Happy Fourth Night of Hanukkah, and happy first of December!
Right about now is the time that I realize that for us, the holidays are mid-way through, but for many people, the shopping is just beginning. Good luck out there!
Ready for our fourth night of Hanukkah giveaway? Let me help you carry some things!
Today’s prize is: a Kate Spade Chelsea Satchel in Pomegranate!
I love satchels. They hold so much stuff and also stand up when I put them in the car.
Want some specs?
- The bag measures approximately 10.2″h x 14.2″w x 5.2″d
- The handle drop is 5.8″ and the strap drop is 22″
- It has a zip closure across the top
- It has interior front zip and slip pockets (perfect for phones)
- It has exterior front zip and two side pockets, too!
Want to enter? Yay!
Just leave a comment and tell us what book you read that brought you incredible joy this year?
Standard disclaimers apply: I am not being compensated for this giveaway. Void where prohibited. Open to international residents where permitted by applicable law. Must be over 18 and ready to carry exactly the right amount though the website said something about an avocado and I’m not sure you will need to carry one all the time. Not responsible for how many times you admire yourself with this bag (definitely admire yourself more!).
Comments will close 2 December 2021 at or near 12pm ET, and winner will be announced shortly afterward.
Good luck, Happy Hanukkah, and thank you for being part of Smart Bitches!
Thanks for celebrating with us this year!
Winner update: Congratulations to Katherine C! Be sure to check your inbox shortly.
When Sorrows Come by Seanan McGuire brought me great joy this year, as did Emerald Blaze by Ilona Andrews!!!
I really enjoyed Gideon the Ninth this year (and Harrow the Ninth too)
A couple joy-bringers–Erin Nicholas’s Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild series, especially Heavy Petting and Sealed With A Kiss; Jennifer Bernard’s First Kiss Before Frost; Annabeth Albert’s Sailor Proof. (And that is a gorgeous satchel!)
Courtney Milan’s Ms. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure was wonderful and made me feel so fundamentally seen I’m a little choked up just typing this. I also adored K.D. Edwards’ Tarot Sequence (propulsively written queer paranormal fantasy with ace rep!), and Everina Maxwell’s Winter’s Orbit (THE PINING!). I was starving for joyful queer romance growing up, and have been spoiled rotten by the TBR I conquered this year. Sometimes the future is good.
New Psy-Changeling books always bring me joy, so I was thrilled to get Last Guard. But more recently – The Tyrant Alpha’s Rejected Mate was just amazeballs.
A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske was wonderful. I finished it last week and smile whenever I think about Robin and Edwin.
Poison Fruit by Jacqueline Carey
Loved Lucy Parker’s Battle Royal. It made me wish I could bake.
Kate Clayborn’s Love at First
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, by T. Kingfisher
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, by T. Kingfisher
(I think I screwed up my email on my first entry.)
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang was really, really good. I had so many feels from the book. Thanks so much for the chance to win the gorgeous satchel!!!
The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian got me back into romance for the first time in several months, and it’s definitely one of the standouts of my reading year.
I hate to say it, but nothing really stood out for me this year. I got most of my pleasure through rereads of old favourites or fan fiction.
I loved diving into the Murderbot Diaries and Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series. Both are outside of my usual reading sphere (not usually a big sci-fi reader and sports romances are so not my thing generally), but I am glad I took a chance on both.
Paladin’s Hope by T Kingfisher. So much squee!
So many good choices, but I’m going to say re-reading (and re-reading) WELL MET by Jen Deluca.
Ten Things I Hate About The Duke by Loretta Chase
The Hands of the Emperor, by Victoria Goddard. It left me with the best book hangover I’ve had in years.
Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Sutanto. I read it with my best friend and we had so much fun with it.
Nothing brings joy to an avid reader like me than finding a new-to-me author with a big back-list! My favorite author “discovery” this year has been Claire Kingsley and her books have brought me much joy. I read BROKEN MILES when it was part of a multi-author anthology and I didn’t look back. I consumed her Miles Family, Bailey Brothers (waiting for the final book in that series), Bootleg Springs (co-written with Lucy Score), and Jetty Beach series, plus some standalones. Kingsley’s style is a good combination of angsty leavened with lighter moments and some humor. Plus, in each of her series, there’s a central overarching mystery that gradually gets uncovered and resolved through the books.
The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold. Just sank into it as a reader, then on the re-read, took notes as a writer.
I read all of the Paladin’s series by T. Kingfisher and they brought me great joy.
Emerald blaze by Ilona andrews. At least I think it came out this year.
What the Devil Knows by C. S. Harris. I look forward to her new book every year.
I enjoyed Fated Blades. An unexpected return to Ilona Andrews’ Kinsmen series.
I really enjoyed Under The Whispering Door by TJ Klune.
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik!
I’m someone who didn’t really care for Uprooted, but some friends assured me that Spinning Silver has a very different feel so I took a chance and bought it on sale. And read it all in one day, which is something I haven’t done in a very long time. I adored all the narrators and their struggles with making a place in the world that suits them in spite of all the forces against them.
I read A Marvelous Light by Frey Marske while drinking lots of tea. I had been looking forward to it for months, and it was beyond amazing!
Grace Callaway’s Olivia and the Masked Duke and Sarah Kuhn’s Haunted Heroine both brought me great joy this year!
I loved loved loved doing a Sarah Maclean reread this summer!
Spoiler Alert & All The Feels topped this list for me
CINNAMON AND GUNPOWDER by Eli Brown. I think it brought more hope than joy, but right now, I think hope and contentment is joy for me.
Love at First by Kate Clayburn
I really enjoyed NAVIGATING THE STARS by Maria V. Snyder.
Hard to pick just 1, but really enjoyed Jennifer Gardner’s Captain Lacey series which I binged this year.
The first book(s) that came to mind? Timothy A Cotton’s Got Warrants, and The Detective In The Dooryard.
I’m now a subscriber to his “news logs”… I like his ‘voice’ that much!
Paladin’s Grace, by T Kingfisher! I finished and started over immediately. It makes me so, so, so happy!!!
Rachel Reid’s “Role Model” – it made me so warm and happy I read it twice in a row!
I really loved Life’s Too Short by Abby Jimenez!