Our community at the Bitchery is full of warm & fuzzy moments and as the person who puts together the Books on Sale posts, sometimes we get some kickass, budget-endangering comment threads. For example, KateB alerted us to a mega Mary Stewart sale! You can view Mary Stewart’s ebook editions, sorted from low to high prices, all of which are $3.99 or lower, at this Amazon link. Here are some Stewart recs from that particular … Continue reading The Rec League: Mary Stewart →
This piece of literary mayhem is exclusive to Smart Bitches After Dark, but fret not. If you’d like to join, we’d love to have you! Have a look at our membership options, and come join the fun! If you want to have a little extra fun, be a little more yourself, and be part of keeping the site open for everyone in the future, we can’t wait to see you in our new subscription-based section … Continue reading After Dark at the Movies: Night of the Comet (1984) →
This Rec League came from Meg in our SBTB Patreon Discord server. Thanks, Meg! Do you have recommendations for books based on or inspired by Shakespeare plays? I recently read Two Wrongs Make a Right by Chloe Liese, which is inspired by Much Ado About Nothing (my favorite play) and it made me want more! Shakespeare’s comedies end in marriage, so they seem like good candidates to be adapted into romance novels. Sarah: Ramón and … Continue reading The Rec League: Shakespeare Retellings →
Stuck inside? Join the original queen of the page-turner Mary Stewart, as she leads you on a thrilling journey through a dangerous and deadly Provence . . . Lucy Waring, a young, out-of-work actress from London, leaps at the chance to visit her sister for a summer on the island paradise of Corfu, and what’s more, a famous but reclusive actor is staying in a villa nearby. But Lucy’s hopes for rest and romance are … Continue reading This Rough Magic →
The romance novel has the strange distinction of being the most popular but least respected of literary genres. While it remains consistently dominant in bookstores and on best-seller lists, it is also widely dismissed by the critical community. Scholars have alleged that romance novels help create subservient readers, who are largely women, by confining heroines to stories that ignore issues other than love and marriage. Pamela Regis argues that such critical studies fail to take … Continue reading A Natural History of the Romance Novel →
Texas: Yeehaw! I put on my cowboy boots, poured a nice margarita (rocks, of course), and played me some Lyle Lovett. I was all set for my RITA Reader Challenge: historical romance in a small Texas town so quirky it has TWO TIME ZONES! I settled in for a good read, but a third of the way in, I was mystified. The hero was described as distinguished looking, and tall, and distinguishably tall, but why … Continue reading Left at the Altar by Margaret Brownley →
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This is a HaBO from Laura Florand, who wants to be reunited with a book from her teens: It’s actually a book I really liked as a teenager, a Gothic along the lines of Mary Stewart. The author uses E.A. Robinson’s “Richard Cory” poem to start the book and references it throughout. The main plot, as I remember it, is that the heroine ends up on a small private island, working perhaps as the secretary or … Continue reading HaBO: Gothic Romance Heroine Uses Gymnastic Skills →
In one of yesterday’s HaBOs, Amanda wrote about being grounded from the library for reading romance novels as part of her request to find her lost book – which was found because y’all know pretty much everything, including, I suspect tomorrow’s lottery numbers. Maybe. After Amanda’s lost book was identified as Silver Fire by Sally Stone, the discussion that evolved afterward was all about your memories of using the library, either the one at school or the one … Continue reading Library Memories →
This Rec League is a little more personal and less focused on tropes. Gloriamarie recently sent us an email, asking if we could help her with some reading recommendations for her mother. She’s a voracious reader and Gloriamarie wants to keep the books coming! I am wracking my brains trying to keep up with my ninety year old mother’s need for reading material. She is legally blind but can still read large print books. This … Continue reading The Rec League: Reading Material for Mom →
By the time I got my hands on Susan Elizabeth Phillips's Heros Are My Weakness, I had already heard that it was a tribute to the Gothic romances of my youth. Since I am a devotee of several mistresses (and masters) of the genre, I really looked forward to this 21st century take on the style. Sure enough, the dedication made the author's inspiration clear, and Stewart, Bronte, du Maurier, et al, are surely names … Continue reading Guest Review: Heroes are My Weakness by Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Reviewed by Pam G →
This RITA® Reader Challenge 2014 review was written by Emily A. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Short Contemporary Series Romance category. The summary: When seventeen-year-old Katherine McCall awakened one morning to find her beloved sister, Sara, brutally murdered, her whole life changed in the blink of an eye. Kat was named the prime suspect and, on a string of circumstantial evidence, charged and tried. While the jury found her innocent, not … Continue reading RITA Reader Challenge: Justice for Sara by Erica Spindler →
