Eighteen years ago, on 31 January 2005, Smart Bitches began.
The site launched with a review for Angel-Seeker by Sharon Shinn and for The Unsung Hero by Suzanne Brockmann.
Zero plans and strategy beyond, “Let’s talk about romance fiction critically and enthusiastically,” and holy cow.
We’re still here.
Literally, every year when I file the annual reports and taxes and all that business business, I look around my office and think, “Yup, still here.” Still talking about romance, still enthusiastic, still interacting with readers around the world.
Thank you. The site wouldn’t be here without you. Our community is welcoming new readers, helping people find the books they want to read, and thriving as a warm and wonderful collection of humans from all over the globe.
In a time when media is contracting, when sites are folding or having their entire staff laid off by the conglomerate that bought them, that we are chugging along is astonishing and I don’t take that for granted.
Thank you for hanging out with us, for telling us about all the books you’ve read and liked, and about the books you’ve read and didn’t like. Thank you for supporting our work and telling us jokes, for emailing us exquisite cover art, and for being part of our community.
As I always do, I took a look at the traditional and modern anniversary gifts for the 18th year, and this year, both modern and traditional gifts are porcelain.
NO PROBLEM. I don’t know who or what source provides these anniversary gift lists, but porcelain is no problem, because it’s January, and Hot Beverages like tea, hot chocolate, and coffee are often served in porcelain.
We’re giving away gorgeous teacups and saucers to celebrate!
There’s this gorgeous hibiscus set with a cup, saucer, and spoon:
and this adorable set that looks like a HANDBAG, omgosh:
And this set includes an infuser for loose tea, and the infuser can rest on the lid while you sip – so clever and beautiful:
Plus, Amanda sent me a link to this absolutely incredible shop, Miss Havisham’s Curiosities, and I was doomed, I tell you. Doomed.
How about a Villainess teacup and saucer?
So, want to win one?
Just comment below and share one of your favorite Smart Bitches memories.
A book you discovered here that you adore?
A cover snark that you re-read and then snort-laugh?
A HaBO you solved or a HaBO you sought?
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 sip beverages and read books. Not responsible for increased consumption of tea or hot chocolate, or the increased collection of teas, chocolates, and coffees. Comments will close at noon ET on Sunday 5 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: Congratulations to the following commenters:
Be sure to check your inboxes! As always, thank you all for another year of SBTB shenanigans.
SBTB totally got me into T. Kingfisher, KJ Charles, and Cat Sebastian for which I am most grateful.
Also, I wasn’t around when it was originally posted, but “fucking her ass, saving her life” is always worth a re-read when I need a pick me up.
Oh, and I am awake and commenting at 3:08am because I’m at the hospital with a newborn who has just fallen asleep on me. He’s pretty cute for being 9 hours old even if he doesn’t quite share a birthday with SBTB. <3
I came for the Cover Snark and have discovered many books through the site and the comments since – T Kingfisher and Murderbook for instance. By now, when I finish a book that makes me want to argue about, I find myself searching the site for a review. Right now, I’m in the first pages of a book and we’ve had a Mysterious Native American and a Girl-Not-Like-Other-Girls (“ethereal yet earthy”). Should I go for the crazy sauce or DNF?
I’m pretty sure it was the Cassie Edwards story that brought me here. But I stayed for the articles, reviews, snark and sense of community. I do miss the F+ reviews.
Congratulations, FashionablyEvil! May you and the new one go on many reading/bookish adventures together.
I know I’ve definitely been lurking on Smart Bs since the Candy Tan years, but I’m not sure what got me to start commenting. I may not have even been Jill Q. yet.
I know I’ve helped out on a few HABOs and I have one still outstanding (sniff) but my favorite interesting mental phenomenon is different people asking about the same book, sometimes very close in time together, but when you read the descriptions, you might not ever realize it. Memory is such an interesting thing.
Oh my Gosh, those _cups_. (The hibiscus one in particuliar, oh my…)
I discovered romanc ethrough this site, honestly. I came here to have a laugh at romance which I thought was really bad, only to discover how feminist it is at its core, and that there are wonderful books out there that I did not deign to read and was totally missing out on! Ever since then, I have been an avid defender of romance novels even if most of it is still not up to my speed. That being said, I discovered writers like Courtney Milan and Cat Sebastian solely though this website. So thanks for that! *hearteyes*
A book I definitely would not have discovered but for SBTB is “Winter’S Orbit” by Everina Maxwell. I love that book to bits and then some.
Happy anniversary, Bitchery!
Congratulations, Fashionably Evil!
And congratulations to Sarah for making keeping the ship afloat for 18 years. SBTB is now old enough to vote (but not, alas, to rent a car).
I know I’ve been around at least since Sarah’s second child was born because I have a clear memory of her posting some photos from the hospital room. I was definitely here for the Cassie Edwards plagiarism expose. And I’m happy to say that one of my daughters (she doesn’t comment very often—usually on knitting posts—but when she does it’s usually as some variation of Queen Victoria) is also a visitor here.
I can’t even begin to list the number of books & authors I’ve discovered through SBTB. I never read a WAYR post without adding at least a couple of new titles to my TBR. I’ve solved a couple of HABOs and I’ve had one solved for me—a book I’d read in the 1980s and couldn’t remember the title or author. The Bitchery came through! SBTB is always one of my first stops in my morning internet trawl—May there be many more years ahead!
Congratulations. I cannot remember when I first found your site but I stayed for all the wonderful comments. I love the podcasts. Looking forward to many more years.
I can’t remember how I found SBTB, but I’m grateful every day that I did. Like @DDD, it’s one of my first stops in the morning. I can’t tell you how many books have been added to my shelves and TBR list, particularly via the WAYR posts. I still remember that tingling “oh, I need to read THAT book” that sent me straight off in search of The Goblin Emperor.
Happy anniversary, and thank you for the joy you bring every day.
I am forever grateful for the introduction to Courtney Milan when a friend linked me to the infamous “puppy cannons” review of The Suffragette Scandal. But then I saw it was the fourth book, so of course I had to go find the first, and it was all downhill from there. Congrats on 18 years SBTB!
Oh gosh, I found the site back during the Candy days. I was at a place in the day job where I had a lot of time to read blogs between assignments, and cannot recall which blog pointed me here. But as a lifelong book nerd and romance fan, loved it immediately. Never was a wildly regular commenter, but happy 18. It would be an achievement even without the wild roller coaster the internet has been in all that time.
18 years! I found y’all in the early days a college student who was at the time just a bit embarrassed by the less than highbrow nature of my literature. A decade and change later and I have no shame, only sass.
I’m very, very bad at choosing favorites but I picked up Grace Draven’s Radiance for the book club, back when that was a thing and I still adore it and many of her other novels, as well.
Oooo! I also won a box of books once!!! And it had a copy of Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake and that book has gotten me through some shit. I also read it aloud during a girl’s trip to Carlsbad Caverns with my summer internship roomies many moons ago.
A lot of good memories associated with these parts despite my being a very infrequent commenter.
Elyse describing Colton’s many showers and bid for freedom by jumping a fence that could have opened inward lives rent-free in my head. I was in stitches in my work’s break room and trying really hard to hide it from my new boss. It. Was. Amazing.
Lucy Parker and Cat Sebastian are two of my favorite authors, and I discovered their work via this site. I’m so grateful for all of the years of wonderful reviews and humor and community here!
SBTB really helped me starting in 2020. Reading has always been my primary escape, and the more stressed I am, the more I read. The past three years have turned my reading up to 11 and SBTB has enabled that. I always read the WAYR posts to get suggestions for new-to-me authors (and my TBR list just keeps growing). I love this site for encouraging my love of romance and being a kind and wonderful place.
There are too many authors to list that SBTB has turned me on to, but: Talia Hibbert, Jackie Lau, KJ Charles, Foz Meadows, T Kingfisher, and Farah Heron are a few!
Happy anniversary! I found the site years ago while searching for a book I’d read. Y’all posted an HaBO and one of the glorious community members found the book shortly after! I’ve stuck around ever since and have discovered so many new authors and fabulous reads over the years. Congrats on 18 years and here’s to many more!
Happy 18th anniversary, SBTB!
I rarely interact, but I know I can always count on your recs when I need a new book or author.
I hope you’re around for many more years!
Happy birthday, SBTB!
I started visiting the site in 2011 after meeting Sarah at the RT Book convention when it was held in Los Angeles. I guess the cover models were so hot that the fire alarms kept going off at the hotel.
Books/series/authors I would never have picked up but for this site are the Griffin and Whyborn series by Jordan L Hawke, Game Changer series by Rachel Reid, Murderbot series by Martha Wells, Stephanie Burgis (hi, Stephanie), Only Bad Options by Jennifer Estep (hi, Jennifer), Cate C Wells, and Lucy Parker. I’m sure there are more, but those stick out.
Happy anniversary, SBTB!! I’ve been reading SBTB posts for so long that I can’t even really remember the first post I read or how I stumbled across the site — but at some point I started checking the site weekly (if not more often) for book posts! One of my favorites is “ Ready, Set, Go: Un-Putdownable Romances”, which gave me a lot of great absorbing romances to binge when real life was too stressful 🙂
I remember reading that first review of the Sharon Shinn novel!!! Congratulations everyone!
@FashionablyEvil: Mazel tov!!
This comment thread is giving me so much joy and happiness. Thank you for being part of SBTB, y’all!
Happy 18! Thank you for hanging in for all of us who have been getting our morning SBTB fix for (in my case) over a decade and a half. The PREGNESIA review reeled me in; the thoughtful posts keep me here. There are so, so many authors I’d never have found without SBTB, but some of my favorites that come to mind this morning are Lois McMaster Bujold, Courtney Milan, and Ilona Andrews. SBTB has carried me through so many life changes that I simply cannot thank you enough. Seriously. Thank you, Sarah B and the rest of the gang, from the bottom of my heart for being there and being smart and funny and caring and just plain wonderful.
Happy Anniversary!!!
When I was a new romance reader, I came to SBTB for the reviews. I knew nothing and the reviews helped me try new things and discover a love for the genre.
Happy Chai anniversary, SBTB!! You are now legal to drink in Quebec, congrats 😀 And a big mazel tov to FashionablyEvil!!
I can’t remember what brought me here, but it was relatively early (though I think it took me a few years to delurk). I’ve discovered so many great books and amazing people through this site and its community, and I’m thankful you’re here.
Happy Anniversary! And congrats FashionablyEvil!
I can’t remember how long I’ve been here, but it’s been a minute. I have found so many of my favorite authors via reviews on this website, from Suzanne Brockmann to Jennifer Crusie – and probably all the rest of my favorites from the comments. The unrelenting love of KJ Charles finally got me past the horrific uncanny valley early covers of The Magpie Lord, and I do not know how I would have gotten through the early pandemic with KJ Charles.
I don’t think there’s a single favorite thing that stands out to me as the best, so much as my heartfelt appreciation for the day to day consistency.
I think I’ve been around for well over half of those 18 years! After scorning romance for most of my life, I read some Jennifer Cruise and said, if this is romance, I want more! I didn’t know where to find that more, and picked up a handful of random Harlequins, which didn’t go well. I came to this site confused, posted an awkward gripe about how sexist and preposterous those randoms were, and began to read the archives, laughing at the snark but also slowly coming to understand what it is about romance that lets its fans enjoy even sexist and preposterous books, and also how these fans find the good ones. I think the first great author I discovered via this site may have been Courtney Milan. And I absolutely appreciate how much of a long-term community these bloggers and commenters are.
Happy 18th anniversary SBTB! And congratualtions FashionablyEvil!
I was trying to remember exactly when i discovered SBTB — it wasn’t with the first post, but it was within the first months that Sarah and Candy had started posting and I’ve been reading ever since. I’ve been an off and on commenter over the years, but always an appreciative reader and admirer of the great community of smart engaged people at this site. Long may SBTB continue to flourish.
I came for the snark, and stayed for the romance, which I’d never really read before. So, I’ve discovered so many authors, and been surprised about what I end up liking (and what I end up hating). Right now I’ve got Joanna Shupe and Olivia Dade as the two that come to mind, but there are far too many to list.
Happy Anniversary! Like others, I can’t remember what brought me to SBTB, but every day I give thanks for this site! SBTB got me to read contemporary romance, for years I focused on historical. Sports romances? HOCKEY?? Books I never knew I needed! The quality of the posts and the comments is exceptional. I’ve found so many favorite authors, too many to count. One of my favorite things are the Watcha Reading posts. I settle in with a cup of coffee, all my library tabs open, and pen and paper to see what new books will be added to my TBR list.
A very big congratulations to Fashionably Evil!!
I can’t even remember when I first found this site it’s been so long – I get so much joy from this site, so thank you for all that you do! You convinced me to pick up T Kingfisher, Jennifer Estep, and Kate Clayborn (there are probably a million more tbh), all authors that I adore now and read about here first.
Love everything you do here at SBTB!
I think I ended up here via Charlaine Harris’s blog? I can’t really remember, but it’s been a while now. As for which romance authors I’ve discovered via SBTB, it’s all of them, basically: KJ Charles, Courtney Milan, Talia Hibbert, Tessa Dare, Charish Reid, Jackie Lau, Olivia Dade, and so many others. Thanks for providing so much reading pleasure from the writing on the site and from new-to-me authors. Thanks for the podcast that keeps me company while I’m cooking and cleaning. And thanks to the other commenters who keep my TBR pile sky-high through their recommendations in the Whatcha Reading posts.
Happy anniversary! I’ve read many books based on SBTB recs, but the most recent one was “Legends & Lattes,” which was delightful. I hope you have many more anniversaries, and look forward to the podcast every Friday – I always listen first thing Saturday morning. Congratulations, Sarah!
I knew I’d found my people the first time I read a review here and someone used the phrase “[they] went to bone-town.” I definitely snort-laughed. Thanks to everyone here for being such a caring community that makes my days brighter.
I don’t need a teacup, just wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS!
I first came here during the Black-Footed Ferret Affair (which, alas, is not the title of a book), and will never forget the excellence that is this review of Pregnesia:
https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/reviews/pregnesia-by-carla-cassidy-guest-review/
I find most of my favorite reads through this site, and it’s been that way for years. I discovered Lucy Parker – Act Like It – was the first book, but I own all of hers now, and she’s one of my comfort shelf authors.
Congratulations to the Smart Bitches!
My favorite memory – reading the review of the excellent kdrama Rookie Historian Goo Hae Ryung and thinking “This might be a good thing to start watching before my upcoming trip to Seoul.” A trip where I discovered a kpop group, ASTRO, and then realized that one of the members was the male lead in Rookie Historian. The rest is history – I have been a diehard Aroha (ASTRO fan) for over 3 years now and they truly got me through the pandemic.
Thank you, Smart Bitches, for years and years of excellent book reviews! I have read so many books because they were featured here.
VERY happy anniversary, everyone! I’ve found SO many excellent reads through the posts and reader comments! (@DiscoDollyDeb, I’m looking at you 😉 ) I love your creativity (those April first posts are a thing of beauty) and the commitment to diversity and being better for everyone. Here’s to many more years of great reads and reviews! Thank you!!
Discovering SBTB in 2022! Late to the party — I know. But as a relatively new romance reader this site has helped me find many great books, and I love hearing from authors and other guests on the podcast. Thank you for bringing so much joy to reading!
You guys are responsible for my reading of Bet Me, finding Sonali Dev & Alisha Rai….driving to Atlanta to RT to go to a live recording of the podcasts (and discuss puppy cannons randomly…)
And let’s not forget Dabwah (spelling!)
It’s been delightful