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

I’m building a Google Map for RWA’s conference in San Francisco, plotting out 3 and 4 star restaurants, coffee shops (required by law for Sarah to be human), pizza joints, liquor stores, and stuff nearest to the hotel.

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Note: I do not know why Google:maps defaults to Whole Earth view, so zoom in. There’s pizza for cheap eating, coffee, and a few nicer restaurants on there. Any additional recommendations, lemme have ‘em!

I stumbled upon this one myself, and it’s full of win and excellence just for the URL at the end, to say nothing of the lyrics.

Several readers forwarded me this snort-funny entry on old skool Harlequins from Jezebel, and I found myself nodding through much of it. Oh yes, oh yes, when they are old skool and bad, they are wonderful. Spanking? Punishing kisses? Pretend engagements? Eyebrow-raising, jaw-dropping, ‘Oh, honey’-saying comedy gold in them thar hills.

But it occurred to me - surely there are worse, right? And how sad is it that I am challenging my brain to remember some, because surely, with six thousand sheikhs and not one of them Muslim, there’s a Harlequin from back in the day that can raise eyebrows higher than that one.

Thanks to Sandia for the heads up: Kenyon’s Seize the Night is free for the Kindle today. Click early, click often.

Now I have to try to figure out with my under-caffeinated brain how to ask Amazon to inform me which books are free, cheezy bread, free, so I can clickity click and load up the Kindle-Aid.

Candice is working on a paper “considering the elements of romanticism, eroticism and feminine arousal in the modern romance novel” and seeks a book from the wayback machine to help out her literary analysis:

I think it was a Harlequin Mills and Boon from about 10-sih years ago. The hero is a cowboy - fully maladjusted when it comes to relationships. I think he was an orphan and was raised by an aunt and uncle - uncle slapped him around I think. Umm… heroine is his wife who left him because he was so cold. They have children - twins, a boy and girl. Hero wants his family back but can’t bring himself to “love” anyone because of his childhood.

At some point the children get the chicken pox. The hero, feeling all rejected, barricades himself (literally) in his house - also with the chicken pox - and the heroine has to crawl through a window to get to him. And they all live happily ever after.

Reminds me of those parents who schedule play dates with children who have chicken pox to ensure that their kids get it as well, only with more romance. Anyone recognize this book?