Ten Things I Hate About You is one of my favourite films and a truly great reimagining of a classic play. It takes Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew and strips out the misogyny, the violence, and the straight up gaslighting and abuse, while keeping the banter and the chemistry between Kate and Petrucchio. Ten Things I Hate About the Duke takes Shrew in one hand and Ten Things in the other, stirs them together, adds … Continue reading Ten Things I Hate About The Duke by Loretta Chase→
About a quarter of the way into When a Rogue Meets His Match, I realized the book was probably not going to be a particularly successful villain redemption or enemies-to-lovers romance. About three-quarters of the way in, I started to wonder what, exactly, the intended message of this book was, because it was verging in a startlingly uncomfortable way on emotional abuse apologia. Everything after that felt like too little, too late in terms of … Continue reading When a Rogue Meets his Match by Elizabeth Hoyt→
Slippers and Thieves is a clever YA urban fantasy retelling of Cinderella. On the whole, I think this is a conceptually clever story, but the characterization isn’t great, and for goodness sake don’t treat it as a stand alone book. Slippers and Thieves is the fourth book in the Fairy Tales of the Magicorum Series. In this series, magic users exist secretly alongside non-magical users in the modern world. Shifters, fairies, and witches are members … Continue reading Slippers and Thieves by Christina Bauer→
A longtime romance aficionado and frequent commenter to SBTB, Lisa is a queer Latine critic with a sharp tongue and lots of opinions. She frequently reviews at All About Romance and Women Write About Comics, where she’s on staff, and you can catch her @thatbouviergirl on Twitter. There, she shares good reviews, bracing industry opinions and thoughtful commentary when she’s not on her grind looking for the next good freelance job. This is her third … Continue reading Guest Rant: Night Storm by Catherine Coulter→
Our Tarot: A Guidebook and Deck Featuring Notable Women in History is a gorgeous tarot deck accompanied by a thorough book. My first impression was that this deck is pretty but maybe not very user-friendly. However, the more I use it, the more I realize how well it is organized, how well the book complements the cards and makes readings easier, and how beautifully each card is constructed. As a bonus, the book contains full-page … Continue reading Our Tarot by Sarah Shipman→
I struggled with how to grade Song of Blood and Stone. I feel like the book did a few things unusually and phenomenally well, and I definitely enjoyed it (especially the latter half when the plot really picks up). However, I was left unsatisfied by some of the relationships and characters. While Song of Blood and Stone is not explicitly a fantasy romance, the romance element is such a major part of the plot that … Continue reading Song of Blood and Stone by L. Penelope→
Tara: When I’m looking up f/f titles for Hide Your Wallet posts, I occasionally come across a blurb that sounds so full of crazysauce, I immediately show Shana. The latest was for Queen of Humboldt. Check this out: Marisol Soltero’s life is built on big scores and fast women. From her nightclub she rules over the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago with ruthless calculation. Though everyone knows her as the Queen of Humboldt, Marisol lives … Continue reading Queen of Humboldt by Tagan Shepard→
CW/TW: misgendering genderqueer/nonbinary person, bathroom panic This book pissed me off so much that I bailed almost a quarter of the way in. As a genderqueer woman, I cannot recommend it and I regret picking it up in the first place. I was so mad about this book that I rage wrote the whole review on my phone while laying in bed, because this was supposed to be my fun bedtime read. You know you’re … Continue reading The Holiday Detour by Jane Kolven→
CW: Child abuse, alcoholism, anorexia Girls of Brackenhill is the kind of Gothic thriller that I love. It’s got supernatural elements, a house that functions as a character in its own right, and an unreliable narrator. This book would have been a solid A except I found the ending a little bit too vague to totally satisfy me. It was so spooky-good that I immediately popped in the mail for Amanda. Hannah Maloney gets a … Continue reading Girls of Brackenhill by Kate Moretti→
Tara: This book is so freaking cute, it should be illegal. And luckily, Aarya agrees with me, so we’re talking about it together! Written in the Stars is an opposites attract, fake relationship romance between Darcy Lowell, an actuary, and Elle Jones, an astrologer. Elle is working with Darcy’s brother, Brendon, on a project and he insists on setting them up on a blind date because they’re both single (also, as the founder of the … Continue reading Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur→
I’ve mentioned this book a few times in past features because I’ve been savoring the audiobook for weeks. I usually listen while I’m sewing or cross stitching, but this book is so thoughtful and compassionate that I needed to ponder each chapter as I finished. A lot of this book has been tossed into the long-term back-of-my-mind Crock Pot. I’ll be thinking about pieces of the book, the work it asks of its readers/listeners, and … Continue reading The Art of Showing Up by Rachel Wilkerson Miller→
