I’m still using my TBR game board and landed on Historical. I prefer my books on the spicier side, so I took to Reddit for recs and found this book in the comments. Lucky for me, it was in the “available now” section on my library app. The short of it: the heroine Jane is “ruined” by a man she assumes is a friend. The reality was that her humiliation was the result of a … Continue reading The Truth About Cads and Dukes by Elisa Braden→
Meet the Newmans is a novel set in 1964 that follows a real-life family playing a TV family. It’s about our authentic selves versus our public selves within the framework of the rise of second wave feminism. It also deals with queer identity. The Newmans, father Del, mother Dinah, and sons Guy and Shep, are a real life family who also play a sanitized version of themselves on TV. They are the perfect White, middle … Continue reading Meet the Newmans by Jennifer Niven→
I picked this book up for a ridiculous reason: a misreading of the title. I read Dom-Con – a convention of doms and I found that idea hilarious. That notion was quickly dispelled when I read the cover again followed shortly by the blurb. I’m thankful for that silly mistake of mine because I had a lot of fun. Rae is a total newbie to the BDSM world when she rocks up to a BDSM … Continue reading Dom-Com by Adriana Anders→
I had a tremendous amount of fun with this book. Not only is it actually laugh-out-loud funny, the heroine is perfection. Or to quote my Gen Z work colleague, she is goals. Slay. Let’s begin with the trauma that makes her who she is. Juliette Winters had two psychologists for parents who treated her more as a lab experiment than a beloved daughter. They published books about her! Multiple books! The result is that Juliette … Continue reading Cross Your Heart and Hope He Dies by Jenny Elder Moke→
My only exposure to the Bachelor franchise is Elyse’s commentaries/summaries of episodes. But apparently a book set in a Bachelor-like TV show works for me! With some caveats.… Georgia is a cast member of Love Shack, along with 19 other women, most of whom are in pursuit of the bachelor: Roland, a professional tennis player, who is currently not playing due to an injury. You don’t meet all of the women, obviously. It would be … Continue reading Most Eligible by Isabelle Engel→
This guest review is from Friday! Friday is a long-time fan of romance stories and adventure films, lurking on this website for many years. Currently living in North Queensland with an alarmingly large library, and no plans to stop buying and reading interesting books. She has travelled extensively with varying degrees of satisfaction and would like to do more. Friday is a woman who wishes that ballgowns and armour were in fashion for daywear, but … Continue reading For Whom The Belle Tolls by Jaysea Lynn→
Tarot for the Hard Work is one of the best tarot books I’ve come across in a long time! This book uses the Major Arcana (the first twenty-two cards in a tarot deck) to explore the role of tarot in helping the reader understand systemic racism and intersectional inequality and how to dismantle these oppressive systems. As much as I love getting my books from the library, I encourage readers to buy a copy of … Continue reading Tarot for the Hard Work, by Maria Minnis→
I read this book in snatched moments and stolen hours and I adored it. It features tropes that I’m not all that interested in: single dad, nanny x boss, and small town romance, but the writing is so immersive and rich that these didn’t feel like familiar tropes. They felt original and fresh. Like this was the first nanny on the planet to fall in love with her boss. THAT original. But I’m getting ahead … Continue reading Fundamentals of Being a Good Girl by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone→
Cinder House is such a clever, inventive, re-imaging of Cinderella! This novella stuffs in a lot at the last minute, but other than that, it’s perfect. Here is how the book begins. It’s not a spoiler – I’m literally quoting the first words of the book. Ella’s father died of the poison in their tea. Ella drank less and so might have lived, and not turned ghost at all, if the house hadn’t shrieked for … Continue reading Cinder House by Freya Marske→
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 … Continue reading Love at First Sighting by Mallory Marlowe→
Since around 2016, I’ve developed a fascination with horror, particularly feminist horror. I’m intrigued by its similarity to romance – it has a million subgenres, it lacks respect, it involves exploration of fantasies and desires, and above all, when it works, it works on a personal and emotional level. Scream With Me: Horror Films and the Rise of American Feminism (1968-1980) is a nonfiction book that analyzes the way that the domestic horror films of … Continue reading Scream With Me: Horror Films and the Rise of American Feminism by Eleanor Johnson→
