I’m often frustrated by superficial reviews that don’t articulate the reasoning for an opinion about a book.
Welcome back! We have a mix of non-fiction and fiction today with a lot of variety in content: cooking, dark academia, a thriller, and some history. Something for everyone! Any recommendations you want to pass along? Leave them in the comments!
This piece of literary mayhem is exclusive to Smart Bitches After Dark, but fret not. If you’d like to join, we’d love to have you! Have a look at our membership options, and come join the fun! If you want to have a little extra fun, be a little more yourself, and be part of keeping the site open for everyone in the future, we can’t wait to see you in our new subscription-based section … Continue reading Sunday Sale Digest! (All Freebie Edition)
The stories of rebellion by enslaved peoples has been largely erased or occluded from history, and when these stories are told, they usually center men. In Cuba, however, two women became legends because of the leadership roles they took in rebellion. Carlota and Fermina were decisive, brave, and brutal. Both women were kidnapped from the Yoruba Nation and given the last name ‘Lucumí’, a word which refers to Afro-Cubans of Yoruba descent. The Triunvirato sugar … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Carlota and Fermina
I persisted through this book for one reason: I NEEDED to know who the killer was. That’s it. That’s the only reason. As a mystery, it is compelling, twisty and enjoyable. As a romance, it made me want to throw my e-reader against a wall. So many of the secondary characters are total assholes. Truly. Even our heroine is a selfish dickwad. Across the characters, sometimes that asshole-ness is because they’re just assholes. For example, … Continue reading It Happened One Murder by Liz Lawson
RECOMMENDED: The Bride by Julie Garwood is $1.99! This is one of my favorite historical romances and was one of my gateway reads to the genre, if you’ve listened to the What Made Us Romance Readers podcast episode.
As spoken by the elders, one should always trust those who like big butts, for they cannot lie. And truthfulness is as honorable as having a big back porch, as my college friend would say. I freaking love the edit compilations of a zillion different properties or media clips assembled to form something else. Sometimes it’s a supercut of one person’s speeches and sometimes it’s so many disparate sources I’m dizzy by the end. This … Continue reading Friday Videos Love Big Butts
Martha Wells is back, and we are taking a deep spoilery dive into Platform Decay. I want to be clear here: if you haven’t read Platform Decay, we are about to spoil the dickens out of it. Yes, Charles Dickens is in Platform Decay, you heard it here first. We’re going to discuss infrastructure fury, trains in Japan, Honor Princess Detective, and more – and when I say we are spoiling, we are spoiling. In … Continue reading 721. Exploring Platform Decay with Martha Wells
This Monster of Mine by Shalini Abeysekara is $3.99! I remember both Elyse and I mentioned this on a Whatcha Reading. It sounds spooky and mysterious!
Some might say that I’m not the target market for a show about university students when I’m a middle-aged mother with a surprising amount of grey hair*. To that person I will say, fuck you, I can watch what I want. *I only realised this when I shaved my head yesterday and saw all the grey hair on the floor. I watched the entirety of Off Campus over two days and I enjoyed it. It’s … Continue reading Discussion Post: Off Campus
RECOMMENDED: An Academic Affair by Jodi McAlister is $2.99! Thank you to everyone who let us know about this one. Lara reviewed it and gave it a B+:
Overall, this is enemies-to-lovers done right with the best reason for a marriage of convenience that I’ve ever read. The sadness, though, is still sitting with me the next day. For me, that type of emotion in a book really lingers while the sharp emotional high of an HEA is over pretty quickly. So do take that into account when considering this book. Mileage might vary.
