Now that a great many of us are Smart Bitches, thanks to the membership feature of this here site, I have a question to the general Bitchery: What is your A book?
I don’t necessarily mean your all-time favorite, since sometimes the book you call your most lovely favorite is a book wherein you must acknowledge the flaws in the structure or plotting or character, and love the book despite its imperfections.
I mean the book that made you go, “Well, beat me with a donkey’s ass, that was a fucking awesome romance novel!”
For me, there are desperately few of these books: Bitten by Kelley Armstrong is one of my A books, because it just knocked me over and I still think about it. It was also the book that created my utter fascination with paranormal romance.
Also, Kinsale’s Flowers from the Storm, because this book beat down the weeds in the side yard of the estate of romance and created a whole new field of readng for me: The Holy-Shit Good Romance. Can you imagine the editor’s meeting for that one? “No, really, he’s a immoral, licentious duke, but he had a stroke, and she’s a Quaker, so he’s locked in an institution unable to communicate clearly, and she’s locked in to a different institution that she loves but feels she is betraying - hey, where are you going? This is too a romance!”
I’m still working on my “All About Sarah” entry (I have twice as many cats plus a dog so I have to take a lot more pictures) but since one of the questions is about my A book, I want to know- what’s yours?
A website that reviews romance novels from a couple of smart bitches who will always give it to you straight. No bullshit. No gushing--unless the author really deserves it. To find out more, read all about us or check out our minty-fresh and funkadelic FAQ section.
OTOH, I can’t tell whether she’d deliberately trying to make Beaufort Books look skanky with the OJ Simpson reference, or whether the circumstances under which the book was eventually published are well enough known that she wouldn’t need to clarify.…
From Flag on the Play
RfP, I agree that it doesn’t sound to me like she’s saying ‘all romances are mediocre’, she’s saying ‘this book is mediocre’. She even talks about a dynamic where a woman needs to be put in their places by a…
From Flag on the Play
I can’t believe I’m thinking of finding this. I read this when I was in junior high and loved it. I have a big place in my heart for the secret baby.
It’s not what he’s grasping that has me wondering; it’s what’s the matter with his hand. Is he the victim of medical experiments that grafted two hands into one, with a special deformity of his index finger? Oh, the poor,…
This sounds like she knows there’s a difference between bodice ripper and romance.
a second-rate bodice ripper or, rather, a second-rate bodice ripper-style romance (it doesn’t really have sex scenes)
She does qualify that it’s a second-rate one. It’s not…
From Flag on the Play
