Butcher and Blackbird by Brynne Weaver is $1.49! This is book one in The Ruinous Love series. I read this one and these are my thoughts from my Goodreads review:
This one started off really promising. Unfortunately, the pacing started to falter about about a third of the way into it. The last quarter was suspenseful and I appreciated the twist, but yeah…the middle of the book felt mostly like filler. I also didn’t feel a ton of romantic progression between the leads.
One thing that really confounded me was that Sloane is described as being in her early twenties. She’s an accomplished serial killer and quotes Zoolander (which came out in 2001). Look, I love Zoolander as much as the next person, but it’s not exactly the Criterion Collection. It really took me out and had me wondering when exactly did this story take place.
Overall, I enjoyed the tone and dark humor. It’s a unique romance, but needed some refinement.
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I talk a lot about how SBTB feels like a piece of vintage internet sometimes. I mean, we’re a book blog, albeit a large one with a podcast and a bunch of social media accounts, and every now and again I’m reminded that we’re one of the classic pieces of the internet. (Also: STILL HERE!) YouTube was founded the 14th of February 2005, a few weeks after this here website, in fact. Yup, both YouTube … Continue reading Friday Videos Want to Know: What’s the Oldest Online Video You Remember? →
Candy recapped Heated Rivalry, and is that enough? No, of course not. We had MANY things we wanted to exclaim at each other about, so why not podcast about it? We’re going to talk about the show, the acting, the adaptation, and the fact that this show could never have been made in the US. Jacob Tierney is a genius, and we have many a rabbit hole of research to explore. If you’ve been thinking … Continue reading 702. Heated Rivalry with Candy Tan →
RECOMMENDED: The Roommate by Rosie Danan is $2.99! I liked this one and gave it a B+. Ellen also read the follow-up and gave that on a similar grade.
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Back by popular demand, it’s Which One First, where we recommend where new readers should start with an author’s considerable backlist. And also by request: it’s Which One First? Alice Coldbreath Edition! Alice Coldbreath, if you aren’t familiar, is a massively popular author of historical romances, specifically medievals and some Victorian stories. I love the entire existence of Coldbreath’s career. In a time where historical romance is not as dominant as it once was, and … Continue reading Which One First: Alice Coldbreath →
Welcome back! Firstly, thank you all for your flu commiserations! Breathing is better, but definitely not at 100%, plus a little cough as started to make an appearance. I’m full steam ahead on cozy activities, like gaming in bed, nudging my partner to help figure out how our propane fireplace works, making warm salads like this one. (Highly recommend this whole channel for easy meals that are packed with veggies and protein.) But my biggest … Continue reading Links: Cross Stitch, Lore Olympus, & More →
RECOMMENDED: Partners in Crime by Alisha Rai is $1.99! Lara read this one and gave it an A- in a Lightning Review:
Because of my absolute abhorrence of a Big Misunderstanding plot, I nearly didn’t come back to this book, so if that turns you off, too, don’t make my mistake. You’ll be rewarded with a fun, emotionally nuanced, and surprising heist adventure – a very memorable one!
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We’re only a few weeks into 2026 (?!!) and I’m curious about the books you’re most looking forward to that are releasing between January 1 and June 30, 2026. There are MANY on our lists, and I limited folks to only a few – which means I know you have titles to suggest, too. One that I couldn’t format for our database: Drowning Sorrows in Raging Fire, Vol. 3 by Priest, translated by Yog and SassyStrawberry. … Continue reading What are Your Most Anticipated Books The First Half of 2026? →
THANK YOU to the many of you who emailed me to let me know that the SBTB Daily newsletter wasn’t arriving in your inboxes as expected. In a nutshell, I’m in a low-key battle with bots that are scraping the site at a high volume and making the server unhappy, and one of the settings that we changed to try to keep the site online inadvertently blocked the newsletter – OOPS. So that’s all fixed, … Continue reading Newsletter Update: We’re Back! →
Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young is $2.99! This is Young’s adult debut and is a fantastical and dark, small town mystery with a hint of romance. Have any of you read this one?
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