https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250531.html

On May 7,

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250531.html

The Best Part of Researching Trans History Is When I’m Wrong

Lost pieces are being found, and pictures are coming together after generations of obscurity.

If you or your people are being hunted, write down your history and culture. Copy it. And then scatter it as widely as you possibly can. Hide it in walls, under floorboards, tuck it into other books. Stamp it on clay, fire it, and drop the tablets into a landfill because archaeologists always know to look for middens. Fling the copies so far that your enemies will never find them all. And then you can speak your truth to the future and the listening ears who come after.

Now is the perfect time for this kind of activism. It's something anyone can do. It's cheap and easy. Just pick any thing the fuckwits in charge want to suppress, and work against that to preserve it. You can do this every time they piss you off.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

"In our America: All people are Equal; Love Wins; Black Lives Matter; Immigrants & Refugees are Welcome; Disabilities are Respected; Women are in Charge of their Bodies; People & Planet are Valued over Profits; Diversity is Celebrated."

Available as a flag, sign, sticker, and various other formats.

Regrettably in local-America, people will probably vandalize this, but it's there if you want it anyway. *ponder* Or as bait if you're trying to trap thugs.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Scientists believe penguin poop might be cooling Antarctica — here's how

In a paper published on Thursday in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, they describe how ammonia wafting off the droppings of 60,000 birds contributed to the formation of clouds that might be insulating Antarctica, helping cool down an otherwise rapidly warming continent.

Current Mood: busy

krisbiz_feed

Posted by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

https://kriswrites.com/2025/05/31/recommended-reading-list-february-2025/

https://kriswrites.com/?p=36505

I mentioned in January’s list that I had fewer books to recommend in February and March. I read a lot but didn’t finish some of the books, and the ones I did finish, I didn’t really like well enough to recommend. As I tell my writing students, you have to stick the landing. And some of those landings really missed. A few of the others just bored me. I faded out as I went along and realized I didn’t want to read the book anymore. (I do that by grabbing other books, starting those, and realizing that I’d rather be reading them.)

I have stories here from 2 different Best American Mystery & Suspense, but I’m not recommending either volume, since I didn’t read a lot of them. The stories seemed child-cruelty heavy or animal abuse heavy, and I’m not really into either of those things. And there’s some I’m not fond of the kind of noir in either of them. So it’s up to you if you get these two volumes.

So here’s what I liked back in February…

February 2025

Bernier, Ashley-Ruth M., “Ripen,” The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023, edited by Lisa Unger, Mariner Books, 2023. When editors are lazy with the Best Americans and do not put the stories in any kind of reading order, the opening story is a real crapshoot. I’m always braced for something that does not give me any ideas as to the way the volume will go. As a result, I approach the first story with trepidation, and usually that trepidation is justified.

In this volume, though, the first story, “Ripen,” is well written, powerful, and memorable. I was happily surprised by the entire thing. The setting is rich, the characters vivid, and the story itself strong. Read this one.

Cho, Winston, “AI: The Ghost in Hollywood’s Machine,” The Hollywood Reporter, December 13, 2024. (This story online has a different title.) Fascinating piece that could have been written about any emerging technology, really. AI will change how business gets done all over the planet (is changing?), and Hollywood is no different. It will make some things easier to “film” such as massive crowd scenes (already is, in fact) but it might cost a lot of jobs. As in a lot of jobs. And the kind that normally don’t get taken by technological change…as in the jobs of creatives. I think we’ll see a lot of these articles in the future as we try to figure out how to live with this newest thing in our lives.

Cobo, Leila, “Guarding Celia Cruz’s Legacy,” Billboard January 11, 2025. Fascinating interview with Omer Pardillo, who manages the Celia Cruz estate. It’s about how he got the job, how he goes about maintaining the estate, and the heart of the estate. He lists where the revenue comes from. He says it’s mostly from recording royalties and brand partnerships. It’s really fun to see his joy at all of the success the estate’s been having. At one point, he states that it’s not bad for an artist who’s been dead for 21 years.

Cole, Alyssa, “Just a Girl,” The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2024, edited by S.A. Cosby, Mariner Books, 2024. This story, written as a series of online TikTok posts, DMs, texts, emails, and online articles, is devastating and heartbreaking and extremely powerful. Tiana, her first year in college during Covid, starts posting updates on TikTok, and gaining a following. She tries a dating app, encounters a gross guy, and calls his yuckiness out on her TikTok…and then he and his friends start going after her. Everything spirals after that. What’s amazing about this story is that you can see the joy leaching from this young woman as she realizes how terrible the world can be—and how dangerous it is for young beautiful women. Highly recommended.

Freimor, Jacqueline, “Forward,” The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023, edited by Lisa Unger, Mariner Books, 2023. Normally, I wouldn’t read a story that looked dense and difficult, but the format (and the footnotes) are the point of the story. It’s an amazing work of fiction, with a great reveal. Yes, it takes concentration to read it, but it’s really worthwhile.

McClintock, Pamela, “Ryan Reynolds Multitasks Like a Mofo,” The Hollywood Reporter, December 13, 2024. There’s a lot of fascinating quotes in this interview with Ryan Reynolds, whom The Hollywood Reporter dubbed their Producer of the Year. He does a variety of things besides act, and seems to enjoy all of them. The quote I like the most is at the end:

…it’s all an emotional investment. If you can create emotional investment in anything, any brand, it creates a moat around that brand that really, I think, facilitates the resilience and allows it to weather the storms in the bad times. And yes, that’s the part I love.

I think I love it too, although not as much as actual writing and making things up. Still, lots of good stuff to think about in this interview.

Zeitchik, Steven,“The Other Rebuild,” The Hollywood Reporter, January 17, 2025. 2025 has been such a shitshow already it’s hard to remember that the LA Fires happened only a few months ago. We seem to be moving from tragedy to tragedy, heartbreak to heartbreak, every single day, and we lose track of what others have gone through. A number of my friends went through the fires and fortunately, in this round of the climate change blues, very few of them lost their homes. (I can’t say that about previous California fires.) But everyone’s mental health took a nosedive. Many moved to different digs in the same town while others are leaving their LA h

https://kriswrites.com/2025/05/31/recommended-reading-list-february-2025/

https://kriswrites.com/?p=36505

ysabetwordsmith

We made it to the end of May! \o/ If you have completed some of your short-term goals or subgoals, and/or you're still chugging away at your ongoing goals, then pat yourself on the back. You worked hard for that. We've also passed through of spring. If you're doing seasonal goals, hopefully you have finished the spring one(s), so you can look ahead to the summer batch.

This year I'm trying something new, continuing to track goals at the end of each month. So far it seems to be helping, so that's encouraging. I'm looking at my goal list more often and trying to keep ticking off more of them. The main drawback is that this update becomes more of a chore each month.

These are the previous check in posts:
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 4
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 10
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 17
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 24
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 31
New Year's Resolutions Check In February 28
New Year's Resolutions Check In March 31
New Year's Resolutions Check In April 30

( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished

ndrosen

There was a podcast (you can read the text or, I presume, listen) on Reason, about America’s wars, cults, and panics. A man named Lawrence Wright talks about foreign interventions, about Scientology, and about the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 1990s. There is much to be learned about human weirdness, and in particular, I might mention Mr. Wright’s take on what brought the Satanic and child molestation panic pretty much to an end: insurance companies refused to pay for extensive therapy for “multiple personality disorder” supposedly caused by ritual abuse, so there were no longer wards full of people bamboozled (at least in some cases they had been bamboozled) by mental health quacks into thinking that any problems in living they had were the result of sexual molestation by Satanists. If so, health insurance companies, which are not universally beloved, may have done some real good in the world, in addition to saving themselves money.

ndrosen

I began the week with three amendments on my Amended docket, and finished an Office Action on the earliest filed of them, after which another case appeared on my Amended docket, bringing the total back to three, although this newest isn’t exactly an amendment, but an Appeal Brief, appealing my final rejection of the case. Then an amendment appeared on my Expedited docket, so I’m up to a total of four cases, one of them Expedited.

Early in the week, I finished a new rejection on the one Request for Continued Examination application on my Regular New docket. Friday evening, I finished an Office Action on the oldest non-RCE Regular New application, so it’s been a productive week. There is now one biweek left in the third quarter, so I will need to continue being productive.

ysabetwordsmith

Today is partly sunny and mild.

I haven't fed the birds yet. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches. Recently the house finches have been all over the thistle feeder.

EDIT 5/31/25 -- I fed the birds. I've seen a grackle and a robin.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 5/31/25 -- I pulled and trimmed weeds around the purple-and-white garden.

EDIT 5/31/25 -- I pulled and trimmed more weeds around the purple-and-white garden.

EDIT 5/31/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 5/31/25 -- I pulled and trimmed more weeds around the purple-and-white garden.

EDIT 5/31/25 -- I pulled and trimmed more weeds around the purple-and-white garden. I am most of the way around the outside now.

EDIT 5/31/25 -- I finished trimming weeds around the outside of the purple-and-white garden.

EDIT 5/31/25 -- I started trimming weeds inside of the purple-and-white garden.

I've seen a male cardinal and a male fox squirrel. Several sparrows were splashing in the red birdbath. I've seen a skunk on the patio.

EDIT 5/31/25 -- I started trimming weeds inside of the purple-and-white garden. \o/

EDIT 5/31/25 -- I watered the patio plants.

Privet is blooming, with a heavy, honeyed scent, a little salty.

I've seen two bats flying around the edges of the yard, and the first several fireflies. :D

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Linkspam: Metas on SFFsetting Queernormativity and D/s (Reply)

My feelings about queernormative worlds in SFF is that I can often enjoy it, but I rarely believe it.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

smartbitches_feed

Posted by SB Sarah

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/05/a-smart-bitches-after-dark-recap/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=145570

It’s been a little over six months since we launched Smart Bitches After Dark, and I wanted to share some of what we’ve been doing and what’s coming up in 2025.

First: we have over 225 subscribers! WOW. Thank you so much!

I’d hoped to have 100 by December 2024, and you blew through that milepost, and crashed through the next one, too.

Thank you. Your support is fundamental in keeping the site open for everyone, and helping new readers find us, and the romance genre as well. From the squishiest, most earnest part of my heart, thank you.

If you’re not familiar, Smart Bitches After Dark is our community support subscription, where we’re building some new features and bringing back some classic SBTB as well. Here’s what we’ve been doing in the past few months!

Romance Dish Course Tea Time

After taking suggestions for the name, I’ve been sharing more in-depth discussion posts that examine some of what’s happening in the genre, and in its fandom.

The HEA is Really Freaking Powerful is one of those posts, which I later made public to share with everyone:

Portmanteaux aren’t going anywhere, and neither are attempts to market books by genre and by trope to audiences looking for that genre and trope. Thinking this hard about why the portmanteaux are popular, what they’re doing, how they work, and why they’re important has made me appreciate how inclusion of part or all of the word “romance” is signaling a very specific message: “HEA found here.”

We’ve discussed what we’ve learned about ourselves from reading romance:

Romance takes a lot of crap, some of which I myself am serving, but I could give a 20 minute talk on how romance fiction offers readers an unparalleled opportunity for exploration of the self within the privacy of their own imaginations, especially regarding sexuality.

And we’ve talked about trends in cover re-design that appear to obfuscate the presence of people of color, and how current popular styles for covers are more confusing than every to some of us.

Tara wrote about Spite Reading for Joy and Comfort, or What I read on my Spring Vacation, when she found herself in Scotland during the UK Supreme Court ruling that sex is binary, a ruling that a certain rotted someone campaigned for heavily and celebrated afterward:

As a queer person, I hate her and won’t put another penny in her pocket, especially knowing that she’s funding organizations that harm trans people and is now also attacking asexual people, nor can I read the original books ever again. I can’t rewatch the old films and I will not be watching the new show.

However, I find tremendous comfort in reading queer stories about her characters, literally out of spite for her, and am thrilled when they’re (often) written better than anything she wrote.

But in addition to the dish course, we have some regular features I love, and that are very popular with the community as well!

Tarot After Dark

Every month, Carrie writes a Tarot After Dark post featuring a different tarot deck with close ups of some of the art work, and a new layout for questioning. We’ve been very fortunate that the designers of these layouts have been so generous to let us share them!

Carrie’s approach to tarot is very open and flexible:

My personal belief is that Tarot cards are effective for many not because of occult or supernatural occurrences, but because the images on the cards help the different parts of our brain communicate in different ways.

Often the querent (the person getting the reading) is stuck in a moment or a decision, and looking at the images on the cards and exploring their symbolism can help the subconscious talk to the conscious, ‘unsticking’ the querent by giving them a new way to read the cards.

Carrie also collects and loves to feature fascinating and gorgeous tarot decks, including from independent artists.

For example, her April Tarot After Dark, Road Trip, featured the Cephalopold Tarot Deck by Kitsune and used a spread from Owl and Bone, who not only granted permission but made a new graphic for the post to illustrate the layout.

Here’s an excerpt from that post.

Card: Six of Swords

An orange octopus steers narwhals across frothy waves towards calm waters.

The Six of Swords is all about leaving toxic shit behind. It is a complex card, depicting grief, hope, and empowerment in a single image. It represents a difficult departure, and many artists focus on the aspect of grief that is embodied in this card. However, the card is also a hopeful and triumphant one, and to me, the octopus steering six narwhals towards safety emphasizes the more joyous aspects of this card. The seas are scary and turbulent, but you can see calm seas just ahead!

This card in this position challenges the reader to explore not only the literal but also the spiritual and emotional. I am hoping to explore various locations. But I’m also hoping to rediscover joy, to remember how much potential for delight remains in life, and to test the limits of my physical abilities and my capacity to adapt to them realistically.

That will mean letting go of some dreams and allowing new ones to take their place, and it will mean releasing previous conceptions about my mobility and energy and replacing them with new ones. What do you want to discover?

I love this feature so, so much. Especially the May/June reading, titled, WTF?! using a layout with permission from artist Evvie Marin, who created the Interrobang Tarot.

After Dark at the Movies

Carrie is also popping popcorn and watching absolutely bonkers movies for After Dark at the Movies, prompting me to make another logo because it’s fun.

I would never, ever have heard of the film Hundreds of Beavers if not for Carrie writing about it at length:

Friends, Hundreds of Beavers is the kind of movie that makes me laugh uncontrollably while I’m convinced that I am going straight to hell. Some day, some wretched day, bitterness and cynicism will fill your soul and you will feel a deep need to howl your barbaric yawp into the void while pondering the cruelty and idiocy of life. That, dear Bitches, is when you need to watch Hundreds of Beavers.

Come for the community, stay for the Hundreds of Beavers, right?

After Dark Knitting Club

Elyse has been sharing her progress on various knitting projects and on some mystery knit-a-longs, which turned out to be stunning.

Gratuitous yarn pictures? Of course. Except not gratuitous; the exact right amount.

She also talks about what she’s watching or listening to while she knits, and there are usually cat pictures because of course there are.

Muzzy’s favorite job in our house is “Pattern” where she lays on whatever pattern you’re working on. She does it with me, with our friends — apparently “Pattern” is the best job.

A black cat lays on top of a knitting pattern
Clearly a very important job; excellent work Muzzy!

Quarterly Personal Book Recommendations

Every quarter, Amanda opens a form for personalized book recommendation requests from the community:

I want to stress that the more information you supply, the better I can match you with some great books.

I will fulfill the requests as they are received before the end of the quarter. Each person will receive an email from me with three books with some notes about why I selected each one.

I try not to pick books (or authors if I can help it) that are already on your Goodreads or Storygraph. If you’d like a nudge or help in what to prioritize from your TBR piles, I’m happy to do so! Just mention it in your responses.

The feedback from folks who have received Amanda’s curated suggestions have been extremely positive, including one reader who replied, “Amanda, thank you! I forgot what exactly this email was and read through thinking wow, these sound exactly like things I want to read, how random. Very excited to get reading.”

As you know, Amanda knows a lot about a lot of different books and loves to match-make, literary style.

Plus, every week Amanda shares Sales After Dark: more deals on books that are part of subscription services or are on a short-term sale, too.

Coming Soon!

We’ve got plans for the next six months, including online crafting and chatting gatherings, revisiting old skool romances, coverage of what hot topics are going around on social media, and more. I’ve also started sketching out how I can host online Romance Trivia evenings benefitting different charities. It’s a long Google doc of plans, is what I’m saying.

If you’d like to join Smart Bitches After Dark, it’s easy: $9 a month or $90 a year, and you’re all set! If you’re a reader who values what we do, and wants to keep the site open for everyone, we’d love to welcome you.

Thanks for being here, and for making the SBTB community the wonderful place that it is!

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/05/a-smart-bitches-after-dark-recap/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=145570

ysabetwordsmith

People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

If you could start a country from scratch, what would it be like?

Like this. :D

"The Evolution of Society as a Whole"

"The Most Effective Weapons"

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

This is the May community post for

allbingo. What were your bingo activities during May? What are your plans for June?

For May we had:
[new] Colors Bingo Fest hosted by

silvercat17
Inspired by the kind of prompts in

rainbowlists, this is a bingo format challenge based on creative color names and related concepts.
Posting will be from May 1-31.

For June we will have:
[new]
Pride Fest hosted by

drabblewriter
Celebrate ALL the orientations!
Posting will be June 1-30.

Current Mood: busy

bookviewcafe_feed

Posted by Sara Stamey

https://bookviewcafe.com/a-rambling-writer-rerun-thailand-part-9-around-koh-samui/

https://bookviewcafe.com/?p=19050

Join Thor and me as we continue our quest Seeking Clarity in tropic realms with great snorkeling. Koh Samui didn’t fit the bill, but was a fascinating destination.

NOTE: Due to health issues, Thor and I haven’t been able to do much travel the past few years, so here’s our Thailand trip from 2020. We were lucky to squeak through the pandemic flight closures that February of 2020 as we returned from our three-week trip. Now crazy times just keep getting crazier. So escape for a few minutes from our new American dystopia to a country as beautiful and colorful as a dream! I’ll interrupt the reruns with occasional book reviews or Geezer Adventures…. (This blog series began 3/15/2025.)

The island of Koh Samui had been recommended as a tropic paradise — and fifty years ago, it was apparently just that for hippie travelers seeking beautiful beaches and thrifty accommodations. Thor and I have been exploring winter destinations where we could spend time warming our arthritic bones, snorkeling, and tickling our travel urges. Thailand is indeed breathtakingly beautiful, with gorgeous temples and incredibly sweet people, but most of the islands have just been loved to death with rampant over-development of tourism. Way too many people for us! But we enjoyed checking out the attractions, and did score a terrific condo rental for a very reasonable price. View from our private deck; on the distant far right is Wat Plai Laem, a temple complex we will visit in next week’s blog post.

As I discussed earlier, the Thais are devout Buddhists, their religion incorporating elements of Hinduism and Chinese art/beliefs. Everywhere are shrines where people “make merit” by leaving offerings. This rather elaborate shrine graced the entrance to our condo.

I’m posting my complete blog entries on my own author website at www.sarastamey.com, where you can finish this episode and enjoy all the accompanying photos. Please continue reading by clicking on the link below, then you can return here (use “go back” arrow above) to comment, ask questions, or join a conversation. We love your responses!

https://sarastamey.com/the-rambling-writer-visits-thailand-part-9-around-koh-samui/

*****

You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s latest novel from Book View Café is Pause, a First Place winner of the Chanticleer Somerset Award and an International Pulpwood Queens Book Club selection. “A must-read novel about friendship, love, and killer hot flashes.” (Mindy Klasky). It’s also a love letter to the breathtaking wilderness of Sara’s native Pacific Northwest. Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com

https://bookviewcafe.com/a-rambling-writer-rerun-thailand-part-9-around-koh-samui/

https://bookviewcafe.com/?p=19050

apod_feed

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250530.html

This composite of images spaced a weather-permitting 5 to 9 days apart,

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250530.html

ysabetwordsmith

I have made bingo down the N column of my 5-1-25 card for the Colors Fest bingo. I also have 4 extra fills.

Bingo Badge

N1 (true colors) -- "Show My True Colors" (Polychrome Heroics: Farce)
N2 (all that glitters is not gold) -- "Liberosis" (A Poesy of Obscure Sorrows)
N3 (WILD CARD: deep blue sea) -- "Ruling from Beneath" (Polychrome Heroics: Kraken)
N4 (silver-tongued) -- "Heartspur" (A Poesy of Obscure Sorrows)
N5 (riot of color) -- "Cause a Riot of Color" (Polychrome Heroics: The Big One and Shiv)

B4 (the green stuff) -- Cookie Jar Terrarium Part 2: Planting

I5 (grey area) -- "A Lens of Ice" (Polychrome Heroics: Rutledge)

G3 (caught red-handed) -- "The Care and Feeding of Supervillains" (Polychrome Heroics: Dr. Infanta and Kraken)
G4 (pale imitation) -- "The More Bizarre It Gets" (Polychrome Heroics: Trichromatic Attachments)

Current Mood: accomplished

siderea

Back in 2013, I winnowed down the entire listings of Boston Early Music Festival events, official and fringe, to a curated concentrate of just concerts and other events featuring music from before 1600 AD. There were about 35 of them.

The 2025 BEMF is just nine days out and the Fringe Concerts listings updated today has a total of fewer than 30 listings.

ysabetwordsmith

These are active communities in Dreamwidth from Spring 2025. They include things I've posted, but only the active ones; the thematic posts also list dormant communities of interest. This list includes some communities that I've found and saved but haven't made it into thematic posts yet. This post covers A-I.

See my Follow Friday Master Post for more topics.

Highly active with multiple posts per day, daily posts, or too many to count easily
Active with (one, multiple, many) posts in (current or recent month)
Somewhat active (latest post within current year, not in last month or few)
Low traffic (latest post in previous year)
Dormant (latest post before previous year, but could be revived because membership is open and posting is open to all members or anyone)
Dead (not listed because there are no recent posts, plus membership and/or posting are moderated)
Note that some communities are only active during a limited time, or only have gather posts on a certain schedule.

Themes
Follow Friday 3-7-25: Meta
Follow Friday 3-14-25: Ghosts
Follow Friday 3-21-25: Glee
Follow Friday 3-28-25: Good Omens
Follow Friday 4-4-25: Goth
Follow Friday 4-11-25: Graphic Design
Follow Friday 4-18-25: Graphics
Follow Friday 4-25-25: Halloween
Follow Friday 5-2-25: Hannibal
Follow Friday 5-9-25: Harry Potter
Follow Friday 5-16-25: Heroes
Follow Friday 5-23-25: Het

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Today is mostly sunny and mild with a nice breeze.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 5/30/25 -- I trimmed grass along the west edge of the new picnic table.

EDIT 5/30/25 -- I started trimming weeds around the purple-and-white garden.

EDIT 5/30/25 -- I trimmed brush along the north side of the path to the ritual meadow. That filled two trolleys.

EDIT 5/30/25 -- I trimmed more brush along the north side of the path to the ritual meadow. That filled two trolleys.

EDIT 5/30/25 -- I finished trimming brush along the north side of the path to the ritual meadow.

EDIT 5/30/25 -- I trimmed weeds around the birdgift apple tree.

I've seen a catbird, a mourning dove, and a fox squirrel.

EDIT 5/30/25 -- I pulled weeds around the maple tree and the purple-and-white garden.

EDIT 5/30/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

.

Current Mood: busy

smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/05/dark-romance-a-boxed-set-more/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=145649

Someone to Romance

Someone to Romance by Mary Balogh is $2.99! This is book seven in the Westcott series. I don’t think it’s necessary to read them in order, but I know the characters are interconnected and it might make for a more enriching experience. Do you have a favorite in the series?

Love comes when you least expect it in this captivating new novel in the Wescott Regency romance series from New York Times bestselling author Mary Balogh.

Lady Jessica Archer lost her own interest in the glittering excitement of romance after her cousin and dearest friend, Abigail Westcott, was rejected by the ton when her father was revealed to be a bigamist. Ever practical, however, once she’s twenty-five, she decides it’s time to wed. Though she no longer believes she will find true love, she is still very eligible. She is, after all, the sister of Avery Archer, Duke of Netherby.

Jessica considers the many qualified gentlemen who court her. But when she meets the mysterious Gabriel Thorne, who has returned to England from the New World to claim an equally mysterious inheritance, Jessica considers him completely unsuitable, because he had the audacity, when he first met her, to announce his intention to wed her.

When Jessica guesses who Gabriel really is, however, and watches the lengths to which he will go in order to protect those who rely upon him, she is drawn to his cause—and to the man.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

One Cursed Rose

One Cursed Rose by Rebecca Zanetti is $1.99! I mentioned this one on a previous Hide Your Wallet. It’s described as a dark, contemporary Beauty and the Beast retelling. Have you read this one?

For fans of Scarlett St Clair and Sarah J Maas, New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Zanetti explores the forbidden and the taboo in this modern twist on Beauty and the Beast – the first in a seductive new dark romance series set in a world where information is power, and those who control the flow of information live like gods…

“Sexy and utterly engrossing!” —bestselling author J.T. Geissinger

They christened me Alana—and while the name means beauty, beneath that surface is a depth I allow very few to see. I’m sole heir to Aquarius Social, a media giant about to succumb to an unseen enemy. My father’s solution is to marry me off to the son of a competing family. My reaction? Not a chance. Now I have just a week before the wedding to change my fate.

Who knew the unforeseen twist would be an assassination attempt on me and an unwanted rescue by Thorn Beathach, the head of the rival social media empire driving Aquarius under? The richest, most ruthless of them all, the Beast protects his realm with an iron rule: no one sees his face. When he shows himself to me, I know he’ll never let me go.

Thorn may think he can lock me in his enchanted castle forever, but I’m not the docile Beauty he expects. If the Beast wants to tie me up, I’m going to take pleasure from every minute of it . . .and we’ll just see who ends up shackled.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

My Fair Concubine

My Fair Concubine by Jeannie Lin is $1.99 and a Kindle Daily Deal! This is a historical “My Fair Lady” style romance – set in the Tang Dynasty in China. Readers loved the retelling and the depth of characterization. However, some readers mentioned that the story dragged at time due to the lack of external conflict.

THE NOBLEMAN WHO TURNED A TEA GIRL INTO A PRINCESS…

Yan Ling tries hard to be servile-it’s what’s expected of a girl of her class. Being intelligent and strong-minded, she finds it a constant battle.

Proud Fei Long is unimpressed by her spirit-until he realizes she’s the answer to his problems. He has to deliver the emperor a “princess.” In two months can he train a tea girl to pass as a noblewoman?

Yet it’s hard to teach good etiquette when all Fei Long wants to do is break it, by taking this tea girl for his own…

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You can find ordering info for this book here.

Marie Benedict Historical Fiction Bundle

The Marie Benedict Historical Fiction Bundle by Marie Benedict is $3.99! This set contains four full-length historical fiction titles, which is not a bad deal for less than $4. We’ve featured some of these on sale before, so you may own part of the set.

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Marie Benedict has captivated readers with her gorgeous stories of the women forgotten to history.

Now, get four of her acclaimed novels in this specially priced e-book The Other Einstein, Carnegie’s Maid, The Only Woman in the Room, and Lady Clementine PLUS an exclusive excerpt from The Mystery of Mrs. Christie.

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