
The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava is $2.99! Carrie read this one and gave it a B-:
Overall, this is a fun screwball comedy. I really enjoyed the representation of a Chickasaw woman and the barriers she faces to improving her life. As exasperated as I constantly was with Ember, I wanted her to thrive as the smart, hard-working woman that she clearly is, and for the most part I was happy with how her story was resolved.
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This is my first Bad Decisions Book Club of 2025. Sleep became a distant memory with this book. For context, I have a newborn. I had the opportunity to sleep, but chose not to because this book was much more important. It is also the start of a series and it’s a series I’m now very excited about! Euphemia Flite was raised in a school for girls on the outskirts of Victorian London. Her origins … Continue reading Rules for Ruin by Mimi Matthews →
by Amanda · May 18, 2025 at 5:00 am · Comments Off on Sunday Sale Digest!
This piece of literary mayhem is exclusive to Smart Bitches After Dark, but fret not. If you’d like to join, we’d love to have you! Have a look at our membership options, and come join the fun! If you want to have a little extra fun, be a little more yourself, and be part of keeping the site open for everyone in the future, we can’t wait to see you in our new subscription-based section … Continue reading Sunday Sale Digest! →

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- My Season of Scandal by Julie Anne Long Amazon | B&N | Kobo
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Book Beat aims to highlight other books that we may hear about through friends, social media, or other sources. We could see a gorgeous ad! Or find a new-to-us author on a list of underrated romances! Think of Book Beat as Teen Beat or Tiger Beat, but for books. And no staples to open to get the fold-out poster.
IT’S HERE! IT’S HERE! Today is the premiere of the first two episodes of Murderbot on Apple+. Which I had to subscribe to again because I was increasingly delighted with every trailer, interview, clip, and still I saw during the promo period. The first two episodes arrive today, May 16, and then one per week until July 11. I’m really excited about the weekly episodes, because I am not good at Big Gulp Watching where … Continue reading Shall We Discuss Murderbot? →

The Lie and the Lady by Kate Noble is $1.99! This is the second book in the Winner Takes All series, but it can be read as a standalone. Some readers were on the fence about the heroine’s fortune-hunting personality, but others suggest being patient with the book and the characters will eventually win you over. Have you read this one?
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Discovering Nicola is the third installment in the series and it can be read as a standalone. I know this because I didn’t read the first book, Meeting Millie, and I have perimenopause brain, so I don’t remember any of the finer details of Tempting Olivia, even though it was one of my top reads of 2024. The story starts months after Geeta Sachdeva’s left her husband, because she was desperately lonely as an empty … Continue reading Discovering Nicola by Clare Ashton →

We are back in the time machine with HelenKay Dimon and Darby Kane, who are thankfully one person so we have extra room in the cabin for snacks. And we are headed back to February 2015 to take a look at the ads and features in RT magazine. We talk about writing, RWA history (HelenKay is past president, immediately before the fuckery) and what specifically was lost when RWA’s position in the community was destroyed. … Continue reading 667. RT Rewind – February 2015 Ads & Features Part I →

The Summer Escape by Jill Shalvis is $1.99! I feel like Shalvis is one of the queens of small town romances. The cover is beautifully aspirational; I’m a sucker for mountains. This is book six in the Sunrise Cove series.
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Love and Other Conspiracies makes many references to one of my favorite shows, The X-Files. Sadly, this book about a believer and a skeptic making a web series is no X-Files. It’s not terrible, but it is, alas, boring. The story is told from the heroine Hallie’s point of view in first-person, present tense, henceforth referred to as FPPT. I may need to make a rule that I don’t review books written in FPPT anymore … Continue reading Love and Other Conspiracies by Mallory Marlowe →