The following review is for two books which are being released somewhat together. Love Bites was originally released in 2020 but was picked up by Tor and is being re-released on September 9. The sequel, Love Sucks, is also available digitally and will be re-released by Tor on October 7. … After many happy weeks in the land of a favourite author, I stuck my head above the parapet and looked for something new to … Continue reading Love Bites by Cynthia St. Aubin →
This guest review comes from Lisa! 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 at @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 … Continue reading The Love Lyric →
I have to be upfront about some personal pet peeves first. I hate cosy witch stories. I don’t like twee and I don’t like cutesy. This book has touches of that initially and a lot towards the end, which has definitely coloured my experience of this book. So if cutesy, twee, and cosy are things that bring you joy, then bump this grade up a level or two. Lara, it’s already a B, I hear … Continue reading Love at First Fright by Nadia El-Fassi →
Jane Austen’s Fashion Bible is a great gift book for a very specific reader. They must be sufficiently interested in Jane Austen’s work to want a book which combines excerpts from Austen with Regency era fashion plates from La Belle Assemblee, a periodical that published its first issue in 1806. But they also have just the right level of interest – too much, and this book will leave them feeling cheated of more information. This … Continue reading Jane Austen’s Fashion Bible by Ros Ballaster →
This guest review comes from Lisa! 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 at _@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 … Continue reading A Rare Find by Joanna Lowell →
The Al Gore Rhythm got me. Recently, I’ve been receiving algorithmic ads for serial romances, where you pay to unlock chapters. Typically, Instagram or Facebook will show you the first few chapters to hook you and then send you to one of the gazillion romance novel apps out there. The excerpt grabbed me, but I was not about to pay per chapter for a serial that, while thankfully completed, was over 150 chapters. Lucky for … Continue reading The Wrong Obsession by E.L. Sparrow →
Lessons in Disaster is such a beautiful, finely crafted book that I feel kind of humbled to have been able to read it. It’s not a perfect book – it ends abruptly, it can be didactic, and I developed a love/hate relationship with the tendencies of all these intellectual characters to use words like ‘heuristic’ in the middle of emotional arguments. But overall, this was lovely. The book tells the stories of two women and … Continue reading Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders →
Problematic Summer Romance is a friends-to-lovers romance/brother’s best friend romance, but it utilizes those tropes without any masculine over-protectiveness, which I appreciated. It’s also a romance that’s light on external conflict, but heavy on emotional growth, which was perfect for me. Maya Killgore’s parents died when she was barely a teenager, leaving her to be raised by her overwhelmed brother (about fifteen years her senior). Said brother has an extremely lucrative biotech start up with … Continue reading Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood →
This guest review is from Danielle Fritz. Danielle is a former librarian who has a special affection for children’s lit and books about the funeral industry. She first cut her criticism teeth as a fanfic writer. A resident of the upper midwest, she’s learned to love beer and tater tot casserole and tolerate long winters. Most nights will find her cuddled up with her pups and wearing out her wrists with yet another crochet project. … Continue reading The Vengeful Vampire by Kathryn Ann Kingsley →
I liked Chuck Tingle’s book Camp Damacus, but I loved Lucky Day (I still haven’t read Bury Your Gays). I found Lucky Day to be much more assured and solidly constructed than his first book, and its X-Files/Welcome to Nightvale sensibility and musings on existential vs nihilistic philosophies really hit the spot for me. I even liked the fact that what seems like a potential romance turns out to be something else. Vera is a … Continue reading Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle →
I had to step away from Karin Slaughter as an author a few years ago because the discussions around sexual assault in her books were too graphic for me. When I saw she had a brand new series coming out, I decided to risk it and I’m glad I did. We Are All Guilty Here is the first book in a new series set in North Falls, GA so readers can go into this one … Continue reading We Are All Guilty Here by Karin Slaughter →
