It is no secret. I love. This. Series. With each book that is released, I wonder, can this one reach the same heights as the preceding ones? Each time, I am shown in no uncertain terms that it absolutely can. Gabriel runs a gambling establishment in London. Ginny’s brother loses his entire, newly inherited fortune while gambling at that establishment. As the older sister who stepped into the breach when her parents died, Ginny travels … Continue reading Game of Rogues by Julie Anne Long →
I have now read a grand total of two dark romances. The first was so utterly shit that I didn’t attempt the genre again for a few years. While it was a very popular book, it was not at all appealing, and afterward I wasn’t sure what were hallmarks of the genre and what was just bad writing. I see now how wrong I was. It was plain bad writing. Butcher and Blackbird is the … Continue reading Butcher and Blackbird by Brynne Weaver →
The Trembling Hand: Reflections of a Black Woman in the Romantic Archive is a great book for people who are interested in the Romantics (in this context, I’m referring to artists who were part of the artistic movement known as Romanticism). Author Nabugodi assumes that you are already at least somewhat familiar with this movement and with the lives and works of William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge, Mary and Percy Shelley, John Keats, and Lord Byron. … Continue reading The Trembling Hand by Mathelinda Nabugodi →
Dolly All the Time is set in the fictional seaside town of Whitfield, Rhode Island. The Whitfield family are the big, rich family in town and yes, the town is named after one of them. Stewart is the eldest son and desperate to prove to his family that he can be the new CEO and have a successful romantic life. As it is a family business, this is an important consideration for the board (made … Continue reading Dolly All the Time by Annabel Monaghan →
I picked this book up for the following reasons: The colours on the cover – hello neon! The title – what could a ‘safari murder party’ be? The use of ‘safari’ in the title. I am a Zimbabwean/South African and while I have been on plenty of game drives and visits to nature reserves, I’ve never considered any of that a ‘safari’ even though they’re marketed as safaris outside of my region. Fletcher is an … Continue reading Safari Murder Party by Rachel Moore →
Lucynka is a long-time lurker, who has occasionally commented under a couple different names in the past. Over the last few years, she’s become really interested in the history of the romance genre, particularly those forgotten or oft-overlooked parts. You can find her on Bluesky @lucynka.bsky.social, or else over on her WordPress, where she blogs about “obscure bullshit,” including a lot of romance pulp magazines from the 1920s-’40s. … While my last guest post showcased … Continue reading ’Neath Tropical Skies by Mollie Donovan Maule →
While looking ahead at upcoming releases, I came across The Body in the Kitchen Garden, the sequel to The Potting Shed Murder. The sequel sounded intriguing and from time to time I’m quite partial to a cosy mystery and it has been a while since I read one. Why not see if I still enjoy them? So off to the library I went. Daphne, her husband, and her three children move to the English countryside … Continue reading The Potting Shed Murder by Paula Sutton →
Quinn Audio is a paid app that offers immersive erotic short stories that, IMO, are organized by trope and archetype in a way that will appeal to romance readers (enemy to lover, forbidden work relationship, etc). You can pay by month or by year. One of the draws to Quinn is that some of the narrators are famous actors that listeners might be familiar with, like Jamie Campbell, Hudson Williams, and Connor Storrie. I started … Continue reading App Review: Quinn →
My experience with The Bachelor franchise is as follows: I edit the recaps from Elyse, which she’s been faithfully recording since 2017. That’s it. Now, I have watched two (2) episodes to fill in for Elyse, prompting the following questions: Why are they four hours long? Why are they on two subsequent nights sometimes? Why on sequential nights or on four hour nights are they stretching out TWENTY FIVE TOTAL MINUTES OF FOOTAGE into an … Continue reading Here For All the Reasons: Why We Love the Bachelor, edited by Ilana Masad and Stevie K. Seibert Desjarlais →
Amanda and I have discussed many times on the RT Rewind podcast episodes that reviewing a book that’s deep into an existing series is a fraught proposition. The potential for spoilers is significant, and the question of audience can be a puzzler, too. Am I writing for new readers who might enter the series with this book (TL;DR, don’t do that, you deserve the whole Murderbot series!) or am I addressing folks who already love … Continue reading Platform Decay by Martha Wells →
Yesteryear was one of my most anticipated reads of 2026 so it’s such a bummer that it fell apart for me. I think this book had the opportunity to be a really interesting commentary on the Trad Wife movement and on White Christian womanhood, but it took a turn that felt frankly kind of lazy. Natalie Heller Mills is a very successful trad wife influencer. She lives on a farm with her husband and six … Continue reading Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke →
