On January 31, 2005, Smart Bitches went live with two reviews, and the website was born. Eight years later, we're still here, and more readers find the community here to discuss romance, laugh at the silly parts, celebrate the awesome-y parts, and discover that there are a LOT of fellow romance readers out there in the wonder wily inter webs.
Thank you for being a part of Smart Bitches. Happy eighth anniversary to all of us!
The traditional gifts for an 8th anniversary are bronze, pottery, linens, and lace. I don't think I can do bronze or pottery (that would be a book titled His Lordship's Shipping Nightmare) but linen and lace? That I can do. Time to do fun and silly things!
I went a-looking for linen and lace things and thought…oh, ho ho! FICHU!
I have four to give away – two of each style. They're on their way to me from Turkey, but I'm giving them away right now. Because the 8th Smart Bitch Anniversary gift is FICHU!
Each fichu comes with a $25 gift card to the bookstore of the winner's choice – linen, lace and books! What could be better? You'll be warm, stylish, and entertained.
To enter, leave a comment below and tell us your favorite thing about reading romance – your very favorite. Is it the happy sigh? The potential for Good Book Noise™? The many things you learn? The lovely people you meet (and really, romance readers are among the best people, no question) online and off? Share!
I'll select four winners at random at noon eastern on Monday February 4th, 2013.
Standard disclaimers apply: I'm not being compensated for this giveaway, except for the opportunity to make bad jokes about fichus. Void where prohibited. Open to international residents to the extent permitted by applicable law. Must be over 18 and sporting excellent décolletage to win. Whereas, upon participation in the contest as aforesaid, said participant shall nonetheless deliver hereunto all such paraphernalia as reasonably necessary and appropriate. Notwithstanding anything hereinafter to the contrary, the contest shall nonetheless be conducted as heretofore described thereupon. Or something.
Most of all: thank you for being here, and making our community worth celebrating every day, and every year. Happy Fichu Anniversary to us!
The reader camaraderie is awesome, but I think the main reason I read so many romances is that they are written to create two characters for you to fall in love with and, unlike real life, they get (most) everything you would wish for them. Great bibliotherapy. Congratulations and may the fichu be always with you!
The moment when two people realize that they’re really going to end up together, that they can make it work, that they want to grow old together. There is nothing quite like that moment in all of the world.
My favorite part? The HEA. I love reading a great HEA after the day from hell.
I like to see people dealing successfully with relationship problems. I like the tension between two people as they begin to deal with their attraction. I like HEAs (of course).
Thank you, SB Sarah, and congratulations. Long may you ficchu or something.
My favorite thing about romance? The people I meet, inside and outside the pages.
Clearly, I was thinking “picchu” as in “machu.” Argh.
Cool, I’ll fichu the fichu out of that fichu..:)
My personal favorite thing about romance is that, one way or another, we get the HEA. I don’t care that I know how it is going to end; I want to know how we get there.
Happy Anniversary! Favorite part of reading is the Happily Ever After.
Happy Anniversary !
My favorite thing about reading romance is the fact that it allows me to step outside of my own life and enter into a place and time where sevants would bring you tea, you had dresses made just for your body, you were treated like a Lady, and being young and pretty and going to a dance and catching the eye of some handsome young man was enough to thrill you to the tips of your toes for days afterwards.
For an hour or two, it is lovely to escape the drudgery of real life and slip off to a place that gives me a good case of the warm fuzzies .
I love reading romance for the witty banter between the main characters and the moment they quit being stubborn and have their HEA 🙂
Happy Anniversary!
My very favorite thing is making connections with extremely smart, funny readers and authors. My horizons get widened all the time.
There’s an ‘oof’ I get when the hero and heroine really put themselves out there. I don’t know how else to describe it, but one of these days, I’ll figure it out and bottle and sell it.
Happy Anniversary! And thanks for this blog. My favorite part of reading romance is getting to the happy ending, as many others have said – especially when it’s accompanied by satisfying emotional growth.
I’ve been reading romance for a long time (30 years maybe? Except that I’m not old enough to have been doing anything for that long, am I?). I started reading romance more exclusively, and stopped reading mystery / suspense, after I started teaching full time 15ish years ago and realized that I had enough ambiguous results and difficulties in my actual life and needed unambiguous happy endings in my escapism.
I love watching people struggle, learn, and then—always—at the end, win! I like the security of knowing that there’s a HEA coming at the end, so while I see the heroine and hero go through painful events, I know that the book will leave me feeling good. I am not a fan of tragedy.
Escapism pure and simple! To lose myself in someone else’s life is just what I need sometimes.
What a wonderful prize! I have never seen a fichu before! My favorite thing about reading romance is the Big Misunderstanding. I love the moment as a reader when you want to yell at the hero “talk to each other!” 😉 Happy Anniversary!
My very favourite thing about romance is the sheer comfort of it. I can let myself relax, sink back, and enjoy without worry about what might happen – because I KNOW there will be a happy ending.
Happy birthday!!! Man, do I want a fichu.
Happy Anniversary to you! My favorite thing about romance is getting swept up in the emotions of the characters. I love it when I’m feeling right along with them.
My favorite thing about romance is the look on people’s face when I tell them I love historical romance! Unless they are reader of such filth themselves, it is like they do not understand the words that just came out of my mouth. As for the books themselves, honestly, I love moment when they first meet and sparks fly. If the scene is well written, it pulls into the book until the end.
The satisfaction of everything coming together at the end. And the coming together, of course.
Happy anniversary to all the Smart Bitches!
What I love most about romance novels? Discovering that one book that I can read and read and read again, where I get lost into the story of the protagonists, share in their struggles to find each other and then, by the last page, I believe these two people can make it work. I can read many many novels for each one of these magical ones, but it’s always worth it.
Thank you!
The moment in the story when the character realizes/decides that here is their best friend/spouse/true love/family/summer boyfriend/someone to make them happy just by being in their life/whatever the plot is.
Finding a book that hits the sweet spot where worldbuilding, characters, and emotions all mesh….
I love how relaxed they make me feel. It’s tough for me to relax, and romances just give my brain a wonderful break.
h boy. Since I read about a million books, I have to say that they’re my favorite form of entertainment. Since the vast majority are romance, I have to admit that they’re my anti-depressant of choice!
My favorite thing is the witty banter between love interests.
Oh, gosh, I have to pick??? I think my favourite thing is probably the satisfaction when everything works out the way it should. I love the drama and suspense of getting there, but the epilogue is probably my favourite part. Also, those bits that make you laugh out loud on public transit.
oh me too! We get so bombarded by all the darkness in the world, I love cracking open a book and remembering all the light there is too!
I like knowing that even if there is a roller coaster of angst before the book ends, at the end there will be a happily ever after (however that may look). In my day job, I don’t get to see many happy endings, so when I read, I don’t want to end up heartbroken and sobbing. That describes pretty much any day at work and is what I’m escaping from when I read.
I think my favorite thing is that moment when the romancers finally understand what it is they’ve found in the funny or exasperating or lonely or determined person in front of them. That moment of Oh! You’re not my annoying neighbor or my best friend’s sister or my boring colleague or whatever! You’re my love!
And as a bonus, with good historical romances, I get to learn what fichus and reticules and farthingales and bumrolls and hennins and cotehardies are!
Happy anniversary!!! My favorite thing is knowing that no matter what happens in the book, there will eventually be an HEA. And I love that, even though I know there’s going to be an HEA for the characters, it’s always fun to see how the authors get them there. 🙂
I love the journey—the growth of the two characters from two separate entities to a happy-ever-after bond. <happy sigh=”“></happy>
Reading is magic, it is the opportunity to open a door and walk into a different world. Romance provides me with the guarantee that this different world will give me a story that, despite of difficulties along the way, will end well. On the occasion of your 8th anniversary, please let me say how much joy this website has provided over the years. I love the reader comments and under the snarkiness, the genuine love for the genre that is present here every day!
Happy Anniversary SBTB!
It depends on the book. Sometimes it’s the wit, sometimes the characters, when it’s witty with great characters, I love it even more. Other books it’s the tension, or the anticipation, and always the HEA
Happy Anniversary! I think what I love most about reading romance is that I can escape from reality for a while, sometimes becoming so immersed in someone else’s world I feel a loss when the book’s over. Also, the HEA…everyone deserves one of those!
My fav. thing is the Journey to HEA 🙂 Congrats on your 8th Anniversary and thanks for for the giveaway.
I love when the words simply and easily flow together and you become wrapped up in someone’s more thrilling and romantic life!
Happy anniversary!
I love the warm feeling I get in the last chapter when everything is working out. I think it’s the feeling of happy closure.
As I said to my bf when trying to explain the appeal of The Ghost Whisperer, people crave closure and so rarely get it in real life.
My favorite thing about reading romance it’s the escape they provide.