I really loved Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld. 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. Sally Milz is a writer for a weekly late-night sketch comedy show called TNO that is based on … Continue reading Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld →
In September of 2022, we snarked a cover, Planet Oster: Fertility Fusion. The cover designer, who is also one half of the writing team behind the series, reached out to me saying that they were unironically flattered that we’d snarked the cover, and asked if I’d like to talk about the process and the behind the scenes of the design work. Of course I said yes. Music: Purple-planet.com
The Rogue of Fifth Avenue by Joanna Shupe is $1.99! This is the first book in Shupe’s Uptown Girls series and I gave this one a B. I loved the heroine, but felt the sexism and patriarchy in this one hit too close to home when I read it. I am, however, very excited about the next book.
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When I’m not in the mood for a romance, I need a cosy mystery, especially an old school murder mystery. Murder mysteries set in post-WW2 Britain – particularly the variety featuring small villages? Yes, please! They tend to lean towards ‘cosy’ on the ‘cosy’ to ‘hard-boiled’ spectrum, and there is a glorious escape from modern technology and its baggage. If you, too, enjoy this type of story, may I propose Catherine Aird’s book The Religious … Continue reading The Religious Body by Catherine Aird →
Welcome to Wednesday Links! A Toast update! We installed a cat cam in the spare room, just to see how much exploring Toast was doing. That boy loves gazing out the window and looking at himself in the mirror. This weekend, we have plans to open up the second floor a little bit (which is just a bathroom, master bed, and spare room) and put a gate up at the top of the stairs. Linus … Continue reading Links: Graphic Novels, Dungeons and Dragons, & More →
RECOMMENDED: The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen is $2.99! I’ve talked about my love for Sarah Addison Allen before. Her books are literary fiction with magical realism and they’re such perfect comfort reads. I like Garden Spells (her debut) better, but this was still a good read.
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This Time It’s Real is a YA celebrity romance that focuses a lot on identity and fitting in. Eliza Lin’s mother is a corporate crisis manager, and as a result of her mom’s career she’s spent her childhood living all over the world. Now she’s in Beijing, and even though she’s Chinese, she doesn’t feel like she fits in at her new school any better than her last one. Eliza’s passion is writing, and for … Continue reading This Time It’s Real by Ann Liang →
One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London is $1.99! This has been mentioned a couple times on the site in things like Hide Your Wallet and podcast episodes. I feel like I’ve heard mixed things about this one, but do take note that the heroine’s weight seems to play a big factor in the narrative.
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This HaBO comes from Pam, who wants to find this romance: One of the first historical romances I read with a STEM-inclined heroine totally eludes me. I know I read it post-2007, and I believe that the author was fairly well known. It may even have been reviewed by the SBs. I’m pretty sure I read other work by the same author, but I’ve no clue who it was. All I remember was that the … Continue reading HaBO: Botanist Specializes in Carnivorous Plants →
If you missed it, we’ve switched our Hide Your Wallet new release posts to weekly instead of bi-monthly! This gives us a chance to cover more books in more digestible lists. There’s a number of thrillers and suspense titles in this one. Lots of series continuations as well! As always, what is on your to-read and to-buy list this week?
RECOMMENDED: Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon is $2.99! Carrie read this one and gave it a B+:
I’ve read a lot of books recently in which the romance was the least interesting part of the book. This book gave me the opposite feeling. Ari and Russell are nice people who are nice to spend time with, so while this book was not, shall we say, action packed, it was a lovely story about being honest with and about yourself and others and finding unexpected love.
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