Bitchin' Blog Posts
: Reviews
March 27, 2012 | Tuesday | 12 Comments
I really enjoyed Queenie's Brigade but I have no idea how to grade it. Should I assign a letter grade based on the over-all quality of writing, or the level of enjoyment? I find that all the ebooks I've read so far (steampunk, steampunk western, space opera, space opera western) are really, really fun and similar in style - but not what I would call Great Literature. The writing style is always over the top, everything is very exciting and colorful and nothing is subtle. Attraction is in the form of instant, over-powering, and unprecedented lust. No one is "pretty"…
read more »
June 22, 2011 | Wednesday | 13 Comments
Heads up! Loveswept is back this time as a digital imprint. I think this is supremely smart of Random House. But watch, since Random House is an agency publisher now (BOOOOOOOOO), the digitally reissued Loveswepts will be $44.99 or some crazy thing. If the price is right, this could so rock. I’m devouring category romances right now. My latest Kirkus column is a review of Kate Noble’s Follow My Lead, which I enjoyed quite much of a lot. So much happens in the course of this book that the journey is the best part, from their needle-in-a-haystack hunt for a…
read more »
May 03, 2011 | Tuesday | 143 Comments
Angie James has become my cliffhanger warning sign. She’s like a giant “CAUTION! DETOUR!” sign at the edge of a literary cliff, warning me away lest I cast myself over the edge and get ripshit pissed off on the way down. She’s warned me off three books now that have cliffhanger endings in the middle of the series, thus ensuring that I will wait until I know the story is completed before I try the series. Why? Because I HATE cliffhangers. Some of it is based on Ye Olde Romance Reader’s Expectation, wherein I expect the ending to be, you…
read more »
April 26, 2011 | Tuesday | 7 Comments
Time for some more RITA® Reader Challenge reviews, which readers have taken to like romance readers reading romance novels. (Obvious statements is obvious!) Today, we have a review for the RITA® nominated novella “Mistletoe Magic” by Sandra Hyatt in Under the Millionaire’s Mistletoe, plus the other novella in the book, “The Wrong Brother” by Maureen Child, both reviewed by Lindlee. The cover copy: Pucker up for two irresistible millionaires who are about to meet their matches…under the mistletoe! “The Wrong Brother” by Maureen Child Well, she’d asked to be kissed. Who was Sam Hale to deny a beauty such a…
read more »
April 19, 2011 | Tuesday | 30 Comments
The rules of the RITA® Reader Challenge stipulated a limit of 250 words, but I loved this review SO much I let it break that rule. This is not an invitation for anyone else to so, but I loved Diana’s review because it highlights how fiction can dare readers to think of themselves differently. First, the description of the book: A lady does not smoke cheroot. She does not ride astride. She does not fence or attend duels. She does not fire a pistol, and she never gambles at a gentlemen’s club. Lady Calpurnia Hartwell has always followed the rules,…
read more »
April 18, 2011 | Monday | 13 Comments
I’ve received a few RITA® Reader Challenge Reviews already - and here’s the first, of Eloisa James’ A Kiss at Midnight, which is nominated in the Best Historical category. This review is from Jayne First: the book description: Miss Kate Daltry doesn’t believe in fairy tales . . . or happily ever after. Forced by her stepmother to attend a ball, Kate meets a prince . . . and decides he’s anything but charming. A clash of wits and wills ensues, but they both know their irresistible attraction will lead nowhere. For Gabriel is promised to another woman—a princess whose…
read more »
April 05, 2011 | Tuesday | 29 Comments
A lot of people try to see all the Best Picture nominees before the Oscars ceremony- so let’s do that for the RITAs, shall we? I looked at the list of RITA® nominated books from the RWA and there were a lot of books I was curious about. I’m not going to be able to read every nominated book before the ceremony… but I can read one in each category - and I invite you to do it, too. Here’s my plan: Below is the list of nominees, along with a Google Doc link to a list of the nominees.…
read more »
February 22, 2011 | Tuesday | 47 Comments
There’s a software update coming to the Kindle, with some features that I suspect users will very much enjoy. First, page numbers, not locations, so as to make the citing of passages easier for people who cite things regularly. 2 WOOHOOs and a fist pump for that. Second, public notes. And I quote: “Any Kindle user—including authors, their fans, book reviewers, professors and passionate readers everywhere—can opt-in to share their thoughts on book passages and ideas with friends, family members, colleagues, and the greater Kindle community of people who love to read.” (emphasis mine) So, hold up, instead of changing…
read more »
October 14, 2010 | Thursday | 22 Comments
After I started this week’s round up of reviews and opinions on various ereaders available to the book-reading, device-buying public, I received a mini review of the Bookeen Cybook Opus from Kathlyn. I asked if she’d be willing to expand on her review and describe what she likes about her device, and this is her response. I’m also working on a Kobo review - and if you have a device to suggest, let me know. My e-reader is a Bookeen Opus. I like it for three reasons: 1. I find it easy to use. 2. I won it in a…
read more »
September 22, 2010 | Wednesday | 74 Comments
R., better known as RedHeadedGirl, is back with another wayback-when old-skool romance review, with plenty of layered WTFery to go around. Enjoy! You never forget your first. You don’t forget your first kiss (Mike, and I had to guilt him into kissing me, because he was too much of wuss to try, and I was too much of a girly-wuss to kiss first), your first flower (Dave, whose great moments were always involving flowers but didn’t have a lot to back that up), your first Doctor (Oh, Nine. Your time was too short. But fantastic!). This was my first romance. …
read more »
September 16, 2010 | Thursday | 46 Comments
It’s actually very difficult to review this book, as I still think about it, and even when writing the review I picked up the book and started reading it again. I’m part YAY and I’m part BOO though I’m not MEH about it either. There are tremendously strong parts to this book, and parts that were so not-strong they broke the shiny smooth edges off the perfect parts, and STILL I pick up the book and start reading it again when I’m near my copy. This happened right from the start, too, damn seductive book. I read this book after…
read more »
September 05, 2010 | Sunday | 37 Comments
Thanks to Kristen Painter and many others who forwarded me this link of irate rantage on my part. Now, I’m the first to admit there are ridiculous romance novels. I got your Pregnesia right here, baby. But while Evil Librarian Supervillain’s list of the 21 Most Ridiculous does highlight some truly bizarre romances, at the same time, I’d like five minutes in the stacks so I can smack her with her library science degree for the part where she dismisses all of romance as “the terrible smut genre.” Even though her knowledge of “The Very Virile Viking” makes me suspicious…
read more »
July 20, 2010 | Tuesday | 29 Comments
Ahoy there! Ahead be some discussion of reading, but mostly my impressions of my new phone. For those who come here for romance, nothing but romance, and a side order of man-titty, this entry will be not so much of that, unless I download some man-porn apps, which I can do because I’m outside the limitations of the Apple App Store. Heh. I have, yes, already searched “porn” in the Droid Marketplace, aka, Droid App Store. If you know me, or have been around me, or read what I say on Twitter every now and again, you know that I…
read more »
April 05, 2010 | Monday | 41 Comments
I’ve spent the last three days playing with my iPad. While there are many very savvy and very insightful reviews of the device out there, this probably isn’t one of them. It’s more of a log of my experience trying the device and the things I noticed as I set it up (Oh my God the Setting Up and the Waiting for the Setting Up) and tried to read on it, and my thoughts after a few days of doing so. My apologies in advance for the length of this review, but I think it communicates a lot about a…
read more »
February 18, 2010 | Thursday | 103 Comments
Grab a flask and play along: it’s time to get head-weaving drunk with “Someone Without A Clue Reviews Romance: the Drinking Game!” While multiple-mullet salutes have been found with increasing frequency, it’s still cheap and easy humor, akin to blonde jokes and snide comments about overweight people, to slap at romance novels, and of course the women who read them. So let’s see how many lame and tired points of insult Kimya Kavehkar comes up with before she runs out of column inches: Judging Romance Novels By Their Steamy Covers! Comment about the covers: DRINK! We’re going to judge the…
read more »
