I was so excited to see a commercial f/f romantic comedy that I pre-ordered When Katie Met Cassidy, Camille Perri's second novel. It was pitched as laugh-out-loud funny, romantic, sexy, and thought-provoking, so even though I was wary of the Gay-For-You premise, I had high expectations. One of the things that Gay-For-You often signals is that a character is actually bisexual (or bi and demi) and as a bisexual reader, I am always on the hunt for representation in fiction.
The book let me down.
This book was like a well-crafted cocktail - not too sweet, not too bitter, and left me with a warm feeling in my body. You've probably noticed by now that Margrethe and I tend not to have the best of luck with the subgenre of books called "lesfic," either because of bi-erasure, quality of writing/editing, egregious sexual assault, or racism. This book isn't any of that!
Holley Trent is prolific. She has so much PNR that I have a difficult time telling people where to start. That said, H. E. Trent, her SFR pen name, is pretty much just the Jekh Saga. So how about we start there?
We're taking a page from NPR'S Pop Culture Happy Hour this week and listing off some things that have been making us happy lately. Our responses aren't limited to romance, or even to books, but they're what's getting us through 2018.
We have a shiny new present for you - Cat Sebastian's newest book cover!
July is always super hot here, and I'm currently looking at a 10 day streak of temps above 90 F. Here are a few books for those days when you have to stay inside with the AC, go to the beach but stay under your umbrella, or generally lay about hiding from the sun.
Reviewing anthologies is much different from reviewing a single title. Sometimes we choose to highlight a couple of stories, sometimes we give a general overview, and sometimes we give a short review for each story. I've been using this anthology, Into the Mystic, Vol. 3, as a palate cleanser between longer stories, which is both why this review is a bit late and why this review is going to be Option 3 - short reviews for each story.
This morning, we published Eva's review of Bed of Flowers, Erin Satie's new historical romance. Now we're sharing an excerpt and access to a giveaway!
As a reader who struggled a bit with Maclean's last series, I'm so happy to say that I think Wicked and the Wallflower is something of a return to form for Sarah Maclean. As I said to a friend, the heroine gives me the same feelings as Callie from 9 Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake, with the dangerous underworld feels of her series that takes place at a gambling hell.
