On January 31, 2005, Smart Bitches went live with two reviews, and the website was born. Eight years later, we're still here, and more readers find the community here to discuss romance, laugh at the silly parts, celebrate the awesome-y parts, and discover that there are a LOT of fellow romance readers out there in the wonder wily inter webs.
Thank you for being a part of Smart Bitches. Happy eighth anniversary to all of us!
The traditional gifts for an 8th anniversary are bronze, pottery, linens, and lace. I don't think I can do bronze or pottery (that would be a book titled His Lordship's Shipping Nightmare) but linen and lace? That I can do. Time to do fun and silly things!
I went a-looking for linen and lace things and thought…oh, ho ho! FICHU!
I have four to give away – two of each style. They're on their way to me from Turkey, but I'm giving them away right now. Because the 8th Smart Bitch Anniversary gift is FICHU!
Each fichu comes with a $25 gift card to the bookstore of the winner's choice – linen, lace and books! What could be better? You'll be warm, stylish, and entertained.
To enter, leave a comment below and tell us your favorite thing about reading romance – your very favorite. Is it the happy sigh? The potential for Good Book Noise™? The many things you learn? The lovely people you meet (and really, romance readers are among the best people, no question) online and off? Share!
I'll select four winners at random at noon eastern on Monday February 4th, 2013.
Standard disclaimers apply: I'm not being compensated for this giveaway, except for the opportunity to make bad jokes about fichus. Void where prohibited. Open to international residents to the extent permitted by applicable law. Must be over 18 and sporting excellent décolletage to win. Whereas, upon participation in the contest as aforesaid, said participant shall nonetheless deliver hereunto all such paraphernalia as reasonably necessary and appropriate. Notwithstanding anything hereinafter to the contrary, the contest shall nonetheless be conducted as heretofore described thereupon. Or something.
Most of all: thank you for being here, and making our community worth celebrating every day, and every year. Happy Fichu Anniversary to us!
My favorite thing is seeing that moment when the main characters realize they’re in love.
My favorite thing is the watching two people fall in love. And, a close second, is learning cool things—like what a fichu is!
I read them for the HEA! And happy anniversary! I’ve only been reading SMTB for a year now, and I can’t believe I missed out on 7 years of previous snark and intelligent discussion.
Happy fichu! Hyvää blog-synttäriä!
My favourite thing about reading romance novels is that moment when despite the clichés and Swiss cheese logic, the story makes sense and I can feel an emotion so genuine it’s almost tangible, and recognise that feeling in a way I never have time or presence of mind to do in my real life. Not until after at least.
the best part? the HEA or the promise of it.
happy anniversary!
I love the escape. I’m a student usually stuck reading stuff I don’t want to, so I love for fun reading things I like that take me completely away from “real life”
My favorite thing about romance is seeing good win and love triumph. There’s enough of the opposite in the real world.
I feel like I should say “bless you” every time you say FICHU! My favorite part of romance is living vicariously through the characters. Congrats and take a tissue…
Happy Anniversary and Mazal Tov on being the blog all bloggers look up to and hope to be when they grow up 😀
For me, romance is the giggle, the sigh and the having a good (happy) cry. Escapism at its best.
I love knowng everything will always work out, no matter how bad things get.
Knowing that everything is going to work out. And finding an awesome new (to me) author with a backlist!
I love that swirly feeling in my stomach everytime the Dark Moment hit and it looks like they’re never going to get back together, except *I* know it’s going to be all right.
Happy Anniversary! My favorite thing is the emotional investment: I know I can care about these people and what happens to them and how deep their issues and obstacles may be, because they will find a good love at the end.
Happy Anniversary!!! My fave? The swoon factor. When I’m reading a book and just get that “OMG, wow, did that really just happen? Did he really just say that? Did she just do that?” Yeah, that’s my favorite part.
I remember when I found this blog—I thought you were revolutionaries. 🙂 Congratulations on eight years of bracing, bold and brazen blogging!
I love that a good romance makes me cry and laugh and recognize that happiness in real life is precious and possible.
I love the escape. Give me a good story and leave me the hell alone, you know? HEA all the way, baby.
My favorite thing about (good) romance is knowing that no matter how many WTF moments I might stumble upon, it will be okay in the end (or okay enough to move on). A secondary favorite is the varied sub-genres available – makes it an adventure to find out what you like. 🙂
Love reading romance for the strong female characters who get to be themselves and get a great guy who respects them for it! And of course, the happily ever afters 🙂
OMG there are fichues in Turkey? *dies happy*
There is that moment when you are so wrapped up in the story, where the author has pulled you in so completely, and the bottom of your stomach drops, and you feel whatever the character is going through to your core, whether happiness, despair, enlightenment, intense “coupling”…that makes the late nights, ignoring of laundry, et al, worth the price. Happy Anniversay.
Happy Anny! You’ve made it past the 7 year itch!
I never really thought about “why” I love romance in so many words, but if I take a second, I think the thing I like best about reading romance is the thrill I get when the spark lights between the h/h and I know some sh*t is going to have to hit the fan before they can be together…when a book sets this moment up really well, it feels like being at the top of that first big hill on a roller coaster ride.
Happy Anniversary 😀 Beautiful fichus!
I’m so happy to have found this site after picking up Beyond Heaving Bosoms because I liked the cover; it’s introduced me to so many books I’ve liked and made me laugh.
My favourite part is the witty banters between the hero and heroine when they fall in love; from jane Eyre to What I did For A Duke. I love a HEA where the characters actually know something about each other as people before they decide to get shakin at the dance as old as time
I love the giggling out loud moments, and when giggling again 2 second later Hubby asking, “What are you reading?”
I love finding the ones that stand out from the standard tropes and cliches. Sometimes it’s the well written ones that won’t let you go until you’ve read the whole thing. But even if it’s the ones that just go overboard with excessive tropes and cliches, the ones that make you want to throw them across the room, when the time traveling heroine’s dead cowboy lover gets reincarnated 150 years later as the surgeon who saves her life when she gets flung back into her own time and into a car accident, I love the stuff that stands out from the crowd.
I read romance for the story, dialogue and the HEA. I like the experience of leaving from my personal reality which is guaranteed every time I read – escape to the happy place!!! Love the blog – Happy Anniversary!!!
Yeah,what she said—HEA! Happy anniversary.
Yes, the HEA. I guess I need to know it’s all going to be ok. And I appreciate the writing skill it takes to not have the option to kill a good guy- what a cop out!
Happy Anniversary! This blog is the best. I read romance for the resolution of emotional angst. And the fun sexy times!
My most favorite thing is the escape from real life I get from reading romance. -And the things I learn… A fichu? I had NO idea! LOL!
I love, after reading pages and pages of angst, that moment of clarity when the characters discover their feeling are returned, and that life will be perfect from this point on!
My favorite thing is the possibility that our real-life world can end in happiness too- despite the obstacles thrown in our ways. 🙂
The quick, easy answer would be the HEA, but really it’s watching the characters change and grow, sometimes painfully, and knowing that, even though it’s making me cry, at the ending of it all, there will be happiness and everything they went through will have all been worth it.
Romances keep me sane and healthy. They’re what I read to downshift my autistic brain from day speed to sleep-ready. I read smart romances, funny romances, and smutty smutty smut, but they all help me breathe and relax and feel good at the end of the day. I literally couldn’t function without them.
Happy anniversary! My favorite part is the *fun* I’m not super into the angst. I like funny, snappy books with lots of laughs 🙂
My favorite thing about reading romance is that the stories- the fabulous, the meh and the truly dreadful- are all based on the belief that love is the happy ending.
Happy Anniversary SBTB. I wish I could make you a large cake.
Reading romance is like slipping into the absolutely most comfortable thing you own, be it a beat down pair of jeans, down at heel fleece clogs, or the coziest flannel jammies. Then once you have them on sometimes they magically transform into glorious princess garb or kick ass leathers or fabulous fmps or incredible angel wings—only still comfortable. And they take you everywhere. And that’s what I love about reading romance.
And also—SB Sarah & the Bitchery of course.
Fichu? Gesundheit!
I am a relatively new romance reader. I really only discovered the pleasures of reading romances in the past couple years (for shame, I know). To me, reading romances is an amazing escape. You can’t help but to be sucked in! You’re not thinking about work or life or any of the other stresses that we all seem to so frequently have in life. Oh, and the happy sigh gets me every single time.
I really had to think about this as I’ve been reading romance for over 20 years now. I think it’s the positive energy that a romance story puts out into the world. Despite all the problems the protagonists face, they will find someone to love and share their experiences with and for a moment their world will be wholly right (at least until the first fight over who has to do the dishes versus the laundry).
My favourite (stop it, spellcheck, I’m Canadian: I’m allowed to have that “u” in there) thing about reading romances, at least lately, is the odd insight it gives me into just HOW MUCH our view of what’s “romantic” have changed. I’ve been doing a lot of reading of retro categories lately, and hopping back and forth between those and current categories (or stand-alones) is AMAZING for what it shows you about how women’s aspirations have changed.
Happy Anniversary! I like the escape from everyday life.