Bitchin' Blog Posts
by SB Sarah | May 17, 2013 | Friday at 2:29 am | 11 Comments
Melanie G. sent this over to me - the song might not be your thing, but the visual is fantastic. Melanie explains, "Romance covers come to life in this music video by Keys N Krates!"
Keys N Krates - Treat Me Right from Ohji on Vimeo.
Do you recognize any of those covers from the art? I was sure I almost knew two of them but I can't quite remember the title.
I hope your weekend is filled with familiar things you love - and people who treat you right.
read more »
by SB Sarah | May 16, 2013 | Thursday at 1:07 pm | 9 Comments
RECOMMENDED: One Reckless Summer is book 1 in Toni Blake's Destiny series, and is .99c right now. This is an adorable summer romance. I reviewed it and gave it a B-:
Even with occasional flat notes in the characterization, One Reckless Summer was not at all a reckless summer read. Reading it was easy but the subjects weren’t fluffy or meaningless. The plot didn’t demand emotional involvement capriciously, but it made my eyes sting more than once, and made me laugh several times out loud. It was, in a word, charming. Reading this book was like floating on the lake on an inner tube, not too hot, not too cold, just relaxing and right. Before summer comes to an end, treat yourself.
The series as a whole is uneven, but I really liked this book, especially the surprising level of spiciness. In the first chapter.
The perfect daughter. The perfect prom queen. The perfect wife. Jenny Tolliver's been the good girl all her life, and it's gotten her nowhere. Now that her marriage has been busted up by her…
read more »
by SB Sarah | May 16, 2013 | Thursday at 9:42 am | 15 Comments
When I announced the 2013 RITA® Reader Challenge last week, MissB2U asked:
I would be interested in any pointers from you or other reviewers here on the basics of writing a review. New skillset! Yea!
I am a little embarrassed that I haven't discussed this before, especially since we've been doing the RITA® Reader Challenge for years now. So, without further ado: reviews! Guidelines and suggestions only, because I don't think there are any firm and absolute rules about writing reviews. Everyone's opinion is different, and therein lies the rules and reasons for reviews.
There are many kinds of reviews, and they vary according to the forum for the review, the product being reviewed, or even the type of review for a specific kind of product. Book reviews vary as well. Some are evaluations of the romance as an argument: does the reader believe that the main characters have earned and will sustain…
read more »
by CarrieS | May 16, 2013 | Thursday at 12:39 am | 4 Comments
Glamour in Glass is the second book in the Regency fantasy series by Mary Robinette Kowal. It is one of two novels with strong romantic elements nominated for a Nebula for Best Novel (the other is Ironskin, which I've also reviewed for Smart Bitches). It is refined and elegant as a Jane Austen tribute should be, with a dash of action and a surprisingly gritty splash of trauma
read more »
by SB Sarah | May 15, 2013 | Wednesday at 12:00 pm | 10 Comments
This appears to be an Amazon-only deal, and I'm so curious about it. Emily Goes to Exeter is the first book in The Traveling Matchmaker series, and is $1.99 (and 193 pages). It was originally published in 1990. The reviews describe it as a light, easy, fun-to-read historical with spiffy characters. Have you read this series?
A dead employer’s legacy of five thousand pounds allows spinster Hannah Pym to resign from housekeeping and find adventure travelling the English countryside by stagecoach. But adventure soon finds Miss Pym in the form of Miss Emily Freemantle, a spoilt violet-eyed beauty fleeing an arranged marriage to a rake she has never met.
What the girl’s darkly handsome betrothed boards their stage, Miss Pym is certain Emily was rash to bolt from this aristocratic catch! And so as soon as the travellers repair to an inn, Miss Pym begins her matchmaking… and although Lord Ranger Harley complains he’ll not marry an ungrateful minx, Miss Pym suspects once she’s marshalled the couple into sharing intimate household chores, all romantic knots will be untangled!
Goodreads…
read more »
by CarrieS | May 15, 2013 | Wednesday at 9:00 am | 13 Comments
It is imperative that when you go see The Great Gatsby, you know these two things:
1. It's a Baz Luhrmann movie. Baz is not known for subtlety.
If you want something restrained, something in which Leonardo DiCaprio isn't introduced by the sounds of Gershwin and the sight of fireworks, then look elsewhere. If you want lavish madness, then go see this - and see it in 3D. Both my friend and I saw it in 3D despite some skepticism, and we both felt it enhanced the story.
2. This is an anti-romance. Nothing ends well and as a matter of fact things tend not to start well, either. Expect a lot of angst and drunken wailing.
I do think this is a good movie, but if I had gone to it expecting a romance, I'd have hated it. It's a tragedy about people who dodge responsibility even when it literally flies at their heads, people who fall in love with figments, and people who love money and the facade of money and never know each other. It's…
read more »
by Elyse | May 15, 2013 | Wednesday at 12:52 am | 16 Comments
Before I discovered romance novels, I cut my teeth on Gothics. My mother had a shelf of books by Victoria Holt and Phyllis Whitney in our basement, and one summer I devoured them all. Beneath the Shadows by Sara Foster is a modern Gothic with romantic elements, and it reminded me why I enjoyed the genre so much.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Gothic storyline, it features a young and often virginal heroine who finds herself in an unfamiliar and desolate setting (usually the North York moors or a crumbling Cornwall estate). She is often in jeopardy, beset by seemingly unseen forces, and surrounded by people she may not be able to trust.
There’s also the classic Gothic hero—dark, brooding and handsome; he is mysterious, and the heroine is simultaneously attracted to him and afraid of him. There is a strong element of the paranormal here, with a dash of romantic suspense.
read more »
by SB Sarah | May 14, 2013 | Tuesday at 10:45 am | 4 Comments
RECOMMENDED: Dark Prince is $1.99 at AMZ and .99 at BN, and is the first book in Feehan's very much amazing Carpathian series. $1.99 is a terrific price if you've never read it but Be Ye Warned: crack is within these pages. I reviewed this edition in 2011 and gave it a C+, but even though I could identify the problematic parts and disliked them, I couldn't stop reading.I've read it six-plus times and STILL the crack was working on me:
Dark Prince was the first of these types of books that I read, and I am still somewhat baffled as to why I find it so fascinating, even in a larger edition, in a hardcover, for the third or fourth time. I can only surmise that a book like this, something that was so new, so powerful and so different, even after it’s been imitated countless times, doesn’t diminish with time. The powerful innovation of the forerunner of a genre doesn’t lose it’s effect. At least, it doesn’t on me.
If you've never read the Carpathians, clear your…
read more »
by SB Sarah | May 14, 2013 | Tuesday at 1:13 am | 22 Comments
Cover design has changed a lot over the years - and I don't just mean the monochromatic single-item shallow-focus trend going on right now. Used to be covers were... on a book, on a shelf. Now, covers are on books, on physical bookshelves, on digital books in all sorts of sizes, large and small. Resizing the cover image can yield some hilarious results, too.
Here's an example from Chelsea Z:
She came across this cover while book browsing: "one of those covers that makes you go Whuuaaa?? Girlfriend has some seriously stretchy lips...or....reeeally long fingers maybe? Maybe it is clearer on a print book???"
Yup, and it's clearer in the larger-sized image, too:
The larger image makes the depth and contrast more clear - but the smaller cover…
read more »
by SB Sarah | May 13, 2013 | Monday at 12:36 pm | 9 Comments
I have a few dedicated collections on my reader of books that live there permanently for re-reading and reading slump enjoyment. I have a Kate Noble folder, a Patricia Briggs folder, and a Julie Anne Long - Pennyroyal Green folder. I can't recommend this series more enthusiastically unless I came to your house and stood on your front stoop and squeed at you until the neighbors called the cops.
The series takes place in and around two prominent families in the small town of Pennyroyal Green, and it is charming and smart, wonderfully written and so enjoyable. I don't say this often, but Long has tremendous skill with the steamy scenes, too. Each book in the series save the upcoming July title is currently $1.99. Seriously, just buy them already. This is an outstanding opportunity if you like historical romance. The whole bleeping series for about $14, give or take tax and whatnot.
The Perils of Pleasure is book one, and is $1.99. It's Colin's story - and you see and hear from or about him throughout most of the…
read more »
by CarrieS | May 13, 2013 | Monday at 2:03 am | 8 Comments
This year two novels with strong romantic elements were nominated for Nebula Awards. One, Glamour in Glass, is a fantasy tribute to Jane Austen, and the other, Ironskin, is a fantasy version of Jane Eyre. (Note: Glamour in Glass review coming Thursday.)
Glamour in Glass uses fantasy elements in a subtle, restrained manner, as befits a Jane Austen tribute, while Ironskin is gothic right down to the blighted gray moor and the heroine's hand-me-down clothes.
read more »
by SB Sarah | May 12, 2013 | Sunday at 4:00 am | 3 Comments
This week's top ten is brought to you by the number 16, and by the dark and mysterious catacombs of our affiliate sales data.
Along Came Trouble by Ruthie Knox | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | ARE | iBooks A Kiss To Die For by Claudia Dain | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | ARE | iBooks The Seduction Hypothesis by Delphine Dryden | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | ARE | iBooks Rebellious Desire by Julie Garwood | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | ARE | iBooks After Math by Denise Grover Swank | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | ARE | iBooks My Favorite Bride by Christina Dodd | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | ARE | iBooks Crystal Flame by Jayne Ann Krentz | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | iBooks Her Hesitant Heart by Carla Kelly | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | ARE | iBooks Beautiful Player by Christina Lauren | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo Return of the Viscount by Gayle…
read more »
by SB Sarah | May 11, 2013 | Saturday at 5:14 pm | 4 Comments
Falling Into You is $1.99 until 12 May 2013.
I sat next to Jasinda Wilder at RT's book signing and watched as readers came up to her and positively shimmied with excitement at meeting her. Their excitement was one powerful recommendation for me. This is a New Adult title and the author's listing includes the following: "**Mature Content Warning** 17+ for language, and adult situations. HEA ending."
I wasn't always in love with Colton Calloway; I was in love with his younger brother, Kyle, first. Kyle was my first one true love, my first in every way. Then, one stormy August night, he died, and the person I was died with him.
Colton didn't teach me how to live. He didn't heal the pain. He didn't make it okay. He taught me how to hurt, how to not be okay, and, eventually, how to let go.
Nell Hawthorne is in love with her life-long best friend, Kyle Calloway. Their young love is invincible and life is full of promise; then one night Kyle dies suddenly in a…
read more »
by SB Sarah | May 11, 2013 | Saturday at 12:38 pm | 7 Comments
JL is looking for this book, and she remembers the cover most of all:
I actually have a HABO that I've been holding onto for a little while now. I can't remember a ton about the book and have been hoping more would come to me, but I think this might be it! I'm looking for one of the earlier romances I read, which I got from a truly amazing used romance book store my mom used to take me to when I was a tween. I remember shelves that were as tall as I am just filled to bursting with romance paperbacks--if only such a magical place existed today!
Anyway, the book was a Harlequin Regency I'm certain, and I read it in probably the mid 1990s (so the book might have been early to mid 90s?) . I remember the cover illustration was of a woman with black or dark brown hair, and she's making this ridiculous surprised look at the hero (picture the Home Alone kid in the aftershave scene). As for the plot,…
read more »
by SB Sarah | May 11, 2013 | Saturday at 10:35 am | 1 Comments
Julia is looking for this book - which sounds very sweeping!
Sometime between 1975 and 1979, I read a book set in Wyoming or Colorado, during the Cattlemen/Shepherders War. I believe the characters names were Jason and Kate. I know she had green eyes and that Jason(?) bought her a pair of emerald earrings.
As life would have it, Kate left or got sent away and took up with a gambler named Jacques. Jason(?) gambles with Jacques and loses the emerald earrings.
I remember during the gambling scene, Jacques said he had a mistress with green eyes.
I THINK the cover had a lot of brown in it. I know the book is not a Rosemary Rogers or a Laurie McBain or a Kathleen Woodiwiss.
I surely would love to know if anybody else remembers this book and/or what the heck the name is.
Never gamble with a guy named Jacques when the prize is earrings. Do you recognize this book?
read more »
