EXCERPT and GIVEAWAY
Love and Other Hazards
by Claudia Riess
Love and Other Hazards by Claudia Riess is currently on tour with Bewitching Book Tours. The tour stops here today for an excerpt and a giveaway. Please be sure to visit the other tour stops as well.
Description
Love and Other Hazards is a novel about urban singles stumbling toward fulfillment in an odyssey of sex, love, and parenting.
Glenda Fieldston is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with her seven-year-old daughter, Astrid, when Eugene Lerman comes walking by with his eight-year-old daughter, Meredith, a schoolmate of Astrid’s. The families spot each other, Glenda and Eugene engage in long-range cursory assessments, and then they go their separate ways.
But not for long. Glenda and Eugene cross paths professionally soon after, and circumstances at work bring them into close association. So begins a friendship fraught with complications. Glenda’s independence is self-imposed and fierce. Eugene’s was foisted on him by a wife who left him. Although Glenda’s and Eugene’s personal demons are incompatible, their longings are, confoundedly, in harmony. Their cautious friendship is further inhibited by past and present relationships, and it remains to be seen if they can break out of their set ways to make a break for uncharted love.
Excerpt
Glenda Fieldston's agile little daughter hoisted herself onto the pedestal of the tall bronze statue of the Roman emperor. Only then was she able to reach his genitals. Glenda did nothing to discourage her. The child had never seen a naked man, and Glenda guessed this was as good a time as any to make use of the hands-on theory of learning.
Some twelve yards away, Eugene Lerman was exiting the hall with his daughter Meredith trailing behind him, rhythmically clicking the heels and toes of her patent leather shoes on the marble floor as if she was on a Broadway stage instead of here at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Raising her eyes to an imaginary audience, she caught sight of the girl on the pedestal.
"Hey, that's Astrid Fieldston! Isn't she gross? She goes to my school!" Eugene, hanging back, looked in time to witness the last bit of anatomical exploration. He was annoyed with himself for feeling a prudish twinge.
The museum guard, who had been distracted by Meredith's tapping feet, turned. His lanky frame tensed. "Get off there!" he ordered, striding across the hall. He glared at Glenda as Astrid jumped off the pedestal to her side. "Don't you know better than that, lady?"
Glenda concealed her alarm. "Don't get excited, we weren't going to steal him," she assured him.
The guard shook his bony finger at her. "You just observe the rules, ma'am." He marched to the wall, where he positioned himself for a possible showdown, feet apart, arms akimbo. "Fresh!"
"What are you looking at?" Astrid challenged, and Glenda noticed Meredith Lerman, one of Astrid's elementary school nemeses — a year her senior, in second grade — crouching across the hall as if preparing to attack. On meeting Glenda's glance, Meredith tossed her braids and scurried after the man Glenda assumed was her father, grabbing his hand and tugging him onward, not without directing a parting tongue-thrust of scorn at Astrid. Meredith's father was a dark-haired figure with a coat slung over his shoulder, and Glenda thought he looked a bit lost and confused. Her own vulnerability bounded out to meet his, but she instantly drew it back, as if it were a flaw he had tricked her into revealing.
Astrid hiked up her jeans. "Can we go now? I'm starving."
Glenda smiled and shook her head. "Already? It's only four-thirty."
"My stomach is making noises."
"That was Meredith Lerman, wasn't it? I met her mother at a parents' meeting last year."
"Mrs. Lerman ran away from home," Astrid said bluntly.
Glenda frowned. "Mrs. Lerman? But she was going to law school."
"Meredith said so. Cheryl told me. Can we go home and eat?"
"I think it's a story."
"It's not."
[Want more? Click below to read a longer excerpt.]
Praise for the Book
"This book starts out quickly and grabs your interest. Then comes excitement and greater depth. This is a warm and fast-moving story." ~ Alan H. Covey, M.D.
"I enjoyed this book about relationships, parenting, love, being guarded and in control as well as letting go. This story takes place in NYC. The characters are interesting and feel realistic. A fast read." ~ Amazon Customer
"I really enjoyed this novel. The characters were well developed and the novel really made me reflect on life. I cared about the characters in a way that I have not in a really long time. If you want to read a novel that might be somewhat different than what you are used to then this is the novel for you. Enjoy!" ~ Maryann Pereira
"An incredibly well-written, compelling story of love, its perils and more. I loved it." ~ M. Glenda Rosen
"What a different and exciting take on the subject of love, with surprise and intrigue on every page! Hope the author produces another book as enthralling as this one." ~ Niki
About the Author
Love and Other Hazards is Claudia’s fourth novel. Her fifth, a sequel to her art suspense, Stolen Light, is in the works. The author divides her time between the Hamptons and Manhattan with her husband, Bob.
Giveaway
Enter the tour-wide giveaway for a chance to win one of five copies of Love and Other Hazards by Claudia Riess (US only).
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