes us
human.
Choice makes us
individuals.
Love makes us
unique.
Metin Sevim has it
all. At the pinnacle of international soccer playing success, he has managed to
craft a perfect world for himself along the way.
When fate strips
him of free will and the ability to choose his own path, he retreats from
everyone and everything, destroying his hard-won career in the process.
Dragged back from
the brink by his desperate family, Metin reluctantly agrees to coach the Black
Jack Gentlemen Detroit soccer team but remains debilitated by memories and
loss. When a surprising friendship emerges, it renews his passion for life,
providing much needed solace… and extreme complications.
A saga of family
dynamics and gender politics that cuts across cultures and circumstance, Red
Card illustrates the human capacity for forgiveness through the life of one man
as he attempts to rebuild his shattered existence.
Review
Wow! Liz has done it again! She's taken a love story, ripped my heart out, made me bawl like a baby, added some great sex, a lot of emotional , more sex, and crafted another epic book full of every emotion and flavor. It's basically a paper version of brand new craft beer.
I always love how Liz tells a story from beginning to end. She doesn't just write one year in the scheme of a story, no, she tells the characters' entire story. We get to experience the entire journey. The before, the during, and the after, and I think that is one of the things that makes her books so special. Red Card is written just this way, and it's extremely powerful. Without experiencing Metin's past with him, the reader wouldn't be able to appreciate his pain and especially not where his story ends up. The journey is important, and the story would be incomplete without each step and stumble along the way.
Another thing I love about Liz's writing is that she always appeals to the readers emotions in a way that is both real and involving. You can't help but feel intense emotion for her characters, and Metin is no exception. Liz doesn't spare her characters pain or heartbreak. She doesn't write for the 100% happy ending. This book is messy emotionally, and the experience is realistic. Life doesn't come with a big red bow that ties up all of our experiences in a nice, neat package, and Red Card lives up to real life. There is struggle, lots and lots of struggle, and unhappiness, but again, it's real life. I could appreciate the story so much more after going through the complete journey and all the ups and downs right along with all the characters.
If you haven't read Book One: Man On, you can still read Red Card without being lost; however, I strongly recommend all of Liz's books. She's an amazing author, and you will enjoy every single journey you take with her. You'll find more information about the series, and Man On below. Red Card & Man On are out now! Go ahead and grab your copy of Red Card, this is one emotional trip you won't want to miss!
Not familiar with the BLACK JACK GENTLEMEN series? Here's the reading order for you.
I always love how Liz tells a story from beginning to end. She doesn't just write one year in the scheme of a story, no, she tells the characters' entire story. We get to experience the entire journey. The before, the during, and the after, and I think that is one of the things that makes her books so special. Red Card is written just this way, and it's extremely powerful. Without experiencing Metin's past with him, the reader wouldn't be able to appreciate his pain and especially not where his story ends up. The journey is important, and the story would be incomplete without each step and stumble along the way.
Another thing I love about Liz's writing is that she always appeals to the readers emotions in a way that is both real and involving. You can't help but feel intense emotion for her characters, and Metin is no exception. Liz doesn't spare her characters pain or heartbreak. She doesn't write for the 100% happy ending. This book is messy emotionally, and the experience is realistic. Life doesn't come with a big red bow that ties up all of our experiences in a nice, neat package, and Red Card lives up to real life. There is struggle, lots and lots of struggle, and unhappiness, but again, it's real life. I could appreciate the story so much more after going through the complete journey and all the ups and downs right along with all the characters.
If you haven't read Book One: Man On, you can still read Red Card without being lost; however, I strongly recommend all of Liz's books. She's an amazing author, and you will enjoy every single journey you take with her. You'll find more information about the series, and Man On below. Red Card & Man On are out now! Go ahead and grab your copy of Red Card, this is one emotional trip you won't want to miss!
Not familiar with the BLACK JACK GENTLEMEN series? Here's the reading order for you.
Book 1: Man On (August 2013)
Book 2: Red Card (August 2013)
Book 3: Shut Out (September 2013)
And Coming Soon…
Book 4: Set Piece
Book 5: Hat Trick
Man On (Black Jack Gentlemen:
Book One)
Bad boy of European football, Nicolas Garza is about to hit American
shores with a vengeance. Signed by the Detroit Black Jack Gentlemen as lynch
pin for their expansion club, Nicco only half believes he’s making the right
move. But with a past full of ghosts and rotten behavior chasing him from his
homeland, he has no real choice.
Parker Rollings is a college soccer superstar, but his parents’ plans for their only son do not include professional athletics. When the Black Jacks approach him to finalize their roster, Parker leaps at the chance to keep playing, leaving behind medical school, stability and his first and only college sweetheart.
Nicco and Parker face off as bitter rivals for a coveted starting spot at midfield and are forced to channel their negative energy into something positive for the sake of the
group—and themselves.
All eyes are on the fledgling team in its debut season. It’s crucial that the Black Jacks prove all the doubters wrong. They must make a good showing in the league and with new fans. But player drama, club dynamics, and misplaced priorities may tear it apart before it even begins.
Microbrewery owner, best-selling author, beer blogger and
journalist, 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.
Social
Media Links
Website / Beer Wench Blog / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads /
Facebook
Private Group / Jack
Gordon Facebook Page
Giveaway (Open
Internationally)
One set of signed paperback
copies (the first 3 books) for one winner to be given out after the release of
the third book.
thanks for reading and reviewing my book!
ReplyDeleteThanks for a wonderful review! I love Liz's books for the reasons you mention. I know my emotions will be engaged and the characters will leap off the page at me.
ReplyDelete