RITA Reader Challenge Review

Romancing Miss Right by Lizzie Shane

Romancing Miss Right

I didn’t receive a 2016 RITA® Reader Challenge review for this book, so I’m compiling quotes from reviews online and using the grade average from Goodreads as a substitute. This book has a 4.21 average, which I’m interpreting as an A-. And here are the review quotes, linked to the original sources. There is also only one Goodreads review with comments, so I’m using other sources besides Goodreads: Phyllis wrote: …This is a wonderful story of … Continue reading Romancing Miss Right by Lizzie Shane

Kickass Women in History: Edith Cavell

This month in Kickass Women, it’s time to examine the life of Edith Cavell, a nurse who was famously executed by the Germans in WWI and who turned into a symbol of English heroism. Edith Cavell was born into a very conventional village family near Norwich, England, in 1865. Her father was a vicar, and her family seems to have been strict but loving. Her first job was as a governess for a family in … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Edith Cavell

RITA Reader Challenge Review

Brokedown Cowboy by Maisey Yates

Brokedown Cowboy

I am a big fan of regency romance, so I thought I would step out of my comfort zone a little for the RITA© Reader Challenge and read a contemporary. Well, that and I am apparently not the only fan of Regency romance so they were pretty much all spoken for by the time I got around to signing up- but I digress! I don’t usually gravitate towards contemporary romance and I have never read … Continue reading Brokedown Cowboy by Maisey Yates

RITA Reader Challenge Review

Brokedown Cowboy by Maisey Yates

Brokedown Cowboy

I had high hopes for this book, I really did. A widower finds love with his best friend? Sounded like my kind of story, but about ¼ of the way through it I knew that I was ONLY going to finish so that I could write this review, because I love me some SBTB. Let’s start with the good. Maisey Yates is a damn good writer. Untouched is one of my favorite contemporaries ever. She … Continue reading Brokedown Cowboy by Maisey Yates

Podcast

202. New Books and Old Friends: An Interview with Lisa Kleypas

Sarah chats with Lisa Kleypas about her upcoming historical Marrying Winterbourne, and about the ecstatic fan response to the upcoming book Devil in Spring. This episode was recorded shortly after her announcement, which made a lot of people in romance fandom very, very happy. They discuss writing in the Industrial Era amid inventions and societal changes, and talk about writing books that stand up to the three-in-the-morning test among readers.   There are also some … Continue reading 202. New Books and Old Friends: An Interview with Lisa Kleypas

RITA Reader Challenge Review

Redemption Bay by RaeAnne Thayne

Redemption Bay

Redemption Bay begins with a tired but happy and cheerful woman strolling home after work. I was slightly puzzled as to who was narrating the book, though that was mostly resolved with the vague reference to “unavoidable mayoral business” over the course of her busy day at the flower and gift shop she owns. McKenzie Shaw is the Heroine of the story and Mayor of Haven Point, Idaho. McKenzie’s vitriolic reactions to meeting The Hero, … Continue reading Redemption Bay by RaeAnne Thayne

Books On Sale

Historical Romances, a Contemporary, & a Recommended YA!

Books on Sale: Any Duchess Will Do by Tessa Dare & More

RECOMMENDEDAny Duchess Will Do by Tessa Dare is $1.99! This is the fourth book in the Spindle Cove series. It was also a Sizzling Book Club pick with Sarah saying, “This is a delightful historical romance, will familiar tropes explored in new ways.”

It also received an A grade during the 2014 RITA® Reader Challenge from Reader Nerdalisque:

The characters – main and supporting – are well-developed and appealing. The plot is familiar, but Dare delivers it in a way that makes it fresh. Events move along at a good pace. There’s an economy to the plot: each scene advances the story with no excess. The writing is lovely – creative, descriptive, and often laugh-out-loud funny (the number of things I highlighted is ridiculous). And the sexytimes are quite capable of causing “flutterings,” to quote one conversation between the hero and heroine.

 

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RITA Reader Challenge Review

Searching for Beautiful by Jennifer Probst

Searching for Beautiful

My review takes a quasi-newspaper article type format, with each section being worth a point. Who/Why Genevieve, the Heroine: didn’t love her. I found Gen to be a largely ineffectual heroine in her dealings with her prick-weasel ex-fiancé (and with life just generally) ’til about halfway into the book. As often as the reader’s reminded of how educated and tough she is, and of how many people love and support her (her huge family, her … Continue reading Searching for Beautiful by Jennifer Probst

Announcing Buzz Books 2016: Romance!

Announcing Buzz Books 2016: Romance!

You might have seen, usually around BEA-time, Buzz Books 2016 and Buzz Books 2016: YA from Publisher’s Lunch. Each edition is a free collection of extended excerpts from anticipated upcoming books that publishers, booksellers, and readers are talking about. Each sampler is a free download, and each one includes a whole lot of reading. This year, in time for RWA, Publisher’s Lunch is expanding, and has created the first Book Buzz 2016: Romance! Woo hoo! Yay, romance! And because I couldn’t resist, … Continue reading Announcing Buzz Books 2016: Romance!

Book Review

Moonstruck by Lauren Dane

Diablo Lake: Moonstruck

This is the first book in a new series, and to be honest, it read more like a pilot episode or maybe even pilot season than a book. I’ve tried a few times while writing this to articulate that impression, and the best I can come up with is that while the central characters, Katie Faith and Jace, have a very quick relationship development and commitment, and there is a happy-for-now ending for them both, … Continue reading Moonstruck by Lauren Dane

Links: Cats, Carrie Fisher, and YA Authors

Workspace with computer, journal, books, coffee, and glasses.

Happy Wednesday! For all of the Bitchery members in the States, I hope you all had a safe and happy 4th of July! But now it’s back to the daily grind! … This links comes to us from Reader SB, whose “freelance and full-time streams crossed” when she was asked to copyedit this piece on a woman’s research on the romance world: I meet such interesting and energized women, gorgeously decked out in all manner of flirty … Continue reading Links: Cats, Carrie Fisher, and YA Authors

RITA Reader Challenge Review

Ransom Canyon by Jodi Thomas

Ransom Canyon

Ransom Canyon is the first in the new series set in Crossroads, Texas. Even though it’s not my usual thing, I liked this book. It focuses on five people individually, two couples and one ex-convict. The conversations and inner thoughts came across as authentic, and if I ever have a cattle-rustling problem, I know what to do. This book is sweet, and non-explicit. The characters have some major back story, but the romances themselves were … Continue reading Ransom Canyon by Jodi Thomas

RITA Reader Challenge Review

Love Me Sweet by Tracy Brogan

Love Me Sweet

This book is the third in the Bell Harbor series, but one does not need to read the first two (Crazy Little Thing and The Best Medicine) to enjoy this lovely, light-hearted, laugh-out-loud, novel. For a California girl like Delaney Masterson, Bell Harbor, Michigan—in January—was a ridiculous place to hide, which—naturally—made it the perfect place to hide from the paparazzi after her ex-boyfriend, Boyd, sells their sex tape to the tabloids. With an eighties pop … Continue reading Love Me Sweet by Tracy Brogan

Book Review

Make Me Love You by Johanna Lindsey

Make Me Love You

Back when I was a little baby Elyse, still too embarrassed to check out romances from the library lest the librarian judge me, I raided my aunt’s Johanna Lindsey stash. I had just finished reading everything Kathleen Woodiwiss had ever written (which wasn’t much) and was hungering for more. My aunt was an avid romance reader and had all of Lindsey’s paperbacks lining several shelves in her basement. It was a feast of bronze-chested Fabios, … Continue reading Make Me Love You by Johanna Lindsey

RITA Reader Challenge Review

Second Chance Summer by Jill Shalvis

Second Chance Summer

Lily Danville grew up in Cedar Ridge, Colorado, and loved hiking the mountain trails or climbing the rock faces in the summer, or skiing the challenging slopes in the winter. She was happy there, until tragedy struck and she lost half her family over the course of a few weeks. She’s never forgiven herself and wasn’t ever planning on returning. Having lost her job in a fashionable salon in San Diego and pretty much been … Continue reading Second Chance Summer by Jill Shalvis

Books On Sale

Mixed Bag with Vampires, Rogues, & More!

Books on Sale: The Seducer by Madeline Hunter & More

The Seducer by Madeline Hunter is 99c! This is a historical romance between a young woman and her guardian. Readers say this is on the darker side of historical romance, with the hero being particularly angsty-ridden. Though some readers found the pacing to be a bit slow. Have you read it?

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