After I finished Just Playing House, I immediately ran around telling everyone I knew to read it. I’m totally obsessed with this second chance + celebrity romance. It was cozy but with enough emotional twists and turns to keep me interested. Marley is a personal stylist with two goals. She wants to convince the department store where she works to promote her to a personal shopper for the rich and famous. And she wants to … Continue reading Just Playing House by Farah Heron →
This is a hard book to review because there were a few elements that didn’t work for me, but I don’t think they’d stop other readers from loving Second Night Stand. But before I dig into everything I adored about this book, and how everything I didn’t like is my own fault, let’s describe the plot. Lillian is the aloof dance master of a Very Serious™ ballet company on the brink of disaster. Her backers … Continue reading Second Night Stand by Fay Stetz-Waters and Karelia Stetz-Waters →
Bridgerton season 3 is here! My plan was to leisurely watch one episode a week over the month between the first episodes dropping and the June 13 arrival of the final four episodes. Instead, I devoured all the available episodes in one night and have been soothing myself with Bridgerton thirst memes while I wait for the finale. Anyone else counting down the days? In the meantime, I’ve been rewatching the series, yet again. I … Continue reading Bridgerton, Season 3 →
NB: This is a review for both this book, and the entire trilogy. I adored Jodi McAlister’s Marry Me Juliet trilogy. This contemporary romance series lovingly satirizes the Australian version of The Bachelor while offering a lot of wish fulfillment for fans of reality dating shows. Each book includes at least one moment that I’ve always wanted to happen on The Bachelor—from two bisexuals who fall for each other instead of the lead, to having … Continue reading Not Here to Make Friends →
As the daughter of an Austenite, I feel compelled to read all queer Pride and Prejudice retellings. The heroine of Just as You Are was one of the most annoying versions of Elizabeth Bennet that I’ve read–anxious, judgmental, and self-absorbed at times. But I enjoyed Just as You Are once I let go of expecting this to align in any real way with the emotional world of Pride and Prejudice, and rode the wave of … Continue reading Just as You Are by Camille Kellogg →
Never Cross A Highlander has a one-click cover. Black Highlander stories are rare, and I’m glad this one offered some of the adventure and steam that dreamy cover promised. The book is slow in the middle, but there are swordfights, forced proximity while camping, sex by a waterfall, a hellion heroine, and a hard-headed hero who needed his family to tell him that he was in love. Here’s the book’s description: Ailsa Connery has waited … Continue reading Never Cross A Highlander by Lisa Rayne →
Verity and the Forbidden Suitor is not a stand alone book, y’all. I started reading and immediately flailed in a sea of characters that I might have cared about if I’d read the first book in the series. I was annoyed, but the book eventually settled down into an unabashedly romantic, and slightly gothic, story set in a racially mixed nobility reminiscent of Bridgerton. Dr. Theodore Darrington is a brilliant doctor with little patience for … Continue reading Verity and the Forbidden Suitor by J.J. McAvoy →
I was mildly annoyed the whole time I was reading Nora Goes Off Script but I also enjoyed the heck out of it. I’m not sure how to grade a book that’s simultaneously pleasurable and grating. Nora is a single mom and a Hallmark-esque screenwriter who just had her big break—her depressing script detailing her recent divorce from her self-absorbed husband sold for a bunch of money. The book opens just as the movie crew … Continue reading Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan →
When Sarah first told The Bitchery about the new US version of the British reality show The Traitors, I immediately thought it sounded too stressful for my taste. The Traitors has twenty contestants competing in a murder mystery game where a few of them are secretly Traitors, trying to eliminate the rest of the contestants and keep the prize money for themselves. They’re all trapped in a sprawling Scottish estate where they spend their days … Continue reading Stuff You Should be Watching: The Traitors →
CW: emotional abuse by parents The first thing you need to know about Sophie Go’s Lonely Hearts Club is that it will make you hungry. Sophie is a matchmaker in Toronto, and she loves food even more than romance. Sophie and her clients eat their way across the city, evocatively describing curry buns, guava candies, duck egg congee, nasi goreng, fruity pavlovas, and Krispy Kreme donuts. The second thing you should know is that while … Continue reading Sophie Go’s Lonely Hearts Club by Roselle Lim →
