Tomboy by Shelley Blanton-Stroud Audiobook/Book Tour, Review, Guest Post & Giveaway! {Ends 10/28/22}

Oct 3, 2022 | 4 comments

Book Details:

 Tomboy: A Jane Benjamin ovel by Shelley Blanton-Stroud
Category: Adult Fiction (18+), 308 pages
Genre: Historical Thriller
Publisher: She Writes Press
Release dates: June 2022
Tour dates: Oct 3 to Oct 21
Content Rating: PG-13 + M. The F word appears exactly once in the book. There is a completely non-explicit sex scene. There is a suicide.​

Book Description:

It’s 1939. Jane Benjamon’s got five days at sea to solve the murder of a Wimbledon champion’s coach and submit a gossip column that tells the truth. If not the facts.

On the brink of World War II, Jane wants to have it all. By day she hustles as a scruffy, tomboy cub reporter. By night she secretly struggles to raise her toddler sister, Elsie, and protect her from their mother.

But Jane’s got a plan: she’ll become the San Francisco Prospect’s first gossip columnist and make enough money to care for Elsie.

Jane finagles her way to the women’s championship at Wimbledon, starring her hometown’s tennis phenom and cover girl Tommie O’Rourke. Jane plans to write her first column there. But then she witnesses Edith “Coach” Carlson, Tommie’s closest companion, drop dead in the stands of apparent heart attack, and her plan is blown.

​Sailing home on the RMS Queen Mary, Jane veers between competing instincts: Should she write a social bombshell column, personally damaging her new friend Tommie’s persona and career? Or should she work to uncover the truth of Coach’s death and its connection to a larger conspiracy involving US participation in the coming war?

Putting away her menswear and donning first-class ballgowns, Jane discovers what upper-class status hides, protects, and destroys. Ultimately—like nations around the globe in 1939—she must choose what she’ll give up in order to do what’s right.

Add to Goodreads ~

Buy the Book: ​Capital Books ~Amazon ~ B&N ~ Bookshop.org ~Audible ~ Libro ~ Kobo ~ Scribd ~ Chirp ~ Amazon (audiobook) ~

Review By LAWonder10:

The story of Tomboy was well written, fast moving enough to keep a reader’s interest but was a nostalgic type of drama. The historical history was written in a manner that it truly felt like a non-fiction. It was a very altruistic story. 

This story is about a young woman living in a very dysfunctional home, with an alcoholic father, living in poverty, and unable to complete her high school years because her employment was needed to sustain the family. She pretended to be a boy in order to get a position at the newspaper because in the 1930s women weren’t permitted to work in most industries. After a while, the Editor discovered her deception, but because she was such a dependable, hard worker she was allowed to stay will no hope of promotion She fled home with her toddler sister, because she refused to allow her sister to have the miserable life she was forced to live. She needed more money or she could not support her and her sister. 

This is about the daring adventures this young women went on in order to find a better job. It is also a story of self discovery and awareness.

The author smoothy fluctuates between her child self and her present self. The transition never leaves the reader/listener lost. 

Narrator , April Doty, did an outstanding job of bringing the story to life. With her consistent “voices”, sustained energy, and accents, she enhanced what may have felt like a mellow tale to one of enthusiasm and intensity.

I offer a Four Stars rating for the book and a Five Star rating for the professional performance.

*This audiobook was gifted me with no pressure for a positive review. This is my honest review.

Guest Post:

Women juggling obligations big as bowling balls.

Someone recently asked me why I begin my historical mystery Tomboy with my protagonist, Jane, seriously injuring her head when her toddler sister throws a tantrum, slamming Jane’s head against the wall. Why begin here?

The first, most-general reason is that I am fascinated by the way women, young and old, often struggle to balance obligations to other people against their obligations to themselves. The most familiar version of this is the work-family conflict. I know so many women who feel that in trying to be both a worker and a caregiver, to children or to their own aging parents, they wind up doing both badly. It’s probably only rarely the truth, but that’s how it feels.

I wanted Jane to experience this struggle in taking care of her toddler half-sister, Elsie. Nineteen year old Jane is very ambitious and unlikely to succeed in journalism in 1939, not only as a woman but as a high school drop out who speaks with an Okie accent. But she wants that success. Desperately.

At the same time, Jane wants to protect and care for her sister in ways she was never provided for by her parents.This is hard to pull off, especially for a nineteen year old. So Jane will have to accept tradeoffs at two things she cares a lot about.

In the beginning, the scene’s tantrum was just a run-of-the-mill tantrum. Then one of my critique group partners, Gretchen, told me about a time when her child threw such a violent tantrum that the head thrashing broke one of Gretchen’s front teeth.

That’s when it occurred to me that I ought to up the ante. The crisis Jane is experiencing is real and complicated. If she’s got a head injury sustained while caregiving, at the very moment when her work obligations are peaking, it is a
crisis she must confront and sole. And that is the story below the mystery. How will Jane meet her obligations to family and to her future?

Meet the Author:

Shelley grew up in California’s Central Valley, the daughter of Dust Bowl immigrants who made good on their ambition to get out of the field. She recently retired from teaching writing at Sacramento State University and still consults with writers in the energy industry. She co-directs Stories on Stage Sacramento, where actors perform the stories of established and emerging authors, and serves on the advisory board of 916 Ink, an arts-based creative writing nonprofit for children, as well as on the board of the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies at Claremont McKenna College. Copy Boy is her first Jane Benjamin Novel. Tomboy is her second. The third, Working Girl, will come out in November 2023. Her writing has been a finalist in the Sarton Book Awards, IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards, Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion Award, the American Fiction Awards, and the National Indie Excellence Awards. She and her husband live in Sacramento with many photos of their out-of-town sons and their wonderful partners.

Connect with the author:   website  ~  twitter  ~  facebook  ~ instagram ~ bookbub ~ goodreads

Meet the Author:

April Doty is a classically trained actress with a BFA from Syracuse University. She is a voice actor and the narrator of 26 books. Born in Virginia, educated in New York, seasoned in London and settled in Spain, April Doty brings the sound of a rich and varied life experience to her narration. The character of Jane came to life in her home studio on the Costa del Sol. \

Connect with the narrator: website ~ twitter ~ linkedInsoundcloud

Tour Schedule Here :

Oct 3 – Rockin’ Book Reviews – audiobook review / guest post / giveaway
Oct 3 – Literary Flits – book review / giveaway
Oct 4 – Olio By Marilyn – book spotlight / author interview / giveaway
Oct 4 – Olio By Marilyn – book review / giveaway
Oct 5 – Jazzy Book Reviews – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Oct 6 – Books are a Blessing – book review / giveaway
Oct 7 – Leanne bookstagram – book review
Oct 11 – Amy’s Booket List – audiobook review / giveaway
Oct 11 – FUONLYKNEW – book spotlight / author interview / giveaway 
Oct 12 – Cover Lover Book Review – book spotlight / giveaway
Oct 12 – PuzzlePaws Blog – book review / giveaway
Oct 13 – JB’s Bookworms with Brandy Mulder – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Oct 13 – Stephanie Jane – book review / giveaway
Oct 14 – Splashes of Joy – audiobook review / guest post / giveaway
Oct 17 – StoreyBook Reviews – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Oct 18 – Book Corner News and Reviews – book review / giveaway
Oct 18 – Sadie’s Spotlight – book spotlight / author interview / giveaway
Oct 19 – Locks, Hooks and Books – book review / giveaway
Oct 19 – Gina Rae Mitchell – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Oct 20 – Deborah-Zenha Adams – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Oct 21 – Faith and Books – audiobook review / author interview / giveaway
Oct 21 – Books for Books – audiobook review

Giveaway Details:

Win signed copies of COPY BOY and TOMBOY, audible download codes for each, a $20 Starbucks card, a woman’s fedora, moleskin notebook, and Sarasa pen. (one winner) (USA only) (ends Oct 28)

To Enter the Giveaway click on the Rafflecopter link below:

TOM BOY (a Jane Benjamin novel) Book Tour Giveaway

You may also like…

4 Comments
  1. Julie Waldron

    This sounds really good, the cover is eye catching.

  2. Dreaa Drake

    Sounds like a great book!

  3. Marisela Zuniga

    This sounds very interesting

  4. Shelly Peterson

    Sounds like a good read.

~ Follow Me ~

* This blog post contains affiliate links from Amazon. If you use them, I might be rewarded credit or a commission of the sale.

Please note that I only recommend authors and books that I  approve of and  I always have my readers’ best interest at heart. 

Any book or audio that is gifted me is done with no pressure to post a positive review.  The review I give is my honest opinion! 

Recent Posts

Categories

Archives