Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

Iron Guns, Blazing Hearts by Heather Massey:  A Guest Review by CarrieS

Iron Guns, Blazing Hearts is a fun, pulpy steampunk western that has a simple goal and achieves it.

In her acknowledgements page, Heather Massey writes, "I wrote Iron Guns, Blazing Hearts with the goal of providing all the entertainment value I could muster". 

I'm evaluating the book accordingly.  Did it sweep me off my feet?  Nope.  Did I learn something about human relationships, or become a better person, or achieve an intellectual breakthrough?  Nope again.  But the book was a loving homage to a fun and almost forgotten form of fiction, and it was certainly entertaining, so I'd say it's a success.

Irresistible by Mary Balogh

I started reading this because when I posted the $1.99 sale alert, Samalamadingdong, a reader, said that this was one of her favorite Balogh novels. I love me some historicals so off I went to read it. I thought to myself, while I was reading the opening chapters, "Well, this isn't exactly my cup of tea, there's a lot of infodumpery and some of these characters talk in exposition and that's too bad. I'll give it one more chapter."

Then, in what seemed like a minute later but was actually two hours, I was 45% through the book and had to force myself to put it down and go to bed.

Balogh, it seems, is quiet sneaky crack reading for me. As I said on Twitter, "I'm reading and suddenly I CANNOT STOP READING. Even when I see the flaws, THERE IS NO STOPPING." There's a mellow addictive quality to the writing and I couldn't put the book down. Even though I see all the flaws like they're standing up and introducing themselves… read more »

Caught in Amber by Cathy Pegau: A Review by CarrieS

Caught In Amber takes on a challenging premise and does a great job with it.  The ending is a bit of a cop-out but overall I was pleased at how the author made this book enjoyable and romantic without sugar coating the serious issues it describes.

Caught in Amber is set in what appears to be a not very distant future, when an illegal and highly addictive drug called Amber has become popular.  Sasha James is a parolee and recovering Amber addict.  As part of her parole she has a chip in her neck that reports her movements to law enforcement and also controls her physical cravings for Amber. 

Sasha is approached by Nathan Sterling, a lawman whose sister has fallen under the charms of the same man (Guy Christiansen) who got Sasha hooked on Amber.  Nathan says that he can get Sasha's chip removed, an act that would make her more vulnerable to Amber but also give her freedom from her parole conditions and from being under Correction's watchful eye permanently.

The Little Book of Heartbreak by Meghan Laslocky: A Guest by CarrieS

Smart Bitches is a safe haven for all of us who cherish our happy endings in fiction (and in real life, when we can get them).  But I often find that right around Valentine's Day all the romance is leached from my bones and nothing will do but some heavy cynicism.  If, like me, you are all HEA'ed out and you need a drastic change of pace, you might enjoy The Little Book of Heartbreak:  Love Gone Wrong Through the Ages, by Meghan Laslocky.

Little Book of Heartbreak is a light, anecdotal look at some of the many ways that love has gone terribly awry through history (mostly Western history).  It's cute (but not too cute, and occasionally quite dark) and vastly entertaining.  Usually I read non-fiction much more slowly than fiction, but I zipped right through this.  It's not laugh out loud funny but on the other hand it's more informative than I had expected.  

This is fairly educational stuff, but not hard scholarship.  Here's my personal favorite bit of trivia: medieval lovers sent… read more »

Heart of Danger by Lisa Marie Rice - A Guest Review by Susan

Back in September, Susan contacted me about a Carla Kelly book she had reviewed. She emailed me again recently about her discovery that sometimes, paranormal elements in a contemporary romantic suspense novel can work. Here's her review of how and why that's true for her.

I discovered Lisa Marie Rice when I started to read hotter romances and she quickly became a favorite. I adore her earlier books, like the Midnight series, and her single titles. But her books have gotten a bit formulaic recently: super alpha ex-military heroes who have instalove for the less experienced and/or damaged heroines, heroes that protect the heroines at all costs, and hot sex with behavior and descriptions that are often repeated from book to book. However LMR remains my reading crack. The books are fast-paced and I look forward to the next one, always. I figured the first book in the new Ghost Ops series would be more of the same. When I realized that Heart of… read more »

The Devil’s Delilah by Loretta Chase

After reading a write-up of the awesomeness that is Jack Langdon written by @ActuallyAisha, I bought and read The Devil's Delilah, despite having a LOT on my reading list for this month and despite not having much time to get it all done. Y'all, I am so glad I made time for this book. It's wonderful.

The Devil's Delilah is a traditional Regency - have a look at the old cover on the right to get the full gist of what I mean. Originally published in 1989, the story revolves around a very intricate plots. Darryl Desmond, better known as "Devil Desmond," has written a memoir of his life and escapades as a somewhat infamous rakehell in London. This is something of a past life for him, because after he married an actress, they moved off to Scotland and lived happily, since they would not… read more »

Sealed with a Curse by Cecy Robson

This book has a plot like a Jack Russell Terrier on crack jellybeans. Bounce bounce bounce! It zooms from event to event, gory bloody scene to battle to a shower at home to more action. ZOOM! BOUNCE! It's kind of manic.

But it also has guffaw-moments of silly, goofy humor. The silly humor of the prose fits the story in a way that made me laugh hard at some scenes. It might give you whiplash, the way moments of drama are deflated with sarcasm, since it moves the tone of the story back and forth from Moment of Loss and Sadness to Moment of Wait, That Was Kinda Funny.

Also, before I move on to the plot summary, take a close look at the cover: notice her fingers are tapered into claws? That's kinda cool - and fits the story, both in… read more »

Dirty Minds by Kayt Sukel: A Guest Review by Carrie S

"Dirty Minds:  How Our Brains Influence Love, Sex, and Relationships" is a nice, basic, but fairly comprehensive overview of the latest scientific information about love and sex.

It's not very exciting - for a fun, ribald take on the topic I highly recommend Bonk, reviewed here previously.  For a more detailed look at the topic, I recommend Love, Sex and the Brain, also reviewed here.  Dirty Minds is essentially a summary of all the info you can find in Love, Sex, and the Brain but with a slightly more conversational and personal approach.

No Words Alone by Autumn Dawn - A Guest Review by Carrie S

I heard via word of mouth that No Words Alone is a very good science fiction romance, so of course I had to check it out.  I had some very ambivalent feelings about this book and yet I was completely swept away by the story and the atmosphere.

Xera is a translator.  She is human, and serves on a human spacecraft that crashes after engaging in a skirmish with an alien craft.  Both ships are stranded on a hostile planet and the humans and the aliens (Scorpios) have to make an alliance to survive.  Xera is the only woman in both crews and when her captain threatens to rape her, the Scorpio leader, Ryven, takes her under his protection.  Seeing as how the two races are at war, "under his protection" essentially means she is taken prisoner, brought to Ryven's home planet, and told that she will be marrying him.  Xera is drawn to the Scorpio culture and… read more »

Midsummer Moon by Laura Kinsale - a Guest Review by Carrie S

I believe that the best word to describe Midsummer Moon is "adorable", and I mean that as a compliment.

It dances right on the edge of being hopelessly twee, but there's a grounding element of emotional truth that makes the stakes real and powerful.

Lord Ransom Falconer...oh, excuse me.  I was about to tell you the plot, but we have to pause for a moment to truly appreciate the name "Lord Ransom Falconer".  Done?  Then let's proceed.  Lord AwesomeMcCoolname is known for being rigorously dutiful and self-controlled.  He goes into the countryside to find and recruit an inventor, Merlin Langbourne.  He wants the inventor to come back to his estate so the inventor can make weapons for use against Napoleon and also be protected from Napoleonic kidnappers.  To his astonishment, not only is Merlin a woman, she is a severely absent minded and hopelessly naive slightly mad scientist.  She has two cranky retainers, who yell at her a… read more »

The Impostor by Lily Lang

Few pitches work on me faster than an author who explains her book clearly, and tells me how proud she is of her book. The author of this book pitched the story to me, and despite it not being a match to what I usually read, I was intrigued not only but the description but by her enthusiasm for her book. This story is a mix of historical, paranormal, magical realism, possibly steampunk, and maybe even science fiction. If I think about it long enough, I could probably make an argument for it being a military thriller romance, too.

Tessa Ryder has a Gift (yes, capital G - some folks have a Gift, and most folks don't, and those who don't are usually unaware that there are those who do). Tessa's Gift allows her to change her form - painfully, poor thing - so that she looks exactly like someone else. As an added bonus, sort of like a… read more »

All Roads Lead to Austen by Amy Elizabeth Smith:  A Guest Review by CarrieS

All Roads Lead to Austen:  A Yearlong Journey With Jane is a fun, thoughtful, and entertaining memoir by Amy Elizabeth Smith.  Amy spent a year travelling through Latin America.  In each country she visited, she led or attended a book club meeting about one of Jane Austen's novels. (SB Sarah: And since today, as Carrie noted in an email today, is Jane Austen's birthday, this seemed like a good date to talk about this book.)

She had two primary questions:

1.  Do the novels of Austen resonate with contemporary Latin American readers?

2.  Who is/are the Austen(s) of Latin America?

The Scientific American Book of Love, Sex, and the Brain by Judith Horstman -Guest Review by CarrieS

It's time for...SCIENCE!  That's right, I finally got a copy of Scientific American:  Love Sex, and the Brain.  This non-fiction book summarizes the results of studies that were written up in Scientific American magazine regarding, well, love, sex, and the brain.

Although the book doesn't talk in detail about the methodologies of various studies, it does have references to all the original articles, which presumably contain more information.

In a Treacherous Court, by Michelle Diener: A Guest Review by Kyra Cornelius Kramer

Kyra Kramer and I were emailing about Tudor romances, specifically one she really enjoyed, as she's a student of the Tudor era. She sent me this review to share with y'all. I hope you like it.

My name is Kyra Cornelius Kramer and I like romance novels. I like them so much I write academic essays about them. I have also done academic work in history, particularly King Henry VIII, including a book about the medical reason he may have had reproductive problems and gone bonkers in midlife (no, not syphilis). These dual interests in romance and the Tudors caused me to become aware that there was a dearth of historical romances set in the Tudor era.

Why?

It isn’t like that wasn’t an eventful and fascinating time in history. If you got characters within 50 yards of London they would be up to their lips in intrigue and sweeping sagas. You cannot throw a metaphorical rock… read more »

All He Ever Desired by Shannon Stacey

I've been trying to figure out how to review this book since I finished it. It's going to be difficult to avoid spoilers or a frank discussion of the end of the book, which is the part I had the most problems with, so I'm going to divide this review into two parts. Part the first: spoiler free, and excitingly vague. Part the second, marked by a big ol' line, will be more frank and specific, and muchly whited out.

If you're reading this on an RSS reader, BE YE WARNED.

All He Ever Desired is the second book in a second trilogy about the Kowalski family. This branch of the family lives in Whitford, Maine, and three brothers and one sister are focused during the trilogy on repairing a family lodge to try to bring new customers to visit the lodge and the nearby town. Ryan, the brother who owns a custom building company in Brookline, MA,… read more »