Review: I LOVED this book!!!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 8, 2013
I always enjoy reading Helen Smith's writing. There is an appeal to it probably from the brilliant subtlety of British humor she so easily writes into her stories which is natural to her, and then there are the surprise comical situations as well. Stay on your toes while reading this so you don't miss some of this subtle humor that British authors are famous for writing! The other thing I love about Smith's writing is her knack with writing such descriptive scenes and thoughts from the characters. Smith truly has a voice of her own you do not want to miss!This is a short, 75-page novella (Amazon has this listed as only being 48 pages long. I believe this to be an error. I read the ebook version, but it was more along the lines of the Goodreads description of the 75 pages.) that is actually the second Emily Castle novella, but don't let that 'short' fool you because this book is very full of happening. It did read quickly, and it was very entertaining for me. Showstoppers was a very enjoyable 'who-dunnit' at a local neighborhood dance school, which in London they call them Showstoppers, hence the title. At first this kind of threw me off, I did not understand what it meant, and after talking with a friend, and then  while reading the book, I easily understood it. Don't allow this to make you not want to read this book because by doing so you are going to miss one heck of a great book!Smith is a British author, and they have quite a few different words they use for things than what we do. I rather enjoy it very much, and sometimes find myself going on a hunt trying to figure different words or references out, but this truly  is the appeal to me about Helen Smith's brilliant writing. I find it almost lyrical at times. I feel our 'same' language we use here in the states has become somewhat lackadaisical, especially when compared to Britians'. I do find myself gravitating more towards British authors quite often, and choose to read them over our authors here because of the language, and Smith foots this bill! When I saw this book was on tour, I jumped at the chance to review it! I will also be reviewing the first book in the Emily Castle series, Three Sisters, on the 22nd.This story starts off with the mailman delivering the wrong mail to Emily Castle, and this happens rather often we are told. As we all do, we rip open envelopes assuming the mail is ours, after all, it was delivered to us. Surprise, surprise! This letter is a threat, but not to Emily, but to Victoria, her neighbor and owner of Showstoppers Showcase. Emily finds out Victoria, has been receiving riddling and rhyming threatening letters, and this is the fourth. She thinks it's about a VHS tape her and an ex-boyfriend made together, and she thinks it has to be someone she knows, but who? Something on this tape is not a tasteful situation, and Victoria does not want this to get out to the mainstream public. This could ruin her everything.Are these threatening letters from that old boyfriend back in college? Who could have gotten their hands on this VHS tape? No one even seems to have VCR players anymore, either! Victoria hires Emily Castle to help her find out who the person is sending these riddling and rhyming threats to her. While investigating, a death has occurred, but who did it? The person sending the letters? Who?The book is mostly prose, and I could just imagine in my head this story taking place on British TV or on our PBS. It was truly terrific! I received this book for FREE (yet I had already purchased it in July on my own, knowing it would be entirely enjoyable because of the author, Helen Smith! Go ahead and spend the 99cents to see if you enjoy it as much as I did!) from the author in exchange to read and write a review about it. It is NOT required for this review to be either positive or negative, but of my own honest opinion. "Free" means I was provided with ZERO MONIES to read this book nor to write this review, but to enjoy the pure pleasure of reading it. I am disclosing this information in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255,[...]Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.