CW/TW: child sexual assault in the book, and discussion thereof in the review. If you were to ask me who my favourite author is, I’d hem and haw and, after squirming and setting aside my guilt for not naming a dozen others, tell you it’s Ann McMan (if you’ve read my review of Hoosier Daddy, this is unlikely to be a shock). A large part of that is her versatility, how she hops genres with … Continue reading Galileo by Ann McMan →
This guest review is a follow up from a Solved HaBO, and it 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 … Continue reading Guest Review: Stealing Midnight by Tracy MacNish →
The Wallflower Wager delivered many things I love with humor, pathos, and sexy times. It involves a woman who loves everything and everyone and a Very Bad Man who is helpless against her powers. It also involves animal rescue. While there are some structural flaws and the pace of the character revelations bothered me, I ate it up. Lady Penelope (Penny) Campion rescues animals that no one else loves. She is, at the start of the … Continue reading The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare →
Reading Red, White & Royal Blue is an excellent reminder about why a couple’s chemistry isn’t the only thing that matters in a romance. This book has received positive buzz, and for good reason: the enemies-to-lovers romance is swoonworthy, the banter is witty and laugh-out-loud funny, and the epistolary aspect is a delightful surprise. Despite how much I enjoyed the relationship between Alex (the son of the American president) and Henry (a British prince), there … Continue reading Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston →
CW/TW: This book is incredibly gross and gory and features murder and self-harm by way of a deadly space disease. Salvation Day was exactly the book I was searching for. It’s the fucked-up space horror I’d been trying and failing to find for weeks. Though not without its faults, it reminds me very much of the Alien franchise. That’s a good thing because I love those movies (and the video game) very much. Two people whose … Continue reading Salvation Day by Kali Wallace →
I have to issue every warning ever for this book: suicidal ideation, abuse, death, suicide, toxic relationships, possible animal cruelty, sexual abuse, assault, addiction, animal death, extreme depression, the worst doctor in the history of ever. … I listened to the audiobook narration of My Year of Rest and Relaxation as part of some research I’m doing on storytelling techniques, and because Julia Whelan is a wonderful narrator, especially in first person perspectives. This story is … Continue reading Audiobook Review: My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh →
Mister McHottie by Pippa Grant is a book that has been recommended to me by many, and was getting a lot of love on social media. Hype and good word of mouth is a heady combination for me so I picked up this enemies to lovers contemporary. Unfortunately, few things worked for me, such as the overall wackiness that bled into nearly every piece of dialogue and scene. As I read I realized that the … Continue reading Mister McHottie by Pippa Grant →
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 →
TW/CW: Discussion of child sexual assault, sexual assault, child abuse. Dear Bitchery, I want to tell you about an incredible public art project and public healing event – The Monument Quilt. It honors and tells the stories of survivors of sexual violence, similar to the AIDS Memorial Quilt. After 5 years of organizing, the entire quilt, made up of 3,000 stories painted and sewn onto red fabric, will blanket the National Mall in Washington DC … Continue reading The Monument Quilt: A Guest Post from Cleo →
This post was written by Adriana Herrera. Adriana Herrera was born and raised in the Caribbean, but for the last sixteen years has let her job (and her spouse) take her all over the world. She loves writing stories about people who look and sound like her people, getting unapologetic happy endings. When’s she not dreaming up love stories, planning logistically complex trips with her family or hunting for discount Broadway tickets, she’s a social worker … Continue reading Sexual Assault in Romance →
Ah, Sacramento. My hometown. We are the home of lovely trees and rivers. We have also been the home of Dorothea Puente, the “Death House Landlady,” The Vampire of Sacramento, The Golden State Killer, and the headline, “Woman With Skull on Stick Leads Police to Body.” So I guess it makes sense that Karen Rose’s new romantic suspense series is set in Sacramento. I don’t normally read romantic suspense, but since the first book is … Continue reading Say You’re Sorry by Karen Rose →