Denton, Arkansas

Billy Lowe is terrorized by his mother's abusive boyfriend. HIs family is troubled. He finds his place on the football field, but when he takes his anger out on the field, he faces suspension. His head coach, Trent Powers, know the Denton Pirates won’t make the playoffs without Billy. Trent decides if he can save Billy, he can save his soul. Trent also has an agenda, he moved to town after being fired from his previous job and this is his chance at redemption. Billy is looking for a better life, and a future involving football.

Both Billy and Trent, have something to prove. Both are moving toward something; both have a lot riding on the game and on themselves.

When Billy's abuser is found dead in his mother's trailer, all evidence points to Billy. The playoffs are near and so is the hunt for a killer.

This book does have Christian themes as well as being about sports, family, redemption, and courage.

When I began listening to the audiobook, I wasn't sure if this book was for me. But I warmed up to this book fast. I love an underdog, especially one that is a little rough around the edges. Billy lives in a gritty world with toxic people. He is up against the wall but keeps moving. I also enjoy a good mystery and I have to say, I did not see the reveal coming!

He may have had 200 rejections, but Eli Cranor, kept at it and this book is proof that he has a promising career ahead of him.

3.5 stars.


Thank you to RB Media, and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Don't Know Tough by Eli Cranor is a dark, intense and fascinating listen. The author was great bringing the characters to life with his voice. He painted some disturbing visions of social injustice, and it was difficult to hear the abuse. The imagery was vibrant and I could envision so many details. The author and narrator are the same person, and did justice to the book. The ending really surprised me in this powerful listen. Thank you #NetGalley and #RB Media for allowing me to listen and review.

The New Coach

Compelling, tragic and heartbreaking. This story will touch your soul.

A story of a high school football coach fired from a school in California and relocating to a school in the Ozarks, a small Arkansas town. A football coach named Trent Powers with an overbearing wife and a domineering father in law. A man who tries to live life right with god and his country, tries to do good for his family and tries to help a young troubled football player named Billy Lowe.

Billy Lowe is a troubled young man. Living in poverty in a small trailer house with his mother, his younger brother and an abusive step father. He knows pain, he knows cruelty and he is steeped in anger. When he takes out this anger on the football field it causes the whole town to be in an uproar. The new coach takes Billy into his home and tries to help him win a scholarship.

It all changes when Billy's stepfather is found dead and Billy, his mother, and his older brother Jesse are all suspects in the murder. The truth of the murder is even more wild.

This is a story of two tortures souls. A story of poverty, pain and anger. An anger that cannot be quenched.

The author did a wonderful job writing the story and the narration was perfect. The book was a good story and I would recommend it.

Thanks to Eli Crandor for both writing a great story and doing a perfect narration of it, to R.B. Media for publishing it and to NetGalley for making it available to me.

Wow. This one grabbed me from the get go and didn’t let go until the end. The intensity of the story is so deep that you won’t be able to forget it hours and days after finishing it. And if you have the chance, I recommend the audiobook for it if you can get it, because it adds a whole other layer to it. The narrators are fantastic!
I went into this expecting something along the Blindside, but this was way so very different and so very dark. Yes, there are a few similarities, but they are sort of superficial as this book goes far deeper into the dark side of life for the average football family.
Trent Powers moves his family to Arkansas so he can be the coach of the high school football team. Like most souther towns, everyone in town is invested in the success of the team, especially his wife, who doesn’t want to live in Arkansas and her influential father. When he leads the team to the playoffs, he thinks maybe things will look up for him and his family, but it is in fact when throngs go very, very wrong. The Pirates’ star player, Billy Lowe is from the wrong side of the tracks and when he has had enough of his life & snaps one day at practice and beats the heck out of one of the rich kids on the team, Trent has to figure out how to punish him without effecting his career at the same time. He decides to bench him, but take him into his house to try to mentor him and get him saved because he knows from experience that Billy’s only hope out of all the bad in his life is to find Jesus. However, not long after he moves in, there is a body found in town, Trent’s daughter takes an interest in Billy and by the end of the story, life in the little town of Denton, Arkansas, will never be the same.
I am not a super huge football fan, and tbh the football is kind of the background to the story and not the focus, but at the same time, it highlights the differences in classes by using complex, haunting characters from both sides of the tracks and how they handle the same things very differently, and yet the same when it all comes down to it.
Overall, it’s hard to believe that this is the authors debut novel, but I will be watching out for his future work!
Thanks to Soho Crime and NetGalley for this audiobook arc in exchange for my review.

As a lover of football and books about difficult family dynamics, I felt 200% certain I was going to love this book. And I think I would have if it didn't have such a strong religious overtone to it, and books with high levels of religion just aren't for me.

Although I read more than half, I'm not going to give it a star rating because I believe it's a solid book. I don't want to lower the book's average rating simply because I didn't like part of the genre. (here in NetGalley, I had no choice but to give a star rating, but I did not rate it on GoodReads).

That said, I do believe that Christianity should be listed somewhere in the GoodReads synopsis. It is listed in the synopsis in netgalley, however, I based my decision to read this on the GoodReads synopsis, which was my fault.

If you like football, mentoring, rough family dynamics, and Christianity... you will probably like this book.

Thank you to RB Media and Eli Cranor for the opportunity to read this book.

PS. I also wanted to add that the author narrated the audiobook himself. Initially, that was a turn-off because writing skill is different from narrating skill... but he did a fantastic job. I was really impressed.

4 stars
Title: Don’t Know Tough
Author: Eli Cranor
Genre: Sports/Mystery
Publisher: RB Media
Pub Date: March 22, 2022
My Rating: 4 Stars


Coach Trent Powers was let go from his current job and accepts the position of head football coach of Denton High School in Arkansas. This is a big change from Anaheim, California and Trent is out to prove to everyone that he can do the job.
One of his star football players is Billy Lowe, who lives in a poor trailer park with his mother, little brother as well as his mother’s abusive boyfriend.
Billy takes the abuse and releases his anger on football field. One day he was too aggressive and beats up rich kid Austin Murphy at practice. The Principal wants to punish him.
However since the home situation is not ideal; Coach Trent believes the best for Billy is to take Billy into his home. However, when Billy’s abuser is murdered, Billy is suspected.

Author, Eli Cranor did an excellent job performing the characters in this audiobook.
Personal Note: I am not a fan of authors reading their own books; typically they read and don’t perform the characters the way an actor does ~ however this was a great!

Additional I enjoyed reading about Eli Cranor.. In his ‘Acknowledgements’, he, of course, thanks his many supporters. He gives specials thanks to his mom who continued to support and help him through his 200 rejections!!

This is a dark disturbing yet powerful read. When I started this …I thought hmm this may not work for me. It turned out much better than I expected; I could not put it down.

Want to thank NetGalley and RB Media for this audio eGalley. This file has been made available to me before publication in an early form for an honest professional review.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for March 22, 2022.