Bitchin' Blog Posts
: Mystery
June 30, 2011 | Thursday | 6 Comments
I have two RITA® Reader Challenge reviews for this book, one from Gail and the other from HellyBelly. HellyBelly gave the book a C-, while Gail’s review, while not graded, was more favorable. I’ve taken the liberty of averaging their reviews to a C grade. This book finaled in the Strong Romantic Elements category. Plot Summary: A husband, a family, a comfortable life: Theodora Lestrange lives in terror of it all. With a modest inheritance and the three gowns that comprise her entire wardrobe, Theodora leaves Edinburgh—and a disappointed suitor—far behind. She is bound for Rumania, where tales of vampires…
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June 02, 2011 | Thursday | 8 Comments
Anne tackled this Novel with Strong Romantic Elements for the RITA® Reader Challenge. Thanks, Anne! Plot Summary time! A young woman plunges from a Las Vegas sightseeing helicopter, landing in the Pirate’s lagoon in front of the Treasure Island Hotel in the middle of the 8:30 Pirate Show. Almost everyone writes her off as another Vegas victim. But Lucky O’Toole smells a rat. She’s head of Customer Relations at The Babylon, the newest, most opulent mega-casino and resort on the Strip, so she’s got a lot on her plate: the Adult Film industry’s annual awards banquet, a spouse-swapping convention, sex…
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May 28, 2011 | Saturday | 13 Comments
Diving Belle asks for help finding a novelist whose fourth book promised some awesome romance. I’m (still) looking for Karen Rose Cercone who—back in the late 90s—started a three kick-ass historical-mystery-with-a-terrific-romance subplot series and then stopped. (Seriously, go read them— Coal Bones, Steel Ashes, Blood Tracks.)[Hey! They’re set in Pittsburgh! Awesome! - SB Sarah] The two leads—Milo Kachigan and Helen Sorby—are a great couple and over the course of the three books, it was a delight watching their relationship develop—I always felt book number four in the series would resolve most of their issues and finally give me a HEA. …
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April 02, 2011 | Saturday | 106 Comments
Are you breathlessly anticipating the next book in Julia Spencer-Fleming’s series? Curious to see how Clare and Russ survive her deployment? Well, over the past few months, Julia and I have been working on an interview (really, this email has been going back and forth for AWHILE) and she’s got5 8 ARCs to give away this weekend. She’ll ship them out anywhere so you’ll get a copy zippy fast. Just leave a comment below to enter - and add to the Julia Spencer-Fleming Series Drinking Game (or, if you’re not so inclined, just leave a comment and tell us what…
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March 22, 2011 | Tuesday | 129 Comments
You know, when I saw the Blue Flames of Naked Man Ass cover, I didn’t think anything could top it for sheer transfixing silliness. Then there was Crop Circles and the Mystery Stare. And I didn’t think that a more bizarre collection of images could be found. Then, while hunting (huh) for Duck!, one of the DABWAHA reader nominees, I found this piece of excellent: WOW. The ‘stache! The hair! The sweatshirt! The perm! THE NAME ON HER SWEATSHIRT. I love all thing Balloony. So you guessed it: time to Caption That Cover. What’s the blurb? What are they saying?…
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March 16, 2011 | Wednesday | 24 Comments
Crazysauce HaBO Day continues! Darlene Marshall, Duchess Twitterpants (so named long before the invention of Twitter!), asks for your help with a romance mystery that’s been bugging her: I never thought I’d post a HABO request, being a peer of the Bitchery and all, but I find myself stymied and slightly tipsy, it being Saturday night and really, there wasn’t enough merlot left to put that bottle back now, was there? Anyway, Sofia B. writes me out of the blue regarding a post I left at SBTB months ago about a book I read in the late 70s/early 80s, a…
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February 09, 2011 | Wednesday | 121 Comments
Reader Cate alerted me to the differences in Elizabeth Hoyt’s covers between the US and UK versions. Have a look. This is the UK version: And this is the US version: Cate went out of her way to order the US copy even though she’s in the UK, because she really, really dislikes the historical inaccuracy of the cover: “This is a book set in 1737 - I know that because it says so on the first page(!).So why then have Piatkus given the book a set of cover models who look like they’ve just walked off the set of…
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February 03, 2011 | Thursday | 17 Comments
When I first started this site with Candy, I didn’t know much about anything concerning publishing. Then I learned a lot, and a lot fast, and I’ve met amazing people - such as Malle Vallik, Dictatrix of All Things Digital (that’s totally not her title, obviously) and one smart person when it comes to looking at how women read, and thinking about and predicting how the way we read is changing. I call her The Oracle of eBook. It was her idea to have blogger bundles, collections of Harlequin backlist titles loved by romance bloggers and romance readers, for example.…
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August 17, 2010 | Tuesday | 533 Comments
Sony contacted me about doing a giveaway in celebration of the premiere of Eat Pray Love, which hits theatres this week. A Sony Pocket! In sexy silver! With a leather case (that is really a beautiful shade of blue on the outside) and two download codes for both of Elizabeth Gilbert’s books! Woo hoo for digital reading devices! I know many of you are paper reading fanatics - which is absolutely awesome with sauce - but if you’re curious about trying digital reading but haven’t gathered all your pennies into one place to buy one, here’s a chance to win…
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July 10, 2010 | Saturday | 24 Comments
Canadian Sarah (There’s only one?! A travesty!) writes: I was wondering if you could help a Canadian bitch out. I am looking for a contemporary category romance that I read in the mid to late ‘90’s. To be honest I don’t remember much about the plot or character names. I believe there was some mystery or action thing going on. What I do remember is as follows: Hero: Pretty standard romance novel dude (tall, dark and handsome) with an alpha outlook. But, I remember vividly a scene where he paints the heroine’s toenails and declares himself to be a male…
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March 23, 2010 | Tuesday | 29 Comments
After I wrote about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I received so many recommendations of outstanding mystery series, and I wanted to share with you.
First, Pam wrote: “May I also suggest, the next time you are interested in phenominal prose, breathtaking attention to the human psyche and darned good mysteries , that you look up Louise Penny? First in the series: Still Life.
I have all to date from Audible.com, and this is one series that ‘listens’ better than it ‘reads’, IMHO.”
Thanks, Pam!
And of course, Bookmatcher Billie Bloebaum had a list of books to recommend:
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March 10, 2010 | Wednesday | 40 Comments
Every now and again I take a break from romance reading. Sometimes it’s to scour my brain and take a break from tropes that seem over familiar or frustrations that seem perennial. Sometimes it’s because I love good mystery novels, though I don’t often review them here, and I crave the puzzle and change of pace that good mystery provides. And sometimes I’m curious about a book that I hear mentioned over and over. If I hear about a book from different people in completely different contexts, it catches my attention because most of the time, the different groups of…
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March 03, 2010 | Wednesday | 22 Comments
When I first finished this book, I didn’t think I’d liked it. Well, that’s not exactly correct: I knew I’d adored the heroine, and I was terribly moved and desperately scared by the ending, but the hero took some time to mellow in my brain to the point where I felt I fully understood and appreciated him. I think the biggest obstacle to this book for many will be the degree of redemption that the hero requires, and the depth of selfishness from which he has to redeem himself. Gabe Rossiter is a park ranger, with enormous understanding and respect…
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February 21, 2010 | Sunday | 31 Comments
Leah writes: I’ve waited a long time to send this one, because I have so few details, but maybe you or the bitchery can help. Ok, I read this book around 1993, and it may have been published much earlier than that, because that was in the days of sneaking my best friend’s mom’s romance novels. Anyway… It is set in Italy, and the heroine is a mime. Yes, a mime. Who knew those annoying people could be so sexy. The hero is rich, and I remember a scene where she is demonstrating how difficult it is to be a…
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January 20, 2010 | Wednesday | 33 Comments
First: Robert Parker, mystery novelist and creator of the Spenser series, died yesterday at the age of 77. Parker wrote over 60 books according to the Guardian, and judging by my inbox was a favorite author of many Bitchery readers. I confess: I haven’t read any of Parker’s books. Which would you recommend? Second: Erich Segal passed away yesterday as well at the age of 72. Segal is best known for “Love Story” but I was a huge fan of his novel “Doctors,,” which was one of my gateways into romance reading. Segal took a lot of crap for being…
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