Copy Boy

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BOOK DETAILS:
Series Title:  COPY BOY by Shelley Blanton-Stroud
Category:  Adult Fiction (18+)
Genre:  Noir, Historical Mystery, Literary
Publisher:  She Writes Press
Release dates:   June 23, 2020
Content Rating: PG-13 + M. The book includes: the F-word 7 times, the word "g--dammit" 4 times, and one violent fight in the beginning.

Book Description:

Jane’s a very brave boy. And a very difficult girl. She’ll become a remarkable woman, an icon of her century, but that’s a long way off. Not my fault, she thinks, dropping a bloody crowbar in the irrigation ditch after Daddy. She steals Momma’s Ford and escapes to Depression-era San Francisco, where she fakes her way into work as a newspaper copy boy. Everything’s looking up. She’s climbing the ladder at the paper, winning validation, skill, and connections with the artists and thinkers of her day. But then Daddy reappears on the paper’s front page, his arm around a girl who’s just been beaten into a coma one block from Jane’s newspaper―hit in the head with a crowbar. Jane’s got to find Daddy before he finds her, and before everyone else finds her out. She’s got to protect her invented identity. This is what she thinks she wants. It’s definitely what her dead brother wants.

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Review:

 

Jane Hopper has had a rough start to life, born into the Depression era and living in a tent camp with her abusive father and strong willed mother.  Jane has always felt like she owed her mother after the death of her twin brother, Benny.  At seventeen Jane has the chance to make something of herself when she takes a crowbar to her father, leaves him in a ditch and drives to San Francisco.  Jane quickly figures out that in order to make money she will have to change, so Jane changes into Benny Hopper and quickly gets a job as a Copy Boy at The Prospect.  As Benny, Jane receives the opportunity to work on the stories that have always interested her.  However, the hot story is connected to Jane and her Daddy that she left in a ditch along with a picture of a man that carries a large resemblance to Benny Hopper.

An intriguing historical mystery set during the Depression Era, Copy Boy shows the fortitude of the different people who lived during that time.  Through Jane I experienced the drive, ambition and heart of the people barely surviving in the encampments along with those who would do anything to get ahead in San Francisco.  I was intrigued by the vast difference in circumstances between the people suffering in the midwest and those thriving in San Francisco.  Jane's character was hard to get to know as she changed and evolved constantly through the story.  I understood the reasons behind becoming Benny as well as all of her waffling between what is good and bad in her life.  At the heart of the story is coming to understand a sense of self and realizing that your past does not have to define you.  The mystery was well crafted and kept me intrigued.  The interactions of the many players made the mystery layered and complex, turning a simple whodunit into a why did they do it.  I was glad how things turned out for Jane in the end, but did feel that everything wrapped up rather quickly.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review. 

Meet the Author:

Shelley Blanton-Stroud 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 teaches college writing in Northern California and 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. She has also served on the Writers’ Advisory Board for the Belize Writers’ Conference. Copy Boy is her first novel, and she’s currently working on her second. She also writes and publishes flash fiction and non-fiction, which you can find at such journals as Brevity and Cleaver. She and her husband live in Sacramento with an aging beagle and many photos of their out-of-state sons.

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

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Aug 24 – Jazzy Book Reviews – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
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