Kyle and Corey and the Game-Store Mystery by Joe Stephens (Spotlight, excerpt, review, and GIVEAWAY) GFT

Kyle and Corey and the Game-Store Mystery

by 

Joe Stephens

 

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GENRE:   Juvenile (or Y/A) fiction

 

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BLURB:

 

Kyle & Corey Holley (15 and 12) live in Fairly Springs, a small southern beach town. Kyle is a budding engineer; Corey is impetuous, funny and sports-crazy. Like most brothers, they fight often, but they also solve crimes—like the rash of recent robberies around town. When Kyle and Corey investigate, they learn that in each robbery, the thieves stole a high-end desktop computer. Why? What are they looking for? And how soon till they find it? Other complications include Corey's wheelchair-bound math tutor, Kyle’s after-school job in a local game store and a revolutionary new video game launching soon.

Kyle and Corey: Brothers. Best Friends. Detectives. They don't go looking for trouble; it has them on speed dial!

 

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EXCERPT

 

  

That night at dinner, sitting at their comfortable round oak dining table at

home, Mrs. Holley said to Corey, “She thinks you’re a pathological liar.”

 

“He is a pathological liar,” Kyle said, helping himself to more mashed

potatoes and pouring a generous helping of brown gravy over them.

Corey, sitting across the table from him, glared over his plate of sliced roast

beef, steamed broccoli, and a smaller helping of mashed potatoes. “Liar is a

strong word. I know the difference between truth and a lie, you turd.”

 

“Corey!” his mother said in warning.

 

“Well, I do. I only lied at the end a little, when I said the whole thing was a

lie.”

 

“I know,” Mrs. Holley said. “Ms. Morrison hasn’t lived here long enough to

know what happened this summer.”

 

“That’s why I did it. If she’d thought it was really true, she’d have asked all

kinds of questions and probably made me write a whole other paper. She’s that

type.”

 

Mrs. Holley looked affectionately at her younger son. Corey had a knack for

picking out the essential personality traits in everyone he met, almost instantly.

He knew things about people after a ten-minute conversation that took therapists

months to root out.

 

Her husband Donald was proud of Kyle for his math and science abilities, his

kind and forgiving nature, his loyalty to friends and his gift for taking raw

materials and turning them into something new and unexpected. He was proud

of Corey for his people smarts, his vivid personality, and his natural ability as an

athlete. “I wouldn’t trade either of ‘em for a million bucks,” he told his wife

often, and she always answered, “Wait till someone makes you an offer.”

 

Amazon link

Barnes & Noble link

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

JOE STEPHENS has been a fan of boys’ adventure books all his life, and in

this, his first series book, he’s created two boys as memorable as Frank and Joe

Hardy. He has a background in education and has also visited more than thirty

countries while pursuing his passion for scuba diving. He lives in Georgetown

with his growing family and three thoroughly spoiled cats.

Goodreads

 

 

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GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

The tour dates can be found here

 

 

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My review:

 

 

4.5  out of 5 stars

 

Kyle and Corey and the Game-Story Mystery by Joe Stephens centers around two brothers who join together, despite their sibling rivalry, to investigate a string of robberies in their typically quiet town. Kyle, the eldest, is a video game enthusiast, and his specialized knowledge helps him discover a few clues, but it turns out that he needs the help of his younger brother, Corey, to finally crack the case.

 

This young-adult mystery was such a fun read. I was captured from the very beginning, and I enjoyed watching the brothers approach both the mystery affecting their classmates and their individual responsibilities so differently. I was a big fan of the Hardy Boys, and this evokes their adventures with a modern twist. These two were a bit too perfect in some respects, but I enjoyed their interactions and the compassion they displayed. Those who are concerned with such things should be warned that the point of view switches a bit frequently, but I don’t think it detracted from the mounting suspense and the action.

 

There are references to a previous case the brothers worked on, but I am under the impression that this is the first in the series, and I can’t wait to read more adventures featuring the charismatic Kyle and Corey.

 

 

A copy of this title was provided for review