Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

Free books? Hell, yeah!

First, HarperCollins, in addition to posting the first three chapters of Julia Quinn’s next book The Lost Duke of Wyndham, is offering a free read of The Duke and I online as well. There’s a whole “Browse Inside” page for your clicking pleasure, should you wish to start reading.

But, wait, there’s more! We’ll sell you the whole seat, but you’ll only need the edge… no, wait. Not Monster Trucks. Books. Even better than monster truck rallies! Tor, who fully embraces the entire monster truck rally economics of twelve trucks for twelve bucks (That’s a buck a truck!) offers Free Books in PDF form, HTML, or Mobi to take you to the edge of your seat and stuff. Ok, I fully recognize the monster truck allusions have fallen under the weight of their own wheels. But, Tor still spanks that onscreen reader like damn and whoa and gives books with big mega truck wheels, yo.

If you sign up for the Tor newsletter alerts, you get the paranormal romance Touch of Evil by C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp. In the coming weeks tor.com will also be giving away In The Midnight Hour by Patti O’Shea. You’ve got a three day weekend if you’re in the US, so hey, books on the go? Boo Yah. Well played, y’all.

In a curious overlap of two audiences which, I am told, don’t often overlap to a large degree, Julia Quinn’s novel The Lost Duke of Wyndham is featured in the latest issue of Soap Opera Digest because the cover features Norwegian actress Ewa da Cruz from As the World Turns. Several SBTB readers pointed that out when we discussed the cover awhile back, which I never would have known, as I don’t watch soap operas. The article in the Digest is part interview with da Cruz, and part review.

Which brings me to my next question: how many of you who are romance fans also follow a soap? I never got into them, though I admit to being totally enthralled with possessed Marlena with those freakass creepy contact lenses on Days of Our Lives all those years ago. But I’ve never been a big soap fan. I went to college with a large core of viewers who would tape them and watch together at the end of the day, but I couldn’t stomach the fact that anyone who earned a happy ending wouldn’t stay blissful for more than 2 episodes. There would be a fireside lovemaking scene with the L-shaped sheet (covers her from clavicle to thigh, but barely covers his manly pelvis, ahem), and a really opulent wedding, then, commence angst, drama and unhappiness! I just couldn’t take it. Are you a soap fan? Which one?

And where can I get some of Marlene’s freakass creepy contact lenses? 

Unquestionably powerful librarian Nancy Pearl (I mean, dude, she has her own Action Figure!) has a new article up at NPR of her recommendations for carry-on books that make traveling and waiting a marvelous escape. Says Pearl, “You want a book — either fiction or nonfiction — that’s complex enough to smother your annoyance when the guy in the row ahead reclines his seat into your lap, but not so intellectually challenging that it demands a dictionary.” Oh, hell to the yes, ma’am.

And ho, there, what awesome sauce through yonder linkage breaks? It is the Heyer, and she is on the list! Heyer’s An Infamous Army is among the books recommended as perfect for carry-on reading, to which I say, “Carry on, Ms. Pearl, for verily thou art rocking my socks.”

But wait, there’s more! We’ll sell you the whole seat, but you’ll only need the edge! Sourcebooks, which has reissued many of Heyer’s books with absolutely scrumptiously opulent covers (if they were pastries they’d be moist cupcakes with four inches of perfect icing), is offering 10 books to Smart Bitch readers.

We have three copies of An Infamous Army, plus one each of Friday’s Child, Cotillion, Royal Escape, False Colours, Lady of Quality, Black Sheep, and Faro’s Daughter. Ten books for ten winners!

So leave a comment, and tell us your favorite Heyer scene, character, or just book in general. I’m not eligible, but I will say with no fear that I can reread over and over the scene in Devil’s Cub where Kate Mary (sorry!) begins to sniffle in front of Vidal, and he realizes due to her graceless snurfle she’s not at all like her silly sister, oh, no no no.

I’ll pick 10 winners at random, and you’ll get yourself some Heyer if you win. You have 24 hours. Carry on!

ETA: Heyer, Heyer everwhere! GalleyCat is hosting a GalleyLOLCat contest, wherein the winner gets some Heyer, too. Bitchery reader Mandy’s cat is in the running: seems Tiny likes Julia Quinn. Tiny, says I, has good taste.