I love Connie Willis’s work. I devour everything she writes, and I’m utterly incapable of judging her books impartially. She once granted me at 90-minute interview, and it’s not an exaggeration to say that it changed my life. Which is why it’s surprising that I did not care for her new book, Crosstalk, a romantic comedy that other reviewers are praising to the skies. I found this book to have a great concept but tedious … Continue reading Crosstalk by Connie Willis →
Anything But Vanilla is a Harlequin Kiss romance about Alex and Sorrel, who bicker over running an ice cream shop. The ice cream added a nice comfort read quality to the book, but tragically all the parts of the book that did not involve ice cream were sexist, nonsensical, or both. Sorrel runs Scoop!, an ice cream catering, entertainment, and delivery company. Sorrel gets the ice cream for her business from Ria, who owns a gourmet … Continue reading Anything but Vanilla by Liz Fielding →
Trigger warning for emotional, psychological and sexual abuse. Searching for Beautiful was my second pick for the RITA© Reader Challenge because it had a friends-to-lovers storyline with a runaway bride theme. What I should have checked into was whether the book is part of a series (it is, Book #3). It actually ties into another series as well, so there are lots of gratuitous pop-ins from the other books. The story opens up with heroine … Continue reading Searching for Beautiful by Jennifer Probst →
I started No Better Man with high hopes. Chapter 1 was great. And that was it. Actually, I’d made it about 72% of the way through sometime back in April, then put the book aside when I couldn’t deal with it anymore. Besides, I had a lot of cereal boxes to read. With the RITA Reader Challenge deadline fast approaching, it became a point of pride to resume reading and do my duty. Unfortunately, doing … Continue reading No Better Man by Sara Richardson →
Smitha is seventeen and seems to have it all: she’s one of the smartest, prettiest, richest girls in town. Sure, she can be a little bit vain and lazy and rude, but what does that matter? Then she makes the mistake of turning down the wrong guy, who curses her to be “as cold as her heart.” Now winter forever follows her, anyone who touches her skin freezes to death, and she can never, ever … Continue reading Followed by Frost by Charlie N. Holmberg →
You might have heard that Google is feeding its artificial intelligence romance novels to enable it to move from its stiff, factual communication style to something more realistic and conversational. Let’s hope that this novel isn’t on the menu, because it would not help the machine seem more human. The story itself is lightweight – more of a sketch of a story than an actual story. Guy from California comes to Twee Wee Town with … Continue reading A Cold Creek Christmas Story by RaeAnne Thayne →
This is the prequel/sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman. It’s one of those things that sounds terrible and you hope that it’ll be hillaribad and instead it’s just a huge fucking mess. Spoilers Abound, so be ye warned. It’s the origin story of The Huntsman (Erik, did we learn his name in the first movie? I don’t remember) and how Freya (Emily Blunt), the sister of Ravenna (the Evil Queen from SWatH, played by Charlize … Continue reading Movie Review: The Huntsman: Winter’s War →
A wholly unnecessary movie adaptation of the mash-up novel that took Pride and Prejudice and added zombies, starring Lily James, Charles Dance, Matt Smith, some guy as Darcy, and featuring Lena Headey. Carrie and I both saw it, and we do not agree at ALL. RHG: I AM SO MAD CarrieS: I’m not mad at all. I got exactly what I expected to get. I mean, there wasn’t anything misleading about their marketing. Or the … Continue reading Movie Review: Pride & Prejudice & Zombies →
A Midnight Dance by Lila DiPasqua is complete ridonkadonk historical crazy sauce. The cover and title suggest that it’s a Cinderella story, but I’m not sure it really qualifies. The story takes place after The Fronde in France. The heroine, Sabine Laurent, is suffering: her father (a once successful playwright/ theater owner) is dead, her sister is missing, the theater is gone, and she owes more in taxes than she can ever hope to pay. … Continue reading A Midnight Dance by Lila DiPasqua →
I came close to DNFing this book many times, starting with the meet cute. Stephen shows up on Haley’s front porch. Haley, a firearms SAFETY INSTRUCTOR, pulls a gun on a non-threatening stranger. Stephen seems very understanding of her using a deadly weapon. Then he shows up to the gun-toting whacko’s house the next day, also unannounced. Negative points for being a numbskull on both sides. Still, I read on, because it can’t get any … Continue reading Somebody Like You by Beth Vogt →
NB: Heather T. saw this book among yesterday’s cover snark and said, “I think I need to read this.” For science, I presume. Whatever the reason, we’re grateful! Welcome, Heather! The cover of this little missive showed up on the Bitchery because the cover and the concept were just So Fucking Funny. The cover showed this guy wearing nothing but glasses and a huge bejeweled codpiece. A MAGIC BEJEWELED CODPIECE. I volunteered to take one for the team and … Continue reading Guest Review: Emily’s Magical Bejeweled Codpiece by B. Snow →
