Bitchin' Blog Posts
: Historical
December 10, 2011 | Saturday | 13 Comments
There's a lot going on here there and everywhere. The winner of the Bad Sex award has been announced. The winner was David Guterson for "Ed King," a retelling of Oedipus. The winning, ahem, passage: "In the shower, Ed stood with his hands at the back of his head, like someone just arrested, while she abused him with a bar of soap. After a while he shut his eyes, and Diane, wielding her fingernails now and staring at his face, helped him out with two practiced hands, one squeezing the family jewels, the other vigorous with the soap-and-warm-water treatment. It didn't…
read more »
December 05, 2011 | Monday | 13 Comments
Back in August, this lovely author, Theresa Meyers, sent an email to Smart Bitch Sarah asking if I (Me! CarrieS!) would review her latest book, The Hunter. Well. As Paula Deen once said, that just knocked my socks clean off and into the washer. I feel I have Arrived. Now that authors (or, at least, an author) are requesting me (me!) personally, I'm sure the New Yorker will be calling any minute. I'm waiting by the phone, New Yorker! Call me! Anyway, there I was, flattered right out of my mind, when I realized that this was actually a disaster,…
read more »
November 14, 2011 | Monday | 111 Comments
I started this post on 25 October, and put it aside because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to say. In mid-October, I put Heavy D’s “Now That We’ve Found Love” on my running mix and was thinking about the song and how much I liked it (and Heavy D) while I was out one day. Heavy D died unexpectedly on 8 November at age 44, and the news headline made me remember this post and that I’d never finished it. While I’m still not sure that I made every point I wanted to make (my train of thought while…
read more »
November 12, 2011 | Saturday | 138 Comments
I have an anonymous request for a “Good Shit vs. Shit to Avoid” list: Like many of us, I cope with things by reading about them, and I love finding a book about someone who has problems similar to mine and is able to thrive. I was recently diagnosed with a chronic condition that will almost certainly affect the rest of my life. It’s not fatal, and it’s not degenerative, but it is likely to lead to some level of physical disability in the future. I am thus wondering about books with heroines who are physically disabled. I know there…
read more »
November 10, 2011 | Thursday | 64 Comments
Julie Garwood is a romance author whose books often are mentioned along with my very favorite noise, “Good Book Noise.” There are MANY of them, too! She used to write historicals, and now her focus in on romantic suspense. So if you’re looking at Garwood’s books and trying to pick one to read, it can be daunting. My favorite Garwood’s are all historicals. I love The Bride like nobody’s business, and could re-read that book any time, even when I have 2 minutes before the world ends. My copy is in two large pieces. I think it might be time…
read more »
November 05, 2011 | Saturday | 9 Comments
Has from Bookpushers is looking for a romance she read a long time ago: This book has remained with me for a long time because it was such an unsual historical romance ever since I read it as a teen in the early 90s. I cant seem to remember the title or the author but I do remember the plot. It was a book that spans three generations of women with the story split into 3 parts and starts off just after the end of the US Civil war I think- and ends post WW2 in the US. The first…
read more »
November 05, 2011 | Saturday | 15 Comments
Janine emailed and asked for your help with a rather unique-sounding romance:
The recent BEJEWELED ELEPHANTS crazysauce review made me think of a
historical romance set in India that was actually…pretty good. I got it
years ago from a library paperback “take one-bring one” shelf and would
love to reread it—but of course I cannot come up with title, author, or
names of any of the characters.
read more »
November 04, 2011 | Friday | 46 Comments
Rudi wrote me and said,
“I’m almost ashamed to say this, I’ve never actually read a pirate romance before so I don’t really know where to start.
I was hoping the Bitchery might be able to help me find some awesome pirate romance novels. Dangerously puffy shirts on the cover are a plus.”
Now, we discussed this back in 2006 but it seemed to me that enough has changed in 5 years that we might be able to add to that list. Got any piratical romances you recommend, from then and now?
read more »
November 02, 2011 | Wednesday | 32 Comments
Here’s a strange question for you. Does a contemporary romance set in urban parts of England signal Chick Lit to you as a US (or outside-the-US) reader? One of the conversations I was having this past weekend in Seattle at the Emerald City Writer’s Conference centered on setting and locations, and how some locations signal certain genres. The question about single women finding romance in urban parts of England instantly meaning Chick Lit for US readers made me wonder - I didn’t *think* it was true but outside of Harlequin category romances, I couldn’t think of any single title romances…
read more »
October 31, 2011 | Monday | 19 Comments
Rhonda wrote in looking for this book, and I *thought* I posted it, but maybe it’s a really vivid dream or something. I searched but it’s not coming up - but if this is a repeat, I beg your pardon. I’m searching for a book. I remember reading it way back when I was first married, so its something like 20 years old give or take. The heroine, I remember her name, Dorcus, cause how could the author give such a kickass female such a bad name. I mean Xena Warrior Princess had to be an ancestor of hers cause…
read more »
October 31, 2011 | Monday | 4 Comments
Miss Y emailed me about this book, which she can’t get out of her head. I’ve been thinking almost incessantly about a book I read about two years ago. It was about this guy, whose name might be Alec? Alex? Something. And also he was a Duke. Of Something. Anyway, he goes to visit a friend, who is a bit older than him, hereafter known as Older Friend. And there he meets some girl. The Heroine. Whose name I can’t remember. Well she is supposed to be Older Friend’s mistress or something but it turns out they’re only doing it…
read more »
October 23, 2011 | Sunday | 21 Comments
Ah, the magic wonder of Bonus Materials, Books on Sale, and good buzz - woo hoo! The Color of Magic with Bonus Material: A Discworld Novel by Terry Pratchett [Amazon | BN | WORD Brooklyn] Something Different by S.A. Reid [Smashwords |Amazon Bad Boys Do by Victoria Dahl [Amazon | Kindle | BN & nook | Kobo | AllRomance | Harlequin.com] I Love the Earl by Caroline Linden [Amazon | Kindle | BN & nook | Kobo | WORD Brooklyn] Lord and Lady Spy by Shana Galen [Kindle | Kobo | BN] Everything I Know about Love I Learned from…
read more »
October 04, 2011 | Tuesday | 1187 Comments
Everything I Know About Love I Learned from Romance Novels is out in stores everywhere (or should be!), so let’s celebrate with HUGE GIVEAWAYNESS OF AWESOME! So many authors contributed to EIKAL, and shared such amazing and valuable stories about their own experiences with romance that I wanted to celebrate EIKAL’s release with a GIANT BASKET of every author’s book that I could get my hands on. PLUS, if you’re curious about digital reading, you get a choice of those, too (thanks to Jeaniene Frost for the idea!). Here’s the deal: leave a comment, and tell me one thing you’ve…
read more »
October 01, 2011 | Saturday | 41 Comments
It’s time for the October book club pick - and we’re going to be reading another historical, but a More Different Historical. The Caribbean! Pirates! AND cross dressing! ETA: I’m opening the contest for an additional day since the site was down this weekend - have at it! The October book is Darlene Marshall’s Sea Change. Here’s the summary: American privateer Captain David Fletcher needs a surgeon for his wounded brother. But when he captures a British merchantman in the Caribbean, what he gets is Charley Alcott, an apprentice physician barely old enough to shave. Needs take priority over skill,…
read more »
September 28, 2011 | Wednesday | 36 Comments
The interesting thing about Jude Deveraux novels is that for every book someone adored, there’s a nearly equal number of readers who didn’t like it. So it’s difficult to create a recommendation list for early Deveraux books, and I’ve tried to include the balance of comments so that readers who are curious about her backlist can get a sense of what might appeal to them. So, let’s get started! A Knight in Shining Armor [Amazon | Kindle | BN & nook | Kobo | WORD Brooklyn] You can’t be surprised this made the list! This time-travel romance is a little…
read more »
