Blog Tour and Giveaway: Showstoppers, by Helen Smith

Showstoppers, by Helen Smith

“Helen Smith is a master story-teller." Socrates Book Reviews

When twenty-six-year-old Londoner Emily Castles helps out at a local stage school, she’s soon mixed up in murder. She teams up with eccentric philosophy professor Dr. Muriel to solve the case.

This 75-page comic mystery novella will appeal to fans of M C Beaton and Alexander McCall Smith.

Print Length: 48 pages
Publisher: Tyger Books (December 5, 2011)







 
Praise for the Emily Castles Mystery Series
Fast-paced, funny, and mysterious... Helen Smith is a master story-teller.
~Socrates Book Reviews

It grips you from the very beginning.
~Babs Books Bistro

Bright, colorful and full of surprises.
~Amazon Vine Reviewer

Fast-paced and unusual, I highly recommend this one.
~Eva’s Sanctuary


Praise for Helen Smith
Smith is gin-and-tonic funny.
~The Booklist

My Review:
This is the second Emily Castles mystery book.  Three Sisters was the first.

First off, I enjoyed this book quite a bit more than I did the first one.  I think the reason for that is because the mystery starts right from the beginning in this story, where as it took a while for it to get going in the first book.  I also liked the characters a little more, too.  Victoria is funny, self-absorbed, and a little flaky.  She makes me laugh.  

I enjoyed the overlap of some of the characters.  Dr. Muriel returns as a very helpful and amusing sidekick for Emily.  The mention of characters and places from the first book was fun, too.  

I liked the mystery in this book.  It took me a lot longer to guess who the culprit is than in the first book.  I still managed to guess correctly long before the guilty party revealed themselves, but it was fun to have suspicions and doubts about their identity.

There were some typos and spelling mistakes, and those always drive me a bit crazy, but the content was clean, humorous, and fun.  This would definitely be classified as a "light" mystery.  I would read the first book before reading this one, just so you have the background about all the characters.  They aren't very long, so it makes for a nice afternoon read.

Amazon | Goodreads | Shelfari | LibraryThing

About the Author:

Helen Smith is a member of the Writers Guild of Great Britain and English PEN. She travelled the world when her daughter was small, doing all sorts of strange jobs to support them both - from cleaning motels to working as a magician's assistant - before returning to live in London where she wrote her first novel which was published by Gollancz (part of the Hachette Group).

She writes novels, poetry, plays and screenplays and is the recipient of an Arts Council of England Award. She's a long-term supporter of the Medical Foundation for the Victims of Torture and mentors members of an exiled writers group to help them tell their stories. She likes knitting but she doesn't like driving. She likes dancing. 


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Tour Schedule

February 7th
I Am A Reader, Not A Writer - Interview
FUONLYKNEW - Review
Taking Time for Mommy - Review
Cabin Goddess - Review
UK Quality Reads - Review

February 8th
Wall-to-Wall Books - Review
Pieces of Whimsy - Interview
Read Your Writes - Interview
Deborah's Books - Review & Interview
Yellow Hat Writer - Tens List

February 9th
Taking Time for Mommy - Review
Books, Books the Magical Fruit - Interview
Crafty Zoo - Guest Post
UK Quality Reads - Review
Martha's Bookshelf - Review

February 10th
Turner's Antics - Review
Bookhounds - Interview
Book Worm Brandy - Review
Deborah's Books - Review
Impressions of a Princess - Interview

February 11th
Getting Your Read On - Review
Booklady's Booknotes - Review
Kelly's Lucky You - Review
Oh, for the Hook of a Book! - Review & Interview
Something to Offer - Review

February 12th
Literarily Speaking - Interview
StoreyBook Reviews - Review
Thoughts n' Such - Review & Interview
Fantasy Books - Review & Interview
Between the Pages - Tens List

February 13th
Must Read Faster - Review
Every Free Chance Book Reviews - Review
Blooding Book Reviews - Interview
Cover2CoverBlog - Review

February 14th
Lori's Reading Corner - Tens List
Musings by Maureen - Review
A Casual Reader's Blog - Review
Deal Sharing Aunt - Review

February 15th
StoreyBook Reviews - Review
The Busy Mom's Daily - Review
Oh, The Books You'll Read! - Review
Brooke Blogs - Review & Guest Post

February 16th
Cuzinlogic - Review & Interview
A Casual Reader's Blog - Review
Deal Sharing Aunt - Review
Indie Author How-to - Tens List

February 17th
My Devotional Thoughts - Review
Insane About Books - Review
Christy's Cozy Corners - Review
Brooke Blogs - Review

February 18th
Karey White - Tens List
Bookworm Lisa - Review

February 19th
Reviewing Shelf - Review & Tens List
Thoughts n' Such - Review
Christy's Cozy Corners - Review
Laurie Here - Review & Guest Post

February 20th
The Busy Mom's Daily - Review
My Devotional Thoughts - Review
Fangirl Hostess - Review
3Ps in a Pod - Review & Tens List

February 21st
Vonnie's Reading Corner - Review
Mochas, Mysteries and More - Review
The Polliwog Blog - Review

February 22nd
Why Not? Because I Said So? - Review & Tens List
Fangirl Hostess - Review
3Ps in a Pod - Review
Laurie Here - Review
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Book Review: Bah Humbug, by Heather Horrocks

Bah Humbug, by Heather Horrocks
Lexi Anderson is an up-and-coming, Martha Stewart-type TV hostess whose two kids love the Jared Strong adventure novels, which happen to be written by their new neighbor, Kyle Miller. For the first time in his writing career, Kyle has writer’s block--until he sees the snowman on his lawn and realizes it’s the perfect solution to his plot problem. He digs in and discovers two things: one, his villain’s weapon will fit inside a snowman's body, and two, this particular snowman was supposed to be the backdrop for Lexi’s next show. From this improbable beginning comes friendship, but can there be a happy ending for a woman who is afraid to get close again and a man who has shadows from his childhood? Families join together and hearts are healed as this couple goes walking in a winter wonderland.

Print Length: 96 pages
Publisher: Word Garden Press (September 9, 2011)


My Review:
This book is described as PG rated fun, and I would have to agree.  It was a very short, quick read about an up and coming TV star changing her neighbor's outlook on Christmas... and love.  Her neighbor also happens to be a famous author whose books she loves reading with her kids.  

I laughed out loud when Kyle mutilated Lexi's snowman for the sake of "research" for his book.  It is totally something that I would do.  I always get so caught up in whatever I am working on that I forget that someone might not appreciate me beheading their snowman to see if a gun could fit inside.  
This short story was super cute and perfect for the holidays.  Plus it was free, so who can complain about that?  There were a few typos and other little things that made me give it four stars instead of five.

The Cover: I love illustrated covers for contemporary books.  I love the feel of this illustration and the promise of romance that it gives off.    




By the way, it is still FREE on Amazon, so hurry and snatch up this fun little story!

Amazon| Goodreads

About the Author:

I’m an author who had a somewhat unorthodox upbringing. I was raised in South America and the Middle East, and wrote my first stories as a teenager in Kuwait, where my sister and I proved it really is hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk. I wrote my first novel in three months on a typewriter when I was 21, I used every romance cliché possible (including amnesia — need I say more?), and never rewrote anything, which is why it’s so much fun to pull it out occasionally when I need a good laugh. I wrote sporadically until my youngest child (who is now 18) was two, when I decided it was time to either actually start writing, or to stop saying I was a writer. So I took a class and started doing the scary things that writing requires. Now I’ve written about twelve novels and several children’s books.




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Book Review and Giveaway! The Sun Zebra, by R. Garcia

The Sun Zebra, by R. Garcia
The four Nell stories that marveled readers at Scribd.com are put together here for the first time in this collection, which also includes an all-new story, "Birdman and the Fairy Tale." 

This book is best described as a children's book for grownups. Its aim is to encourage us to discover (or rediscover) the amazing things that children and their magical carefree world can teach us, even as we try to teach them about the harsh realities of our own. The book is a collection of five stories that follow the "adventures in living" of an unusual little girl called Nell, her mother Rhonda, and Nell's father who is the narrator of the stories.


My Review:
This book was such a dramatic change of pace from everything I've read recently that I was surprised by it.  It was absolutely beautiful.

Told from the perspective of Nell's father, this collection of short stories are a perfect reminder that childhood is available to anyone brave enough to go out and take it.  I felt like I had rediscovered childhood as an adult and came to realize that it is never out of reach. The stories emanate a warm, loving atmosphere conducive to creating smiles and satisfaction.

This is not an action packed page turner, but rather a thoughtful exploration of the important things in life. It is the type of book that you will want to read slowly, digesting each word and absorbing their meanings.  It is a book that will leave you pondering and inspired to find joy in everyday miracles.

Please, treat yourself to this book. 

Amazon | Goodreads | Website

 

About the Author: 



R. Garcia is the peculiar eclectic writer. He was born in Cuba and lived in several Latin American countries before residing permanently in the United States. Along the way he obtained a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and produced several highly technical publications. However, one fine day he decided to fulfill his dream of writing something besides technical articles. This he began to do by publishing his work under the pen name "Phantomimic" on the document sharing site Scribd.com, where his stories have accumulated more than one hundred thousand reads and hundreds of comments. Based in part on this enthusiastic response to his work, he decided to take it to the next level. His first book on the Amazon Kindle is the collection of short stories entitled: "The Sun Zebra".

What are 10 things that your readers might not know about you?
1) As my bio reads, I was born in Cuba. This was one year before Fidel Castro
overthrew the Batista dictatorship, and went on to establish a dictatorship of his
own. My parents finally decided to leave the country when I returned one day from
elementary school singing the International Socialist Anthem.

2) As you can figure out from #1, my first language is Spanish. This is probably
why I write and read English slower than the average person.

3) Each of the last 3 generations of my immediate family has ended up resettling in
a different country for one reason or another.

4) I myself have lived in a total of 5 countries throughout my life: Cuba,
Venezuela, Ecuador, Mexico, and the United States.

5) When I was a little kid I won second place in a Lego tournament. I built a
replica of the Apollo rocket that sent the astronauts to the moon.

6) I played chess in my youth (which is what nerds did at the time) reaching a rank
of first class player.

7) Talking about nerds, I am a bit of a quirky nerd like the character Sheldon
played by the talented actor Jim Parsons in the sitcom “The Big Bang Theory”. But
unlike Sheldon I am not so socially inept!

8) I also used to be an amateur astronomer. I would go to the top of mountains with
my friends and identify the constellations and the planets. When a small telescope
was available we would also look at nearby galaxies.

9) The first time I lived surrounded by snow was here in the U.S. I arrived in New
York State during winter to pursue graduate studies. I had a cold, and that day
there was a fire alarm at 2 AM. We had to leave the student residence, and outside
it was snowing. There I was, coughing under this strange, cold, fluffy, white stuff
falling from the sky while the Americans around me were dancing and yelling,
“Party, party, party!” This was an interesting cultural experience.

10) Although my first book, the Sun Zebra, which Dena has reviewed here (thanks
Dena!) is a collection of family-friendly stories, I am an eclectic writer. My second
book of short stories will be very different. They are going to be stories that deal
with the paranormal and the psychological. I will reveal what the name of my book
will be in a few weeks on my blog. So if after reading The Sun Zebra you are in
the mood for a change of pace, stay tuned for my next book!

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