Annabelle'e debut romance, The Vicar and the Rake will be published on October 12. Annabelle stopped by to talk about the Forced Proximity trope! Romance as a genre thrives on tropes. They’re the secret sauce of every romance novel, creating reliable reader satisfaction and making sure certain parts of the book stick in your brain long after you’ve finished the final page. When I sat down and decided to write my debut romance, The Vicar and the Rake, choosing what tropes to play with was Continue Reading
Top Ten October 2, 2020
Somehow it's October. Fall is here. I am here for the cooler (but not cold temps. Plus fall colors are beautiful. Here's some things I saw this week that I want to share. 10. I dare you not to watch this multiple times in amazement 9. This man is living his best life and I love it. The Fleetwood Mac & A-ha videos are my favorites. 8. More Joy. 7. TikTok is trying to lure me to their site 6. I've made this recipe three times in the last two weeks. It is a real hit Continue Reading
Kini’s Friday Kisses- Reviews for books by Morgan Rogers and Rachel Lynn Solomon
One of my favorite things about reviewing is reading an ARC and having the feeling of the book being so good that you want to tell everyone. And then being really annoying the months leading up to the release. Then the satisfaction of having other readers validate how much they loved the book when they are finally able to read it. This is the long way of me telling you that I am trying very hard to add some books with farther out release dates to my reading. Sorry to my already massive TBR but Continue Reading
Monday Musings
Hi Friends! We are almost to the end of September and we are halfway through Latinx/Hispanic Heritage Month. (Sept 15- Oct 15). Thank you Forever Romance for introducing me to a new podcast this weekend, Latinx Like Me, via the take over from Bookish.Em. As someone who is half Mexican American but little to no cultural affiliation to my Mexican background, I have spent A LOT of time thinking about where and how I fit into Latinx culture and if I can even use that term to define myself. Continue Reading
Tell Us What You’re Reading Wednesday!
This is not an original idea - I've seen several people post this including my friend Ели aka @e_savova. Also my friend Thien-Kim (@msthienkim) usually asks this in her Bawdy Bookworms group. But we'd love to hear what you are reading! I'm re-reading Paradise Cove by Jenny Holiday. I loved it the first time around. It is a heavy book with themes of grief and sadness. I love grief books though. It is also VERY sexy. Tell us in the comments what you're reading! Continue Reading
Weekly Wrap Up
Here's what happened this week on Smexy. Kini: I reread The Roommate by Rosie Danan last weekend and I really enjoyed it both times I've read it. Maybe one of these days I will write a review for it. This week I read Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers (out Feb 2021). This is not a romance but it does have strong romantic elements. This will be the first of many times that I mention this book and URGE you to put it on your TBR. Angela: It’s been a rough week, which means I’m still Continue Reading
Top Ten September 18, 2020
Yay! We made it to Friday!!!! The weather has really cooled down in Maryland and I really love having the windows open!Here are some things I found on the internet this week that I wanted to share with you! 10. This is funny and NSFW so don't hit play around kids/coworkers/etc. One of these days I am going to learn how to do make fun videos like this. 9. Umm, what? 8. Did you see these covers? 7. File this under weirdly cute things that kids do. Now for the cute Continue Reading
Review: Well Played by Jen DeLuca
I read Well Met when it was released and I liked it but didn’t love it. I do LOVE the Ren Faire setting in this series. Plus they take place in Maryland, where I live and I love to see how it is depicted. I was intrigued by the secondary characters from Well Met so I was excited to see that Stacey was getting her story told in Well Played (out 9/22). I mistakenly thought Stacey was going to be paired with Mitch, so shame on me for jumping to conclusions. Once I refreshed myself on the Continue Reading
Top Five Reasons to watch Teenage Bounty Hunters
I saw Rebekah Weatherspoon tweeting about this Netflix show and it piqued my interest. But I am notorious for saying I am going to watch something and then I never do. I think I have said before that I am a terrible tv/movie watcher. Anyway, shortly thereafter in our Smexy books chat, Angela mentioned that she watched it and really enjoyed it. I had to watch it. I really enjoyed it. Here are some reasons that I think you might enjoy it. Basic premise- two, wealthy, privileged teenaged Continue Reading
Kini’s Friday Kisses- Mini Reviews for You Had me At Hola by Alexis Daria, Like Lovers Do by Tracey Livesay, Fearless by Katie Golding, and The Mall by Megan McCafferty
We made it to Friday y’all. And it is kind of a weird day filled with lots of memories for many of us. Be extra kind and gentle with yourself today. But on to the books. Here is a smattering of books I started and finished recently. I even put them in order of how much I liked them, because why not? You Had me At Hola by Alexis Daria- This book was so good I am not sure I have the words to properly explain it. Beautifully written and engaging from page 1, Daria tells the story of two actors Continue Reading