Hey, you guys, remember that time that Hobby Lobby stole ancient artifacts from Egypt and Iraq? Technically they bought stolen artifacts. They didn’t do the digging themselves. I like to imagine that someone walked up to one of the high-ups in a trenchcoat and said, “Saaaayy…ya wanna buy a Dead Sea Scroll?” and they said, “Sure, what could go wrong?” This book is totally not about that. This book is about Ruth, who lives in … Continue reading Crafting for Sinners by Jenny Kiefer →
This guest review 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 when she’s not on her grind looking for the next good freelance … Continue reading A Rare Find by Joanna Lowell →
Lessons in Disaster is such a beautiful, finely crafted book that I feel kind of humbled to have been able to read it. It’s not a perfect book – it ends abruptly, it can be didactic, and I developed a love/hate relationship with the tendencies of all these intellectual characters to use words like ‘heuristic’ in the middle of emotional arguments. But overall, this was lovely. The book tells the stories of two women and … Continue reading Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders →
I’ll Have What He’s Having is a sweet m/m romance that is cosy and chill but marred by an excess of mopiness towards the end. The worst thing I can say about this book is that it made me super hungry and that the minute I finished it I forgot all about it. It was pleasant and solidly written (barring too much repetition) but not especially memorable. Farzan is a great cook, a skill he … Continue reading I’ll Have What He’s Having by Adib Khorram →
CW: Religious trauma, internalized homophobia I don’t typically read romantasy. I haven’t jumped on any of the big titles, even though friends and family, including my husband, have read at least one. And yet, I had to read this one, because the author wrote my favourite book. I don’t make the rules in my brain, I just have to abide by them. I didn’t really know much going into this book except that there’s a … Continue reading The Woman From the Waves by Roslyn Sinclair →
Discovering Nicola is the third installment in the series and it can be read as a standalone. I know this because I didn’t read the first book, Meeting Millie, and I have perimenopause brain, so I don’t remember any of the finer details of Tempting Olivia, even though it was one of my top reads of 2024. The story starts months after Geeta Sachdeva’s left her husband, because she was desperately lonely as an empty … Continue reading Discovering Nicola by Clare Ashton →
The Stars Too Fondly has queer romance, found family, diverse representation, multiple references to Star Trek, and space travel. I love all of these things. I should adore this book. But I found it to be deeply implausible, frustrating, and full of undeveloped emotion, ideas, and characters. A really bad book is fine – I can toss it aside with never a qualm. A really, REALLY bad book that delivers its badness exactly as advertised … Continue reading The Stars Too Fondly by Emily Hamilton →
The Resurrectionist is an imperfect but entertaining gothic romantic thriller set in Edinburgh in 1828. A small but avid subset of Smart Bitches may recognize that the term ‘resurrectionist’, when used in Edinburgh in 1828, had a real-life sinister meaning. Yes, my gory gothic Bitches, this was the year that the real-life notorious William Burke and William Hare decided that committing murder and selling the corpses to anatomists was less trouble than digging up bodies. … Continue reading The Resurrectionist by A. Rae Dunlap →
This guest review 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 when she’s not on her grind looking for the next … Continue reading Something Extraordinary by Alexis Hall →
Kim is a longtime SBTB reader. She writes boring professional documents by day to fund her ever-growing TBR pile, which is currently overflowing with T. Kingfisher, mystery thrillers, and MM romance. Everything she knows about hockey, she learned from queer love stories or the Mighty Ducks franchise. … Recently, I’ve been on an M/M hockey romance binge (and let me just say “queer romance” + “professional hockey” is the Reese’s “you got your peanut butter … Continue reading Season’s Change by Cait Nary →
Joan Matthews is headed to her hometown because her father Trevon died. Like him, she is a witch. However, their relationship broke many years ago when she chose to become a war witch and kick ass wherever she’s needed, rather than take up their family’s traditional role as a binder witch who casts protection spells on their town. Joan plans to stay just long enough for the ceremony that will lay him to rest, but … Continue reading Consecrated Ground by Virginia Black →
