How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang is $1.99! This released last spring and was mentioned in Hide Your Wallet. I believe Kuang is the one adapting and directing Emily Henry’s Beach Read as well.
This Rec League is from longtime commenter, Stefanie! It’s a good one: Have you done a rec league for those who like what I’ll call The Shop Around the Corner Trope. I can’t think of what else to call it, since it’s not quite enemies to lovers or friends to lovers. Apparently, I really like this trope whether it is played straight, using the plot points from that original movie, which I watch every Christmas, … Continue reading The Rec League: The Shop Around the Corner
Loving You Always by Kennedy Ryan is $1.99! This is book two in The Bennett Series. This was released in 2014, but I believe is having a resurgence from the publisher due to new cover designs.
RECOMMENDED: The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal is $2.99! Carrie read this one and gave it a B grade:
Even though at first I found this book to be slow going, I came to appreciate it for its intersectional feminism and its unabashed adoration of all the science and math that goes into making space flight possible.
Foul Days by Genoveva Dimova is $2.99! This is book one in a series. Sarah mentioned this in Hide Your Wallet when it was released last summer, citing the comparisons to The Witcher and Naomi Novik.
Maybe the best way to summarize how much I loved Honeysuckle and Bone is to say that once I finished it, I immediately started searching for more books by the author and was immensely disappointed there weren’t any. This is a classic Gothic thriller, but it does so much more with the tropes and themes of that genre that it stands out and makes for a truly memorable reading experience. Carina Marshall has never been … Continue reading Honeysuckle and Bone by Trisha Tobias
Heather S went on what she calls “an expedition to Half Price Books” and found many vintage Harlequin romances on the shelf – which is odd, because the store usually doesn’t shelve them: “I wonder if they’re having trouble filling the old mass market paperback shelves now that most romances are trade or the weird wide paperback that Harlequin publishes now.” Your guess is as good as mine, but what really matters here is that HEATHER TOOK … Continue reading Wild Caught Romance!
The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren is $2.99! I feel like CLo books don’t go on sale as often as other author’s titles, so snap this one up while you can.
My guest today is Candy Tan, who 20 years ago co-founded Smart Bitches Trashy Books with me. Yay!! We’re looking back at the founding of SBTB, about her reactions to Bridgerton, and her perennial favorite romances. We talk about different ways that romance has changed since 2005. Then I show Candy the casting photos for the Black Dagger Brotherhood adaptation. Music: purple-planet.com Check out the Fits Everybody Collection at https://www.skims.com/sarah #skimspartner
We’ve been celebrating all week, with Cover Snark, Hide Your Wallet 2005 Edition, and a look back at Iconic Reviews. But how well do you know us? I’ve got trivia, and a giveaway! Giveaways are great, but trivia? Trivia about a 20 year old weblog about romance novels? That’s pretty fun. And!! All trivia responses will be entered to win your very own, per my younger child, “Smart Bitches Chaos Emerald.” Sonic the Hedgehog had … Continue reading Happy 20th Anniversary, Smart Bitches!
RECOMMENDED: Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld is $2.99! Elyse gave this one an A:
Celebrity romance is one of my favorite tropes, and for me this book stands out. Romantic Comedy features a hero who is not purely defined by celebrity status, gives readers a deep dive into a world I found fascinating, contains an epistolary courtship, and at times is laugh-out-loud funny.
