Today I am delighted to join Sue Featherstone and Susan Pape on tour with A Forgiven Friend, the final book in their co-authored FRIENDS trilogy which was published on November 19th with Lakewater Press.
I have an extract to share with you all today so I do hope you enjoy!
[ About the Book ]
A Forgiven Friend: Lies, Loss, and Love, But Always Friendship
Friendship will always come first.
There’s only one way out from rock bottom and that’s up, and Teri Meyer is finally crawling out from the worst time of her life – no thanks to her best friend Lee. But no matter, she’s finally found love – real love with a real man, a successful man, a man who accepts all her flaws. Teri’s never felt like this before, and yet it’s changing her in ways she doesn’t understand.
And there’s only one person who can help, one person who truly understands Teri.
It seems that no matter how hard Lee Harper tries, there’s a battle awaiting her at every turn these days, and she’s tired. And as if she needs the extra stress, Teri continues to create constant and unnecessary drama. But Lee’s the only one who really knows what’s going on under Teri’s hard, convoluted exterior, and that’s why she’s always been there for her.
But the question is: will Teri be there when Lee needs her most?
The brilliant and entertaining final book in the unique FRIENDS trilogy dishes out another dose of rib-tickling mayhem for our favourite thirty-something professional women.
[ Extract with Introduction ]
Introduction – After being told to keep best friend, Lee Harper’s possible pregnancy a secret, Teri Meyer – not known for tact and diplomacy – spills the beans not only to Lee’s fiancé, Dan Caine, but to make matters worse, Lee’s mother. Lee, of course, is furious…
Extract – The morning after the night before would, under normal circumstances, have begun with the phone ringing off the hook and Teri enthusing about her and Declan, and their mutual passion and insatiable desire and multiple couplings on the polished floorboards of her duplex hallway, king-sized bed, and, judging by past performances, the kitchen and bathroom tiles, too. She wouldn’t give a toss that there are some things that shouldn’t be shared. Ever.
Not today: she’s not lacking in chutzpah, but even Teri knows that blabbing a second time when I’d asked her – no, made her promise ‘finger wet, finger dry’ – to keep her mouth zipped is a massive foot-in-mouth-I-might-have-to-kill-you faux pas. And any mild curiosity I might have felt about the outcome of dalliances chez Meyer was more than tempered by fury that she’d gone and done it again.
Still, at least, I was reaping the benefits of pregnancy-induced-alcohol-abstinence – a clear head. Dan, on the other hand, who’d spent most of yesterday evening knocking back neat whisky like there was no tomorrow, and who was due to present the lunchtime news bulletin – lucky viewers! – nursed the mother of all hangovers. ‘I feel like a slug in a salt mine,’ he moaned, as he hunched, head slumped in his hands, over the breakfast bar. He raised his head with exaggerated care. ‘I could kill a coffee. I don’t suppose you could make one?’ He half-closed his eyes in a futile bid to block the bright winter sunlight flooding through the kitchen window. ‘Don’t forget to swill some hot water in the cafetière first.’ I could feel my hackles rising as he continued: ‘And a level spoonful of my special blend.’
I wonder what happened to his last slave. Probably got fired for serving instant coffee.
‘And, please,’ Dan begged, ‘don’t lower the plunger until I tell you.’
‘Would you like a drop of cold water as well?’ I queried, recognising Teri’s renowned coffee rigmarole.
‘If you don’t mind?’
Cheeky blighter!
But, in the interests of kindness to suffering humans, I obligingly followed his instructions and poured the concoction into a travel mug. ‘If I were you,’ I suggested helpfully, ‘I’d take a banana with you. They’re chock full of potassium, which will help with the dehydration.’
He grimaced and shuffled his feet like a little boy who’d fallen out with his best friend and desperately wanted to make up but didn’t quite know what to say. ‘Erm,’ he said, eventually, helping himself to a banana from the fruit bowl. ‘I hope your mother doesn’t give you too hard a time.’
Well, whatever happened, it wouldn’t be as hard a time as I planned to give Teri next time I caught up with her.
[ About the Authors ]
Sue Featherstone and Susan Pape are both former newspaper journalists with extensive experience of working for national and regional papers and magazines, and in public relations.
More recently they have worked in higher education, teaching journalism – Sue at Sheffield Hallam and Susan at Leeds Trinity University.
The pair, who have been friends for almost 30 years, wrote two successful journalism text books together – Newspaper Journalism: A Practical Introduction and Feature Writing: A Practical Introduction (both published by Sage), before deciding to turn their hands to fiction.
The first novel in their Friends series, A Falling Friend, was released in 2016. A Forsaken Friend followed two years later, and the final book in the trilogy, A Forgiven Friend, published on November 19.
Sue, who is married with two grown-up daughters, and the most ‘gorgeous granddaughter in the whole world’, loves reading, writing and Nordic walking in the beautiful countryside near her Yorkshire home.
Susan is married and lives in a village near Leeds, and, when not writing, loves walking and cycling in the Yorkshire Dales. She is also a member of a local ukulele orchestra.
They blog about books at https://bookloversbooklist.com/
Follow them on Twitter: @SueF_Writer and @wordfocus
Thank you for inviting us onto your lovely blog. x
Sue you are both so very welcome. Wishing you every success x
I love how this one sounds – funny and lots of heart!
We need books like this don’t we?