Trigger warnings for rape, gaslighting, infidelity, and discussions of Joss Whedon. I DNF’d this book so hard I’m a little surprised my Kindle isn’t embedded in the drywall. First, a few points. I am aware (and was aware when I started this book) that this is Not a Romance. I am not carrying into this review my romance-reader expectations on happy or optimistic endings. I started this book while the coverage of Kai Cole’s essay … Continue reading A Spoonful of Magic by Irene Radford →
Warning that the book does include violence and harsh language against women both on and off the page. Did Amanda just read and enjoy a historical romance? Hell yes, she did. For readers who have been around the Bitchery for while, you might know that I’ve had a complicated relationship with historical romances. I just can’t get into them much anymore. It’s not historical romance’s fault! However, every so often, I’ll pick one up, and … Continue reading Highland Promise by Alyson McLayne →
I really, really wanted to like this anthology. Jewel heists? Oh, yes, please. Any kind of heist, really, but jewel heists have additional romance-friendly elements like wealth and potential world travel built in, coupled with a rather low risk for entrails, sexual assault, or crime elements that would preclude me from reading them. Alas, while one of the three stories was fun and another was sort of meh, there was the one that gave me … Continue reading Caught in the Act: A Jewel Heist Anthology by Ainslie Paton, Emma Sinclair, and Michelle Dayton →
Anthologies are always tough to grade. Do I grade the entire thing and how cohesive it is? Do I just grade each story individually and average it out? Halp! Normally, I wind up doing the latter because sometimes the stories inside an anthology don’t have a common thread aside from the genre. Such is the case with Too Taboo. It’s an erotic romance anthology, with an emphasis on taboo situations. It seemed right up my … Continue reading Too Taboo: An Erotic Anthology →
Usually, I give book around a hundred pages before I throw in the towel. A lot can change in those hundred pages. But for Fighting Attraction, I made it to page thirty-nine before I noped on out of there. Before I get to the series of instances that seems to get progressively worse in the book, I want to issue trigger warnings for violence against women, self-harm, and issues with consent. Now, this is billed as … Continue reading Fighting Attraction by Sarah Castille →
Short version: This book is seriously fun, and I had a very good time reading it. Yes, you should read books one and two, but you must know by the number of times I’ve squeed about this series, including in my review, that having to read them is not at all a bad thing. Go read books 1 and 2, then get 3, then lie back and bask in the collective bliss of getting to … Continue reading The Unyielding by Shelly Laurenston →
The downside of living in a smallish city is that sometimes (usually) I have to spend months waiting for independent or foreign movies to come out online or on DVD before I can watch them. If, like me, you’ve been waiting for what seems like decades to see The Handmaiden — rejoice! It is finally available on iTunes and Amazon. The Handmaiden is an erotic movie directed by Park Chan-wook, set in Japanese-occupied Korea in … Continue reading Movie Review: The Handmaiden →
A Murder in Time is a book I’ve mentioned a couple times on the site. It was also recently on sale! The premise of an FBI agent heroine traveling back in time to 1815 London and getting involved in a serial murder case was too tempting for me to resist. At its heart, this story has a great mystery, but too many unnecessary or ill-fitting details slowed the book to a slog. I just wanted more … Continue reading A Murder in Time by Julie McElwain →
I’d really like to write a longer review of The Missing by Caroline Eriksson because it’s a superb psychological thriller, but in order for readers to perfectly get the story, I can only talk about the novel superficially. This book is all about fascinating layers, but they really need to unfold for readers organically. Like a lot of thrillers, this book is told deep POV style from an unreliable narrator–in this case, Greta, a young … Continue reading The Missing by Caroline Eriksson, translated by Tiina Nunnally →
Over the weekend I binge-read March, the graphic novel (in three volumes) by Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell. My advice is that you should absolutely read March but pace yourself. TW for racism and violence. March describes Representative Lewis’s years with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). It’s told as a series of flashbacks remembered on the day of Barack Obama’s inauguration and bookended by memories of Bloody Sunday — the day … Continue reading March by John Lewis →
The Female of the Species is not going to be a book for everyone, but for those who read it, I can almost assure you that it won’t be a book you’ll soon forget. I’m writing this review with tears still drying on my face. This book will undoubtedly leave you angry and heartbroken, but man…it’s so worth it. Before I talk about the book, I want to issue all the trigger warnings. Alex Craft … Continue reading The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis →
