Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

RITA Reader Challenge: The Danger of Desire by Elizabeth Essex

This review was written by Katherine This story was nominated in the Best Historical Romance category.

The summary: Captain Hugh McAlden is working on a top-secret mission to bring down enemy spies living in England. After seeing a young woman perform a brilliant bit of pick pocketing on the London streets, he impulsively decides to hire her to help him. The only name she'll give him is Meggs, and she refuses to tell him anything about her background or how she ended up on the streets. But as Hugh tries to unravel her secrets, he also finds her harder and harder to resist...

And here is Katherine's review:

This could have been a really good book, instead of just a better than average book.  It coulda been a...oh wait, it is a contender.  Who's responsible for making these nominations, anyway, and what are they drinking? Still, I liked Danger of Desire enough to read the previous book in the series, Pursuit of Pleasure, which as it happens was a… read more »

RITA Reader Challenge: Slow Dancing on Price’s Pier by Lisa Dale

This review was written by Karyn This story was nominated in the Best Contemporary Single Title Romance category.

The summary: Fifteen years ago, Garret Sorensen's family, trust, and heart were destroyed when Thea Celik betrayed him and married his brother. Now they are divorcing. Garret's ready to finally mend his relationship with his brother. But being back in Newport, Rhode Island, triggers a lot of memories-all leading back to Thea. Thea's not ready to let go of the Sorensens-even if it means being around Garret. As they cautiously circle around each other-finding themselves drawn together-they realize following their hearts could cast them adrift.  

And here is Karyn's review:

I wanted to love Slow Dancing on Price’s Pier, by Lisa Dale, or even like it a lot, I just couldn’t.

RITA Reader Challenge: Warped by Maurissa Guibord

This review was written by Sarah Elsewhere. This story was nominated in the Best First Book and the Best YA Romance category.

The summary: Tessa doesn't believe in magic. Or Fate. But there's something weird about the dusty unicorn tapestry she discovers in a box of old books. She finds the creature woven within it compelling and frightening. After the tapestry comes into her possession, Tessa experiences dreams of the past and scenes from a brutal hunt that she herself participated in. When she accidentally pulls a thread from the tapestry, Tessa releases a terrible centuries old secret. She also meets William de Chaucy, an irresistible 16th-century nobleman. His fate is as inextricably tied to the tapestry as Tessa's own. Together, they must correct the wrongs of the past. But then the Fates step in, making a tangled mess of Tessa's life. Now everyone she loves will be destroyed unless Tessa does their bidding and defeats a cruel and crafty ancient enemy.  

And here is Sarah Elsewhere's review:

… read more »

RITA Reader Challenge: Doukakis’s Apprentice by Sarah Morgan

This review was written by Jenny D. This story was nominated in the Best Contemporary Series Romance category.

The summary: With her family business in crisis, Polly Prince does her best to keep calm and carry on. But hard work alone can't save her London company from a takeover by the infamously ruthless Damon Doukakis…or her traitorous body from the lethal sensuality of her boss! As his new apprentice, Polly accompanies Damon to Paris to negotiate the most challenging business deal of her life! Worse still, Polly must at all costs resist Damon in the most dangerously romantic city in the world.…

And here is Jenny's review:

A Review of Sarah Morgan’s Doukakis’s Apprentice in 250 Words Even Though That’s a Really Tiny Amount of Words

Let’s get the bad things out of the way up front:

Bad Thing #1: The title. Seriously. Is it a rule that all HPs have absurd titles that don’t match the plot?

Yesterday’s News by Kajsa Ingemarsson

I'm going to do two things I rarely do. One, I'm going to write a review for a book a few hours after I finished it. Two, I'm going to post a review for a book that has been appearing in digital and paper format slowly - and I hope it is available at your preferred retailer when this review goes live. I also hope this review inspires a few libraries to add this author to their collection, as I really liked this book.

This book was originally published in Sweden (and thus, in Swedish)  in 2005 under the name Små citroner gula, which means "Small yellow lemon," if Babelfish isn't steering me wrong. It was translated into several languages, and is now available (somewhat) in the US.

Let's start with the one sad thing about this book. Tthe US cover is so horribly, terribly, no good, very bad awful.

There are no cupcakes in this book that I remember. Are cupcakes a waning fad in other countries the way they are here? Little overpriced cakes from specialty shops that individually cost as much as a dozen regular old still-delicious… read more »

A Little Night Magic by Lucy March - A Guest Review by Betty Fokker

 Betty Fokker wrote a guest review of Lucy March's "A Little Night Magic," and I wanted to share it with you.

must make with the confession. I am an Internet-Pal of Lucy March/Lani Diane Rich. It is like being a real-life friend, except we’ve never gotten drunk and talked each other into getting a Tramp Stamp of jumping dolphins at 3:00 AM. (Not that this has happened to me.) This means that I am not without favorable bias when I read her work.

However, my mild mannered mundane self is an academic, and I swore on a Roget’s Thesaurus that all literary reviews would contain some criticism. The penalties for “failing to critique” are harsh. You have to watch Jaws IV without commenting on the plot holes or bad special effects, and you are accused of having written a “hagiography” about an author. You’ll go to academic conferences and someone will have scrawled “hagiographer” across your place card in red marker. No one will sit with you at lunch. It gets real ugly, real fast.

A Little Night Magic is Lani Diane Rich’s first offering… read more »

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 »

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. 

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 »

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 »

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.

Beauty and the Duke by Melody Thomas, a Guest Review by RedHeadedGirl

I got this as a recommendation from…. Aw, hell, there isn’t a name attached to the rec, but Sarah sent in on because “it’s fun when your head explodes!”

So there’s a couple things you should know: first, like many people, I went through a dinosaur phase in my misspent youth, so there’s that.  Not a big enough of phase to want to become a paleontologist, but still, very interesting and whatnot.  There are pictures of dinosaur poo on my twitter feed from my Christmas visit to the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Second, Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie.  Ever.  I know there are people who think it’s an example of Stockholm Syndrome and that it encourages the idea that women can change men, which I think is a simplistic reading of the text and we could get into it, but the core lesson, I think, is that if you want to be treated like a person, you have to act like a person.  And sometimes it’s someone calling… read more »

Chain Reaction by Zoe Archer, a Guest Review by CarrieS

(With Bonus Mini-review of: The Clockwork Girl.)

I reviewed Archer's first science fiction ebook, Collision Course, about 8th Wing and their fight against PRAXIS and I loved it.  A special thanks to all the commentators who pointed out that in real life PRAXIS can stand for a type of standardized test.  I still love the series but now every time the word comes up all I can think of is number two pencils. 

Anyway, I had high expectations for Chain Reaction and those expectations were met and exceeded. Wonderful characters, a geek hero (SWOON!!!!), great dialogue both serious and funny, and a refreshing amount of realism considering the setting.  After a sequence of ebooks in which protagonists were practically knocked senseless by their first encounter with the godliness of the other, it was lovely to see a more realistic but still passionate description of attraction and deepening emotional romance.

Abby and the Bachelor Cop by Marion Lennox

I read this book in a matter of hours. That's how much I liked it. I didn't even notice that the Steelers were on, that there was dessert on the table, that it was past my bedtime. I thought it was charming and I loved reading it. I want to read everything Marion Lennox has written, and I want to read the rest of this series.

But after I finished it, I found myself arguing with my own opinion, challenging how much I liked it, pointing out flaws and figuring out that, yup, despite them, I still liked it. I'm conflicted about how to grade the book, because I know there are flaws and I know there are some uses of character that will drive some readers nuts, but I also really enjoyed it, with and despite those flaws.

Plot summary: Abigail is about to marry Phillip, who has been her boyfriend for ten years, who she went to law school with, who she practices defense law alongside each day, and who she has been with for so long it's hard for her to… read more »