Today marks the Sixth Anniversary of this here hot pink website. Our first review was posted January 30, 2005 – a review of Sharon Shinn’s Angel-Seeker. Wow, huh? I’m sort of shocked and amazed and ready to party!
The official gifts of the Sixth Anniversary are… wait, don’t have anything liquid in your mouth, ok? … iron, candy, and WOOD.
Oh, this is going to be fun. It’s giveaway time! To celebrate our sixth anniversary, I’m giving away the following prizes:
That’s 4lbs of chocolate covered cherries, an iron, a 5lb bag of wood, and a Hello Kitty vibrator (a much better substitute for the wood, because it’s woody-like).
All you have to do is leave a comment and tell me six things you love about reading romance novels, and you’re entered to win. Standard disclaimers apply. Void where prohibited by law. I ship internationally when possible. Take your shoes off. Wash your hands. Any resemblance to iron wood made of candy is completely coincidental. No chocolate was harmed in the creation of this contest.
You have 48 hours to leave a comment, and I’ll select the winners at random. I know you all want that iron, right? RIGHT? Right. Of course!
Happy Sixth Anniversary to us – thank you for being here to make the site as fun and fantastic as it is. I’m so glad to know you visit every day to talk romance, man titty, and general mayhem.
1. reading books with HAE makes me more of an optimist
2. reading romance gets me out of my own head, which lately is like a bad neighbohood afterdark. And unlike wine, no hangover!
3. awesome tips to use in the sack.
4. gives me something to talk about with other readers
5. great descriptions of historical clothes, food, etc.
6. never have to be bored as there is ALWAYS an author new to me
1. Escape
2. Learning history. Really. Who knew my knowledge of the British Navy, gleaned from romance novels, would come in so handy when we saw Master and Commander?
3. I know words guys don’t when we play Scrabble
4. Tortured heroes
5. Usually no surprise sad endings
6. Being able to talk to myself like a Jane Austen character, which is someday going to accidentally slip out during a meeting at work: “I find this all very vexing”
6 Things I love about reading romance novels:
1) The sex. (It’s good to learn new things! A good education is important!)
2) The villain always gets his comeuppance.
3) Oh! The romance!
4) I do occasionally get the one that I can not put down, yet can not stop making fun of. That is just so fun.
5) What girl does not love a hot man?
6) Romance novels can be picked up and read at any time, you don’t really have to be in a particular mood. (Such as, “i could really use a good comedy / horror / sci fi / whatever right now.” romance always does it.)
1) They make me happy
2) I love deconstruction popular culture: reactions to romance and readers of romance are fascinating
3) Reminds me that misogyny still exists in our culture, so that I may work to counter act it (“Yeah, the genre sells more than anything else in publishing, but C’MON! You can take that SERIOUSLY!”)
4) They are an excellent prelude to hot sexing in real life
5) They help me realize and articulate what I want out of sex and relationships
6) There is a massive community dedicated to talking and thinking about Romance, would have missed out on so many awesome discussions if I hadn’t heard a review of Beyond Heaving Bosoms and decided to give Romance novels a try.
Six of the many reasons I love to read romance and various sub-genres of romance;
1. Hope – I like stories that feature relationships as central to the theme and not all with HEA but at least the idea that love is important, helpful and possible.
2. Escapism – I can go anywhere and be anyone in fiction and I prefer a romance because as much as I love The Lord of the Rings I prefer now to read heroic journeys that include more women!
3. Romance – it’s cozy to read a good old-fashioned love story.
4. Character building – I’m sure this is not exclusive to romance but if a relationship is a driving plot point then I usually find characters to be more than afterthoughts to the plot.
5. Heroic lead female and/or male characters – again not exclusive to romance but generally if characters are central to the story they tend to be doing heroic things, whether in their own neighborhood or saving the world.
6. Feel good reads – for all of the above I think any story, whether romantic urban fantasy, sci fi romance, paranormal romance, historical romance, romantic suspense or a contemporary romance, that includes a romance leaves me in a better frame of mind. Plus I often learn interesting trivia or facts about a lot of different things. I read a wide variety of fiction but I gravitate to romances. I like ‘em!
Happy Sixth Anniversary SBTB!!! TY for all the great entertainment and information.
PS: I didn’t read the other comments b4 I wrote this, I find myself thinking Yeah! Oh Yeah! Lots of great reasons listed.
1. A guaranteed happy ending and thus good for a pick-me-up when I’m down and blue
2. Interesting purple prose and vocabulary, and not just in the sex scenes
3. Perfect escapism
4. Men the likes of whom I have never met in real life
5. I learn about the damnedest things in them, especially the historicals
6. They make perfect palate cleansers following a particularly harrowing YA book or heavy literary novel
Happy Anniversary, you guys are fantabulous!
Reasons why I like Romance novels:
1. Book cover blurbs – My best friend in high school and I used to give dramatic readings of the back cover blurbs while waiting in checkout lines.
2. Potato rage – Glad to finally have a name for that WTF? moment
3. Purple prose – Worth a snort and giggle every time
4. Snarky heroines
5. Beta heros – So much more my style than Alpha males
6. Guaranteed HEA
1. A guaranteed HEA is not to be sneered at, especially when you’ve had a rough day, your car broke down, your landlord is being an ass, and oh my god you’re out of wine and of course the damn liquor store is already closed.
2. They’re of a length that, when I am using and abusing the romance novel as a mood-enhancer, I can usually knock one out during an afternoon or evening. Efficient!
3. You learn shit—no it’s true! I mostly read historicals and I have so much random-ass knowledge about history thanks to (largely romantic) fiction.
4. Absolutely ridiculous cover art, yeaha.
5. Female empowerment makes my inner (and, okay, outer) feminist happy.
6. They kinda make me believe in love. Isn’t that lame?
Happy Anniversary!
1. Escaping to another world
2. The romance of it; reading about people falling in love
3. The writing styles
4. The community that springs around the books
5. That tender moment when the H (usually hero) does something that shows you just how much s/he cares about the other H, whether they recognize it or not
6. The HEA
And so much more.
1. The hero never, ever rolls over in bed and farts against her leg.
2. When the dialogue is well written the heroine always says the things I wish I’d thought of (and always do, three days too late).
3. Foreplay, the kind that makes me squirm in my chair.
4. True lurv.
5. Wouldn’t have found the Bitchery without them.
6. The covers, oh God, the covers.
Here’s to many more anniversaries and mantitties!
1) I love that romance novels are by women, for women, and now span the fantasies of all kinds of women. 2) I love that utterly indulgent feeling of OMG THEY AREN’T GOING TO—YES YES YES! when the author surprises me with a delicious turn of plot. 3) I love the accessibility of authors in the modern age, and how even long before the internet, fans would talk about our favorite authors like they were our dear friends. 4) I love the heroines who give us a peek at what it could be like to be someone completely not ourselves. 5) I love the heroes who remind me of what I admire in the people I do know. 6) I love that in this most cynical age where sincerity is passe, romance novels celebrate LOVE, and that more and more smart bitches aren’t ashamed to admit it!
hmm.
escape from my life of running around
sex on the beach
romance
sex by the fireplace
big words
I can usually finish it in one reading and move on to the next one (although if it’s really good, I’ll re-read it)
1. The wonderful characters
2. The humor
3. The warm fuzzies I need when I’m feeling down
4. Happy Endings
5. Feeling connected to all of these other wonderful readers out there
6. Renewed love for my amazing husband
1. Constant snappy dialogue that doesn’t exist in my real world
2. A chance to relax
3. It requires nothing from me but my own attention
4. Can make traveling seem like a breeze
5. Happy Endings
6. The chance to laugh
1. snappy dialogue
2. the new world’s created by the author
3. the sexy time 😉
4. the feeling that another person (the author, or other readers) thinks and feels the way I do
5. vivid description of costume or setting
6. the feeling that the couple really belongs together
Only six? Geezzz…so not fair! But I’ll tell you why I love romance:
1. Professional. Yep, don’t laugh. Try researching labor market developments and the eternal issue of youth employment, that is transition from school to a job. After eight to ten hours of that daily, I just love to throw away my own”creations” and statistics and read about a nice gel and fella getting hitched for the happily ever after.
2. I like links and correlations, so the second would be it gives me a perfect excuse to postpone when something doesn’t come up as I dream when I fight figures and graphs. Right when I can already guess I won’t get in my aim yet a happily ever after, here it is that sentence where”he drawled lazily” and I second-guess the next chapter. So, I can run to that chapter and forget my own ‘aggravations’
3. Perfect means to eat ‘mental eye-candy’. I should avoid too much chocolate. So, here is the purrrfect replacement. Especially if I happen to be just at the beginning of a hot luvers’ scene. Well, then I must finish what I’m reading. Graphs, they are nothing compared to that moment of great love, love, love and more love.
4. I fell in love with romance as a teenager, and some of the things in them taught me how to react in real life. Sometimes, and laugh at my own and my friends’ faults. It helped particularly when I needed to make him grovel. Just once in our lives.
5. Women literature for women. In my opinion the best reason. If you read them, you can see how our own perception about ourselves developed, even in the last two decades or so. Many of the things we think and don’t say, are there. And the hero understands and accepts us from the books just as we are. Wouldn’t that be perfect?
6. It helped my cool mathematical head understand why I love the man I am with, without trying to ‘intellectualize’ the hell out of it, as I was tempted due to my inner nature. Ask him. It still gives him a shivers and makes him twitch when I remind him, without actually going there.
1. Sex. (Especially kinky!sex)
2. The progression of a relationship.
3. When a woman kicks ass.
4. When a man kicks ass, but not because a woman needed him to do it.
5. Respect.
6. Love.
Just discovered your site a few weeks ago, and spent hours reading it instead of studying. Finally motivated to post by the seductive possibilities involving Hello Kitty and chocolate covered cherries.
My six reasons:
1. Escapism
2. Books where the quirky heroine finds her perfectly imperfect match.
3. A conversation I had with my Dad recently- he’s reading Bill Bryson’s At Home, which tells about things like why halls are called halls, and the like. I had him really impressed by already knowing many of the cool factoids he was sharing- and then I got to tell him that it had nothing to do with my history degree, and everything to do with my love of historical romance.
4. Dry, deadpan, laugh out loud humor.
5. Books where you make that sound Sarah talks about… but books that make you squirm work well too.
6. Finally finding a place where my friends won’t scoff because I’d rather read a romance than watch tripe on tv.
I’m all set with goodies, but I wanted to say,
Happy Anniversary, SBTB!
Happy 6th Annivarsary!
6 things I love about romance novels:
1. The sex!
2. Fast paced, snappy dialogue.
3. Romantic, funny heroes.
4. Awesome, self-sufficient heroines.
5. Discovering new favourite authors.
6. Happy endings.
Excuse me, I need to go read now!
Six things I love about reading romance novels –
1. the hot, hot, hot sex scenes (kenyon, showalter, adrain, devlin to name a few good authors)
2. the witty, snarky dialogue
3. reading about a girl that can kick ass, take care of herself but yet still is searching for love
4. escaping to a far off, dark steamy world or place all while children and hubby chaos rein around me.
5. did I say hot sex scenes…oh I meant to say the cover art.
6. I enjoy romance because the stories are so varied. I can go from Nora Robert’s to JD Robb, to JR Ward to Sherrilyn Kenyon to a ton of other great authors all while staying within the genre of “Romance”.
1. Fun, humorous repartees.
2. Feel-good feeling.
3. Romance, adventure, action, all in one package.
4. Free travel around the world.
5. Forget worries of everyday life.
6. Better than comfort food.
Congratulations & Happy Anniversary!
1. It’s my personal way of saying, “Fuck you!” to all those people who say a woman can’t be smart, independent, and read romance novels because -gasps- she wants to.
2. It breaks social taboos between the virgin whore labels women of teh twenty first century deal with. Both for the women who read it and for the protagonist female characters who enjoy sex in a safe and consentual way.
3. It opened my doors about masturbation and oral sex. “Wait, it’s not just for guys?? Fuck, yeah! Etc.”
4. They put me in reading streaks. Read one good romance novel and I’m good to finish a Hemingway and the paper that’s due this week about Hemingway, and then snuggle back into my romance novel when things get dull, motionless, and grey.
5. No matter where I am in life I feel in touch with my feminity. Because clearly, that can be anything a woman damn well pleases as my leading ladies of romance novels have shown me. Slay a demon? Stay at home mom? Teacher? Middle class? Wandering maiden? Sure, why not?
6. Isles away I can spot a shimmery section of the book area where harps are playing guiding me to the romance spot, my romance author, and that awesome 8 pack abs, waxed chest, and pert man titty cover that lets me know this is a romance novel. This is going to be a good story with a happy ending and will make your ovaries squeel with delight and ooze oxytocin into your romance lov’n viens.
And that’s why this Smart Bitch loves romance novels.
1.) The first meeting
2.) The Unavoidable Attraction
3.) The First Kiss
4.) The Sex0rz
5.) The Misunderstanding
6.) The Happy Ending
6. Vicarious living.
5. Zero calorie indulgence.
4. Warm fuzzies. Also known as tiger shifters.
3. Happy endings. Wait… Umm…
2. Bad boys who are real good men.
1. Pure WTF escapism.
1. I love the escape it gives
2. I love the tension in romance
3. I love the community around this genre
4. I love the devotion its readers
5. I love the variety in the novels- one will be tragic, one will be humorous
6. I love the wide range of author and novels available at any given time
1. I started reading almost strickly Romance on my 1st cancer diagnoses 4 years ago..took me far away from the crap- escapism at it’s finest.
2. Found some fabulously entertaining websites that review romance ahemmm.
3. sexy fun-time
4. Laugh out loud comedy- sometimes you just need to read about a guy with washboard abs in ridiculous situations.
5. I love reading about characters that I would want to be friends with.
6. I missed the whole teen dating thing as a young’un and feel like I missed some important lessons there- in living vicarously thru many different characters and situations I kinda think I learned a few things.
Wow! Four pounds of chocolate covered cherries. What a prize. Love your site and read it daily. Best way ever to start my work day.
Six things I love about reading romance:
1. HEA/HFN endings.
2. Strong heroes and heroines.
3. Problem solving that can be applied to real life.
4. Strong, true emotions, especially about love, life, and sex.
5. A sense of humor.
6. A developing sense of self in the characters as they grow.
I do read other genres, but I keep returning to romance as my first choice of all. Keep up the good work.
1. Happy Endings! Why would I want to read a book that will bring me down?
2. Can I say Jen Crusie and Lisa Kleypas make me happy to read romance novels? OK I DID SO THERE.
3. Sex. The Fiance is always interested to find out what ‘Jackie reading one of THOSE books’ leads to for him. 😛 (TMI? Ooops.)
4. Being able to answer Jeopardy questions because of something I read in a romance novel. “Whoa, where’d you learn that?” “Oh, a great book I read…”
5. Being able to relax while reading them. Maybe that’s the HEA that’s almost guaranteed, but it’s comforting to read!
6. This website! Clever, witty, snarky, and willing to discuss anything… you rock. 🙂
I love ah-ha’s list @10:40, especially #6, and will gladly cede my prize to her, should I win it.
spamword: heavy22 – what’s in a box filled with my biggest romance paperbacks
1. They don’t talk back
2. Inspire me to love and forgive
3. Make my brain tingle w/ creativity
4. Allow me to make new character ‘friends’
5. Historicals make me grateful for all the technology I usually complain about.
6. Give me hope that maybe one day someone will love me like that.
My 6 favorite things about romance novels:
1. The HEA—it’s the one place that I know no matter how crappy things seem it will all turn out OK.
2. The fun of getting to “live” lives that are totally different from my own.
3. The fact that they take female pleasure seriously.
4. Less than perfect heroines get their HEA, just as surely as the perfect ones.
5. Hot Alpha heroes (not alpholes)
6. They inspired the creation of Smart Bitches Trashy Books—-Happy Anniversary!
1.) There is always a happy ending.
2.) I actually learn a bit about history as I read historical novels.
3.) The descriptions of people, fashions, the houses, the social events are so much fun to read about.
4.) Following along as the characters in the novels fall in love and work through their problems is very interesting.
5.) The love scenes are so entertaining. Be still my heart!
6.) I love the families that appear in the series books, such as the Mallorys, the Mallorens, the Wallflowers, etc. They keep me coming back for more. I feel like I know them.
1. happy endings
2. interesting time periods/settings
3. romantic tension
4. clashing of smart girls with alpha men
5. humorous dialogue
6. escapism
1.when I was in jr high/ hs, this is where I learned EVERYTHING I ever wanted to know about men, women, sexxoring and luurve. (as if my Tiger mom were not enough! Schooled by Old SKool, under the covers, with a flashlight)
2. I (at least in part) attribute conceiving my 2nd kid and a vast jump up in quality, quantity and imagination in love life to resuming the romance habit more than 2 decades later.
3. contemplating what a long way we’ve come, baby (from 70s-80-90s til now): no more (not as much?) slut-shaming but instead freedom to enjoy sex, beta heros, impact of Buffy/Joss Whedon/kickassery of strong intelligent heroines; people of color who are not just sidekicks, exotica or insults; occasional breaks from being set in Britain and Almacks, older heroines; HEAs that don’t need to involve churning out babies, romance that doesn’t have to be so heterocentric; dialogue, motivations and relationships (not to mention clothes and music) that reflect my generation or (creak creak) more current ones…
4. Discovering/ re-reading classics: Kinsale, Ivory, Roberts, Gaffney, Crusie, SEP, Heyer, Chase, Stewart, McNaught, Howard.
5. Finding new (to me) voices, new genres, new twists: Briggs, Armstrong, McKinley, Hart, Hill, Spencer-Fleming
6. Snarktastic, passionate, fascinating reviews and engaged heated commentary – I’d say SBTB is the icing on the cake, but I’m not so much about the icing. Crust on the strawberry rhubarb pie? Orange powder on my Cheetos? Yeah, that. Thank you for all the recommendations and TBRs and happy anniversary!
Happy Anniversary! Thanks so much for all you do.
My 6 things.
1. Getting lost in a story.
2.Going to another world.
3.Falling in love all over again.
4.Becoming another person for a little while
5.The idea of being hopeful
6.And the thoughts that dreams can come true.
Ok I’m officially a sap. Think I need a drink.
Thanks for such a wonderful site – love it!
1. Smut!
2. Escape my life as a stay at home mom.
3. Enjoy voyeuristic adventure and happiness.
4. Maintains my belief in “happily ever after” and magic.
5. Makes me feel like anything is possible.
6. Smut!
The 6 things I love about romance…hmmm
1. the sex
2. the sex
3. the sex
4. learn new sex positions LOL
5. the HEA
6. the books help me understand love better after reading
The top six things I love most about reading romance novels…
6. Because I’ve been married 12 years and it keeps me randy under the sheets with the hubby.
5. Romance novels provide a much higher quality of escapism than fine quality programming such as “Wipeout”
4. They have provided me with a vast knowledge of questionable synonyms describing the male member.
3. Romance novels have strengthened my hand muscles by…..having to fold back the covers so no one could see the lurid tales I read.
2. The weird knowledge that you accumulate by reading a range of romances- who knew a fifteen year old could be a resource on Barbary pirates or the appropriate terminolgy to address a member of 19th century British peerage?
1. Without doubt- romance novels have inspired my love of reading all genres. I voraciously consume books of all types, but always, always come home to romance.
Loads of different eras to read about.
Always a HEA.
Women who are strong.
Hot sex scenes.
Or not, Hi, Georgette Heyer, I’ll take the witty banter instead.
Because of reading romance novels, I found this site and so many others who love romance novels, too.