Check out which new book releases we're excited for in the first half of April!
Bellewether by Susanna Kearsley is $1.99! We did a Cover Reveal for this one, since it was such an interesting departure from Kearsley’s usual covers. Some readers felt this one was slow to start, while others loved Kearlsey’s beautiful writing. It has a 3.9-star rating on Goodreads
Our latest Rec League comes from Frini. Thanks for sending it in! I’m looking for book recommendations that have a heroine struggling with something like impostor syndrome. Like, she needs validation about her life/work/looks. It can be a second chance romance, enemies to lovers…it’s all good 🙂 Anything on that front? Susan: Oh no, this is the character trait that most reduces me to gross sobbing. If you’ll excuse the fifteen volume manga: Library Wars: … Continue reading The Rec League: Imposter Syndrome
We are in the midst of week 3 of COVID-19 social distancing. How is everyone doing? Bored yet? In previous editions of Links, we’ve listed ways to keep active and busy and some things that are free to watch, read, and listen to. This one is more focused on boosting those serotonin levels with funny or uplifting things we’ve found around the internet! … I am having a blast reading the backstories people have given … Continue reading Links: Just Good Things
RECOMMENDED: Act Like It by Lucy Parker is $1.99! If you haven’t read this yet, it was one of Sarah’s favorite reads in the past couple years. She says, “I mean, I could squee at you some MORE beyond my review but I think you’ve heard me already. I loved this book. You should read it. It’s delightful.”
It’s time for the annual tradition of April Fool’s Day gags here at SBTB. I know so many people dislike April Fool’s Day, and heaven knows there is not a lot to joke about right now. But this year, I thought, why not distill the timeless goodest-ness of our favorite reading material into physical blanket form? Only instead of weighted blankets, we have…Smart Bitches Weightless Blankets. Yup, we want to take some of that stress … Continue reading April Fool’s 2020: We Want to Help You Feel Better
This HaBO request is from Deb, who is looking for a paranormal romance. Content warning for the description below: I read this book a long time ago and I can’t find it anywhere! The world knows about shifters and they are in power more than the humans I believe. A human lady who I think works for a newspaper was at a political rally of sort when she unknowingly put out a “mating” scent that … Continue reading HaBO: Shifter Knots
RECOMMENDED: The Chai Factor by Farah Heron is $1.99! Aarya really loved this one and gave it an A-:
The Chai Factor is very much a swoonworthy rom-com: it’s funny and sobering, it has witty dialogue and disquieting situations, and it’s sigh-worthy and rage-inducing. I laughed, I cried, and I cheered for Amira and Duncan. The Chai Factor is an essential book for your list of summer reads.
This HaBO is from Sam. The original request got lost in our inboxes, so Sam came back with a cocktail recipe as a bribe. It totally worked: I am trying to find a historical novel, might’ve been part of a series. I definitely read it between 2012 & 2016; I *think* it was published between 2007 & 2016. It seems to me the author was one of the major, more established, names in the game–someone … Continue reading HaBO: Hero to Marry the Queen of Hearts
Unsurprisingly my anxiety is trending moderate to high right now, so I’ve been turning more and more to romance novels to quiet my mind. At any other time, I think I would have been a little more critical or at least skeptical of the depiction of wealth and class in Kylie Scott’s The Rich Boy, but today the idea of a Cinderella story is immensely appealing to me. Being with a super rich dude who … Continue reading The Rich Boy by Kylie Scott
Torn by Rowenna Miller is $2.99 and a Kindle Daily Deal! This is a fantasy novel with a seamstress main character. Not sure if this is YA though. Carrie read this one and gave it a C+. The pacing was too slow for her, but it’s possible future books may pick up in momentum:
This book is the first in a new series. It has a lot of potential – good technical writing, multiple female characters, discussion of class and class mobility, clothes porn, and more. If other books pick up the pace, it could be great, but this first book was too slow to keep me invested.
I’ll be honest, I probably wouldn’t have picked up An Heiress to Remember had I not liked the other books in the series (and Maya Rodale’s writing in general). It’s got that “dude seeks revenge on the woman who didn’t choose him” plotline, something I find tiresome and rarely resolved to my satisfaction. I’m so glad I gave it a chance though because this book, while not perfect, was absolutely a ton of fun to … Continue reading An Heiress to Remember by Maya Rodale
