Bitchin' Blog Posts
: Historical Romance
May 24, 2012 | Thursday | 5 Comments
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…
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May 21, 2012 | Monday | 10 Comments
Beguiling the Beauty is a late Victorian era romance that meets my geek criteria because of its use of science, specifically the study of fossils and the rise of evolutionary biology. My husband is an evolutionary biologist, so needless to say I was thrilled when I found out that Sherry Thomas' new book has an evolutionary biologist hero. I'm a huge Sherry Thomas fan and this book did not disappoint. In fact, it is by far my favorite book of hers, in no small part because it features the line, "Thank you for dinner. And thank you for the pleasure…
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April 25, 2012 | Wednesday | 10 Comments
This RITA Reader Challenge review was written by Jenn. This book is nominated in the Best Historical Romance category. The summary: Cameron Mackenzie is a man who loves only horses and women - in that order - or so his mistresses say. Ainsley Douglas is a woman with a strong sense of justice and the desire to help others - even if that means sneaking around a rakish man's bedchamber. Which is exactly where Cam finds her - six years after he caught her the first time. Only then, she convinced Cam she was seeking a liaison, but couldn't go…
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April 16, 2012 | Monday | 56 Comments
On the airport shuttle from the Hyatt Regency O'Hare yesterday, I met a young woman who was traveling home to North Carolina. I didn't get a chance to get her name and write it down (it was an airport hotel after all, and we were too busy talking about books during the 8 minute ride) but she told me a very lovely story. She traveled to Romantic Times to meet friends she knew only online, and she came only for the Saturday Book Fair. Her home is in North Carolina, so she flew to Atlanta, then to Chicago, just for…
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April 16, 2012 | Monday | 87 Comments
Billie Bloebaum wrote in with a rather interesting question: Has there ever been a GS vs. STA for fairy tale-inspired romance? Because I'm totally going through a phase with it right now and was hoping for some recommendations of things inspired by tales other than Cinderella or Beauty & the Beast. I can find a ton of stuff in YA and Fantasy and even Lit Fic (and if you haven't read 'The Snow Child' by Eowyn Ivey you should do so nownownow) ( A | BN | K | S ), but Romance seems to be stuck on those two stories, with…
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April 15, 2012 | Sunday | 8 Comments
Oh Geez. At RT, even, people came up to tell me how funny that comment thread was. You're ridiculous good, people. Choosing a winner is seriously difficult.
So, here, have a last look at Fire's Tender What Now:
The Honorable Mentions go to:
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March 28, 2012 | Wednesday | 20 Comments
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…
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March 26, 2012 | Monday | 34 Comments
For awhile now, on historical romance covers, we've been looking at backs, or, more specifically, women undressing from the back:
I love how all these women in historical times went around with their gowns laced over nothing. It's like the upper-body version of going commando. Boobmando!
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March 25, 2012 | Sunday | 6 Comments
The books on sale and discounted? They sell all of the copies. THE DEVIL YOU SAY! The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | The Amorous Education of Celia Seaton by Miranda Neville | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | ARE Requiem for Ashes by David Crossman | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | Ride With Me: A Loveswept Contemporary Romance by Ruthie Knox | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | ARE [SBTB review: B] Redwood Bend by Robyn Carr | Amazon | BN | Sony |…
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March 22, 2012 | Thursday | 60 Comments
This is a big ol' podcast: we start out talking briefly about novellas and short digital reads that Jane liked, but our main topic is the canon. What romances form the genre's canon for historical, contemporary, and paranormal? We talk in circles a good bit (sorry about that) and we discuss what a canon is, and why it means different things to different groups. Writers and readers, for example may have different ideas of what their romance canon would be. I'm sure there's many writers you think have been left off, and so if you'd like to add or subtract…
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March 19, 2012 | Monday | 265 Comments
We have winners! The four winners of an ARC of Beguiling the Beauty as chosen by Random.org are: #120: JulieM #44: Terrie #95: secohen #257: scigirlcindy Random.org has also given me a winner for the grand prize, an ARC and a bounty of beauty products made by Sherry Thomas: comment #161, JennyB! Winners, please email me at sarahATsmartbitchestrashybooksDOTcom with your mailing address. You can also try again to win an ARC at Sherry's Facebook page for the next 72 hours - and, whoo hoo! All of Sherry's backlist is on sale digitally for $3.99 right now! Not Quite a Husband by Sherry…
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March 17, 2012 | Saturday | 19 Comments
This request is from Daisy, who is looking for an historical romance she read some years back. I'm looking for a historical, but I don't remember the title, author, or character names. I do remember a lot of the plot though and some random details, so hopefully someone will recognize it. So the hero is a lord of some kind and has a whole passel of illegitimate children who are forever misbehaving. He decides that the best way to solve the problem is to get married so the children have a mother. He gets his friend/relative/secondary-less-important-character-guy to go find him…
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March 17, 2012 | Saturday | 28 Comments
ItGirl sent me this inquiry, as she is looking for a book she read awhile back, and, alas, she can only remember certain scenes. Yeah, so I keep having flashes of this one book...and I want to figure out what it is. Do you or the other readers possibly know this? I have very little recollection except of the sex scenes. Because I was 17 years old and, you know. Sex. I read it in the early 90s, maybe around 1991 or 1992, so you know it's a treasure right there. It started at a prison in Louisiana during The…
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January 31, 2012 | Tuesday | 14 Comments
Cleo is looking for a book that was truly memorable for her, for a number of reasons, including the context in which she read it. Honestly, this book sounds fascinating. I have an HaBo. I read this book in the late ‘80s, during my freshman year at college, and of course I don't remember any names or titles. I borrowed it from one of my roommates, who borrowed it from someone down the hall, who borrowed it from someone else in the dorm. I’m looking for it because I think it was ahead of its time - the heroine had…
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January 31, 2012 | Tuesday | 11 Comments
It's HaBO-Thon time! HaBO stands for "Help a Bitch Out," and is a segment wherein folks write in looking for books that they cannot find, usually becuase they remember many details about the plot, but not the title or author. This is, by the way, how I remember most books. Our first request comes from GoldenDarter: After the latest round of HaBOs, and another fruitless internet search, I have decided to ask the Bitchery if they might know of this book... I read it several years ago, in the infancy of my romance obsession, but I have no idea when it…
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