Ed note: This is a very brief, spoiler-free review from Carrie. Please maintain the spoiler-free zone in the comments. Enough people haven’t seen it yet that we don’t want anyone who hasn’t sought out the information for themselves to be spoiled. So please keep any and all comments spoiler free. Thanks! Well, here we are. Avengers: Endgame is out, I’ve seen it, and I feel all grown up. Consider this not so much of a review, as … Continue reading Avengers: Endgame (Spoiler Free Review)→
CW/TW in this review: discussion of domestic abuse, domestic violence, gaslighting, suicide and murder. The Woman in the Dark by Vanessa Savage looked to be the kind of creepy psychological thriller that is normally right up my alley. It has a family moving into a place called the “Murder House,” for heaven’s sake. That’s some Elyse-nip right there. Unfortunately this book was much less a psychological thriller and more a story of a woman escaping … Continue reading The Woman in the Dark by Vanessa Savage→
This is an incredibly sweet, warm, fuzzy hug of a book about people embracing who they are and deciding how to authentically live their lives both public and private. There were times when I questioned the plot, or wondered if it would take a turn for the dramatic (it did not). Since I finished it, I realized that there are several questions the story leaves unanswered or unaddressed, ones that are large enough that I … Continue reading Play It Again by Aidan Wayne→
This guest review is from Sam, who is a longtime romance and SBTB reader. … I’ve read so many of Sarah Morgan’s books, all the way back to when she wrote Harlequin Presents. I don’t like billionaires or captains of industry, but if Morgan wrote them, I was all in. I liked the Harlequins and I liked the longer books she wrote, too. Unfortunately for me, Morgan is now writing women’s fiction. And women’s fiction … Continue reading Guest Review: One Summer in Paris by Sarah Morgan→
TW/CW for this review: discussions of murder, child abuse, sexual abuse. Amanda and I once discussed the cold cases we’d most like answers to. For me, it might be the murders of Abby and Andrew Borden in 1892. The case is perplexing, the trial of their daughter, Lizzie, was a highly publicized mess, and to this day the entire thing seeps its way into popular culture. If you’re looking for a book that offers any … Continue reading The Trial of Lizzie Borden by Cara Robertson→
One of our readers pointed me towards An Enchantment of Ravens. In this book, a human painter uses the power of human creativity to save her Fey lover (who can shapeshift into a horse or a raven) and fight the Alder King. With art. Dear Bitches, it’s like you know me. The heroine, Isobel, lives in the town of Whimsy, where it is always summer and the Fair folk come into town to trade for … Continue reading An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson→
One of our keen readers suggested that I might enjoy A Curse So Dark and Lonely which is a romance-centric YA Beauty and the Beast retelling in which the heroine, a modern day teen with cerebral palsy, is transported to an alternate fairytale world and meets a Prince who periodically turns into a monster and eats everyone in sight. This keen reader thought I might like the book and the reader was not wrong. I liked … Continue reading A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer→
TW/CW: In this book there are discussions about and accounts of depression, anxiety, obsessive behavior, suicidal ideation, child death, and mental illness. I heard about this book on the Friendshipping podcast, and since I had the “Oops, Too Many Credits” problem at Audible, I bought the audiobook. Regarding the audio version, I have only a few comments. The narrator, Brittany Pressley, is solid, and because this is first person narrative memoir, the number of “character” voices … Continue reading Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb→
Space Opera is not a book to read all at once. It is a book to savor. You should read one chapter at a time and bask in the afterglow. I have a chronic illness that causes me to spend a lot of time in the bathroom, so when I say that this was a perfect, incandescent, practically glowing bathroom book, I mean it, unironically, as the highest praise. If it can punctuate the last week … Continue reading Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente→
Devil’s Daughter by Lisa Kleypas is the romance novel equivalent of visiting an old friend and immediately feeling cozy and welcomed and nostalgic. It’s got witty dialogue, a self-aware and charming hero, a heroine is who slightly too pure for this world (but not so much as to be irritating), and cameos from Kleypas’s original Wallflowers. It’s not a perfect book; the conflict is weak and inconsistent, but I felt so happy and warm reading … Continue reading Devil’s Daughter by Lisa Kleypas→
TW/CW: Warnings for graphic violence, self harm, and child abuse. Wicked Saints is a young adult fantasy debut and it’s a goth kid’s dream. Seriously, if you have a thing for anti-heroes, dark magic, and things that are simply metal as fuck, this book is for you. There are some issues that are common in first books of a fantasy series. It took some time to familiarize myself with the world and the mythology, but … Continue reading Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan→
