Posted by Amanda

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/07/sonali-dev-bridgerton-more/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=147492

Molly Molloy & the Angel of Death

Molly Molloy & the Angel of Death by Maria Vale is 99c! I highly suggest listening to the podcast we did with Maria on this book. She explains it well that this isn’t a romance per se

Death needs a do-over.

Azrael—grim reaper and devourer of worlds–has messed up. Instead of taking Molly Molloy’s soul, he patted her on the back and saved her from choking on an atomic chicken wing.

Now she can see him. Talk to him. Touch him. Say ‘no’ to him. And make him question the assumptions he has held for an eternity.

Molly is sick of Death capsizing her life. He’d taken her parents, then her grandparents, then her first great love.

Now, just as she was on the verge of getting her life together with a job that paid enough and a NYC apartment that didn’t cost too much, Death interferes again in ways she could never have imagined.

The Powers that Be want Azrael to fix his mistake but before he can, Death makes one more.

He falls in love.

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You can find ordering info for this book here.

Forget Me Not

Forget Met Not by Julie Soto is $1.99! This was Soto’s contemporary romance debut and I mentioned it on a previous Hide Your Wallet. I liked this one! The book does switch between past and current events to show more of the main couple’s previous history, but I understand it could be a jarring format for the reader.

An ambitious wedding planner must work with her grumpy florist ex, whose heart she broke, on the most high-profile wedding of her career, in this spicy and emotional romance from popular fanfic author Julie Soto.

He loves me; he loves me not…

Ama Torres loves being a wedding planner. But with a mother who has been married more times than you can count on your fingers, Ama has decided that marriage is not the route for her. But weddings? Weddings are amazing. As a small business owner, she knows how to match her clients with the perfect vendor to give them the wedding of their dreams. Well, almost perfect…

Elliot hates being a florist, most of the time. When his father left him the flower shop, he considered it a burden, but he’s stuck with it. Just like how he’s stuck with the way he proposed to Ama, his main collaborator and girlfriend (or was she?) two years ago. But flowers have grown on him, just like Ama did. And flowers can’t run off and never speak to him again, like Ama did.

When Ama is hired to plan a celebrity wedding that will bring her business national exposure, there’s a catch: Elliot is already contracted to design the flowers. Things are not helped by the two brides, who see the obvious chemistry between Ama and Elliot and are determined to set them up, not knowing their complicated history. Add in a meddling ex-boss, and a reality TV film crew documenting every step of the wedding prep, and Ama and Elliot’s hearts are not only in jeopardy again, but this time, their livelihoods are too.

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You can find ordering info for this book here.

The Emma Project

The Emma Project by Sonali Dev is $1.99! This is the last book in Dev’s Austen-inspired Rajes series and is an Emma retelling. Sonali has been on the podcast and as always, was such a blast to talk to.

Emma gets a fresh Indian-American twist from award-winning author Sonali Dev in her heartwarmingly irresistible Jane Austen inspired rom com series.

No one can call Vansh Raje’s life anything but charmed. Handsome—Vogue has declared him California’s hottest single—and rich enough to spend all his time on missions to make the world a better place. Add to that a doting family and a contagiously sunny disposition and Vansh has made it halfway through his twenties without ever facing anything to throw him off his admittedly spectacular game.

A couple years from turning forty, Knightlina (Naina) Kohli has just gotten out of a ten-year-long fake relationship with Vansh’s brother and wants only one thing from her life…fine, two things. One, to have nothing to do with the unfairly blessed Raje family ever again. Two, to bring economic independence to millions of women in South Asia through her microfinance foundation and prove her father wrong about, well, everything.

Just when Naina’s dream is about to come to fruition, Vansh Raje shows up with his misguided Emma Project… And suddenly she’s fighting him for funding and wondering if a friends-with-benefits arrangement that’s as toe-curlingly hot as it is fun is worth risking her life’s work for.

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You can find ordering info for this book here.

Bridgerton Collection: Volume 1

Bridgerton Collection: Volume 1 by Julia Quinn is $2.99! You get three full-length historical romances and these collections, when not on sale, are priced at $19.99. Not a bad deal!

An enchanting collection containing the first three novels in New York Times bestselling author Julia Quinn’s beloved Bridgerton series set in Regency England—The Duke and I, The Viscount Who Loved Me, and An Offer from a Gentleman—now a series created by Shondaland for Netflix.

The Duke and I
When Daphne Bridgerton and Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings, agree to a fake courtship, they think they’ve found the perfect solution to their problems. Romantically associated with one of London’s most desirable catches, Daphne’s prospects among the ton will soar. For avowed bachelor Simon, an attachment to Daphne will deter would-be brides and their ambitious mamas. Their plan works like a charm—at first. But amid the glittering, gossipy, cut-throat world of London’s elite, there is only one certainty: love ignores every rule. . .

The Viscount Who Loved Me
London’s most elusive bachelor, Anthony Bridgerton is determined to wed. But one obstacle stands in his way—his intended’s older sister, Kate Sheffield, who is driving Anthony mad with her determination to stop the betrothal. Kate is quite sure that reformed rakes do not make the best husbands, and Anthony Bridgerton is the most wicked rogue of them all. She’s determined to protect her sister—even as she fears she may not be able to resist the reprehensible and oh so desirable rake herself . . .

An Offer from a Gentleman
Sophie Beckett never dreamed she’d be able to sneak into Lady Bridgerton’s famed masquerade ball—or that she would be spinning in the arms of her “Prince Charming”—the debonair and devastatingly handsome Benedict Bridgerton. But when the clock strikes midnight, Sophie’s enchanting evening ends. Since that night Benedict has been able to think of nothing but the bewitching young woman, and he’s sworn to find and wed his mystery miss. Yet will another unexpectedly steal his heart—and his chance for a fairy tale love?

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You can find ordering info for this book here.

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/07/sonali-dev-bridgerton-more/

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Posted by Lara

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/reviews/lets-make-a-scene-by-laura-wood/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?post_type=reviews&p=147422

A

Let’s Make a Scene

by Laura Wood
July 1, 2025 · Atria Books
Contemporary RomanceRomance

CW/TW

Coercive control/emotionally abusive relationship in the workplace – historical, off-page

I almost never read celebrity romances. Second-chance romances really turn me off, mostly. Enemies-to-lovers is tough to make convincing. I am so glad that I didn’t judge this book based on my past experience of these tropes because this story was ELECTRIC, particularly the chemistry between the two protagonists! I had a phenomenal time reading it.

Cynthie Taylor is 20 years old and has been cast in a small British Regency movie. This is her very first professional acting gig. Her co-star, Jack Turner-Jones, is a nepo baby and 24 years old. He’s been in training since he was a kid. She’s had no training whatsoever. They clash immediately.

Thirteen years later, there is a sequel in the works which is good for both of them at that stage in their careers. During the promo for the first movie, they had a PR relationship. For the sequel, they’re asked to do the same, only this time there is a documentary crew filming behind the scenes of the film shoot.

As setups go for fake relationships, it works because it’s clear what the benefits would be for both of them. As setups for a second-chance goes it works because the chemistry is definitely there the first time around, but they are just not the right people for each other at that stage. The enemies-to-lovers aspect is also constructed well because both characters remain mostly likeable (thanks to the dual POV) while their animosity makes sense, too.

But let’s quickly chat about our two leads. There are two distinct Cynthies in this story. The 20-year-old and the 33-year-old. The narrative bounces between the two points in time with about an even amount of time spent in each era. The young Cynthie is magnetic, raw, sensitive and in over her head. The older Cynthie has been through a really tough ordeal with her latest film and she’s finding it incredibly difficult to trust again. Up to this point, all of her relationships have been disastrous.

There are also two distinct Jacks. The 24-year-old is desperate to prove himself and make his famous parents proud. This is his first movie (but not his first acting gig) and he will do whatever it takes to make it work. He’s horrified to be acting alongside such a wildcard. At the start of the book, it’s not at all clear what 37-year-old Jack is going to be like, but the initial signs are promising.

Throughout the novel, we bounce between the two eras. The two eras are distinct (it’s clear from our leads’ behaviour that a full 13 years has passed) and are cleverly interwoven so that they act as a foil for the other era. This was a little different to what I anticipated. I thought there’d be a couple flashbacks to illuminate the origin of the animosity, but actually a lot of time is spent with young Jack and Cynthie. I was surprised to find myself enjoying time with the young versions because usually I exclusively read romances featuring older protagonists. Both timelines have their share of scorching chemistry, one of my favorite aspects of this story.

This is an emotionally rich novel spanning the full gamut of human emotions. From deep despair to heartbreak to euphoria to awkwardness to hot hot chemistry. The lead characters felt really well developed. As most of the dual timelines happen on film sets, there are a lot of side characters who are necessarily flat but still interesting to read. This book is also impossibly romantic. I won’t give you examples so as not to spoil anything, but so often I’d find myself smiling giddily as I read. The blurb tells me that this is a companion novel. I haven’t read the first in this series but I didn’t struggle at all to follow this story. I’m sure if I read book one, I would get more out of book two, but I personally didn’t feel the lack.

In some ways, this story is a love song to movies, specifically romantic comedies. There are many film references to classic 90s and 2000s movies and they make it really fun. It was a lovely jolt of nostalgia for me. Something that I didn’t realise would come with celebrity romances is that you get this titillating feeling of peeking behind the curtain, the imagined other side of the velvet rope separating the celebrity world from us plebs. I really enjoyed it!

If you are looking for that sweet, sweet escapism and need it in the form of an emotionally rich story with some really well-handled tropes, then I strongly recommend Let’s Make a Scene. Oh, and that chemistry? Flames! So hot!

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/reviews/lets-make-a-scene-by-laura-wood/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?post_type=reviews&p=147422

just_ann_now

Two heat waves, and two sets of storms to break them. Pleasant this morning and a sunny and warm weekend predicted (so I can cut my grass.)

What I've Just Finished Reading

An interesting reading week! A selection (but not everything):

A Garden's Purpose: Cultivating Our Connection with the Natural World, by Felix de Rosen. A very pleasant read inside in the AC when it's too outside hot to garden. Not a garden how-to but a garden think-about, with lots of really nice photos.

Bad Badger: A Love Story, by Maryrose Wood, illustrated by Guila Ghigini. Charming middle-grade novel; if the illustrations has been in color it would have been breathtaking. For Monthly Keyword: Story.

The Last Murder at the End of the World, by Stuart Turton. Whhhhhhhaaaaaaat was this even. Postapocalyptic, twisty, confusing. I had The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by the same author,on my To-Read list, based on

rachelmanija's review (Summary: "It was weird"), but now, nope. It wasn't horrible, just too - something, and I don't quite know what. For a Goodreads "Poolside Puzzlers" challenge.

On the other hand, Arboreality, by Rebecca Campbell, climate-change distopia, but also hopeful and lovely. Interrelated stories joined to novella-length, lovely characterization.

Saving the best for last: Orbital, by Samantha Harvey. Not a plotty book - 24 hours in the lives of an international group of astronauts on the ISS. Gorgous prose, introspective characters, passing mention of things happening outside their metal cocoon. [A spoiler, but a worthwhile one, so no apologies: NO horrible crisis pops in from nowhere, so you don't have to be on tenterhooks, as I was.] Very short, barely 200 pages, won the Booker Prize last year, which usuallly makes me go "Uh-oh, this will be too thinky for me", but what I think is that I'll buy my own copy for when I need soothing. For Monthly Motif: Single Day Story.

What I Am Currently Reading

Just this morning started The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, by V.E. Schwab, also for a Goodreads challenge.

What I Am Reading Next

I'm planning my holiday weekend around Somewhere Beyond the Sea, by T.J. Klune!

Question of the Day: I don't have one. Do you?

james_davis_nicoll

Youko and Airi meet a new friend and encounter Chekov's Volcano.

Touring After the Apocalypse, volume 5 by Sakae Saito

sabotabby

Just finished: Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Yeah, I think this is my Hugo best novel pick. It was really good, really timely, fucking gross, and gave me nightmares. It's very much a confluence all of Tchaikovsky's quirks—rather darkly funny narrator, alien minds, and the particular type of resolution he goes for. All of those things happen to work for me quite a bit. This one reminded me quite a bit of Jeff Vandermeer but less nihilistic and I liked the characters more.

Currently reading: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. This was the only novel on the Hugo list where I'd never heard of the author or the book. I'm loving it so far though. It's a murder mystery set in a city where only engineered seawalls stop the things from Attack on Titan from demolishing the place every wet season. A noble is murdered in a mansion (not his mansion) via a tree growing through his body. The person charged with investigating the murder is an old autistic woman who doesn't leave her house so she gets a young man to be her eyes and ears. The murder mystery structure makes it rather different from not just this batch of nominees but the other award lists in general, which is also intriguing.

unicornduke

Read

Activation Degradation by Marina J. Lostetter - excellent sci-fi book, some very fucked up stuff, very good. Library e-book
The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera - my god this book was incredible. wild. so vivid. just so good. the narrator was excellent as well. library audiobook
The Siren, the Song and the Spy by Maggie Tokuda-Hall - extremely interesting worldbuilding, neato plot, lots of queer people and mermaids. packs a lot into a novelette. library e-book
When Gods Die by C.S Harris - second in the series, decent murder mystery. physical library book
Greenteeth by Molly O'Neil - omg I loved this so much. the narrator was very good, there is epic quests and friendship and aaaaaa. library audiobook
Deadbeat Druid by David R. Slayton - it's really been too long since I read the first two in the series, so I didn't actually remember any of the plot. decent anyway. library e-book
To Shape A Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose - holy shit you guys, this book was really good. very "this person stands up against the colonial power and succeeds" but it was really cool world building and very enjoyable to read. library e-book
The Incandescent by Emily Tesh - extremely extremely good. lots of british private school nonsense but that's easily skimmable. plot got extremely good. library e-book

Re-read

Uprooted by Naomi Novik - more intense than I remembered, very good. physical library book

DNF

Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil - clearly going for Pratchett style humor, not actually my jam and half of the jokes are in footnotes which don't work well on my phone to click. library e-book
The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles - not the author's fault, but I'm pretty sure the audiobook was being read by a computer. There were really weird pauses in the middle of sentences that shouldn't be there and I couldn't get through five minutes of it. Really weird. library audiobook

dark_kana posting in

3_good_things_a_day

1) a lot of different home made ice teas :-)

2) ice cream! *grins*

3) friends coming over for dinner and watching Sherlock ^^

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Posted by Amanda

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/07/sb-ad-quarterly-recommendation-updates-2/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=147391

This piece of literary mayhem is exclusive to Smart Bitches After Dark, but fret not. If you'd like to join, we'd love to have you!

Have a look at our membership options, and come join the fun!

If you want to have a little extra fun, be a little more yourself, and be part of keeping the site open for everyone in the future, we can’t wait to see you in our new subscription-based section with exclusive content and events.

Everything you’re used to seeing at the Hot Pink Palace that is Smart Bitches Trashy Books will remain free as always, because we remain committed to fostering community among brilliant readers who love romance.

Left of Forever

Author: Tarah DeWitt
Released: May 20, 2025 by St. Martin's Griffin
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Series: Spunes, OR #2

This piece of literary mayhem is exclusive to Smart Bitches After Dark, but fret not. If you'd like to join, we'd love to have you!

Have a look at our membership options, and come join the fun!

I swear I did not know we were running a guest review of this one when I recommended it to two (!!) people who really liked second chance romances with relatable characters. I feel like people’s tastes are so different that this hardly ever happens where one book works for more than one request.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

Find buy links for this book here..

Xeni

Author: Rebekah Weatherspoon
Released: October 4, 2019
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, Romance
Series: Loose Ends #2

This piece of literary mayhem is exclusive to Smart Bitches After Dark, but fret not. If you'd like to join, we'd love to have you!

Have a look at our membership options, and come join the fun!

This reader wanted a diverse cast, a cinnamon roll hero, and any and all romances that were the antithesis of the current administration. I thought of Xeni and gave a bonus suggest of Rafe by the same author as well. The heroes are supportive and the world is more reflective of the wide range of people and cultures in our U.S. population.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

Want to order this one? We’ve got the links you need!.

The Billionaire’s Wake-Up-Call Girl

Author: Annika Martin
Released: July 9, 2018
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Series: Billionaires of Manhattan #2

This piece of literary mayhem is exclusive to Smart Bitches After Dark, but fret not. If you'd like to join, we'd love to have you!

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Some of the things this reader mentioned liking were rom-coms, secret identities, and nothing that inches toward darker themes. I’m pretty picky about rom-coms, since humor is subjective, but I remember being charmed by this one and how the hero falls for this mystery woman over the phone.

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Find buy links for this book here..

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/07/sb-ad-quarterly-recommendation-updates-2/

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thawrecka

I've now watched through episode 249 of Bleach and am still in the depths of the sword filler zone. Emo villain isn't super exciting no matter how much he bleeds from the eyes, and overall I'm finding it a mixed bag. There's a lot that I just find kind of unconvincing about the premise. But there are upsides: the Hitsugaya episode about reconnecting with his sword and reminding it of a home they found is great, though to be fair most of that actually comes from the manga flashback about him meeting Matsumoto; I also thought it was an interesting choice for the anime to explicitly mark Kenpachi and Yumichika as very similar. Which I agree with! They have a lot in common, but their similarities aren't often drawn out (in canon or in fandom, tbh). I also like the continuing Matsumoto and Hinamori interactions, but the stuff with their zanpakutou has diminishing returns.

(I've also been fully immersed in rereading the series, and one of the things that strikes me about the early volumes of the Viz translation is how visible to me now is the youth slang that was used to translate it at the time, in a way it wasn't visible and obvious to me at the time. Then it was just how people spoke, but now it really sticks out.)

catherineldf

Spent the weekend peddling books at TC Pride and it was a....LOT. Hot, sporadic rainstorms (with a big one overnight that trashed some folk's tents) and other wackiness. Full writeup here. Short version: terrible location, lower sales than last year, a state funeral next door with all that goes with that, primo people watching, good chats, nice folks and TC Pride in all its gigantic glory. Also, vendor pals gave me a piece of really tasty homemade coffeecake and Alexa (my assistant) is a champ.

The other cool thing that happened was that the Queen of Swords Press reissue of the classic gay fantasy, Point of Hopes (Astreiant #1) by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett, won the Midwest Book Award from the Midwest Independent Publisher's Association! Very pleased about this. Hopes was our third title to be a finalist for these awards and is now our second award-winning title after The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper by A.J. Fitzwater, winner of a Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Collection. :-D

2 days left on the Pride StoryBundle! Melissa and I got a really great lineup this year and we've raised $770 for Rainbow Railroad so far. I might add that the proceeds from this will also be a nice help to the participating publishers and authors, including my own press, and that, seeing as I will be unemployed by Thursday, my half of the curator's fee will help cover my travel expenses for Readercon which would be super helpful. If you're in a position to get one and it looks appealing, maybe pick one up?

The Summer/Winter Smashwords Sale has also kicked off today and you can get a great deal on Queen of Swords Press titles, including my own books. This is traditionally a solid sale for us and it means that I can pay myself more this month if it goes well. Also, speaking of sales, the audiobook for my second Wolves of Wolf's Point novel, Blood Moon, is on sale right now through 7/15. The narrator that Tantor hired is really good - I've been enjoying listening to her reading my books while I get regrounded for/in Book 3.

What am I going to do for the next couple of weeks? Honestly, rest. Write. Read. Get caught up on projects like the developmental editing class I paid to take online...last year. Clear some stuff out of the house. Put some things up for sale. Spend time with people who I've wanted to see for quite a while. Spend some time with my kitties (I don't think Shu will be around a whole lot longer). Can I afford to retire? Alas, no. But I have got to unglue from the ceiling and the last 8 months of this job have been toxic with a cherry on top. I will need to start job hunting soon after I get back from Readercon though and possibly exploring other areas of endeavor if IT has dried up for me so lots of uncertainty ahead. In the meantime, if you are in a position to support me recovering for a bit, consider pledging the Patreon and buying a book or two. I also have a Ko-fi and will be more active out there soon. Stay tuned! More updates ahead.
And hugs to everyone who needs them.

princessofgeeks

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: sad

musesfool

Last night I watched a cute movie on Netflix called Nonnas about that restaurant on Staten Island that hires grandmas as chefs. Lorraine Bracco, Brenda Vaccaro, Talia Shire, and Susan Sarandon play the nonnas, and Vince Vaughn plays the guy opening the restaurant. It's kind of a nice mellow detox from The Bear in terms of a bunch of Italian-Americans yelling at each other in a restaurant kitchen. *g* Plus a really horrifying rendition of capuzelle, which is a roasted (or baked?) sheep's head, which is one of those dishes I try to forget knowing about. Anyway, the restaurant still exists, and now it has grandmas from all different backgrounds who cook there (a review of the real restaurant).

Today was my Monday, and tomorrow is my Friday at work. I could get used to a 2 day work week!

*

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Sugar We're Going Down - Fall Out Boy

james_davis_nicoll

The quotation below is a quotation

CSFFA (The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association) is proud to announce the 2025 CSFFA Hall of Fame inductees.

Clint Budd, fan, convention organizer, modernized CSFFA and created the CSFFA Hall of Fame
Charles R. Saunders, author, journalist, and founder of the “sword and soul” literary genre
Diane L. Walton, editor, mentor, and a founding member of On Spec: The Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic

More information here.

Congratulations to the Inductees!

summersgate

Red Hat.

*****
Rossy went to the ER last night and ended up in Hamot in Erie this morning. Chest pains. Heart problems. They're thinking it's caused by Lyme. They got him started on antibiotics. They'll do more tests tomorrow. I'm glad he's in Hamot and not just our little hospital.

Really early this morning Dave had an appointment for a root canal in Butler. By the time we got back to Franklin we were hungry and had breakfast at Linda Lou's. Not much accomplished today, at least by me. Though Dave did talk to a local garage today about putting a used transmission in my Brownie car. But they are backed up and it will be weeks before they can do it.

pauraque

This year

sunshine_revival is picking up where

sunshine_challenge left off. Yay! Anyone is welcome to participate with no sign-ups or obligations. There's also a friending meme!

Challenge #1
Journaling Prompt: Light up your journal with activity this month. Talk about your goals for July or for the second half of 2025.
Creative Prompt: Shine a light on your own creativity. Create anything you want (an image, an icon, a story, a poem, or a craft) and share it with your community.

In terms of journaling, the goals question is an easy one. This year I've been aiming for posting one book review and one game review per week. I already know what July's books will be and three of those reviews are already written. I like to have a backlog so weeks don't sneak up on me and become a scramble. By my standards I'm a little behind on games (only this week's post is ready to go! gasp!) and I'm not sure yet what the other games will be. I want to do some more retro titles since I've been leaning towards modern games lately. So one July goal is to play some old games and/or finish the ones I'm in the middle of. And to figure out what I'm reading/playing for August.

That said, hitting the second half of the year always sets off my fears that I'm not doing or accomplishing "enough," whatever that means, and this year I'm trying to counter that by actively choosing to do a little less this summer and give myself a break. Just because my job is less busy in the summer doesn't mean I need to fill up all the time with more activities! I've temporarily stepped back from a few things, which is really hard for me to do because it messes with the part of my anxiety that takes the form of Must Always Show Up And Never Miss Anything. But of course it is not actually possible to always show up for everything, and never resting leads to burnout. I know that, and I'm trying to be better about acting on it.

And on that note, I'm skipping the creative prompt. Not that the mods have in any way suggested that people should or must do both prompts! I'm just patting myself on the back for not trying to overachieve. :D

cosmolinguist

I could barely do the morning chores I usually feel neutral-to-positive about this morning -- I open the curtains, unload the dishwasher, make a pot of tea, get breakfast for myself... Things that are always the same and always different. It can be very grounding.

Today I wasn't especially tired and I wasn't in pain or anything, I just didn't want to. I couldn't imagine doing the first tiniest step.

This is a sign of burnout. I need a break. I was telling my counselor this evening that a break for me has to be somewhere away from my house, because my house is full of reminders of chores I need to do, things that get on my nerves, etc. I am not good at relaxing, but when I can do it it doesn't tend to happen at home.

I did an okay amount of work today but near the end of the day I was in this focus group about "inclusion" in our workplace. These things can be kinda therapeutic but by the end I was thinking that we keep having surveys and stuff like this, where we tell some nice external person all our woes and we're assured that the feedback is anonymized into themes that cannot identify us, but all that means is our specific nuanced articulations all get flattened in to "we all have good colleagues who care about their work but the executive team keep letting us down," and we're going to get the same kind of response from said executive team about how impressed they are at everyone's honesty and how committed they are to addressing these themes, and then we'll do this all over again in a year or two.

I felt really tired by the end of it, which wasn't great because it was almost time for my first counseling session in almost a month. A real "let me explain, no there is too much let me sum up" kind of situation.

My counseling happens on the phone and usually in my bedroom; I normally come right back downstairs in search of dinner, but this time I just lay on my bed for something ridiculous like an hour. I kept trying to get up and go back downstairs but again: so many steps. And it was relatively peaceful just lying there.

Since I had to come downstairs and try to eat dinner I'm feeling more depersonalization, so maybe all of this has been more stressful or triggery than I realized. I hate it; is probably the most uncomfortable symptom of my anxiety/depression.

purplecat

Two Doctor Who companion outfits for your delectation and delight! Outfits selected by a mixture of ones I, personally, like; lists on the internet; and a certain random element.

( Outfits below the Cut )

Vote for your favourite of these costumes. Use whatever criteria you please - most practical, most outrageously spacey, most of its decade!

Voting will remain open for at least a week, possibly longer!

Costume Bracket Masterlist

Images are a mixture of my own screencaps, screencaps from Lost in Time Graphics, PCJ's Whoniverse Gallery, and random Google searches.

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Posted by Amanda

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/07/fantasy-romance-a-boxed-set-more/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=147454

Here for the Wrong Reasons

Here for the Wrong Reasons by Annabel Paulsen and Lydia Wang is $1.99! We mentioned on a Hide Your Wallet earlier this spring and it’s a F/F reality TV romance.

In this swoon-filled lesbian romcom, two dating show contestants vying for the affection of the leading man fall head over heels—for each other.

Fans of Ashley Herring Blake and Alexandria Bellefleur, and readers who love The Bachelor, will adore this steamy, laugh-out-loud debut romance.

Krystin knows exactly what she a husband, a horse, and a place to hang all her competitive rodeo blue ribbons. But when none of the eligible bachelors in Montana end up being right for her, she turns to reality TV. On Hopelessly Devoted, Krystin will compete against dozens of other women for the heart of this season’s Hopeless Romantic, Josh Rosen. She’s determined to win the perfect life she came here for—if she can just ignore the glossy brunette whose crimson smile gives her goosebumps.

Lauren has never done anything for the right reasons—and she’s definitely not on Hopelessly Devoted to win Josh’s heart. Lauren’s plan is simple: stay on the show long enough to build her social media following, and then gracefully leave when it’s her turn to be eliminated. With enough followers, she’ll finally have enough influencer clout to do whatever she wants—including come out of the proverbial walk-in closet. But the longer she stays on the show, the more she finds herself tangled up in a certain blonde’s lasso.

But neither contestant expects a heteronormative dating show to challenge their own deeply-ingrained ideas of who they are—and what they want. Fans of The Charm Offensive and Love Island will swoon for this sparkling debut romcom.

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Servant of Earth

Servant of Earth by Sarah Hawley is $2.99! This is book one in the Shards of Magic series and was mentioned on Hide Your Wallet. This is a departure from Hawley’s small town paranormal romances. Did any of you pick this one up?

In the underground Fae realm, only the strongest and most ruthless have power—but a young human woman forced into a life of servitude is about to change everything.

Kenna Heron is best known in her village for being a little wild—some say “half feral”—but she’ll need every ounce of that ferocity to survive captivity in the cruel Fae court.

Trapped as a servant in the faeries’ underground kingdom of Mistei, Kenna must help her new mistress undertake six deadly trials, one for each branch of magic: Fire, Earth, Light, Void, Illusion, and Blood. If she succeeds, her mistress will gain immortality and become the heir to Earth House. If she doesn’t, the punishment is death—for both mistress and servant.

With no ally but a sentient dagger of mysterious origins, Kenna must face monsters, magic, and grueling physical tests. But worse dangers wait underground, and soon Kenna gets caught up in a secret rebellion against the inventively sadistic faerie king. When her feelings for the rebellion’s leader turn passionate, Kenna must decide if she’s willing to risk her life for a better world and a chance at happiness.

Surviving the trials and overthrowing a tyrant king will take cunning, courage, and an iron will… but even that may not be enough.

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You can find ordering info for this book here.

Can’t Help Falling in Love

Can’t Help Falling in Love by Sophie Sullivan is $2.99! This is a standalone contemporary romance with class differences and fake dating.

A struggling waitress and the heir to a major Seattle company stumble into a high-profile fake engagement while simultaneously trying to keep up with their own love lives in this flirty fall rom-com!

Lexi Danby is looking for some no-strings, fall fun. Once a college track star, she was forced to drop out when her father passed away. Now she’s trying to make ends meet while putting herself through school and caring for her grieving mother. When her comically bad waitressing lands her directly in the path of a handsome, charming stranger named Will, Lexi may just have found the distraction she’s been looking for. Their first date looks promising until a misunderstanding at a party thrusts Lexi and Will into a fake engagement they can’t talk themselves out of. And Will turns out to be a member of Seattle royalty.

Will Grand is heir to a major company, and Seattle’s most eligible bachelor. But he’s been placed in charge of an important merger with a company that values family above all else, and needs to show them that he’s settled down. While a fake engagement is advantageous from a business standpoint, it’s not so great for a budding relationship with a woman who’s wary of commitment. With a woman who Will is beginning to care about much more than he could have anticipated.

As Lexi gets a taste of Will’s glamorous world and the pair keeps up the pretense of their fake engagement for the press, they decide to see where a more casual relationship takes them out of the spotlight. And amid apple picking in comfy flannels, outdoor breweries in the crisp air, and fun Halloween preparations, Lexi starts to realize the scariest part of the season might just be taking a chance on love.

“Sophie Sullivan consistently crafts romances to root for.” -Courtney Kae, author of In the Event of Love and In the Case of Heartbreak

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Game Changers Volume 2

Game Changers Volume 2 by Rachel Reid is $3.99 at Amazon! The boxed set is available at other retailers, but I’m not seeing it at the sale price. Fingers crossed this isn’t an expiring deal from yesterday. Many of Reid’s have been favorably reviewed on the site or have been recommended in the comments.

Common Goal

Veteran goaltender Eric Bennett has faced down some of the toughest shooters on the ice, but nothing prepared him for his latest challenge—life after hockey. It’s time to make some big changes, starting with finally dating men for the first time.

Graduate student Kyle Swift moved to New York nursing a broken heart. He’d sworn to find someone his own age to crush on (for once). Until he meets a gorgeous, distinguished silver fox hockey player. Despite their intense physical attraction, Kyle has no intention of getting emotionally involved. He’ll teach Eric a few tricks, have some mutually consensual fun, then walk away.

Eric is more than happy to learn anything Kyle brings to the table. And Kyle never expected their friends-with-benefits arrangement to leave him wanting more. Happily-ever-after might be staring them in the face, but it won’t happen if they’re too stubborn to come clean about their feelings.

Everything they both want is within reach… They just have to be brave enough to grab it.

Role Model

The hits just keep coming for Troy Barrett. Traded to the worst team in the league would be bad enough, but coming on the heels of a messy breakup and a recent scandal… Troy just wants to play hockey and be left alone. He doesn’t want to be in the news anymore, and he definitely doesn’t want to “work on his online presence” with the team’s peppy social media manager.

Harris Drover can tell standoffish Troy isn’t happy about the trade—anyone could tell, frankly, as he doesn’t exactly hide it well—but Harris doesn’t give up on people easily. Even when he’s developing a crush he’s sure is one-sided. And when he sees Troy’s smile finally crack through his grumpy exterior, well… That’s a man Harris couldn’t turn his back on if he wanted to.

Suddenly, Troy’s move to the new team feels like an opportunity—for Troy to embrace his true self, and for both men to surrender to their growing attraction. But indulging in each other behind closed doors is one thing, and for Troy, being in a public relationship with Harris will mean facing off with his fears, once and for all.

The Long Game

Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov have been seeing each other for ten years and have kept it secret. From friends, from family…from the league. If Shane wants to stay at the top of his game, what he and Ilya share has to remain secret. He loves Ilya, but what if going public ruins everything?

Ilya is sick of secrets. Shane has gotten so good at hiding his feelings, sometimes Ilya questions if they even exist. The closeness, the intimacy, even the risk that would come with being open about their relationship…Ilya wants it all.

It’s time for them to make the call and decide what’s most important—hockey or love.

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https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/07/fantasy-romance-a-boxed-set-more/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=147454

brithistorian

A book has to really impress me to get a reaction before I've finished it, but Ada Palmer's Inventing the Renaissance has definitely done that. I had read some of Palmer's science fiction and been very impressed by it, and I knew before reading this that she is a historian, so when I first heard of this book, I immediately requested it from my local library.[^1] Not really knowing anything about it when I requested it, I thought it was a history of how the Renaissance came to be. Then I started reading it, and from the way she talked about historians creating the idea of the Renaissance, I thought it was a Renaissance equivalent of Norman Cantor's Inventing the Middle Ages.[^2]. Then I read on and saw that it's both of those things and more. It's also Palmer's academic biography, and an explanation of how academia works, and an exploration of the processes that created the Renaissance (and that created similar shifts in society at other times and places. It's the best history book I've read recently.[^3]

Besides the major historical themes of the book, Palmer has also included a number of interesting trivia and also Easter eggs for science fiction fans: - The genetic changes in Europeans that makes the Black Death no longer the huge plague that it was in the Middles Ages took several hundred years to come about, and also caused Europeans to be more susceptible to "autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis, celiac, and (in [Palmer's] case) Crohn's disease."[^4] - She refers to Florence in the Renaissance as a "wretched hive of scum and villainy."[^5] - She uses the board game Siena as an illustration of how government worked in Renaissance Florence.[^6]

I particularly love this paragraph about the chronology of the Renaissance, and how it's exceedingly different depending on who you ask:

All agree that the Renaissance was the period of change that got us from medieval to modern, but people give it a different start date, because they start at the point that they see something definitively un-medieval. If we leave the History Lab a moment and visit my friends across the yard in the English Department, they consider Shakespeare (1564-1616) the core of Renaissance, while Petrarch's contemporary Chaucer (1340s-1400) is, for them, the pinnacle of medieval. When I cross the walk to visit the Italian lit scholars, they say Dante (1265-1321), despite being dead before Chaucer's birth, is definitely Renaissance, and often that Machiavelli is the start of modern, even though he died before Shakespeare's parents were born.

Reading this book makes me both sad and glad, in varying degrees at different times, that I never got my PhD and entered academia, depending on whether I feel at that particular moment that by having done so I would have been placing myself in cooperation or competition with Palmer. But leaving that aside, I'm exceedingly glad to be living in a time that I get to read this book, and I'm eagerly looking forward to getting to read more of Palmer's books.

[^1] Apparently a lot of other people had also heard of it, because I only got it about a week ago.

[^2] Although much more fun to read than Cantor.

[^3] I almost said "easily the best history book I've read recently," but I'm also currently reading Geoffrey Parker's Global Crisis: War, Climate Change & Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century, which gives Palmer some serious competition. But since I feel compelled to write a pre-completion reaction to Palmer's book and not to Parker's. . .

[^4] p. 116. All the MAGAts who keep yammering on about herd immunity with regard to COVID need to know that, but they probably wouldn't listen anyway.

[^5] p. 136.

[^6] pp. 65-8.

smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/07/habo-her-hair-is-blonde-with-red-patches/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=147445

This HaBO comes from Hannah, who wants to find this historical:

So here’s what I remember:

– It was an old-school style paperback romance I bought in the airport in like 2006.

– Set in the United States in the early 1900s.

– The mother had some drama with this wealthy family and ending up getting pregnant and married to one of them, so when her daughter was born she gave her the family last name as her first name or something because she was so proud of the important association?

– Daughter was born blue and sickly and was given to their servants to care for, her hair came in very patchy and red, and later filled in the rest of the way blonde.

– Her mother realized she could be a beauty when she was playing dress up in an old fashioned wig one day and then she hires a hairdresser to come style it so only then blonde shows, is determined for her to marry well.

– There’s a scene where they’re having a party and she’s dancing the Charleston or something and her hair comes unpinned and they see the red and the men are entranced.

– She gets married young and I feel like their first time having sex is on a ship?

– The heroine’s name definitely had “Garden” in it because her husband called her his “private Garden” later on.

– Marriage is not happy, she listens to bad advice to bleach her hair all blonde and lets her image be used in cosmetics ads, he goes off flying his plane and cheats on her.

It was one of the first historical romances I read as a teenager and I don’t remember if I finished it or how it ended but it’s driving me crazy that I can’t figure out the title or author!

Man, I hope she has a happy ending.

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/07/habo-her-hair-is-blonde-with-red-patches/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=147445

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just_ann_now - What Am I Reading Wednesday, July 2, 2025
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smartbitches_feed - Fantasy Romance, a Boxed Set, & More
brithistorian - Book reaction: Inventing the Renaissance: The Myth of a Golden Age (Ada Palmer)
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Molly Molloy & the Angel of Death

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Forget Me Not

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The Emma Project

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Left of Forever

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Xeni

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The Billionaire’s Wake-Up-Call Girl

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Here for the Wrong Reasons

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Servant of Earth

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Can’t Help Falling in Love

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Game Changers Volume 2

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