NB: Have we mentioned that we love a good squee? Because we do. We love hearing about which books made you feel absolutely over the moon, or ones that you’ve connected with on deep, emotional levels. This particular squee comes from Poppy. Poppy is a long-time fan of SBTB and loves cats, books and coffee, in that order. There is also a trigger warning at the beginning of the review, but in case you miss it … Continue reading Guest Squee: Trial by Desire by Courtney Milan →
Normally I’m pretty cynical about Christmas. I’m not a practicing Christian, and I’ve worked in either retail or logistics long enough that the commercialism and chaos that precedes the holiday season exhausts me (I once worked till 2 a.m. so a shipment of children’s bedsheets that were on sale would hit the store in time for Black Friday–then slept for four hours and went back into work). This year, though, I’m clinging to anything happy and … Continue reading All I Want for Christmas is a Duke by Valerie Bowman, Tiffany Clare, Vivienne Lorret, Ashlyn MacNamara →
If you like enemies-to-lovers romance, then you probably want to read When a Marquess Loves a Woman. It’s got all my prerequisites for a good Regency romance–loads of sexual tension, a heroine who owns her shit, and epic sass-battles. Also canoodling in libraries. Also a stock market crash. There’s a lot going on in this book. Maxwell Hardwick and Juliet White, Lady Granworth, didn’t start out as nemeses, and they have a complicated personal history. Max … Continue reading When a Marquess Loves a Woman by Vivienne Lorret →
NB: Welcome to Flashback Friday! If you didn’t catch it, Carrie had a disappointing experience reading Mary Balogh’s latest release, Someone to Love, due to racist stereotypes. But, if you’re hoping to read Balogh without DNF-ing, Elyse wrote a glowing review of Only a Promise. This review was originally published June 10, 2015. Only a Promise was the first book I read by Mary Balogh, and I rectified that situation pretty damn quick. It was so so amazingly good that … Continue reading Only a Promise by Mary Balogh →
Do You Want to Start a Scandal is good. It’s so, so good. How good is it? It’s this good: I wake up at the ass crack of dawn on a Saturday because a big storm is rolling in and I’m getting pre-migraine twinges, so I take my usual migraine cocktail of Excedrin, ibuprofen and a muscle relaxer and plan on sleeping until noon. While I’m waiting for drugs to kick in, I start the book. … Continue reading Do You Want to Start a Scandal by Tessa Dare →
Mary Balogh’s re-release of her former Signet Regency titles are a gift. I’ve read several while traveling over the past 2 weeks, and each is like sinking into a warm and soft comforter made of words. Really, really good words. This one (so far – there are more I haven’t read yet) (which, THANK GOODNESS because I have more plane travel ahead) is my favorite. Piers Westhaven and Alice Penhallow were childhood friends who grew up … Continue reading A Certain Magic by Mary Balogh →
Fairest of Them All made me mad. So, so mad. Mad like: The thing was, the book was not what I was expecting and the hero was not the right guy, IMO. Charlene Blanchard is penniless noblewoman who has taken to disgusting herself as a boy and pick-pocketing in order to support herself and her aunt. One day Charlene learns that the Duke of Baynton is looking for a wife. The duke, Gavin, is very wealthy … Continue reading Fairest of Them All by Cathy Maxwell →
Back when I was a little baby Elyse, still too embarrassed to check out romances from the library lest the librarian judge me, I raided my aunt’s Johanna Lindsey stash. I had just finished reading everything Kathleen Woodiwiss had ever written (which wasn’t much) and was hungering for more. My aunt was an avid romance reader and had all of Lindsey’s paperbacks lining several shelves in her basement. It was a feast of bronze-chested Fabios, … Continue reading Make Me Love You by Johanna Lindsey →
When Jo Beverley passed away last month and we were discussing recommendations, several people mentioned Emily and the Dark Angel. I realized I had a copy but had never read it. It was just the sort of charming, quietly hilarious comfort read I needed. It has the best meet-cute I’ve read in a long time, too. Emily Grantwich is walking through her hometown, Melton Mowbray, when a man bumps into her. Another woman in an upstairs window, … Continue reading Emily and the Dark Angel by Jo Beverley →
Love and Friendship is so full of beautiful clothes that I kept forgetting that there was an actual movie involved. This being said, there is a movie, and it’s delightful. Love and Friendship is an adaptation of the novella, Lady Susan, by Jane Austen (I reviewed it here). Austen wrote the book early in her life and doesn’t seem to have planned to publish it. The movie retains the novella’s charms (a delightfully wicked protagonist … Continue reading Movie Review: Love and Friendship →
I think almost everyone has felt to be the outsider at some point in their lives and I think everyone would love a second chance. In Secrets of a Scandalous Heiress, Theresa Romain brings together two outsiders who live in the shadows of the glittering ton during the Regency and gives them the opportunity for second chances. At the beginning of the story, heiress Augusta Meredith is posing as a cheerful and not wealthy widow … Continue reading Secrets of a Scandalous Heiress by Theresa Romain →
