Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

RITA Reader Challenge: The Christmas Child by Linda Goodnight

 Our first RITA Reader Challenge review is from Silver James. This book is nominated in the "Best Inspirational Romance" category for the RITAs this year. 

The summary: In Redemption, Oklahoma, a young boy is found huddled in a Dumpster, clutching a Christmas book. Scared and refusing to speak, he captures undercover agent Kade McKendrick's guarded heart. Kade brings the child home until he can track down his family—and his story. All Kade has is a name, Davey, and the boy's trust of sweet, pretty teacher Sophie Bartholomew. With her kindness and faith, Sophie helps both the boy and the battlescarred cop to smile again. And as they uncover the mystery of a very special child, a family is formed—just in time for Christmas.

And here is Silver's review: 

Sometimes, the hot sexxoring is too much. No. Really. Romance readers get headaches, too. Just sayin’. Sometimes, I just want some sweet romance—a slow build to a boil instead of insta-lust. This Linda Goodnight book is just the recipe. I’m a… read more »

What Lies Beneath by Andrea Laurence

I admit, I have a low tolerance for amnesia stories. I don't often enjoy them, I can't suspend my disbelief when the person with amnesia conveniently remembers some things, like the names of her household servants, but doesn't remember other things, like who she is. And I always wonder where the other physical symptoms are, like questionable bladder control or possible drooling.

So when this book was recommended to me, I read it with some trepidation. Ultimately, I finished it because I wanted to know what happened, not because I cared about the characters or their plight. It fed my love of mistaken-identity stories like damn howdy, but the character actions and reactions became so ridiculous I just wanted to see how far it would go before the end.

In the beginning of the story, Adrienne meets Cynthia. Cynthia is spoiled, very wealthy, frighteningly skinny, and not happy to be in coach class. Adrienne is leaving New York, lucky to afford the airline seat, humiliated after her boutique failed to catch on and she had to close her store.

Rocky Mountain Desire by Vivian Arend

I said out loud twice while reading this book, "This is the least erotic erotic romance. No one's having any sex." Hubby thought I was nuts, but while the story was friendly and sometimes very sweet, there was not much erotic content, in my opinion. If you're looking for explicitness, this is not the Canadian equivalent of small-town, large-family cowboy erotic romance (Lorelei James, for example).

I liked this book, but I was expecting erotic romance, so I came away disappointed.

For example: the cover and the description sent me a message that There Be Lots of Sex In This Book yo.

The Dark Wife by Sarah Diemer

The Dark Wife was recommended in the thread of f/f romance recommendations, and when I read the summary, I was really curious.

Then I started reading the book and before I knew it, I was more than a third of the way into the book, it was nearly midnight, and my brain had no idea where the past two and a half hours had  gone. This book swallows you whole. Be wary of picking it up if you only have a few minutes to read. The story moves so fast and the prose is so attentiongrabby that you'll keep going and you'll miss whatever it was you had to do. In my case, it was falling asleep. I woke up early the next morning to finish the book, because I had to find out what happened. I was exhausted, but I didn't want to stop reading. This book will sneak up on you, steal your loose change and run away with your afternoon if you let it. 

Sterling Redmond by Kim Nathan

I was initially fascinated by the plot synopsis for this book, the opportunity to read historical romance in a setting that was unfamiliar, and the characters. But the book suffers from such poor editing that I couldn't finish it, and had to stop reading.

This is the synopsis, provided by the author: 

Set in Gilded Age America, a young woman must choose between circumstance and destiny. Orphaned as small children, Sterling Redmond and her older sister Charlotte are raised by their grandfather at the family’s Maryland country estate of Northampton. Charlotte blossoms into a famed Baltimore beauty, but Sterling is more interested in books and horseback riding than feminine pursuits. Concerned that her niece will never find a suitable husband among the local Baltimore gentry, Madame De Chant whisks Sterling away to Belle Époque Paris in search of a gentleman who can understand her. In their absence, Nicholas Pembroke, the son of an English earl, takes up residence in the manor bordering Northampton. When Sterling and her aunt return to America for Charlotte’s wedding, Sterling finds that her perfect husband is… read more »

Queenie’s Brigade by Heather Massey - A Guest Review by Carrie S

I really enjoyed Queenie's Brigade but I have no idea how to grade it.  Should I assign a letter grade based on the over-all quality of writing, or the level of enjoyment?  I find that all the ebooks I've read so far (steampunk, steampunk western, space opera, space opera western) are really, really fun and similar in style - but not what I would call Great Literature.  The writing style is always over the top, everything is very exciting and colorful and nothing is subtle.  Attraction is in the form of instant, over-powering, and unprecedented lust.  No one is "pretty" or "cute", they are "like a goddess" or some such hyperbole.  There seem to be a lot of bazaars and jungles and saloons and glistening sweat and meaningful tattoos.  These eBooks remind me of the pulp fiction of the forties and fifties, or of early comics.   Of course said pulp fiction sold like mad in its day and has recently earned a whole second life, as Deep Reviewers with Deep Thoughts are suddenly appreciating its verve.  Some of those dime store novels are… read more »

Moving in Rhythm by Dev Bentham

I first encountered this book when I noticed a conversation on Twitter about the main character, Mark. I don't even remember who was talking about it - it might have been CheekyReads or Smexybooks or both - but something in the conversation caught my attention, and when I read the description, I felt like I'd been waiting for this book and didn't know I had been. This is a character I couldn't wait to read about. A hero who looks like an alpha, but is terribly, wrenchingly shy? A quiet and honorable guy who looks like a giant, muscly alpha male but is really not?

Sweet fancy Mom Jeans, I wanted to read this book so badly I can't even tell you. Then I read it in mid-February and had to WAIT to review it because I knew the degree of squee might run up against the Not on Sale Yet-ness and piss people off.

So this book is on sale, now, and I really enjoyed it, and I hope you'll try it and let me know what you think… read more »

Ride With Me by Ruthie Knox

I really enjoyed this book. It made me smile, I loved reading it, I was happy while I was reading and after I'd finished, and I hope, if you like contemporary romance or road trip romances or both, you'll pick this up. I must caution about the ending, as it was disappointing, considering how much I enjoyed the book, but even with that caveat, I think this book is worth your time.

Lexie Marshall is looking for a cycling companion to complete the TransAmerica Trail with, biking from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic across the US. She ends up with Tom Geiger because Tom's sister Taryn answered the ad for him, pretending to be him. And Lexie was posting the ad as "Alex," allowing people to think she was a guy because initial ads that revealed she was a female ended up with conversations that veered too close to harassment. Tom is not interested in biking with anyone, and when he meets Lexie, he really doesn't want to bike with her, but his sense of honor and fairness won't let him abandon her, so… read more »

Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie, a Tale of Love & Fallout by Lauren Redniss - A Guest Review

This guest review is by Carrie S. 

Sometimes I define my role with Smart Bitches as that person who says, "What ever could that strange noise be!  You wait here - I'll go into the basement with a malfunctioning flashlight to check it out." What I mean by that is that I investigate a lot of books that look romantic but aren't on the "romance" shelves of the bookstore, and I report back to you on the romance or lack thereof in said books.  In keeping with this, I checked out the graphic novel, "Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie, a tale of Love and Fallout."  I'm going to give you a quick spoiler-free summing up in the first paragraph, and after that paragraph, spoilers will abound. 

n short, "Radioactive" contains a gorgeous, inspiring romance, but is not in itself a romance novel.  It also contains a lot of tragedy and is only partially about the Curies as a couple.  The science and biography and storytelling and art are wonderfully… read more »

Her Lucky Catch by Amie Denman

This book was silly, light and very goofy, and I didn't believe any of it was remotely plausible. I didn't connect with the heroine because I didn't believe she was real. I didn't care much about the hero because I didn't think he was plausible either. Ultimately I read to the end to find out how the crazy plot was going to end, and even that was a bit of a letdown. I've been DNFing ("Did Not Finish") a lot of books in the past few weeks, and I'm surprised I made it through this one. The compulsion to find out how the plot mayhem was going to wind up was stronger than my confused disinterest in any of the characters.

Jasmine ("Jazz") Shepherd moved back to (wait for it) the tiny town of Bluegill after finding her husband (now ex-husband) cheating on her. She's a kindergarten teacher in the local Catholic school alongside a passel of nuns who are at times plot points and at other times freaking… read more »

Beloved Betrayal by Carol Finch - A Guest Review by RedHeadedGirl

It’s time to get back to my roots- a hot pink (HOT. PINK. With bonus rearing horse!) Zebra romance I picked up, oh, ages ago- somewhere between my high school heydays of romance, and coming back to the fold a couple years ago.  It was clearly from a free pile somewhere, and it’s everything you’d expect from a late 1980’s Zebra romance and MORE.  No Texan Viscount, though- I feel like that stays in it’s own category of crazysauce.

I think I picked this up something like seven years ago, and read it, and (apparently) liked it enough to keep it and cart it around to four different houses and three moves.  Now I'm wondering what the hell was in my head, except that I'd gone through a years long phase where I hadn't read any romance at all, because I was trying to be an adult (overrated).  So any water tastes good to the parched girl in the desert?  And it's been sitting on my shelf in all of its hot pink glory, and I remembered the disguises being awesome?  But… read more »

Taking a Shot by Jaci Burton

I really wanted to like this book. And there were moments when I was charmed by the heroine and laughed at her descriptions of people. But the book suffered because of an arrogant presumptuous hero, and a severe reliance on cliche.

Jenna Riley runs the family sports bar, and says she hates sports. Well, she says she hates sports but then, a chapter or so later, says she doesn't - she only means that she wants a guy who doesn't play sports so she doesn't have to live her work life at home. So professional sports players, a good third of whom are probably related to her, are off the menu. And of course the guy who has her panties most in a twist is a hockey player, who, with his fellow hockey players, hangs out at the Riley sports pub.

Let me tell you, Jenna's family is the most amazing family genetic pool ever. Not since Archie Manning's testicles… read more »

Wild Ride by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer - A Guest Review by CarrieS

CarrieS reviewed this book after reading it twice, and her review after the second reading was fascinating: 

I was looking for books to review and I thought, “Hey!  Wild Ride is out on paperback and it’s a new release to the large contingent of people who won’t buy a book until it’s in paperback (me).  Also, I haven’t reviewed a fantasy or paranormal in a while.  Plus it has great geek cred since it lists Joss Whedon in the acknowledgments page.”.  Then time passed, and eventually this book was no longer a new release to anybody.  But, I’m reviewing it anyway, because I had a pleasant surprise when I read it for the second time.  The first time, I expected a Romance Novel and I was disappointed.  The second time, I read it on its own merits and had a total blast.  So, if you passed this book up the first time around, or if you tackled it and were let down, give it another shot, but be prepared for it to diverge from a standard romance novel.

The… read more »

The Science of Kissing by Sheril Kirshenbaum - A Guest Review by CarrieS

I was inspired to read and review this book by two things: my local library's science book display (Yay, libraries!) and Sarah's articles on the myths about biology and anatomy that often appear in romance.  I thought readers of those threads might enjoy The Science of Kissing (henceforth known as TSoK) based on my first impression of it as a light and entertaining science read.  As it turns out, this was a hard book to grade because as a science book it was disappointingly slight - and I say that as someone who's prefers to have science offered up to me in small portions with easy words.  On the other hand, the historical content was fascinating and it was a really charming book overall.  

I'll let the author speak for herself as to what the book is about and why she wrote it:

"A kiss is one of the most significant exchanges two people can have, serving as an unspoken language to convey our deepest feelings when words simply will not do.  From a symbol of love and… read more »

Truths and Roses by Inglath Cooper

I found this book because of a Facebook ad. If you follow me on Twitter or are subscribed to the SBTB Facebook page, you saw me talking about it yesterday. Here's the ad:

This ad worked for me so well I was astonished. Hero description, heroine description, briefest plot summary with hints at the tropes to be used.

I WAS SO THERE.

Then I got a look at the cover. Beautiful! Looks…professional!

Add to that the .99c price, and it was not difficult to click the ad, look at the book description, and click to buy. And judging from the link traffic stats, many of you did, too. I hope you enjoyed the book as much as I did.