Tomboy

A Jane Benjamin Novel

By: Shelley Blanton-Stroud

Narrated by: April Doty

It’s 1939. Jane’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 Benjamin 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. She 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 thrown off track.

While 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, which she now knows was a murder, 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.

©2022 Shelley Blanton-Stroud (P)2022 Shelley Blanton-Stroud

Loved

Tomboy: A Jane Benjamin Novel by Shelley Blanton-Stroud was a very well-written and well-narrated Historical Thriller. I really enjoyed the narration as it allowed me to close my eyes and create a picture of the characters and story in my head while I listened. I really liked Jane Benjamon and I felt for her dilemma in deciding if she should write a social bombshell column, personally damaging her new friend Tommie’s persona and career, or uncover the truth of Coach’s death.

Good book

This was an easy-paced novel written from the first point of view. I found it entertaining and interesting. While Jane tries to break a story, it's fun to get into the head of a young, reckless teen who will stop at nothing to get the job done to keep custody of her sister. Her immaturity and struggle to trust others get her into a few twists and turns, but in the end, she learns the value of loyalty and the cost of using others. There are a few lose ends that will make you want to pick up book three rather than be disappointed. I hadn't read book one and didn't feel lost. I will say it has a lot of flashbacks that aren't usually my cup of tea, but I think it worked here. The
flashbacks may have taken me out of the story a couple of times because I wasn't expecting them, or maybe I was so focused on the current tale that I had to adjust to some of the flashbacks. All in all, I would pick up book 3. I rate it a 3.5
The author gave me an audiobook copy, but I was not required to provide positive feedback. These thoughts and my opinions are my own. I thought the narrator did a great job with the voices and portraying young curious Jane.