Book Extract: Friends For Life by Liz Murphy

I’m pleased to be welcoming Liz Murphy to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her novel, Friends for Life.

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.

Liz has shared an extract today. We hope you enjoy it. 

Content warning: mentions of cancer.

*****beginning of extract*****

Kate, Rose and Pascalle met at a drinks party where they were reluctant guests. All three have been struggling to cope with the deaths of their husbands, and each sees in the other women who understand exactly what they’re going through. Their developing friendship has helped Pascalle to finally come to terms with the loss of her Trevor. Tonight, she’s having a night out with Kate and Rose to celebrate their birthdays and as she’s getting ready fun Pascalle is starting to emerge…

 *****

‘Fifth time lucky,’ said Pascalle out loud as she slipped yet another dress from the pile on her bed over her head. She had been so excited for this evening that she started getting ready mid-afternoon, having a shower, shaving her legs and underarms, and taking time to carefully blow dry and then curl her long dark hair.

Last week she’d had the colour done for the first time in well over a year, having booked an appointment as soon as they’d set the date, and she loved the rich, deep shade of black she and the hairdresser chosen to flatter the golden tones of her Gallic skin. Although Pascalle was 66, she still had great cheek bones and a pretty, almost elfin face. Trevor used to say she reminded him of Audrey Hepburn, and she’d beam at the complement. She was so grateful that her skin had barely aged, which meant she could easily carry off a hair colour that would be too harsh on other women of her age. Tonight, she was wearing her hair loose, curls bouncing cheekily around her face.

Deciding what to wear was proving more difficult than she’d imagined. Last night she’d pulled out six brightly coloured and patterned dresses, all of which had been favourites in past years, and hung them in a row on her bedroom door so that she could see them all and take her time mulling over which one to chose. Twenty four hours later, she still hadn’t selected one.  She was definitely out of practice at going out.

This was going to be the first really fun night out she’d had with a group of women since Trevor died. Four years of long, boring nights in. The old Pascalle, the Pascalle who existed before Trevor’s cancer diagnosis, would never have believed it possible that she’d go four weeks without a night out never mind four years. So here was a chance to rekindle the spark of that old Pascalle, and she needed an outfit that not only looked amazing but also made her feel right, and tonight she wanted to feel fun. Maybe even a little flirty. Not that she’d be hunting for a man, she just wanted to recreate the excitement of the old days when she had a bunch of great friends who all loved a laugh and a night out. Friends who melted away during Trevor’s illness.

At the time she couldn’t understand it.  Surely friends were supposed to support you in your hour of need, not desert you as though you’re some sort of sinking ship? Which of course in a way she was, sinking further and further in the mire of caring for a dependent and terminally ill man. A man who seemed to have lost half a stone overnight every time he got out of bed in the morning, whose skin gradually turned yellow, whose remaining hair fell out thanks to the harsh chemo treatment, leaving him bald and chubby cheeked because of the steroids he took daily. A man who changed from her strong, gentle, doting Trevor into a frail almost skeletal figure, weak, vulnerable.

He had been grateful for the care she’d insisted on giving him at home until almost the end but wasn’t really aware of the terrible toll it was taking on her spirit. In lots of ways, neither was she. Not until the inevitable happened and she was left alone. By the time of Trevor’s death, the fun-loving Pascalle was a memory. But tonight, Pascalle was ready to feel funny and flighty again, and who better to share her re-entry into a social life with but her new friends Rose and Kate. She smiled at the thought of them.

The fifth dress still wasn’t right, so she took the sixth one off its coat hanger and carefully slipped it over her head. The fabric was jersey and the shape bodycon. With a wide V-neck, ruching down one side of the skirt, mid-length sleeves and in a bold floral print of giant red roses on a black background, it announced that Pascalle was back and ready to party!

She pulled on a pair of vertiginous heeled shiny red pumps and thought, ‘This is exactly how I want to feel tonight.’

She picked up her phone and with a wide smile on her face, wrote a text to the YogaBunnies group chat:

Just leaving. Can’t wait for you both to see what I’m wearing

*****end of extract*****

About Liz Murphy – 

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.

Say hello to Liz via Instagram or her website.

Buy Friends for Life on Amazon UK and Amazon US.

by

Laura

I’m Laura. I started Novel Kicks in 2009. I wanted a place to post my writing as well as give other writers like me the opportunity to do the same. There is also a monthly book club, a writing room which features writing prompts, book reviews, competitions, author interviews and guest posts.

I grew up by the sea (my favourite place in the world) and I currently live in Hampshire. I am married to Chris, have a cat named Buddy and I would love to be a writer. I’m trying to write the novel I’ve talked so much about writing if only I could stop pressing delete. I’ve loved writing since creative writing classes in primary school. I have always wanted to see my teacher Miss Sayers again and thank her for the encouragement. When not trying to write the novel or writing snippets of stories on anything I can get my hands on, I love reading, dancing like a loon and singing to myself very badly. My current obsession is Once Upon a Time and I would be happy to live with magic in the enchanted forest surrounded by all those wonderful stories provided that world also included Harry Potter. I love reading chick lit. contemporary fiction and novels with mystery.