I've received a few requests this week from folks who are looking for contemporary romances to read for upcoming vacations—and lucky for them, and for me, I've read several great books and novellas in a row, plus I know several books I've enjoyed that are on sale right now.
Read the last Smart Bitches, Trashy Books on recommendations for fans of 'Fifty Shades of Grey.'
You'll be making all kinds of Good Book Noise and Happy Reading Sighs—and your credit card won't burst into tears either. So here's a roundup of some ...
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If you have anything to do with books, whether you’re a librarian, a bookseller, an author, a reader or someone who likes to hang out sniffing the new-paper smell at the newsstand, you’ve probably heard of Fifty Shades of Grey.
Read the last Smart Bitches, Trashy Books on contemporary romance done right.
It started out as author E.L. James' fanfic about Twilight, was sent through a few rounds of “Find and Replace,” and published. Then, women started talking about it, publicly saying on the record with their names and the towns they lived in, “This book was ...
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Recently, at Romantic Times Booklover's Convention (which, if you haven't attended, is a giant fiesta of awesomeness focused on romance readers and writers), I was part of a panel on contemporary romance and realized while I was listening to the contemporary romance authors on my panel WHY I like contemporary romance so much.
Read the last Smart Bitches, Trashy Books on how to find great romance.
Contemporary romance is easily one of my favorite types of romance, and I love it when it's wonderfully done. Conversely, when it is not well done, I get more upset as ...
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It used to be, back before the Internet could satisfy any random question my brain asked in a stray moment, that I looked at book covers to choose which one to read.
Did I want teal or purple? Blonde or brunette heroine? Open-mouthed face of pseudo-ecstasy or closed mouth? Ermine cloaks or purple fields of unidentifiable flowers? Horse in the background or zebra? A stray llama perhaps?
Read the last Smart Bitches, Trashy Books on the importance of a great book cover.
I was—and am—terrible at remembering author names and titles, particularly the correct combinations thereof. I'd ...
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Last time I wrote about covers, specifically the trend in historical covers to use photograph-like images of people, and how that threw me a bit because I know color photography didn't exist at the time the book is set. Clearly I am thinking WAY too much while I look at covers!
Read more of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books on The Player's Club.
But a reader e-mailed me and asked for examples, as they didn't understand what I meant. I found two covers that illustrate (ha!) what I'm talking about.
Kate Noble is one of my favorite ...
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I get on reading kicks where all I want is one particular type of romance. It's almost like chasing an ice cream flavor, or recipes for all the soups made with barley, except that I get tired of a food type much faster than I get tired of a romance subgenre.
Read Smart Bitches, Trashy Books on late-night romance.
Right now I'm craving contemporary romance, and the funnier and sharper, the better. I'm amused at how much the cover art is influencing my shopping—even though I tell myself that I should absolutely know better than to ...
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In recent library news, Penguin pulled all their books from OverDrive digital lending, joining Macmillan, Simon & Schuster and Hachette in blocking digital lending of book titles. HarperCollins still holds on to their bafflingly arbitrary 25 lend limit.
Sound familiar? I'm sure it's been a topic among many librarians the past few weeks—and readers have been discussing it as well, probably along the same terms—namely, "WTFBBQ?"
I totally understand why Penguin got pissed. I do. OverDrive event patrons who wanted to borrow books were sent to Amazon to complete the lending transaction. This was likely not within ...
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I'll tell you a secret: I don't actually like going out on Valentine's Day. Everything is crowded, babysitters are expensive, and, here in the Northeast, it's COLD. I don't want to even go outside, much less put on fancy, potentially itchy clothing.
Have you checked out the Player's Club series?
But the best part is, my husband knows that. He and I both would rather cook dinner, drink wine, light a fire and read (me) and look at random sports news on the internet (him). And if you're reading this website, you're ...
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I just finished reading The Player's Club series by Cathy Yardley. I really liked the first one, couldn't get into the second, and the third was fun. So here you go: three reviews in one article!
Need more romance? Check out self-pubbed romance titles.
The first one, The Player's Club: Scott (Harlequin, January 2012), sets up the backdrop for the three-book series. Scott sees a bunch of men wandering down an alley at a weird hour of the night and climbs out on his apartment building’s fire escape to figure out what's going on. In ...
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There are many benefits to being a romance reader. It's like multivitamins—romance should be part of everyone's daily regimen.
Read the last Smart Bitches, Trashy Books on reading physical vs. digital books.
My choice of reading makes me happy each and every time, and with over 300 different books published every month, I have a lot to choose from (though the choosing can be a daunting process). I can read books set in any time period and find books that fit my taste since romance receives influences from any type of fiction. I have, in short, a ...
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It's December so it's time for end of year wrap-ups, reviews and best-of summaries. Which you'll get eventually from me, but I thought it would be more timely to share what I've been pondering the last few weeks.
Read the last Smart Bitches, Trashy Books on the first must-read book of 2012.
What exactly is a book?
You saw that coming right? Of course.
I don't mean, what's a book in terms of who wrote it and published it and what it means and what it does. I mean, what is a book NOW ...
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The best book of 2011 isn't out yet. Sorry. But it's out next week! We'll start there.
Among the best historical romances I have ever read, and certainly one of my top books of 2011: Cecilia Grant's A Lady Awakened.
Read the last Smart Bitches, Trashy Books on the joys of gifting.
Technically, the book release date is Dec. 27, but folks in the publishing world are calling it a January 2012 book. WHATEVER. People in publishing think it’s 2013 right now, so they are not to be trusted in matters of time and space ...
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If you're like me, despite the appearance of holiday decorations back in October—EARLY October—right about now you’re thinking of holiday gift giving. There are various sales and commercials exhorting the gifting potential of power tools, toys, games and, of course, cars. The cars-as-gifts commercials particularly make my eyes roll. I don’t think there are a lot of people who are going to surprise their loved ones with a Lexus in this economy.
Read about what goes into a Smart Bitches, Trashy Books' romance review.
In previous holiday seasons, I've seen advertisements suggesting that folks ...
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I review books, so while I'm reading, I'm evaluating, unless I've told myself explicitly that I'm reading for pleasure and not for review.
Of course, whenever I do that, I end up having plenty to say about the book and will write a review, probably because I told myself I didn't have to.
Read the last Smart Bitches, Trashy Books on the bevy of romance choices out there.
More and more, I find myself reading and making notes at the same time, especially if I'm reading something digitally where note taking is a simple ...
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Right now is a fantastic time to be a reader—particularly a romance reader. There are a million different types of romance to try, from romantic suspense that will give you the jibblies, to historicals that will make you sigh and smile, to contemporaries that will give you an abdominal workout laughing.
Read more about Smart Bitches, Trashy Books' 'Everything I Know About Love, I Learned from Romance Novels.'
I don't know how familiar you are with every aspect of the romance genre, but Romance Writers of America list nine different subgenres on their site. There are also erotic ...
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I often first think of myself as a reader, despite writing two books and running a blog with often twice-daily content. But because Smart Bitches, Trashy Books is all about reading romance and discussing it, I still see myself as a reader first and foremost.
Read an excerpt from Sarah Wendell's new book, Everything I Know About Love, I Learned From Romance Novels.
Which means that when it came time to promote my own book as an author, I was at a bit of a loss. I love talking about other people's books. I can tell you 56 ...
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You might have heard? Smart Bitches, Trashy Books extraordinaire Sarah Wendell has her second book, Everything I Know about Love I Learned from Romance Novels, out this week. She was kind enough to give us a sneak peek in the chapter below:
Read the last Smart Bitches on the DNF.
Just as the average romance heroine doesn’t sit around filing her nails and looking pretty, waiting for her hero to ride in and sweep her away to connubial bliss, so it is with sex. Sitting there does nothing. If you just lie there and wait for it, it won ...
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When I started the DNF tag at Smart Bitches, I had three responses. Among the first was, “What the hell does that mean?” I still get this question from time to time.
Read the last Smart Bitches, Trashy Books at Kirkus.
DNF stands for “Did Not Finish” and is the almost-grade I give a book when I’ve read more than half and I just can’t bring myself to finish. It happens when I’ve tried and tried to give a flying crap, or even a 10th of a flying crap, about the characters and cannot do it, or ...
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Romance readers like strong heroines, for the most part. We like reading about women who think for themselves, who aren’t easily led or influenced, and who are resilient and can achieve a degree of self-confidence or self-actualization in the course of the novel. A heroine who sits around waiting for the hero to show up, rock her world with a few orgasms, and make everything all better and more awesomer than ever before does not a very delightful romance make. It’s really quite boring. I yawned typing that.
Read the last Smart Bitches, Trashy Books at Kirkus on ...
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“His cheekbones were high and stark, and somehow this made his gaze seem more potent, as though he were calmly viewing a siege from the crenelations of a castle. His eyes were a shade darker than whiskey. Not a safe face. And not a face one could get accustomed to in a glance. Three or four or fifteen more glances of the lingering sort, perhaps.”— How the Marquess Was Won by Julie Anne Long
It’s a difficult thing to describe the hero of a romance. As I mentioned in my last column, the covers often cut the model off ...
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