Smart Bitches, Trashy BooksSmart Bitches, Trashy Books ([syndicated profile] smartbitches_feed) wrote2025-06-11 03:30 pm

Hockey Romance, a KDD, & More

Posted by Amanda

The Spellshop

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst is $1.99! This came out last summer and I’ve heard it’s lovely, but may fall into the category of “no plot, just vibes.” Have you read this one?

Join Kiela the librarian and her assistant, Caz the sentient spider plant, as they navigate the low stakes market of illegal spellmaking and the high risk business of starting over.

Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she hasn’t had to.

She and her assistant, Caz, a magically sentient spider plant, have spent the last eleven years sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite. But when a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz save as many books as they can carry and flee to a faraway island Kiela was sure she’d never return to: her childhood home. Kiela hopes to lay low in the overgrown and rundown cottage her late parents left her and figure out a way to survive without drawing the attention of either the empire or the revolutionaries. Much to her dismay, in addition to a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor, she finds the town neglected and in a state of disrepair.

The empire, for all its magic and power, has been neglecting for years the people who depend on magical intervention to maintain healthy livestock and crops. Not only that, but the very magic that should be helping them has been creating destructive storms that have taken a toll on the island. Due to her past role at the library, Kiela feels partially responsible for this, and now she’s determined to find a way to make things right: by opening the island’s first-ever secret spellshop.

Her plan comes with risks—the consequence of sharing magic with commoners is death. And as Kiela comes to make a place for herself among the kind and quirky townspeople of her former home, she realizes that in order to make a life for herself, she must learn to break down the walls she has built up so high.

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You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Well Matched

Well Matched by Jen DeLuca is $2.99! This is DeLuca’s latest release in her contemporary ren faire romances. I believe there’s another on the way? The series has been reviewed well here and seems great for some low angsty reads, but correct me if I’m wrong.

An accidentally in-love rom-com filled with Renaissance Faire flower crowns, kilts, corsets, and sword fights.

Single mother April Parker has lived in Willow Creek for twelve years with a wall around her heart. On the verge of being an empty nester, she’s decided to move on from her quaint little town, and asks her friend Mitch for his help with some home improvement projects to get her house ready to sell.

Mitch Malone is known for being the life of every party, but mostly for the attire he wears to the local Renaissance Faire–a kilt (and not much else) that shows off his muscled form to perfection. While he agrees to help April, he needs a favor too: she’ll pretend to be his girlfriend at an upcoming family dinner, so that he can avoid the lectures about settling down and having a more “serious” career than high school coach and gym teacher. April reluctantly agrees, but when dinner turns into a weekend trip, it becomes hard to tell what’s real and what’s been just for show. But when the weekend ends, so must their fake relationship.

As summer begins, Faire returns to Willow Creek, and April volunteers for the first time. When Mitch’s family shows up unexpectedly, April pretends to be Mitch’s girlfriend again…something that doesn’t feel so fake anymore. Despite their obvious connection, April insists they’ve just been putting on an act. But when there’s the chance for something real, she has to decide whether to change her plans–and open her heart–for the kilt-wearing hunk who might just be the love of her life.

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You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Opening Up

RECOMMENDEDOpening Up by Lauren Dane is $1.99! This is the first book in the Ink & Chrome erotic contemporary series and is a KDD. Book two is also part of today’s deals. Elyse gave the book an A-:

This book was incredibly sexy and often very funny. It made me duck out on the coworker I was traveling with: “I’d love to go to TGI Fridays with you, but PJ and Asa have a new leather cane they’ve been dying to try out and also I need to know how his weenus piercing feels without a condom, so I’m gonna just head up to my room, ‘kay, thanks.”

The men of the Twisted Steel custom motorcycle shop are great with their hands… and they’re not afraid to get dirty.

PJ is exactly the kind of woman Twisted Steel owner Asa Barrons doesn’t need. The last thing he wants to do is mix business with pleasure, and PJ has some of the best custom detailing he’s ever seen. But the chemistry between them won’t be denied, and soon he’s introducing her to a whole new world in the bedroom, pushing her far beyond anything she’s ever experienced. PJ finds she can’t get enough, but how far is too far before he consumes her completely?

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You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Unexpected Goals

Unexpected Goals by Kelly Farmer is 99c! This is a f/f hockey romance and it’s book two in the Out on the Ice series.

On-ice rivals find some surprising heat under all their hostility in this enemies-to-lovers hockey romance

If you can’t play nice, play hockey

Canadian goalie Maisy Goode is wary of American Jen Donato and her dirty playing. She’s been on the receiving end of Jen’s aggressive style and doesn’t like it one bit. Now that they’re on the same women’s pro team, keeping her eyes off Jen is a struggle.

Jen signed up to win it all with the Boston Ice. Her very public clashes with their hot goalie aren’t going to derail her championship plans. Jen’s a professional. But there’s just something about Maisy that gets under her skin.

The media loves the tension, but the more time Maisy and Jen are forced to spend together, the more they discover what’s between them isn’t entirely hostile.

At all.

Banter turns into flirting, and flirting turns into more. The closer they get to the playoffs, the more pressure weighs on the team—and the couple. Maisy needs Jen’s support. Jen needs to know Maisy’s all in. And it all needs to get sorted out before the season—and their relationship—closes out.

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You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

senmut: modern style black canary on right in front of modern style deathstroke (Default)
Asp ([personal profile] senmut) wrote2025-06-11 10:17 am

PRIDE 6: Natasha/?

Filing Flirtations (300 words) by Sharpest_Asp
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Marvel's The Avengers [2012]
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Natasha Romanov, Ensemble
Additional Tags: Avengers Tower, Flirting, Triple Drabble
Summary:

It's a lazy day in the Tower and Nat's just taking it all in.



Filing Flirtations

Nat just sat back and watched the beer-laden flirting going on, listening with half her mind as alcohol lubricated more honest impressions of one another. She didn't really get it sometimes — Tony wanted everyone but Pepper was being far choosier — yet it made for good intel on who she could push and manipulate that way should it be needed.

She got the impression Bruce was more like herself. Something in the total package had to be there for that kind of fireworks to happen. On cue, Betty warded off a very cute pass from Darcy, and settled more firmly in Bruce's space. Those two — they had that look of having a true orbital lock on each other.

She let her eyes shift briefly to Clint, who gave his tiny hitch of a shoulder, then raised an eyebrow before his eyes roved Thor's well-built form. Nat gave him a go-for-it nod with the nuance of 'not both of us'.

Thor didn't meet her particular points of interest enough to spark anything, but it was always fun to watch Clint does his mix of shy and blatant flirtation.

She wondered how Jane was going to handle it, but Jane moved closer to Bruce and Betty, talking science and leaving Thor on his own. Darcy nudged her once to look over. When Jane did, she rolled her eyes, and went back to the discussion at hand.

That nudged her up in Nat's books. They were all, now, part of a very intense way of life, and being weird about who slept with whom was going to make friction.

Tony dropped into her space, and she arched a look his way.

"Checking."

"No."

He grinned. "Her?"

"Maybe."

"I'll have her schedule a date to figure it out."

Nat smirked over at Pepper, who smiled.
smallhobbit: (Lucas 1)
smallhobbit ([personal profile] smallhobbit) wrote in [community profile] 100words2025-06-11 04:13 pm

Spooks (MI5): Shopping

Title: Shopping
Fandom: Spooks (MI5)
Rating: G

Ask a Manager ([syndicated profile] askamanager_feed) wrote2025-06-11 02:59 pm

update: my vegan coworker is upset about getting non-vegan gifts three years in a row

Posted by Ask a Manager

It’s a special “where are you now?” season at Ask a Manager and I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past.

There will be more posts than usual this week, so keep checking back throughout the day.

Remember the letter-writer whose vegan coworker, Liz, was upset about getting non-vegan gifts three years in a row? Here’s the update.

Sorry I missed the post the day it went up; I was busy that day and then frankly overwhelmed by the number of comments! But thank you for your reply. You were perfectly right, I wasn’t a party to any of it myself so I couldn’t really get involved without causing drama or taking sides, so I didn’t, except to hum supportive noises whenever Marie was fretting about the situation to everyone in the office.

She really was very upset that Liz would think she was intentionally getting her non-vegan gifts. In sort of half-heartedly listening to her fret one day, I realized, and another coworker did at the same time, so she was the one to point it out, but Marie was clearly hearing “vegetarian” when anyone said “vegan.” She thought as long as no meat products to be consumed were involved, she was fine. My coworker actually looked up the definition of vegan and read it to Marie and she was like =O

You asked about Marie and Liz’s relationship outside of the gift debacles, and to be honest it’s complicated by the fact that Marie’s husband is a local councilman who is kind of controversial. There was some gossip a while back that Liz was in his public Facebook comments calling him out for some of his positions. Marie never talks about his job or his views; quite the opposite, she has said she has no interest in any kind of politics and she has banned her husband from political talk at home. Regardless I could see Liz maybe thinking she actually is aligned with him privately and being wary of her.

After her enlightenment, Marie bought Liz a Body Shop gift card and apologized once again for her mixups. Marie sees herself as a bit of an office “mom” so she always goes a bit over-the-top in terms of the gifts, both in price and in trying to personalize them. She very much didn’t want to get a gift card because it was “generic” but in the end she thought it was safest. Liz still isn’t the warmest toward her, but they appear to be back on solid footing. We’ll try to vet Marie’s next Christmas gift ahead of time.

The post update: my vegan coworker is upset about getting non-vegan gifts three years in a row appeared first on Ask a Manager.

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Every Day Above Ground ([personal profile] mallorys_camera) wrote2025-06-11 08:43 am

Smackdown!!!! Larry McMurtry v Joan Didion!!!!!

Cool car I saw in the parking lot at the gym:



Shortly, I must toddle off to the New Paltz garden for more weeding as it's supposed to get hot this afternoon.

Yesterday, I did very little of anything except tromp (Winding Hills, steep) and start rereading Tracy Daugherty's biography of Joan Didion—which is not as good as Tracy Daugherty's bio of Larry McMurtry.

I suspect Didion simply did not engage Daugherty as much: She is an excellent prose writer, but comes across as an unsympathetic human being, unspontaneous, unlikeable, studied to an extreme. One gets the impression that Didion hovered over her words like a vulture hovering over a skull, wondering, Did I miss anything the first time I picked this clean? It probably took her half an hour to write a single sentence.

McMurtry, in contrast, was a kind of mad, slapdash writer. Every morning of his life, he was up and at that typewriter by 7:30 a.m., typing away like a maniac. By 9 a.m., he'd have produced 10 pages. And then he'd stop.

Ten pages in an hour and a half! That's crazy fast!

And probably accounts for his uneven output: Easily half of what McMurtry wrote is really baaaaad.

But McMurtry draws the reader in in a way that Didion is simply not capable of doing. One must parse Didion's sentences. And that is exhausting when one is reading for pleasure. Hence, one never reads Didion for pleasure.

Interestingly, both Didion and McMurtry are ultimately what you might call regional writers. Didion's region was California; McMurtry's region was Texas. And each writer's finest output amounts to kind of a harvest of regional tropes: Didion's basket is "the pioneer," while McMurtry's is "the American West."
colls: (VQ Amae from Vagrant Queen)
colls (she/her) ([personal profile] colls) wrote in [community profile] swbookclub2025-06-11 07:25 am

June 2025

Book: Wedge's Gamble (Star Wars: X-Wing #2) by Michael A. Stackpole

summary )



Schedule:
There will be a midway check-in post (this is it!) and a post at the end of the book/end of the month.

Next up:
THEME: Any Legends book (published 1976-2014)
spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)
it only hurts when i breathe ([personal profile] spikedluv) wrote2025-06-11 07:10 am

Wednesday Reading Meme & Books 40 & 41 of 2025

What I Just Finished Reading: Since last Wednesday I have read/finished reading: In a Dark House (A Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Mystery) by Deborah Crombie and Seeing a Large Cat (An Amelia Peabody Mystery) by Elizabeth Peters.


What I am Currently Reading: After finishing the Amelia Peabody book on Monday I didn’t really feel like starting anything yesterday, but I plan on starting System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries) by Martha Wells today.


What I Plan to Read Next: I have more library books out, so most likely one of those!!




Book 40 of 2025: In a Dark House (A Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Mystery) (Deborah Crombie)

This book was really good!! spoilers )

I've already requested the next book in the series; I'm giving this one five hearts.

♥♥♥♥♥




Book 41 of 2025: Seeing a Large Cat (An Amelia Peabody Mystery) (Elizabeth Peters)

This book was really good! spoilers )

I enjoyed this book a lot and must go request the next in the series. I'm giving this one five hearts.

♥♥♥♥♥
spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)
it only hurts when i breathe ([personal profile] spikedluv) wrote2025-06-11 06:59 am

The Day in Spikedluv (Tuesday, June 10)

I planned to visit mom, but since she’s in the ICU and visiting hours don’t start until 11am I had some time to kill. I did not go downtown, but stayed home to do some chores and stuff on the computer.

I did two loads of laundry, the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, and scooped kitty litter.

I typed in edits, coded and posted the [community profile] smallfandomfest fic I’ve been working on!! It’s Murder, She Wrote crossed over with V (1983). To make it work, I gave Jessica another niece, lol! I read some fanfic and watched some HGTV programs. It still feels really weird to not call mom in the evening to talk about our respective days.

I saw my brother (and his GF) and my sister S (the nurse) while visiting mom. There can only be two at a time in the ICU so we took turns.

I fell again. *head desk* This time inside the house (slipped on a puddle of wet on the floor), but I landed on that same knee I keep falling on and bent that same big toe. It hurt and I swore a lot. And I realized it’s almost the one year anniversary of my first fall when I scraped my knee so badly, pulled every muscle, and cracked my big toe.

Temps started out at 61.0(F) and reached 82.6. It rained all morning, but the sun came out in the afternoon. I got in a short walk with Pip and the dogs when he (they *g*) got home from work. Within a half hour of that the clouds moved in and the temps dropped 12 degrees before it started raining again for a bit.


Mom Update:

Mom was doing pretty well when I saw her. She was so out of it, thanks to the drugs. Her voice was very raspy (because of the tube, which they removed before I got there) (if I wasn’t facing her while she was speaking, I never would have known it was her) and she slurred a bit due to the drugs. Sometimes she forgot what she was saying. She talked about Matlock a lot. *g*

They gave her an epidural for the pain and her nurse (she seemed awesome) said that they were going to keep the epidural in for a few days, and that while it was in she’d remain in the ICU. I’m happy about both; no pain, and great care.

The bad news came later in the evening when my sister S passed on (in the Family Group chat) that the surgeon thinks that my mom may have originally had pancreatic cancer that jumped to the bile duct. She won’t know for certain until the labs come back. I do not fucking want it to be pancreatic cancer. As you may have guessed, I had a knot in my stomach the rest of the evening and didn’t sleep super well, even though I doubled my melatonin to make sure I would fall asleep.

All positive thoughts welcomed.
conuly: (Default)
conuly ([personal profile] conuly) wrote2025-06-14 03:24 am

Oooh! Prodigy has a Mirror Universe episode!

As always, Evil!Janeway is hot, though less so than the Living Witness version. It's the eyes - our main characters all have huge eyes, so the somewhat more realistically animated adult human characters look slightly uncanny valley, even though their eyes ought to make sense.

Also, damn, Chakotay has got some arms! Is this true IRL? I don't remember ever seeing the live actor ever without sleeves....

Also also, I honestly love every time Gwen gets a moment of happiness, no matter how small. She really has had a miserable life. Every second chasing replicated pie over the ship, or squirting whipped cream into her mouth, or, one hopes, finally spending some time playing goofy holodeck games, is a second worth living. And so, I will say, I appreciate that the animators took the time to let her smirk a little when Evil!Chakotay proposed starting his torture session with "the cute one", aka Murf the Indestructible. You gotta find those moments of joy when you can, sweetie!

(Question: Are mirror tribbles... nice? What about their new team pet, Bribble? Would Bribble have a goatee and be evil in the mirror verse? How sapient is that thing, anyway?)

********************


Read more... )
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Mad Scientess ([personal profile] nanila) wrote in [community profile] awesomeers2025-06-11 10:02 am
Entry tags:

Just One Thing (11 June 2025)

It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!