Bitchin' Blog Posts
: Gossip
June 03, 2011 | Friday | 12 Comments
This book was a departure from romance reading for me. Spoiled is not a romance. It’s a YA novel, with a minor romantic element, and a long-distance relationship element. Without meaning to I stepped out of the genre and thoroughly enjoyed myself. But be ye aware, this is not a romance. That said, I really enjoyed it. It’s freaking hilarious. It is funny and fluffy and sudsy and silly. Really, you have to like silly humor a bit to enjoy this book. In fact, it can be summed up in two words: Chanandaler Bong. If you get that reference, and…
read more »
September 08, 2010 | Wednesday | 88 Comments
[This is a guest review from reader R. who found her long-lost romance thanks to the Bitchery and a HaBO that was SO funny I laughed so hard I could barely speak. Read on for more adventure in way-back romance!] Surrender to the Night (Or that book I ran into 18 years ago when I was 13, and finally got 3 days ago, thanks to the Smart Bitches and the Bitchery) For real, guys, I can’t thank you enough. I feel like a niggling mystery from my early teenagerhood has finally been solved. I suppose it feels that way because…
read more »
February 14, 2010 | Sunday | 44 Comments
If Sweet Valley High was your gateway drug to romance the way it was mine (I even reviewed one here a long long time ago), I have some news for you. According to EW.com, and some chatty editorial assistant gossip, the Wakefield twins are baaaaaack, this time as part of Sweet Valley Confidential: “a book chronicling their lives as twenty-somethings. Rumors have swirled for years that SVH creator Francine Pascal was working on a book focusing on the twins and their friends several years out of high school.” Say it with me now: Oh, Dear Sister! I usually don’t hop…
read more »
August 25, 2009 | Tuesday | 20 Comments
After a few people recommended this book to me, and after feeling a serious frenzy to read more contemporary romances, I picked this book up. Here are the things that made me raise a brow because I didn’t think I would like it: 1. See the adirondack chair on the cover? I love those. LOVE. Comfy! But on a book cover that usually means “selfish urbanesque twatbadger is going to stop paying so much attention to her toenails and start paying attention to her SOUL and things that MATTER after she learns fly fishing or clam digging or something.” Or,…
read more »
February 18, 2009 | Wednesday | 19 Comments
What Would Emma Do is a smart, unblinking mixture of “The Crucible” meets “Saved,” with one of the most memorable YA narrators I’ve met in awhile. However, it’s not a romance, so I’m not evaluating it as such. More on that in a moment. Emma is the only daughter of a single mom in a small Illinois Indiana* town named Wheaton, which is situated exactly in the middle of rural nowhere. Emma really, really hates living there. Her goal is a track scholarship to Northwestern, and she’s not secret about her goals, or her intense dislike of every aspect of…
read more »
December 15, 2008 | Monday | 41 Comments
In a lot of ways, the book is a very familiar and almost typical setup: Molly Jennings, a big city girl with secret, returns home to small mountain town, surrounded by old friends and familiar parental figures. Actual parents optional, some assembly required. Ben Lawson, the sheriff, has lived in Tumble Creek his whole life and has little patience for her secrets, or for his attraction to her. Sound familiar? I could name a few books that follow the plotline, especially the heavy mountain snows = oh noes, we’re snowed in—let’s break out the mulled cider and sex, eh? However!…
read more »
November 04, 2008 | Tuesday | 12 Comments
Part four of my liveblogging an Historical Undone.
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV
Chapter Four: The Night before Christmas
Bliss is the word for it: they’ve “gotten to know” each other now that the hot sex has cleared the air, and it’s time for a merry Christmas and a merrier denouement and conclusion.
Lord Alex WALON has even offered to help with the chores.
HOLY CRAP.
read more »
November 04, 2008 | Tuesday | 2 Comments
Part two of my liveblogging of my reading of this Historical Undone. Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV Ok, their estate in Yorkshire? Peacock Oak. Poor Alex WALON, I hope that’s not an endorsement of his endowment, or the sexual preferences of his brother. Melicent’s mother apparently feels “sick as cushion,” whatever that means, and is a pain in the ass. Melicent is hiding downstairs writing. Writing the scandalous gossip? Nope. Architectural guides. Seems she’s also a technical writer. What a woman of excellent depth of talent! And of course she doesn’t recognize her husband…
read more »
November 04, 2008 | Tuesday | 5 Comments
I’m attempting to liveblog my reading of this Historical Undone. It remains to be seen whether I’ll be able to read and annotate by the end of the day, but I shall give it a shot. Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV Lord Alexander whatever a lot of names Beaumont entered White’s, found no one would look at or speak to him, and challenged his friend Wheeler to inform him what was going on. Seems Lord Alexander whatever a lot of names Beaumont (no mention of his actual title, which seems odd considering the normal…
read more »
October 20, 2008 | Monday | 217 Comments
Jane has mentioned before that the contemporary romances that doesn’t feature vampires, campy vampires, werewolves, immortal peril, mortal peril, suspense out the wahoo, or extraordinary extraterrestrial extraneous circumstances seem to be fewer and far between. Every now and again I hear declarations that the contemporary romance is a dying subgenre and it’s harder and harder to find, and that if you’re not an established name, you’ll never get anywhere, because fewer people want to read contemporary romance. So when we read Flat Out Sexy by Erin McCarthy, we were both blathering to each other about how awesome it was and…
read more »
August 26, 2008 | Tuesday | 21 Comments
Anyone who gets the Publishers Lunch has received the news that Amazon acquired Shelfari. TechCrunch is reporting that Amazon dropped a cool million on the Shelf, while the Seattle Post-Intelligencer notes that three weeks ago, Amazon acquired AbeBooks, which owns a share in Shelfari’s competitor, LibraryThing. While the nom-nom-nom-ing of the internet does make me raise a cautious brow, it also makes me wonder if Amazon is the only party with massive cash behind it that recognizes the potential power of book network marketing. Not marketing of books, but the marketing of book networks, and how powerful social networks are…
read more »
July 20, 2008 | Sunday | 9 Comments
Thanks to Jennifer Echols for the link: from the April issue of Print magazine, which is devoted to graphic design, an article about the changing and updated covers for YA books in the US. Sweet Valley High is featured, as is Judy Blume, Paula Danziger, and Nancy Drew. The glitz and gleam of the Gossip Girls is mentioned, along with the updated SVH’s, but what caught my eye was the varying styles of art used for YA books now. When I was younger, I have this memory of most, if not all, being illustrated covers. Either way, with the covers…
read more »
June 17, 2008 | Tuesday | 10 Comments
If you take a look at the Yahoo: Books and Publishing News Page, you’ll see a particular byline frequently: that of Hillel Italie, who is the AP National Writer who covers All Things Book. Some people stalk their favorite authors. Some people stalk Fabio. Me, I start wondering about the job responsibilities of AP book beat reporters. I was rather fascinated by the idea of a reporter whose responsibilities include publishing, books, bestsellers, news, gossip, events, and trends - I mean, dude. How cool is that? So, being the nosy woman I am, I asked Hillel if he’d be willing…
read more »
April 19, 2008 | Saturday | 20 Comments
A few not entirely blind items: Rumor has it EC Cavemen behaved like cavemen, with the exception of a gentleman who lived up to that term by the name of Rodney. At least three authors that I know of resorted to physical response to their grabby tactics – a physical response that involved a slap and no tickle. As of Friday evening, no cavemen in sight – they seem to have suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. At least, they’re not wearing their official EC gear and traveling in a pack, and the EC staff seem to have departed as well. And…
read more »
