Today marks the Sixth Anniversary of this here hot pink website. Our first review was posted January 30, 2005 – a review of Sharon Shinn’s Angel-Seeker. Wow, huh? I’m sort of shocked and amazed and ready to party!
The official gifts of the Sixth Anniversary are… wait, don’t have anything liquid in your mouth, ok? … iron, candy, and WOOD.
Oh, this is going to be fun. It’s giveaway time! To celebrate our sixth anniversary, I’m giving away the following prizes:
That’s 4lbs of chocolate covered cherries, an iron, a 5lb bag of wood, and a Hello Kitty vibrator (a much better substitute for the wood, because it’s woody-like).
All you have to do is leave a comment and tell me six things you love about reading romance novels, and you’re entered to win. Standard disclaimers apply. Void where prohibited by law. I ship internationally when possible. Take your shoes off. Wash your hands. Any resemblance to iron wood made of candy is completely coincidental. No chocolate was harmed in the creation of this contest.
You have 48 hours to leave a comment, and I’ll select the winners at random. I know you all want that iron, right? RIGHT? Right. Of course!
Happy Sixth Anniversary to us – thank you for being here to make the site as fun and fantastic as it is. I’m so glad to know you visit every day to talk romance, man titty, and general mayhem.
1. I read them now too escape from mommyhood for a few hours at night! preferably with a glass of wine and hot bath!
2. Laughter! I need to laugh my books have to be funny and exciting!
3. I love the history in historicals. Learning little facts that the author took time to find out and write is great
4. I love reading a good book and getting that warm tingling feeling when the hero and heroine realize they are hot for each other!
5. I love a smokin’ hot, almost naked hero to drool over!
6. I love sharing and talking with friends about a awebook I just read!
Happy Anniversary! Thanks!
I love the prizes! I’m totally getting my husband a bag of wood for our next anniversary. 😉
I love romance novels because
1) They show how people can work through the negative things in life and reach for the positive ones—like love.
2) There is a ton of variety in the genre, and I never know who or what I’ll meet next – just that they’ll be sexy.
3) When I’m stressed, romances remind me that fun, relaxation, and orgasms exist.
4) They contain some really great examples of strong, smart, sexy women who also make good partners and friends.
5) They provoke interesting discussions, dissections, digressions, and debates between women (and men) around the world.
6) They make me happy.
1. The awesome places I can go from my couch of reading.
2. Great covers like the Last Airbiscuit = hours of fun.
3. The harping of my husband of when I read them and say, honey it is a zombie romance, would you like some of my brains too dear?
4. I love the many descriptive words used to describe the male and female bodies in R novels.
5. Hot barky shifter lovin’.
6. I love the dialog when it gets snarky and funny.
Happy anniversary bitches!
1. Indulging my romantic side
2. Effortless, enjoyable reading
3. Guaranteed happy ending
4. Swoon-worthy heroes
5. The Sexxoring
6. The fun – the fun of a perfect book, the fun of snarking at the bad ones, the fun of hunting through the stock at the used book store for the ultimate prize
1) The HEA
2) I almost always learn something I didn’t know before.
3) Tension. Oooooo the tension.
4) Eloisa James
5) Relationships, not just the romantic, but the relationships the protagonists have with the people around them.
6) And I admit, I do love the occasional secret baby.
Congratulations on six years Smart Bitches! Thank you for creating such agreat site for romance readers!
1. They make me laugh.
2. There are hot men in it.
3. There are smart (mostly) women in it.
4. They give me a break from real life.
5. The sexual tension and the “loosening” of it.
6. The benefits hubs reaps from #5. 😉
Congrats Ladies on six with many more to come!
I’ll use up 5 by saying a Big ditto to the comments already posted.
I reserved my sixth for what I call what romance reading did for me.
I had a patient, an Internist in my practice a few years back. I just had read Linda Howard’s Duncan Bride and in it the h/h were playing a queer knowledge based game. One of the questions was “the medical term used to describe the noise your stomach makes”. I thought I was being cute by teasing the said Internist by identifying his grumbling stomach with this word – borboygmous. He laughed and I confessed I read about it in a romance novel. This became a running gag everytime our paths crossed. He’d ask me what romance novels taught me this week and I’d tell him my latest tidbit. Eventually that led to shared coffee, dinner out…and SO forth… 😉
So number six is what I luv about reading romance—My own HEA!
1) The assurance that no matter how screwed up things are in the middle of the book, there’s going to be a happy ending.
2) Sexy men, both realistic and unrealistic
3) Sex scenes.
4)Creativity in own life inspired by above
5) Getting to escape into someone else’s life, someone totally different from me, but who I share common feeling and experiences with
6) Sharing my romance novels with anyone who will listen and read with me—getting to laugh, cry, and AWW! in all the appropriate places
Happy birthday!
1) HEAs—of course!
2) The series—I love following characters throughout multiple books!
3) Recommending a romance to a non-romance reader and opening up a new (under-appreciated) genre to people.
4) Discovering a friend is a romance reader as well—and the two hour conversations that follow about our favorite authors/books.
5) Smart women and alpha males with a heart.
6) The sex.
I want the wood. I need to fire up my grill… And many congratulations on the anniversary. Y’all rock the romance world like damn and whoah!
Okay, ONLY six things I love about reading romance?
1. All that iron, wood, and sculpted faces, chests, and tushes.
2. Gotta love me some alpha males.
3. Feisty heroines (and sassy, driven, smart, and willing to take chances on love)
4. Exotic places, even if it’s the small town next door
5. Villians—be they an ex, a boss, the escaped madman, or the demon down below.
6. Gotta have the HEA.
Heh! My spamword: bring86 YES! Bring me 86 romance novels and I will read them!
6 things I love about reading romance novels:
1. Escape, escape, escape!
2. Perfect men who behave perfectly … most of the time.
3. Learning lots of trivia from historical novels that let me do really, really well when watching Jeopardy.
4. HEAs (of course)
5. The absolute romance of it all!
6. Really well written stories that appeal to all the things inside of me that make me go squee!
1. The guilty pleasure of it all, 2. Happy endings, 3. Steamy interludes, 4. Imagined lives, 5. Fantasy men, 6. Pure undiluted escapism
Happy Anniversary!
1. It is an escape from real life.
2. With a big family, reading romance novels is the only “alone” time I get. There is no other way I’d want to spend my alone time.
3. Lots of my friends read romance novels so it is a great conversation when we get to talk about how exciting, good, interesting and drool worthy a book was.
4. I know that they are fantasy but romance books generally end with a happily ever after so it is a great sense of hope and a wonderful rush of the warm & fuzzies.
5. I like how you can email a romance author you love to compliment them and they are so thankful for the feedback. They are the most gracious celebrities!
6. Uhm oh yeah…the smutty sex it awesome. Even the implied sex can be written steamy and dreamy.
1.) Hysteria-inducing euphemisms
2.) Sassy heroines
3.) Interfering elders
4.) Dress porn
5.) BFFs getting hit with cluesticks
6.) HEAs GONE WILD
1) That happy, squee kind of feeling I get when two characters finally get together after half a book of tension.
2) HEA, of course, like everyone else.
3) The supporting cast. Gotta love the best friends (who may star in their own sequels).
4) The emotional rollercoaster. I get really, really involved in my books, so I really feel what the characters go through
5) Sex. When well written, it’s hot, steamy, and awesome.
6) The fact that it’s mostly lighthearted and a good way to relax while curled up on the couch in a fuzzy sweater.
Yay, Happy 5 years! 😀
Here are my top 6:
6. HEA’s. There is enough drama in the real world that I want my HEA every chance I get.
5. Humor. Whether it the heroine tripping over her shoes or cracking a scalding, I wish I had thought of that, remark.
4.Closeness. I love when I come across a perfectly messy meshing of characters. Always makes me love hubs even more.
3.Men. Mmmmm… I enjoy reading about them from all walks of life. Mmmmm
2.Romance. I love telling people that I read romances. I love the look that comes from most people when I say I read romances. I love pointing out all the romance that is immersed in their lives that they love (but don’t think of it in term of romance).
1. Smex. I love all the joys and benefits of reading about smex. 😀
Happy Anniversary, Bitches!
Hm, only 6 things? Let’s see:
1) escapism (time, place, people)
2) excuse to stay on the couch all day
3) hot menfolk acting heroically
4) pirates!
5) within reason, purple prose (as in, I’d laugh my ass off if it were said to me, but I can read it for days)
6) HEA/HFN (real life is a little short on these, so I’ll take ‘em where I can get ‘em)
Thanks for being here (this site is reason #7) and adding laughs & books to my days! Any day spent with the Bitches is a good day:)
Congratulations! Happy 6th Anniversary!
My 6 fave things about romances:
1. Taking time for myself to read.
2. Not being able to put down a well written book.
3. Flawed heroes.
4. Who *doesn’t* love the HEA?
5. A strong, smart woman who meets her contemporary.
6. An underlying current of sexual tension.
A 50 lb bag of wood? Sign me up!
Six Reasons I Love Romance Novels
1) After many years “in the closet” about my romance novel habit, I finally decided it didn’t matter what other people thought about my choice of reading material. Turns out, I had more than a few friends who loved the same authors I did!
2) Cover snark
3) I’ve never looking for a (recently published) romance I wanted to read as an e-book and been unable to find it. I wish I could say the same for biographies and memoirs.
4) Getting to participate in HABO discussions
5) Reading mysteries in bed gives me nightmares. Reading romance in bed gives me far more pleasant dreams.
6) There’s nothing like settling into a hot bath with a romance novel to metaphorically wash away a bad day.
Happy Anniversary!!
My 6 favourite things about reading romances:
1. does not require understanding of off-side rule
2. learning word “sweetheart” in many languages
3. HEA
4. lots of weddings, and I do love a wedding….
5. something to have in common with my mom.
6. the occasional line that is so very funny it sticks with me forever…
Thanks
1. the escape from 4 kids
2. the smile I get when I finish a book
3. knowing there’s a happy ending (although I admit to skipping ahead and reading the ending sometimes—pathetic, I know)
4. my husband won’t touch my romance books with a 10 foot pole—any other books I end up having to share
5. the fantasy
6. when I get tired of reading about shapeshifters, there’s always a new area to go into—historical, vampire…you get my drift.
i like reading romances because it’s something i can do in the privacy of my home, they’re all about lovelovelove, my characters screw up but still live happily evah afta, none of the men in the books suffer from bad body image, all the women kick ass, even when they have to make lemonade, and they are little beacons of light and happiness in a sometimes dreary world. Happy Anniversary, girls!
Congratulations and jubiltaions, I want the world to know I’m as happy as can be!
< / Cliff Richard >
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, LADIES! I can’t believe it’s been 6 years – I found you late in your first year, while I was a grad student, badly in need of a lift. I stop by here practically everyday, and thought I rarely comment,this bitchin’ hot pink site never fails to but a smile on my face.
So, the Six things I Love about Reading Romance Novels are:
1) the escape from real life it provides;
2) the variety it offers, without having to compromise on
3) the guarantee of an HEA;
4) the sheer volume of good stuff out there that I haven’t read yet;
5) the community of women it links me too;
6) the smug knowledge that the people who are too busy looking down their noses at it to try it are really missing out, the fools!
Happy Anniversary!
1) Hilarious dialogue
2) Character growth
3) Vulnerability
4) Happily ever after!
5) Readability (I’m an MFA student. The shit I read for class . . .)
6) The Covers. Yeah, heaving bosoms!
What a great contest, SB Sarah, as always, and thank you for thinking of us, again, as always.
Six reasons why I read romance:
1. My own personal vacation from the comfort of my chair.
2. I meet characters I would like to have as friends.
3. A really good romance will make me think, long after the cover has been closed.
4. I learn how other, albeit fictional, people cope with difficult, painful or even unusual and funny situations.
5. The books I love are character-driven and romance is all characters, all the time.
6. And sometimes they just take my breath away with their words.
chance36: that number times 10 or 100, the odds of winning those chocolate-covered cherries.
1. I am guaranteed a happy ending.
2. If I’m reading a heterosexual romance, I’m guaranteed a story with central female characters.
3. If I read a queer romance, I’m guaranteed a story with a queer characters.
4. I can read the other genres I’m interested in-mystery, fantasy, science fiction-at the same time.
5. If I don’t like the one I’m reading, I can easily find a different romance to read.
6. Sometimes, the stories are really hot.
I love romances because:
1. I get an HEA without having to worry about mortgages or anger management issues.
2. Fantastic sex every damn time.
3. They’re FUN to read.
4. Cover snark is an artistic and intellectual exercise where sarcasm is encouraged.
5. They play so well with other genres that I can read SF-flavored romance one day and mystery-flavored the next. Yum!
6. My fellow romance readers are wonderful, helpful, generous people!
Six things I love about reading romance novels:
1. Alpha males
2. Women who can handle alpha males.
3. A great respite from reality.
4. Different locales.
5. Talk about only one type of bodily function.
6. Knowing the book won’t surprise me in the end by knocking off the main character(s.)
***I won back in December, so I don’t think I should qualify to win this time, but I wanted to play too, and to say Happy Anniversary to the Smart Bitches!***
1) Awesome characters (and sometimes even the awesomely bad;)
2) Julie Garwood, Loretta Chase, Linda Howard, Katie MacAlister, Elizabeth Hoyt, Tasha Alexander (although I suspect she identifies herself more as a mystery writer), Patricia Briggs (okay, she’s more fantasy, but some of the newer ones definitely fit), the list goes on and on. Basically my point is that when I start listing my favorite authors, the bulk of them fall squarely into one form of romance or another.
3) Location, location, location. I’ve travelled a bit within the U.S. and I’ve lived in Germany (although I was too young to remember much) but after delving into the fabulous world of romance, it not only adds to the list of places I’d like to visit someday, but the really good ones make me almost feel like I’ve been there already.
4) The covers. I mean, not only do they sometimes force you to be creative in keeping them covered up, but the more awesomely horrific they are, the more entertainment they can provide.
5) No matter how bad the beginning and middle is for the heroine, you know the ending is going to be happy, and sometimes that’s just what you need.
6) It is the genre that inspired the Smart Bitches, who make me laugh on a daily basis, and if that’s not valuable, I don’t know what is.
1. Reading romance makes me feel better when life gets me down.
2. Romance takes me away to a more interesting place than where I’m at.
3. Romances come in all shapes and sizes, so I have a vast selection to choose from.
4. In romances I get to read about strong, independent women who sometimes kick ass.
5. In romances I can read about strong, sexy, delicious heroes.
6. There is always a happily ever after in romance.
Happy anniversary. That iron is fabulous, the one I have is 40 years old, LOL. Either it has held up really well, or I hardly ever use it, guess which one is true.
Let’s see, six things I like about romances…
The best ones offer me:
1. Witty dialog
2. Demonstrated growth in affection and connection
3. Enjoyable escape from my mundane life
4. Believability (it’s OK to stretch the boundaries, but please don’t pop that balloon)
5. Three-dimensional, non-stupid characters who are wrestling with issues and solving problems in their lives.
6. A great HEA
and sometimes:
7. Oh wow hawtness!!!
Six things I love about reading romance novels:
1) The guarantee of a happy ending- all the good people live!
2) No one wakes up with morning breath.
3) Every guy is hot, sexy, and can give a woman an orgasm with his tongue.
4) Every women is gorgeous with a gorgeous wardrobe to match.
5) You can go to exotic places without leaving the comfort of your own home.
6) You can take a vacation from your daily life and come back to your life without the sunburn or huge credit card bills.
I would love that iron! Mine is a hot mess.
Reasons to read romance:
1) the HEA
2) the ability to take me out of my own boring world and immerse me in a more thrilling one full of hot men and smart women
3) the chance to interact with and discuss with fellow romance readers
4) strong female leads, who can handle strong male leads
5) cover snark
6) that sigh at the end of a really good book – the one that days later still makes you think of the characters/story and smile
Happy Anniversary to my favorite Smart Bitches! Here’s wishing for many more years filled with snarky goodness!
1) Interesting women
2) Fascinating men
3) Drama
4) Getting inside someone’s head
5) Happy endings
6) Awesome world building
Happy Damn Anniversary! Keep up the great work, Bitches. The site is a pleasure, and you’ve created an amazing community.
1. Hawt sex. ‘Nuff said.
2. Exploration of the whole gamut of emotional experiences for women AND men, all from the comfort of your own reading space.
3. The strong, smart, creative women (and men!) who get to call themselves “romance authors” for a living and be damn proud of what they’re creating.
4. The forum for social issues that romance novels tackle so well.
5. Nora Roberts.
6. Super sexy dialogue like whoa and like damn (tm not me).
Happy Anniversary, SBs! You’ve brought such sassy, smart fun into my days.
Six things, huh!?! Well, here’s my caffeine-deprived list:
1. Hot alpha men
2. Smart, smart-ass, sweet, fun women
3. guaranteed HEA
4. sexy, smart, heart touching banter between h/h
5. A fun escape from my everyday life
6. Did I mention hot alpha men?!?!
First of all, congrats on the anniversary!! And now for the 6 things I like about romance. Hmmmm, 1- snarky women who don’t take shit from nobody!! 2-HEA 3- SEX (i have to admit, some good books can give a whole new life to the bedroom with new ideas to try out.) 4- alpha males, and I need to elaborate on this one, the alphas that are still strong, but willing to admit they love/can’t live without their female, and will “help” prtoect her, and treat her as a cherished co-person, not a thing. 5- the laughs – I know, romance is not comedy, but I like a book that throws in some good one liners to make me laugh! 6- SEX, opps, already said that one, okay, how about the friends I’ve made on websites I go to when I stalk, er, make that look for info on my favorite writers, the whole genre is usually full of nice, funny people.
Let’s see…
1) Female self-actualization as the focus of a story.
2) Orgasms.
3) Validation of the fact that emotional and sexual experiences are super-important and worthy of being codified as text. (Yes, I was an English major. Why do you ask?)
4) Unashamed sexual expression. Hell yeah.
5) Happy endings, even when the two leads have real, complex, relatable problems.
6) Being temporarily adrift in a world in which people can have sex outside and not wind up chafed, tick-bitten, or with poison ivy in their naughty bits.
Congratulations, Smart Bitches! The day I found your site was one of the happiest days in my recent history! Thanks for all you do!
Also, as an aside, my image verification word was “ill69.” Which is awesome on so many levels.
1) The guaranteed HEAs!!!
2) When the book has the sort of writing that sucks you into the story and the real world disappears for hours at a time.
3) How the proverbial ugly duckling can get the sexy as sin hero.
4) The fantastic (and often educational) sex scenes.
5) The happy after glow you get when you finish a good book.
6) Converting others into avid romance readers.
Also, the fantastic snarkiness, mantitty, and heaving bosoms of SBTB. Happy Anniversary!
#1 great ting about romance novels is that HEAs make us smile and weep (but in a good way).
#2 great thing about romance novels is the comfort they provide “for better or for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health”… you know the drill.
#3 great thing about romance novels is the way they’ve evolved to reflect the lives and dreams of the women who read, write, and produce them, from passive to active, delicate to strong, kindly to kick-ass.
#4 great thing about romance novels is there is no funner way to get your sex ed.
#5 great thing about romance novels is that they are the entree into a community of absolutely incredible, generous and bright women.
#6 great thing about romance novels is (apologies to the cuke) that they never light up a cigarette in bed afterwards.
Happy b-day and many thanks, SBTB, and best wishes for many, many more!