Spotlight & Excerpt: Showmances and Stage Kisses + Giveaway

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!

 

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

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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:

“I like you, Nicky,” Stefan said. “You’re a bright kid. Yeah, you’re right. There are some changes coming up. We want you to take some lessons—no big deal, a little guitar—”
“I can’t play the guitar.” He could not imagine any situation where production wanting him to play guitar did not end badly.
“Three chords, that’s all you need. Don’t worry about the singing, we can fix all that.”
“Singing? I can’t sing—”
“No one cares if you can sing, Nicky. The city’s full of guys who can sing. They’re all waiting tables. But we’ve got you—the boy on the buses. The boy who’s every girl’s dream—”
He would never, ever forgive whatever writer at Tiger Beat had plastered those words across his face in neon pink letters. He would never forgive Stefan for lying the first time Tiger Beat showed up on set, saying it was a onetime deal, never again.
“Why do you want me to sing?”
“For the albums,” Stefan said, as if explaining to a tiny child. A very small, very dim child who was about to go off in a raging tantrum.
“What albums?”
“For the new plotline. It’s synergy, Nicky. Now that the show’s hopped to MTV, take advantage of it. Give them product—”
“I’m not product—” But he was, that was the problem. They were selling him to thousands of girls.
He hadn’t even looked at all those magazine articles, but now he wondered if he should. What were they saying about him?
“They haven’t made final decisions, but yeah, we’ll start with the albums—”
“Albums? Who’s going to want to listen to me sing? Pay money to hear me singing—”
“Every little girl in America,” Stefan said. “And beyond.”
“You’re kidding, right? Look, just listen to me sing—”
“Doesn’t matter if you can’t carry a tune in a bucket. We’re in the Nicky business. Done deal.”


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

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

 

3 Replies to “Spotlight & Excerpt: Showmances and Stage Kisses + Giveaway”

  1. I like the cover art, synopsis and excerpt, this sounds like an awesome read. Thank you for sharing the author’s bio and book details

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