Title: Lightstruck
Author: Liz Crowe
Genre: Contemporary Erotic Romance
Release Date: May 30, 2017
Ross Hoffman held the potential for a perfect life in his hands—a life with Evelyn, the only woman he’d ever allowed himself to love, their baby, and…her husband, Austin Fitzgerald, who also happened to be his best friend. But the challenge of trying to make a threesome into something acceptable—much less the thought of actually sharing Evelyn with anyone—forces him to bolt. Determined to put all thoughts of their relationship behind him, Ross jumps headfirst into a new brewery job in Colorado, and back into the sort of sexual decadence that he hopes will distract him from his misery.
When he agrees to assist Austin through a spate of brewery mishaps, he lays eyes on his true fate—in the form of the petite, mysterious, and exotic Elisa Nagel. Hired as assistant brewer, Elisa is absolutely everything he believes he doesn’t want in a woman. But he’s drawn to her in ways he can’t explain, and can’t help but fall hard, fast, and deep, which places him square the middle of her horrific, until-now secret backstory.
Ross is determined that his love will conquer and overcome the horrors of Elisa’s past, allowing her to trust him with the only thing he desires—her heart.
“You really know how to make yourself scarce, don’t you?” Austin said by way of greeting.
Ross grunted a reply as he sat gingerly down into a chair at the kitchen table. The sunlight blaring through the window pierced him right in the eyeballs. It shoved the spike of pain nice and deep into his brainpan, blinding and deafening him for a few seconds. “What? Sorry. I’m a little fragile this morning.”
“Whatever, dude. So, can you come?”
“I already told Evelyn I would.” He couldn’t keep the snippy tone out of his voice. It was all he could do at that moment not to puke all over the expensive hardwood floor.
“What? When did you talk to her?” Austin sounded frazzled. But he’d sounded that way ever since Rose’s birth.
“Shit man, I don’t remember. What the hell day is it anyway?”
“What happened to Mr. Pure Living?”
“He got gang banged by a pack of succubus, all right? Cut him a break.”
“Nice,” Austin said. Ross couldn’t tell if he were amused or honestly pissed off.
“Whatever. So yeah, I told her at some point I’d help you guys. I’m somewhat persona non grata around here all of a sudden, anyway.” He rubbed his eyes. “Seriously, what day is it?”
Austin’s heavy sigh set Ross’ sensitive on edge. But he sat still, willing the clanging agony in his head to stop, knowing getting angry would only exacerbate it. “It’s Wednesday morning, eleven a.m. where I am, which makes it nine where you are.”
Shocked at the lost twenty-four hours, he lurched forward, which sent a jolt of nausea up his throat. “Oh, shit.”
“Yeah. So, I guess you heard it all, then. If you talked to Evelyn?”
“I, uh, don’t know,” he hedged as he stumbled to the kitchen sink just in case. The silence on the other end of the line made his pulse race. His good buddy was getting a tad bit bossy and Ross was in zero mood for it. “Guess you should tell me whatever the fuck it all is. Since the last I spoke to Evelyn it was Monday night. Tuesday seems to have been sucked away, along with every ounce of my—”
“Spare me.”
“Dude, just fill me in. Holly showed up here that same night and I’m pretty sure she drugged me or something.”
“Poor little snowflake,” Austin said, amusement clear in his voice this time.
“Yeah. I sure as hell wish I could remember any of it.” He touched his sore dick before pressing fingertips against the many, tiny burned spots and gouges on his chest. “So, anyway, what’s going on now, drama king?”
“Oh, not much I guess. Other than my wife was nearly raped and killed by a psycho almost-ex-employee before he got popped between the eyes by my strange new German lady brewer.”
“You really shouldn’t mess with me right now.” Ross kept his head lowered, waiting for the inevitable over the sink.
“I’m not.”
“Evelyn was…is she all right?” He poured another glass of water and forced it past the rising gorge in his throat.
“Yes. Thanks to Elisa Nagel, she is. Although that woman is now in custody and I gotta go post a two hundred fifty thou bail and get her scary ass in front of my lawyer.”
“Elisa…who?” The room had commenced spinning so he squeezed his eyes shut. “Oh, right. The Berliner brewer chick.” But he knew damn well who she was. Fronting with confusion was his reflex to counter the surge of emotion that had muscled past his pain at the sound of her name.
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 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?”). 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.
Liz Crowe writes intense true-to-life stories that make you feel. Whether it's anxiety, love, fear, hate, bliss, or loss woven into her plot lines, you will feel it deep down to your very soul. --Audrey Carlan, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
Liz Crowe is one of those rare authors who knows how to take the emotions of her characters and make them real for her readers, binding you to the story.” ---USA Today and Internationally Bestselling Author Desiree Holt
"Liz Crowe is my drug of choice for unconventional romance that pushes the envelope of my comfort zone." --Bestselling Author of the Enigma Series, Ditter Kellan
“I’ve learned to expect the unexpected with any Liz Crowe novel—along with 3-dimensional characters and well-written, realistic plots.” --USA Today bestselling author AM Hargrove
