Blog tour ~ extract: Friends for Life by Liz Murphy

Genre ~ Contemporary women’s fiction

Publication date ~ January 10, 2024

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I am delighted to share an extract today ~ thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources for organizing.

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It’s barely three months since Kate’s husband Jason died, and she’s struggling to deal with her loss. One thing she’s trying is to surround herself with pretty things that make her feel happy which means getting rid of everything that sparked bad memories of her life with her late husband. Both her adult children have places of their own, and her daughter Lila supports her Mum’s attempts to find her new solo style. Her son Luke is visiting today with his wife Cyn and is about to see for the first time what his mum has done to the family home…

She’d been so looking forward to his visit because she wanted to show off her new living room. The Ikat curtains she’d bought for her bedroom in November had stayed, and Kate had been so inspired by finally being able to make a decision about how she wanted her home to look, she’d tackled the living room – and the offending black sofa. It had been dumped, together with Jason’s ugly old brown desk that had sat at the back of the room alongside a filing cabinet and several enormous and untidy piles of books he’d gathered over the years.

She’d had the walls painted a soft blush colour, and bought an elegant grey sofa, cuddler chair, beautiful grey and cream rug, and classy silver curtains. Where the desk and wobbly office chair had been, now sat a very pretty pink velvet chaise longue. Kate was thrilled with it all and she hoped Luke would be too. She was disappointed.

‘Mum, I can’t believe it!’

‘What can’t you believe?’ Kate asked, taken aback not by the words he used, but by his hostile tone.

‘I can’t believe what you’ve done to this room.’ Luke had stood in the middle of her lovely room, turning his head in disbelief as he took in the furniture, the curtains, the new wall colour, a look of confusion spreading across his face.

‘Don’t you like it?’ Kate asked feebly.

‘Like it?’ Luke shrugged, arms up, head turning right and left, scanning the room as though searching for something positive to say. ‘Mum how can I like it?’

He turned towards Kate and she was stricken to see a steeliness behind his eyes that she hadn’t ever noticed before. ‘Dad’s been dead three months Mum and you’ve chucked out all his stuff. It’s like you’re pushing him out of the house, and all our memories with him.’

Kate put her head in her hands and stood there totally confused, lost for words. Her daughter Lila had been so supportive of the changes she’d made that she hadn’t thought for a moment that Luke would be any different. Plus, he’d never before spoken to her in this way. She didn’t know how to react.

‘Couldn’t you have waited, Mum?’

Kate lifted her head from her hands and looked up at her son. At 6 foot 2 he was a few inches taller than her and although he’d always been the image of his dad in looks, he had a much gentler, more generous nature. Now there was something about his attitude that reminded her of a part of Jason she’d never liked and hadn’t missed in the months since his death. Something that she never wanted to see again. The shock of recognising it in her son helped her find her

voice, and when she spoke there was no disguising her determination.

‘Waited for what Luke? For him to walk back through the door? If that’s what you’re thinking, that’s definitely not going to happen. So, what exactly should I have waited for?’

Luke’s face crumpled and Kate softened her tone. ‘I know you loved your dad. I loved him too. So much. But your dad was no angel Luke, and everything in this room – in fact most things in this house – reminded me of that. If I’m ever going to be able to move on, they needed to go.’

Kate saw confusion sweep across his brow. ‘What are you talking about? Why are you saying he was no angel…?’ he started, but Kate stopped him. ‘I’m not getting into that now Luke,’ she said, firmly. ‘Just please take my word that what I’ve done is what I needed to do.’

Luke folded his arms across his chest and turned away.

‘Come on Cyn,’ he said. ‘Let’s go before this gets any worse.’

Luke’s wife Cyn, pretty and petite, who’d been sitting quietly on the new sofa, now slowly stood up, flicking her blonde ponytail off her shoulder. As she moved forward to kiss her mother-in-law goodbye, Kate could have sworn she saw a smug smile playing on her lips.

‘Don’t worry Kate,’ she’d whispered as she got close to Kate’s cheek. ‘I’m sure he’ll come round. And if it’s any consolation, I rather like what you’ve done to the room.’

As their faces pulled apart, the smile had lingered on Cyn’s lips. What was that all about?

Book blurb:

Kate, Rose and Pascalle are thrown together because they share one experience – they have each lost their husbands. Shocked and bewildered, all three try to work out what it means to be suddenly alone with no partner, no security and their entire future wiped out.

If that wasn’t enough, they are also faced with family conflict, elderly parents, and a support network that turns out to be sadly lacking. And for each woman, secrets from the past threaten to derail their attempts to move on.

*On the surface, Kate’s husband Jason was fun-loving and generous. Only she knows differently. In the months after his death, her attempts to rid her life of the things that trigger bad memories are also driving her son away. By keeping Jason’s secret is she in danger of losing her son as well?

*Rose and Richard were soul mates. Married straight out of university, they shared a career, a business and a love of the good life. Childless, they lived only for each other, or so Rose thought. That all changed the night Richard was killed in a car crash.

*Once spirited, vibrant and flamboyantly French, Pascalle is now a grey shadow of herself. Her husband Trevor’s death has left her so emotionally paralysed, she can’t accept that he’s gone. Then her daughter offers her a chance to create a new life for herself. But will past secrets emerge to hinder her decision?

We follow Kate and Rose through their first year without their husbands. As their friendship with Pascalle grows they encourage each other to be brave, to take control of their lives, and to begin to heal. They draw on past mistakes to help each other build new relationships with their families. And by trusting each other, they realise that true friendship can point the way to a new future.

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Author Bio – Originally from Scotland, Liz Murphy moved to London in the mid 1980s as a features writer on Woman’s Own and since then has worked on some of the biggest weekly and monthly magazines in the country including Good Housekeeping, House Beautiful, TVTimes and Sky The Magazine, where she held senior editorial positions. Liz is also a qualified mat and reformer Pilates teacher.

The sudden death of her husband, Steve, prompted her to reassess her priorities, following which she left magazines and now focuses her time on teaching Pilates, playing tennis, working at tennis tournaments, singing in a choir and sitting on the governing body of a federation of three primary schools. She has two grown-up daughters.

Social Media Links –

INSTAGRAM. https://www.instagram.com/lizmurphybooks . https://www.instagram.com/elizabethlizlizzie

WEBSITE https://selfishatsixty.com/

FACEBOOK Liz Murphy writer

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