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A Year of Firsts - Book Tour and Giveaway

2/21/2022

35 Comments

 
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A Year of Firsts
Second Chances Book 1
by Liz Flaherty
Genre: Contemporary Romance 

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Widow Syd Cavanaugh is beginning a “year of firsts” with the road trip she’d promised her husband she’d take after his death. An unplanned detour lands her in Fallen Soldier, Pennsylvania, where she meets the interesting and intelligent editor of the local paper.

Television journalist Clay McAlister’s life took an unexpected turn when a heart attack forced him to give up his hectic lifestyle. He’s still learning how to live in a small town when meeting a pretty traveler in the local coffee shop suddenly makes it all much more interesting.

While neither of them is interested in a romantic relationship, their serious case of being “in like” seems to push them that way. However, Clay’s heart condition doesn’t harbinger a very secure future, and Syd’s already lost one man she loved to a devastating illness—she isn’t about to lose another. Where can this relationship possibly go?




Goodreads * Amazon

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​Prologue
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Sell it and take care of the kids.
It was the decision they’d made when they were halfway through the renovation of the brick Cape Cod that proclaimed itself to be Peaceful Cottage on the sign on its picketed white gate. Syd and Paul had referred to it as the Cavanaugh Money Pit.
But now the kids were grown and gone from home. The college bills were paid off and no one slept in the bedrooms under the eaves. The house was finished to the point that it was on the home tour that took place in Peru, Indiana during the almost-annual Cole Porter Festival. It was a beautiful place.
Syd kind of hated it.
Give yourself a year to mourn if you think you need to, then put it away. Make the next year a time of firsts. Do things you’ve always wanted to but haven’t because life—or I—got in the way.
They hadn’t made that decision together, but it had been written in the last of the coil-bound notebooks with The Marriage Book printed on the covers that had diarized their lives together. You’ve taken care of me through All of This. Now it’s time to take care of you.
She hadn’t taken care of All of This, though. If she had, she’d have found a cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Paul would still be with her. They’d be sharing Marriage Books and boxes of scandalously cheap wine and making plans for what they would do Someday.
Had she always thought in words that started with capital letters? She thought maybe she had.
It had been more than eleven months since Paul left them. Still smiling although he couldn’t talk, still the man she’d loved since the sixth grade. Syd had taken that eleven and a half months, every minute of it up to this very day, to learn to live without him. She’d read every book on loss the library offered, joined a grief group, and tightened the already strong bonds of her relationship with her daughters and sons-in-law.
She’d given away things Paul had loved to others who would care for them as he had. One morning, wearing disreputable jogging pants and one of her husband’s equally shabby flannel shirts, she’d packed his clothes and driven them to the veterans’ thrift store in a neighboring city, crying all the way there and singing along with Paul’s beloved Eagles on the way home. She’d given his motorcycle and his pickup to the girls’ husbands, with all five of them weeping as she handed over the keys.
And then she sold the house, standing for a long time at the sign on the gate when she left it for the last time. Peaceful Cottage. She’d loved the house for a long time, but thought Tribulation House would have been a more fitting name. Leaving it was painful because it felt almost as if she was leaving Paul, but there was respite in the move, too. That she had felt relief at her husband’s death was something she couldn’t make herself say.
She made sure her will was in order and gave lists of passwords and account numbers to the girls. She sat at the rolltop desk that had been one of the first pieces of furniture she and Paul had bought and that now lived in in Haley’s big farmhouse kitchen and made a list. The girls helped her with it, sharing memories and ideas and a bottle of the same wine their parents used to drink out of a box.
When the list was complete, she handed it to them. “What do you think? What would Daddy think?”
They pored over the handwritten sheet, Haley’s brown head and Shiloh’s blond one close together. Syd stopped for a moment, interrupting the plans that were jumbling together in her head, her heart spilling over. If she hadn’t had them when their father died, she’d have wanted to die, too. How could she leave them?
Paul had covered that question, too, in the marriage book. Don’t start feeling as if you’re deserting the family. The girls will want this for you, and you’ll always be there if they need you. Do this for you, Syd.
What will you do first?

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Liz Flaherty spends non-writing time sewing, quilting, and thinking she should clear a path through the fabric stash that furnishes her office. She also loves to travel and spend time with the grandkids (the Magnificent Seven) and their parents. She and Duane, her husband of a really long time, live in the old farmhouse in Indiana they moved to in 1977. They've talked about moving, but really, 40 years of stuff? It's not happening!

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35 Comments
Liz Flaherty link
2/21/2022 06:49:25 am

Looking forward to the tour!

Reply
Jana Richards link
2/21/2022 03:44:30 pm

Best of luck on the tour and with this new book, Liz!

Reply
Liz Flaherty link
2/21/2022 06:41:51 pm

Thanks, Jana!

Rita Wray
2/21/2022 12:22:08 pm

Sounds like a book I will enjoy reading.

Reply
Liz Flaherty link
2/21/2022 06:42:43 pm

I hope so! Thanks for commenting.

Reply
Marcy Meyer
2/21/2022 12:30:15 pm

I like the cover. It looks great. Sounds like a good story. I like the excerpt.

Reply
Liz Flaherty
2/21/2022 06:43:21 pm

Thank you!

Reply
wendy hutton
2/21/2022 02:20:46 pm

this sounds like a wonderful book

Reply
Liz Flaherty
2/21/2022 06:44:22 pm

I hope so. :-)

Reply
Beyond Comps
2/21/2022 02:42:49 pm

Great cover!

Reply
Liz Flaherty
2/21/2022 06:44:44 pm

I like it, too!

Reply
bn100
2/21/2022 03:56:30 pm

nice cover

Reply
Liz Flaherty
2/23/2022 05:34:59 am

Thank you! I like it, too.

Reply
Barbara Montag
2/21/2022 04:36:43 pm

Genre is romance and this promises to be a great read for me!
Thank you for sharing this.

Reply
Liz Flaherty
2/23/2022 05:35:34 am

I hope you enjoy it!

Reply
Sherry
2/21/2022 05:48:50 pm

I love the cover and the excerpt.



Reply
Liz Flaherty
2/23/2022 05:36:05 am

Thank you. I hope you enjoy the story.

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Terri Quick
2/21/2022 07:16:19 pm

Nice cover

Reply
Liz Flaherty
2/23/2022 05:36:33 am

Thank you for commenting!

Reply
Bea LaRocca
2/21/2022 09:31:40 pm

I love the cover, synopsis and excerpt, this is a must read for me. Thank you for sharing your bio and book details and for offering a giveaway

Reply
Liz Flaherty
2/23/2022 05:37:04 am

Thank you, Bea. I hope you read and enjoy!

Reply
Karin
2/22/2022 08:04:50 am

Nice excerpt

Reply
Liz Flaherty
2/23/2022 05:37:28 am

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

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Kari B
2/22/2022 08:06:45 am

Sounds like a sweet romance to read about with relatable lead characters.

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Liz Flaherty
2/23/2022 05:38:05 am

I hope they are relatable. I loved telling their story.

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Sunnymay
2/22/2022 04:47:51 pm

The title seems so appropriate with making changes after the loss of a spouse. Making steps into the future is what will happen along the way as life goes on differently. Looks like a sweet romance.

Reply
Liz Flaherty
2/23/2022 05:39:27 am

I enjoyed Syd and Clay's journey! I hope you do, too.

Reply
Calvin
2/22/2022 11:39:05 pm

I feel for the character.. big life changes happen.

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Liz Flaherty
2/23/2022 05:40:03 am

They do! I hope Syd and Clay's story shows that in a relatable way.

Reply
Wendy Jensen
2/23/2022 01:42:01 pm

The book details sound like an interesting romance.

Reply
Liz Flaherty
2/24/2022 05:18:07 am

Thank you! I hope you get it and like it!

Reply
K
2/26/2022 08:30:08 pm

What a great read! So interesting; love the cover art as well! :)

Reply
Liz Flaherty
2/27/2022 06:00:46 am

Thank you so much!

Reply
LYNN CLAYTON
2/27/2022 08:06:09 pm

looks.good

Reply
Liz Flaherty link
2/28/2022 05:40:44 am

Thank you! I hope you'll give it a try.

Reply



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