I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the SHOWMANCES AND STAGE KISSES by Suzanne de Planque Writing As Bowden Walker Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

About The Book:

Title: SHOWMANCES AND STAGE KISSES (Heights High #1)

Author: Suzanne de Planque Writing As Bowden Walker

Pub. Date: March 22, 2022

Publisher: Bond Street Publishers

Formats: Paperback, eBook

Pages: 400

Find it: GoodreadsAmazon

Bright lights. Big city. The drama is just beginning.

NYC, 1984. With an off-the-scale IQ, Sebastian Weiss can do anything except talk to girls. And with his future meticulously planned by his multi-millionaire parents, all the seventeen year old nerd can see in front of him is Harvard and bone-crushing boredom. So hanging around the set of his best friend’s smash-hit soap is everything he wants… especially after a gorgeous bad girl is cast as his buddy’s kissing co-star.

Sam Macaulay can’t believe her luck. After drug use, a rotten boyfriend, and self-sabotage all but killed her career, the desperate young woman is elated to land a coveted gig making out with the guy every teenager dreams of. But despite their instant chemistry and off-camera carousing, she finds herself mysteriously drawn to his geeky rich-kid pal.

Deliberately blowing his college applications, Sebastian resists leaving the carefree life behind even as he watches the beautiful actress fall hard for his friend. But Sam feels torn in two when a personal tragedy brings her closer to both guys and she can’t decide between the teen idol and the last virgin standing.

Will a complex emotional triangle ruin everyone’s chance at happily ever after?

Showmances and Stage Kisses is the page-turning first book in the YA Heights High coming of age series. If you like MTV-era antics, confused teenage romance, and the struggle of youth to find themselves, then you’ll love Bowden Walker’s nostalgia-filled tale.

Buy Showmances and Stage Kisses to cue lights, camera, and action today!

Reviews:

“Welcome to the world of teenage acting, where it’s not all rainbows and sunshine. Showmances and Stage Kisses showcases behind the scenes drug and alcohol use (ouzo, anyone?), oh-so-complicated teen relationships with accompanying hormones, and show business antics. Join teen heartthrob and star of Heights High, Nicholas, and his Harvard-bound best friend Sebastian, as they navigate life among dysfunctional adults and girls galore, amidst a world of chaos in the 1980s.  This story is both frantic and heartwarming with an exceptional cast of characters.” —San Francisco Book Review

“A highly entertaining and nostalgia-rich work of young adult fiction, Showmances and Stage Kisses is refreshingly honest about the adult nature of teenage years. Never condescending to teen readers, Bowden Walker has a knack for portraying the messes that teens get into, as well as the resilient ways they pick themselves back up again, in this captivating young adult novel set against a uniquely evocative backdrop.” —SPR

 

EXCERPT

Sam put her head down on Sebastian’s shoulder, cheek against the rough tweed of his overcoat.

“What am I going to do with you?” His voice wobbled a little. It was almost as nice to hear as the catch in his breath as she slid her arm under the blanket, around his back.

“Are you still mad?”

“Yes,” Sebastian said. She snugged up tighter. “No. Just—just forget it.”

She snugged closer, and this time he didn’t edge away, not when she sat right next to him, her thigh pressed the length of his; not when she tightened their blanket, closer.

Up this close, she could feel him gulp and swallow, once.

Twice.

“Sam?”

“What?” She pressed closer. He was warm, and smelled clean, like something from childhood that made her remember her father giving her a bath before bedtime. Baby shampoo, that was what she smelled, and Ivory soap, and fresh, starched cotton.

She was lonely, and he was sweet, and had made her feel better.

It was even kind of romantic, out here under the stars. Sure, why not? If he made a pass, she’d go along with it. For a while, at least.

He probably wouldn’t be that good at it, but her fingers were itching to push his hair from his eyes, and she was curious how his mouth might feel, would taste against hers.

“Never mind,” Sebastian said. “I just—oh, God. Sam—” She heard pure plain need in his voice, and turned her face towards his, closing her eyes, waiting to feel his kiss.

She waited.

Sebastian’s awkward, shaking hand against her own made her stomach do a lazy, shivery, upside-down flip. Eyes still closed, she reached for him, surprised to feel him suddenly scrambling out from under the blanket, pushing her away.

She blinked, confused, only now hearing what Sebastian heard already, the creaking of the kitchen floorboards, the squeak of rubber soled high-tops, the slammed back door.

And then Nicky came out on the porch behind them.

And the moment was definitely over.

If there ever had been a moment at all.

Had she just imagined it, out of her own loneliness and need?

About Suzanne de Planque Writing As Bowden Walker:

Suzanne de Planque is a writer, actor, and stay-at-home mom. Theatrical credits include off-Broadway and other New York, regional, and tours; everything from Shakespeare to Sondheim. She has sung on Broadway. The New Amsterdam, not the street. Though she has
probably sung on the street, too.

A few highlights from her years in the theater include enacting what must be every Grimm fairytale in her years as the self-proclaimed Queen of Children’s Theater, playing cut-rate Disney princesses at birthday parties, inspiring a generation of high school students as the DON’T example in a series of job-seeking educational videos, and breaking her neck falling out of a giant teapot dressed as the Dormouse.

The latter resulted in a career change to playwriting and a healthy respect for teacups. Her plays have been commissioned and performed in New York and regionally.

She lives in a little White House in Brooklyn with her husband and son, an impressive array of costumes, swords, and Original Broadway Cast albums, and a world-class collection of children’s books. She is an avid collector of antique and vintage children’s literature, a devotee of War of the Roses and Tudor history, and a fan of literary tourism, in person and on Pinterest.

She has never passed a wardrobe without checking, just in case.

Website | Twitter | Facebook
|
Instagram | TikTok | Pinterest | Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub

Giveaway Details:

1 winner
will receive a $10 Amazon Gift Card, International.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

3/21/2022

Writer of
Wrongs

Excerpt

3/22/2022

BookHounds YA

Excerpt/IG Post

3/23/2022

YABooksCentral

Excerpt

3/24/2022

Lady Hawkeye (Lady Hawkeye)

Excerpt/IG Post

3/25/2022

Sadie’s Spotlight

Excerpt/IG Post

Week Two:

3/28/2022

Rajiv’s Reviews

Review/IG Post

3/29/2022

Excuse Me, I’m
Reading

Review

3/30/2022

TakeALookAtMyBookshelf

Review

3/31/2022

BETTER_0FF_READ

IG Spotlight

4/1/2022

Ravenz
Reviewz

Review/IG Post

Week Three:

4/4/2022

Angel’s Guilty
Pleasures

Excerpt/IG Post

4/5/2022

SJ_Bookshelf

Review

4/6/2022

Lifestyle of
Me

Review

4/7/2022

@coffeesipsandreads

Review

4/8/2022

Strange
Brew Reviews

Review

Week Four:

4/11/2022

Fire and Ice

Review

4/12/2022

Two Points of
Interest

Review

4/13/2022

The book review
crew

Review/IG Post

4/14/2022

The Momma Spot

Review

4/15/2022

@thebookishfoxwitch

Review/IG Post

 

By KellyATX

I'm a Blogger, Reader, Reviewer & Bookstrammer. Die Hard TX Native & Rangers Fan.