Comments for Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

Comment on The Rec League: Sapphic Urban Fantasy by PamG

PamG — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 21:42:22 +0000

Would Laurie R. King’s Kate Martinelli mysteries qualify? It’s been a while since I read them, somostly I just remember loving the writing.

Comment on Bridgerton: Happily Ever After by Julia Quinn by PamG

PamG — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 21:33:04 +0000

@Kris
I’ll see your “Lady Elon of Musk” and raise you one “clown car uterus.”

Kudos, Lisa, on a perceptive and entertaining review. To be fair, Quinn is not the only culprit when it comes baby poppin’ epilogues, though she does lean into high volume production. I’m lookin’ at you, Jennifer Ashley (McKenzies) and SEP (Chicago Stars.).

Comment on Bridgerton: Happily Ever After by Julia Quinn by Darlynne

Darlynne — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 19:49:46 +0000

All these epilogue babies make me wonder about prolapsed organs, incontinence, near-to-death deliveries and other things I haven’t thought about. I love children, but why does no one mention the physical and mental cost to the women? Yes, yes, historical romance, fiction, big families are fun and so on. Also why so many men had multiple wives.

@Lisa, thanks and good lord, indeed.

Comment on Paranormal Romance, Historical Fantasy, & More by flchen1

flchen1 — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 18:12:07 +0000

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Comment on Bridgerton: Happily Ever After by Julia Quinn by HeatherS

HeatherS — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 16:19:32 +0000

As a childfree woman, I get really irked when “they have babies!” is the shorthand for HEA. People don’t need to have kids to live happily ever after! I guess this is why I gravitate pretty exclusively to queer romance now – if queer characters want kids, there’s usually a lot more involved to getting them than not having/using contraception or having it fail.

Comment on Links: Library Cards, BFFs, & More by HeatherS

HeatherS — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 16:08:35 +0000

@hng23, thanks for sharing that Bluesky thread. So moving. Publishing queer books, especially for teens, has come such a long way in the last 15-20 years. I don’t remember ever reading a queer character in books as a teen. I don’t think my little hometown library really even had any queer books, being deep in the Bible Belt as it is and not near any larger cities. I think “Keeping You a Secret” (by the late, great Julie Anne Peters) was published my senior year of high school, but I can’t even imagine finding it there back then or being able to check it out. I didn’t really find queer books until I was an adult and had moved out of state to a big city.

Comment on Links: Library Cards, BFFs, & More by HeatherS

HeatherS — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 15:58:25 +0000

@hng23 – Public libraries in the US tend to be funded by local taxes to some degree – in my city’s case, property taxes – so anyone who doesn’t live in the area isn’t paying the taxes that fund things like ebooks. Ebooks are stupid expensive for libraries (usually ~$65 per license/copy of a title, and they expire after a certain number of check outs/amount of time, whichever comes first, which means the library has to purchase the license again at that same high cost).

Folks who live in my city/county get a card for free. For a non-resident (someone who lives outside of the city/county) to get a library card at my library, it’s $60 for 3 months or $200 a year – that’s roughly $16 a month, less than what folks pay for a single streaming service, and it gets them access to our full physical collections, our digital collections – including ebooks and downloadable audiobooks through Libby, streaming movies and TV shows via Kanopy, Craftsy, Ground News, and all of our other databases, etc.

Comment on The Rec League: Sapphic Urban Fantasy by Kael

Kael — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 15:33:40 +0000

My first thought was the Santa Olivia doulogy, but IDK if post-apocalyptic can really count as UF, though if it does, then that’s an option (if one I read a long time ago, so the quality could be uncertain in this day and age)

Comment on Bridgerton: Happily Ever After by Julia Quinn by Lisa F

Lisa F — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 14:21:51 +0000

@JoanneBB: Definitely, because they’re barely parenting themselves.

@Kris – you are so welcome!

Comment on Bridgerton: Happily Ever After by Julia Quinn by JoanneBB

JoanneBB — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 13:50:00 +0000

Yes, sometimes we just don’t need a baby epilogue. I felt very similarly about most of these stories, it was just a lot. also I couldn’t help but think of the nearly invisible nannies and maids that would be needed to support these enormous families, because it’s definitely not just the parents doing it (« involved » and loving though they might be).