Listen to the Moon (Book 3 in the Lively St. Lemeston series) is a romance between two servants – a rare find in historicals. In real life, Regency Era servants had incredibly exhausting lives, but many of them still found time to court each other, marry, and have families. This book gives a happy ending to a maid and an unemployed valet. Regency romances are full of people marrying against the will of their parents … Continue reading Listen to the Moon by Rose Lerner →
When Elyse and I heard about a horror novel with bloodthirsty mermaids, our wonder twin powers activated like never before. Yes, that’s right: killer mermaids. The majority of the book takes place in the near future in 2022. Seven years prior, Imagine Entertainment (think another Syfy Channel) bankrolled a “mockumentary” out to the Mariana Trench. The ship contained journalists, researchers, and the like to investigate whether mermaids were real. The ship was found abandoned with … Continue reading Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant →
I read this book on December 31, mostly while flying home from a family vacation. In some ways, it was exactly what I needed to read when I most needed to read it, and in other ways it was somewhat forgettable. I tried to explain to my husband over dinner what the book was about and why I’d enjoyed it, and I had a hard time describing the details. They’d flown out of my head. … Continue reading Braving the Wilderness by Brené Brown →
I am not a crier by nature. I follow the much healthier (that’s sarcasm) path of pushing my feelings down deeply inside of me until they eventually swell up, geyser-like, and get all over everyone. I sobbed while reading Against All Odds. I’m talking full-on, mascara smearing, snotty tissue, alone by the light of the Bookmas Tree sobbing. It was wonderful and cathartic, and honestly, I think this is my favorite book of 2017. Here’s what you … Continue reading Against All Odds by Jezz de Silva →
Reading Roomies was a bizarre experience. I had two reactions simultaneously. One was great enjoyment in a lovely romance with great characters and dialogue and a comforting fairy tale atmosphere. The other was of pure, blinding rage brought on by the political and social issues that currently crowd my brain. The clearest way to describe these two reviews, which are at odds with one another, is to imagine viewing them through a zoom lens. For … Continue reading Roomies by Christina Lauren →
NB: Welcome to Flashback Friday! (Yes, we know it’s Saturday, but we can make our own rules!) For the holidays, we thought you’d all like to revisit this bonkers review of Blitzen’s Fated Mate. This review was originally published December 12, 2016. Happy holidays and may your celebrating being joyous! I swear to God, Amazon is fucking with me. I mean, maybe not. To be fair, I did some Cyber Monday shopping while swigging cold medicine … Continue reading Blitzen’s Fated Mate by RE Butler →
It took me longer than I expected to see The Last Jedi, but finally I was blessed with the chance to watch confident women of a certain age boss Oscar Isaac around on the deck of a starship. Here’s a short, spoiler-free review of The Last Jedi. Please note that there may and likely will be spoilers in the comments, as we are creating a space for you all to discuss the movie together. Also, please … Continue reading Movie Review: Star Wars: The Last Jedi →
It’s no secret that I love Guillermo del Toro and his really fascinating way of making precisely the movie in his head (and it’s never the same movie twice). This particular movie has been described as “the R-rated version of Lilo and Stitch” and… that’s not wrong. Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins) is a woman who cannot talk, and who works nights as a cleaner in a research center in Baltimore in the 1960s. She has … Continue reading Movie Review: The Shape of Water →
NB: This guest review is from Reader Tara Scott. If you want to read her previous guest reviews (and we highly recommend that you do), you can see them all here. Tara reads a lot of lesbian romances. You can catch her regularly reviewing at The Lesbian Review and Curve Magazine and hear her talk about lesbian fiction (including romance) on her podcast Les Do Books. You can also hit her up for recommendations on Twitter (@taramdscott). … I love … Continue reading Guest Squee: Edge of Glory by Rachel Spangler →
If you’re looking for some light history, and something to read with your wine while consoling yourself that your most recent breakup wasn’t that bad, this is your book. From Nero and Poppaea (…there is too much, I cannot sum up, but he killed a whole bunch of people in the aftermath), Lucrezia Borgia and Giovanni Sforza (in order to prevent an annulment, he needed to prove that his dick worked publicly. He declined), to … Continue reading It Ended Badly: 13 of the Worst Breakups in History by Jennifer Wright →
A Secret Sisterhood: The Literary Friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf is a book by two women who are writers and friends. These women, Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney, set out to highlight some of the friendships between other women writers, and show how women have sustained each other’s personal and creative lives. The concept of the book is better than its execution. In the case of Jane Austen’s … Continue reading A Secret Sisterhood by Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney →
