Seventeen years ago, Smart Bitches began.
Smart Bitches launched on 31 January 2005 with a review for Angel-Seeker by Sharon Shinn and for The Unsung Hero by Suzanne Brockmann.
We’re still here.
This honestly blows my mind a little. Still here, talking about books, never running out of things to say about romance.
Woohoo! Thank you! I’m so honored you’re part of SBTB!
Our community is still welcoming, and warm and wonderful. None of that would be possible without you.
So thank you for hanging out with us each day, for sending us so many great covers for snarking, for telling me bad jokes, for telling us about books you loved, sending Amanda links, reporting hot sales prices, and for being part of our community.
As usual, I took a peek at the traditional and modern anniversary gifts for the 17th year, and what did I find?
Furniture. Both modern and traditional? Yup. Furniture.
I’ll be honest with you: that stumped me for a minute. How the F am I going to give away Furniture?
Until I remembered, hang on, I can buy a bunch of pieces of furniture and send them out to winners.
If I use dollhouse furniture!
Thanks to the lovely folks at Dollhouse Junction in Pittsburgh, PA, I am indeed giving away furniture to celebrate our 17th anniversary.
Specifically, I’m giving away furniture that is suitable for reading. Reading furniture, in miniature dollhouse sizes! It’s both tempting, and cute! Have a look!
We have five reading-focused pieces of furniture:
A light blue floral sofa with carved wooden legs! Perfect for tea, a quilt or afghan, and many books.
A miniature wing chair with gorgeous stripes – you know you’d be cozy in that chair.
For the midcentury modern enthusiast, a resin Eames chair and footrest, ready for reclining, reading, and relaxing.
Look at this miniature easy chair, in the perfect shade of pink! (Pen is for scale purposes so you have an idea how teeny we’re talking here.) Comes complete with adorable cushion in matching fabric.
My jaw dropped a bit when I saw this and I was so excited to grab the very last one available: a Victorian chaise in a gorgeous rose pink, complete with decorative carving, just waiting for miniature you, your favorite beverage, and some very graceful, stylish reclining. (Seriously, I love this so much.)
My hope is that the winners will be able to put their furniture prizes in a place that will remind them that they deserve time to read and relax in comfort.
Want to enter to win? I hope so!
Just comment below and share one of your favorite Smart Bitches memories.
A book you discovered here?
A cover snark that made you snort laugh?
A HaBO you solved?
The high incidences of random silliness?
What post or moment do you think of when you think of Smart Bitches? Tell us one of your favorite Smart Bitches moments and you’re entered to win.
Standard disclaimers apply: We are 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 miniaturize for maximum furniture enjoyment. If miniaturization of self is not possible in your location, imaginary de-biggening will suffice. Not responsible for sudden desire to start collecting miniatures. Comments will close at noon ET on Sunday 6 February 2022 and winners will be announced shortly afterward.
Thank you for being part of Smart Bitches, and thank you for celebrating with us. Happy Anniversary!!
Winner update: Here are the five winners! Please check your inboxes and spam folders shortly.
This has become the site where I get most of my book recommendations from, not just romance. I’ve been reading reviews and posts for years and some of the highlights of what I’ve found from here are the Murderbot books, the Badger shifter series, Cat Sebastian, KJ Charles, T. Kingfisher, Courtney Milan, Jackie Lau, Alyssa Cole. A lot of my go-to, all-time favorite, in-constant-rotation books I found from here, which I’m very grateful for.
Wow! I have just started embracing my romance-novel-loving self, and found this site very recently. So my favourite memory is finding you all! I feel like a part of something that shares my enthusiasm without judgement. Thank you for having me!
I find so many good books on this site, both from reviews and from comments from other readers. My favourite though, has been the Murderbot series.
These are adorable! I’m determined to hand-make a Book Nook this year, and would absolutely love one of the pink chairs for it, so thank you so much for the chance. And I can’t believe the site is 17 years old, which is making me feel ancient, because I remember reading reviews on here when I was in undergrad at uni, and have just realised exactly how long ago that was. (Although my forehead wrinkles should probably have been a bigger clue, ahem.) I’ve found so many favourite books on here, and it’s really helped expand my interest in the different sub-genres. I’m a big fan of PNR and sci-fi romance now.
I CAN’T FIND IT! I’ve been hunting through Cover Snark Listings and I can’t find it! But I remember it as if it were yesterday.
It was the first Cover Snark that brought up a male cover with glowy bubbles around his rear ass-ets. I believe it was a bare butt, too. And someone in the description said it looked like his farts came out as bubbles, and I laughed so hard I scared BOTH cats.
Come for the snark, stay for the reviews.
@Deborah:
There’s this classic, wherein she farts in bubbles like the night.
And also Bubbles the Werewolf – so many bubbles!
Honestly, the comments! Everyone’s recs, riffs of each other’s jokes, and kind words are the best…
Happy Anniversary! I learned about this site from my older sister – the fount of so many of my favorite things in life! Lots and lots of memorable posts, but I think what’s been great for me on a personal level (definitely not any of the book sale posts, which earn me side eye from my budget on the reg) are the Bachelor/Bachelorette recaps, haha! It’s just not a show I can make myself watch, but the recaps with commentary definitely make me feel like I’m UTD on this particular pop culture blind spot. Thanks for everything!!
After the death of someone near and dear died I needed HEA books and found your blog. Thanks for the laughs and book recommendations.
I love all the new authors I have discovered here.
Love all the great books and authors I discovered here, but also love the forward looking embrace of romance and happy endings as something to celebrate not snicker about.
I have been reading SBTB for so long I can’t even guess when I started. I will say I’ve been through several genres of romance over the years I’ve been here. There are so many books and authors I’ve discovered here – I’ll mention a few of my favorite authors I learned about here: : Lois McMaster Bujold, Martha Wells, Becky Chambers, Courtney Milan, Elizabeth Moon, and so many others. Thank you for creating a place to share and discuss and question.
I found your site when I was in college and my non-reading friend announced she wanted to start reading, and she was going to start with Nora Roberts. Ever the researcher (I’m now a librarian) I had to figure out the best place to start with NR, because of course if my bestie was going to read her, I had to, too. I found an article here on NR’s classics and best, and I started with Jewels of the Sun. What a great summer it was reading that series (because of course I read them all one after another). That was really my introduction to Romancelandia and also what felt like a safe space for a now-identifying-as-aspec person to explore an aspect of herself that she had a lot of questions about!