NB: This week, we’re taking a look back at 2021. We’ve got a week of best-of posts to share, with reviews, cover snark, sales, and more. We hope you enjoy revisiting our archives, and most of all, we wish you and yours a wonderful holiday and a happy new year – with all the very best of reading. … We’re counting down the best of our 2021 reviews, which I’m sure you’re all curious about. … Continue reading Best of Reviews 2021, Part One
RECOMMENDED: Role Model by Rachel Reid is $2.99! Thank you to everyone who let us know about this sale! Lara wrote a Lightning Review for this one and gave it a B:
If you haven’t read the others, you’ll be fine. And if you need an afternoon of quiet smiling into a book that hums with emotional sincerity and growth, then this is the book for you.
The Governess Affair by Courtney Milan is FREE! Sarah reviewed this one and gave it a B-. She loved the time she spent with this novella, but felt like she wanted more from everything (characters, setting, conflict, etc).
RECOMMENDED: Talk Sweetly to Me by Courtney Milan is $2.99! This is part of the Brothers Sinister series, though retailers and Goodreads seem confused on whether it’s book 4.5 or 5 in the series. Carrie gave this one a B:
It’s a solid novella that has a science heroine (y’all know how I feel about scientific protagonists of any gender), a strong social justice stance (yay, team) and plenty of lovely writing.
RECOMMENDED: The Devil Comes Courting by Courtney Milan is $2.49! Catherine gave this one an A:
It is a book about the delight of discovery: of new things, of one’s own capabilities, of love, of things that were thought lost. It’s a book that addresses serious topics seriously, but it is also a book that sparkles.
The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith is $1.99! This is a Kindle Daily Deal and is being price-matched. Carrie read this one and gave it a C+, noting it was the wrong book for her at the time, as it’s dark and rather angsty. Have you read it?
RECOMMENDED: The Duke Who Didn’t by Courtney Milan is $2.49! This is a KDD and I know many of you have been waiting for this to go on sale! Catherine gave this a squee grade:
The Duke Who Didn’t was always going to be a book that made me happy. Humour, food, and a gentle hero who just wants the heroine to be less stressed are a pretty good formula for getting onto my keeper shelf.
I should know better by now than to start a Courtney Milan novel in the evening before I have to work in the morning. I renew my membership of the Bad Decisions Book Club every single time. The Devil Comes Courting was no exception to this rule. Grayson Hunter wants to build a telegraph from Shanghai to the USA, but to do this he will need someone to invent a Chinese telegraphic code. He comes … Continue reading The Devil Comes Courting by Courtney Milan
RECOMMENDED: The Suffragette Scandal by Courtney Milan is 99c. Pretty much anyone I’ve heard talk about Milan’s books says, “Just read them all, trust me.” I concur.
Redheadedgirl and Carrie did a joint review of this title and they gave it an A:
Both Redheadedgirl and I give this book ALL THE A’s. We laughed, we cried, we were inspired and frustrated.
I may have swooned a little.
Redheadedgirl spent her Friday emailing the other Smart Bitches reviewers and telling us “HURRY UP AND READ THE BOOK I NEED TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT IT”.
RECOMMENDED: The Duke Who Didn’t by Courtney Milan is 99c! This is a KDD and I know many of you have been waiting for this to go on sale! Catherine gave this a squee grade:
The Duke Who Didn’t was always going to be a book that made me happy. Humour, food, and a gentle hero who just wants the heroine to be less stressed are a pretty good formula for getting onto my keeper shelf.
