I read Second First Impressions at exactly the right time. A big theme in this romance is healing from trauma and coming out of isolation, and at the time I read it I had just scheduled my first Covid shot. This theme resonated so much with me I found myself crying while I read, big fat tears soaking into my pillow, but it was a cathartic cry and it felt good. There were also moments … Continue reading Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne →
RECOMMENDED: The Rakess by Scarlett Peckham is $1.99! Carrie read this one and have it an A-:
The combination of personal catnip with descriptive language and complex characterization is spot on. I recommend this for fans of vocal feminism, found family, angst, and explicit sex in their historicals. I plan to read my copy many, many times!
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Hana Khan Carries On is part epistolary, part coming of age story, and all heart. Hana, aka AnaBGR, an aspiring broadcast producer, podcaster, and storyteller, is struggling on several fronts. There’s the difficulty in breaking into broadcast in general, there’s her racist boss who presumes to be #woke, her family’s struggling restaurant, plus her sister’s risky pregnancy. What she definitely did NOT need on this list was Mr. Silver Shades to come sauntering in with … Continue reading Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin →
Happy Cover Snark day! Amanda: Is the gem hidden in his armpit? Sarah: or in his bangs? Elyse: It’s the sweet bracelet he made a sleep away camp. Amanda: Or maybe the necklace he’s clearly hiding. He’s not very good at this game. Sarah: Or wait, maybe it’s in his belly button? From Karen: It’s not the cover on its own so much as its complete mismatch with the book. The book title includes the … Continue reading Cover Snark: Space Western Beauty Pageant →
A Taste of Heaven by Penny Watson is 99c! This cover is making me so hungry. This is a contemporary romance with an older hero and heroine (late 40s) and a food competition show. Readers loved the heroine and her relationship with the grumpy Scottish chef hero. However, some readers felt the action of the book happened a little too quickly. It has a 3.9-star rating on Goodreads.
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TW: Sexual assault Joanna Shupe is one of my auto-buy authors, so I was bummed when The Heiress Hunt fell flat for me. This first book in her Fifth Avenue Rebels series promised a friends-to-lovers romance, which I adore, but the hero’s inability to grow or change left me lukewarm at the end. Harrison Archer is the second son to a tycoon and grew up in a pretty awful household. While his older brother, Teddy, … Continue reading The Heiress Hunt by Joanna Shupe →
Pastry Love by Joanne Chang is $4.99 and a Kindle Daily Deal! This is Chang’s latest baking book and we’ve featured her Flour collection on here a few times. If you’re in the Boston/New England area, you may already be fans. I know both Shana and I are!
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For this month’s Kickass Women in History we turn to the nerdy end of the spectrum with Josephine Cochrane (sometimes spelled ‘Cochran’). She was the inventor of the modern dishwasher. Born 1839, Josephine Garis came from a nerdy family of engineers and inventors. In 1858 she married a wealthy man, William Cochran, who had earned a ridiculous amount of money as a dry goods merchant. When they married, Cochrane took her husband’s last name as … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Josephine Cochrane →
Happy April! I hope you all enjoyed the site’s April Fools joke. We have such a fun time planning it every year. Spring is upon us. I wore short sleeves and sandals the other day in New England. Also, if you haven’t tuned into out Twitch channel yet, this Sunday, some of us at the site will be playing silly Jackbox games at 2pm eastern. We also invite our audience members to play to! Elyse: … Continue reading Whatcha Reading? April 2021 Edition, Part One →
Cry Wolf by Charlie Adara is a KDD today at $1.99! This is book five in the Big Bad Wolf series, a series that has a LOT of fans. It has a 4.5+ star average (WOW) on GoodReads, and the series was recommended by Aarya in our Ready Set Go: Best Shifter Romance thread, too. Alas, I don’t know if you can jump in at book 5, but I’ve never held back from doing so when I’m curious about a book. Have you read this series?
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