This request comes from Anne. Thanks, Anne! I’m a successful self-made businesswoman. I love fiction with a romantic element about successful businesswomen, like classics by Judith Krantz and Barbara Taylor Bradford. But I have a hard time finding it. Too often businesswomen in romances are not that good at business (anxious, unsure about how to make the business work financially) relieved when a successful here comes to save them – or they are good at … Continue reading The Rec League: Competence Porn + Business Owners →
We’re combining two similar requests for this Rec League on competence porn! Flchen1 asked for a Rec League on this specifically in the comments of a RITA Reader Challenge review. And we received this email request from reader KK: Heroines with successful careers that are respected by the narrative and their partner. The field doesn’t overly matter, and while I don’t often read Romantic Suspense or Inspirational, I’m sure I’m not the only one interested … Continue reading The Rec League: Competence Pr0n →
This Rec League comes from Cyndy. Thanks, Cyndy! I love suspense/thriller romances but have gotten pretty disillusioned with the military and police for all the reasons you’d might expect. I’ve gotten by with some books about ex military groups or non government entities and I can apparently suspend my disbelief enough in those circumstances to have a good time (think Adriana Anders’s Survival Instincts series, which I LOVE). I’d appreciate if there are recs along … Continue reading The Rec League: Romantic Suspense without Military or Law Enforcement →
CW: I’m going to quote the content note verbatim here: “Midnight Ruin is an occasionally dark and very spicy book that contains violence, murder, blood, guns, pregnancy (not the heroine) and abortion (off-page, not the heroine).” I can’t be trusted to be objective and balanced when the book in question made me gasp repeatedly and then exclaim at my partner that the book was SO GOOD. This book gave me so much Good Book Noise! … Continue reading Midnight Ruin by Katee Robert →
A new book by the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Part detective story, part historical epic—a bold and brilliant novel that imagines a plague taking over a fictional island in the Ottoman Empire. It is April 1900, in the Levant, on the imaginary island of Mingheria—the twenty-ninth state of the Ottoman Empire—located in the eastern Mediterranean between Crete and Cyprus. Half the population is Muslim, the other half are Orthodox Greeks, and tension … Continue reading Nights of Plague →
This guest review is from Babelfish, who is a California librarian, historical fiction enthusiast, lizard person, and ADHD-prone daydreamer. … Long-time reader, first-time contributor. I find the reviews on this site some of the most entertaining writing on the internet, and the number of quotes with which I spam my coworkers (and my best friend) is a mite excessive. I *really* appreciate you people, is what I’m saying. 🙂 Y’all got me into reading romances in … Continue reading Passion Play by Beth Bernobich →
NB: This week, we’re taking a look back at 2022. We’ve got a week of best-of posts to share, with reviews, cover snark, sales, and more. We hope you enjoy revisiting our archives, and most of all, we wish you and yours a wonderful holiday and a happy new year – with all the very best of reading. … We’re counting down the best of our 2022 reviews, which I’m sure you’re all curious about. … Continue reading Best of Reviews 2022, Part One →
Killers of a Certain Age is a sharp mix of heist, thriller, mystery, and the type of story where, besides all that action, the four main characters are shifting from one phase of their lives to another. There’s a lot of chemistry, both literal and interpersonal, murder, plotting, hunting, and scheming. There’s also a lot of on-page murder, but because everyone who is dispatched is quite terrible, it didn’t bother me too much, especially not … Continue reading Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn →
Author and award-winning audiobook narrator Julia Whelan visits with me to talk about her new book, Thank You For Listening. Along the way we discuss: Recent press coverage of her book Self Aware Book Fiction Competence p0rn Myths about audiobook narration And why Romance Is Amazing Plus, we have book recommendations! (We always do that.) What about you? Do you listen to audiobooks? Do you have favorite books or favorite narrators? Tell me all about … Continue reading 524. Thank You For Listening, and Also For Romance, With Julia Whelan →
This review is from Marion, who is a college student, a very amateur short story writer, and a proud nerd, who got into romances and found SBTB over COVID. … I’m a bit of a map geek, and picked up The Cartographers expecting a decent thriller plot with a little information about old maps woven in. It turned out rather differently than I’d expected, but I was happy about that. The plot setup: Nell Young … Continue reading The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd →
I have a weakness for both Scottish and Caribbean characters, so when I saw that A Caribbean Heiress in Paris paired a business savvy Dominican heroine with a progressive Scottish earl, I knew I wanted to try it. And since Claudia loves historical romances, I begged her to read it with me. (Claudia here: Shana had me at hello!) Luz arrives at the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris on a mission. She’s the recently orphaned … Continue reading A Caribbean Heiress in Paris by Adriana Herrera →
