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Everyone I Kissed Since You Got Famous by Mae Marvel is $2.99! Marvel is the writing duo of Ruthie Knox and her wife, Annie Mare. This book was mentioned in Hide Your Wallet and Dahlia’s queer romance round-up.
An actress home for the holidays makes a bet with her former best friend-turned-online sensation.
Katie Price is known in every living room in America. A small-town Wisconsin girl who became an A-list star, she rarely makes it home, but this year is different… Little does she know it will lead her straight into the piercing blue-eyed gaze of Wil Greene.
A lot has happened in the decade since those cold Wisconsin nights when Wil and Katie drove around in Wil’s Bronco senior year. Since then, Wil’s law career hasn’t taken off. Her father passed away. And what started as a personal challenge―kissing a new person twice a week, every week―has made her a growing sensation, but her life is still stuck in phase one. Through the years, the two have never left each other’s thoughts and desires, but now suddenly, they are back in each others’ lives. Their reconnection is instantaneous and the passion is palpable… but can it stand the test of time?
Witty, emotional, and steamy, Everyone I Kissed Since You Got Famous is an unforgettable romantic read for everyone who almost kissed their best friend. And then finally did.
RECOMMENDED: The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow is $2.99! I read this one and gave it a B+:
If you’re in the mood for a lovely, tender fantasy novel about belonging and one that feels more like a long, relaxing bath than a hot, intense shower will all of the fancy pressure and pulsating settings you can imagine, you’ll love this one. It’s a soothing pick for when you hope to take comfort in a book
In the early 1900s, a young woman searches for her place in the world after finding a mysterious book in this captivating and lyrical debut.
In a sprawling mansion filled with peculiar treasures, January Scaller is a curiosity herself. As the ward of the wealthy Mr. Locke, she feels little different from the artifacts that decorate the halls: carefully maintained, largely ignored, and utterly out of place.
Then she finds a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds, and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. Each page turn reveals impossible truths about the world and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black is $2.99! This is book one in The Folk of the Air series. This is a pretty popular series, though I haven’t gotten around to reading it. Is it more new adult or young adult in content?
Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.
And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.
Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.
To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.
In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.
Rookie Move by Sarina Bowen is $1.99! This is book one in the Brooklyn Bruisers series about a hockey team. Both Elyse and I have enjoyed books in this series. Readers loved the second chance romance in this book, but found the pacing in the first half a bit slow.
The first novel in a sexy new series featuring the hockey players of the Brooklyn Bruisers and the women who win their hearts—from the USA Today bestselling author of the Ivy Years series.
In high school they were the perfect couple—until the day Georgia left Leo in the cold…
Hockey player Leo Trevi has spent the last six years trying to do two things: get over the girl who broke his heart, and succeed in the NHL. But on the first day he’s called up to the newly franchised Brooklyn Bruisers, Leo gets checked on both sides, first by the team’s coach—who has a long simmering grudge, and then by the Bruisers’ sexy, icy publicist—his former girlfriend Georgia Worthington.
Saying goodbye to Leo was one of the hardest things Georgia ever had to do—and saying hello again isn’t much easier. Georgia is determined to keep their relationship strictly professional, but when a press conference microphone catches Leo declaring his feelings for her, things get really personal, really fast….
oursinThis one, true, does sound like A Good Egg, The pioneering medic and campaigner for reproductive choices, in Ireland before these were legal: until right at the end, 'he has continued to campaign on controversial issues, including fluoridation of drinking water', masking during the Covid epidemic, and other things not specifically mentioned. Okay, some of the early Malthusian pioneers were also into things like anti-vax - voila T R Allinson - but just possibly there was a certain getting locked into the role of being 'He's A Rebel'.
Not sure that was quite the same trajectory with DNA James Watson, who seems to have had an interesting arc from being Very Successful at a Very Early Career Stage and never quite achieving the second album and becoming Weird. The Guardian obit mentions his being taken up as a very young researcher by Naomi Mitchison, but not that she dedicated Solution Three to 'Jim Watson who first suggested this horrid idea'.
On the subject of breeding, which sort of springs out of that, do we think that anyone would WANT the seed of these charmers: inside the hidden world of social media sperm selling:
One common tactic often warned about in these communities is that men will pressure women into sex, telling those who want to use “artificial insemination” with a syringe or baster, that sexual intercourse is more successful at producing pregnancies, which is not true. Sex, euphemistically referred to as “natural insemination” in these groups, is not the preferred method for most women, and yet recipients who are desperate to get pregnant can be persuaded to allow their boundaries to be crossed. Many of the posts in the groups are from people who will donate only through sex or through a method they call “partial insemination”, where the donor’s penis is inserted immediately before ejaculation.
Plus also just plain scammers. And
While sexual assault and harassment is rife, there are also risks of serious sexually transmitted diseases, hidden genetic disorders and creating a child with someone to whom you could end up being legally bound for life.
Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) is a prescription-only treatment recommended under national guidelines for men with a clinically proven deficiency, confirmed by symptoms and repeated blood tests. But a wave of viral videos on TikTok and Instagram have begun marketing blood tests as a means of accessing testosterone as lifestyle supplement, advertising the hormone as a solution to problems such as low energy levels, poor concentration and reduced sex drive. Doctors warn taking testosterone unnecessarily can suppress the body’s natural hormone production, cause infertility, and increase the risk of blood clots, heart problems and mood disorders.
solarbirdWe saw what happened last night. If you didn’t: eight fuckheads went over (7 Democrats, 1 Republican) to end the shutdown. They got absolutely fucking nothing for it. NOTHING.
The Democrats and one independant siding with Republicans on the vote Sunday night were Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., John Fetterman, D-Pa., Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Tim Kaine, D-Va., Angus King, I-Maine, Jackie Rosen, D-Nev., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.
However. There’s one last long shot, but you have to go from zero to 100 on this right the fuck now. You may not have until the afternoon, you almost certainly don’t have until tomorrow. You’ve got to go RIGHT NOW.
There’s going to be a series of steps before this is over. As I understand it, IT IS NOT YET OVER, THERE IS ONE MORE 60-PERSON VOTE. We have to get at least one of these fuckheads to go “oh shit, what was I doing?” and change their mind.
They need to see an absolute eruption of fury.
I don’t want to link to Threads, so I’m posting text from a post there, telling you to WRITE, CALL, BOMBARD ON SOCIAL MEDIA, SCREAM, most particularly at these four:
TIM KAINE (VA)
MAGGIE HASSAN (NH)
JEANNE SHAHEEN (NH)
JACKY ROSEN (NV)
Quoting OP:
“Is the shutdown over? Not yet. Tonight’s vote was only step 1 of 5. There’s still another 60-vote hurdle, amendments, and then the House. Nothing has reopened. Pressure matters right now—especially on (Tim Kaine, VA), (Maggie Hassan, NH), (Jeanne Shaheen, NH), and (Jacky Rosen, NV).”
Here’s what I wrote variations of tonight, just after the betrayal vote:
How DARE you cave?
HOW. DARE. YOU. CAVE.
The Republicans are toxic, the election gave Democrats their first hope in a year, Trump is the most unpopular he’s ever been and you’re SURRENDERING?! You’re giving up the ONLY piece of leverage we have in exchange for… a fucking SHOW VOTE? A show vote that means NOTHING?! From a party who LIES like they BREATHE?
I am repulsed. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!
Frankly it’d serve you right if they didn’t even have the show vote. I hope they don’t. I hope they rub your face in it.
I want my goddamn contributions back. I need to send them to whoever primaries you, and the rest of your little pack of coward turncoats. Seriously, if there was a way after all this time to yank back every dollar I gave you, I would.
Yeah, I know, I’m not a constituent but this fascist MAGA Republican Party budget affects me just as much as everyone else and you’re the one yanking them from the jaws of defeat to hand them a victory.
Clear the goddamn seat and make room for someone who might actually vote like a Democrat.
Frankly – you should just resign.
Get loud. Right now.
And primary every single one of these motherfuckers. They’ve all got to go.
Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.
yhlee
cimorenewaxjism for the first time in two years or something. Maybe because I told her I was not as qualified as she was to post about the eclairs.otw_news_feedFandom Friendships: A Zine explores and honors friendships made and sustained through fandom.
The zine was open to contributions from anyone and solicited contributions last year. Contributors were asked questions like:
Just some of what this compilation includes tells the story of: friends showing up in a time of a parent’s death during the pandemic, the bonding capabilities of Superwholock and K-pop, what happens when you move in with someone you met when you were teenagers bonding over Merlin, friendships lost, and the unique medium of fanfiction.net forums.
Please join us in celebrating this zine! You can read and download a copy for yourself at: Fandom Friendships: A Zine .
The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan-run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.
bruce_schneier_feedEncryption can protect data at rest and data in transit, but does nothing for data in use. What we have are secure enclaves. I’ve written about this before:
Almost all cloud services have to perform some computation on our data. Even the simplest storage provider has code to copy bytes from an internal storage system and deliver them to the user. End-to-end encryption is sufficient in such a narrow context. But often we want our cloud providers to be able to perform computation on our raw data: search, analysis, AI model training or fine-tuning, and more. Without expensive, esoteric techniques, such as secure multiparty computation protocols or homomorphic encryption techniques that can perform calculations on encrypted data, cloud servers require access to the unencrypted data to do anything useful.
Fortunately, the last few years have seen the advent of general-purpose, hardware-enabled secure computation. This is powered by special functionality on processors known as trusted execution environments (TEEs) or secure enclaves. TEEs decouple who runs the chip (a cloud provider, such as Microsoft Azure) from who secures the chip (a processor vendor, such as Intel) and from who controls the data being used in the computation (the customer or user). A TEE can keep the cloud provider from seeing what is being computed. The results of a computation are sent via a secure tunnel out of the enclave or encrypted and stored. A TEE can also generate a signed attestation that it actually ran the code that the customer wanted to run.
Secure enclaves are critical in our modern cloud-based computing architectures. And, of course, they have vulnerabilities:
The most recent attack, released Tuesday, is known as TEE.fail. It defeats the latest TEE protections from all three chipmakers. The low-cost, low-complexity attack works by placing a small piece of hardware between a single physical memory chip and the motherboard slot it plugs into. It also requires the attacker to compromise the operating system kernel. Once this three-minute attack is completed, Confidential Compute, SEV-SNP, and TDX/SDX can no longer be trusted. Unlike the Battering RAM and Wiretap attacks from last month—which worked only against CPUs using DDR4 memory—TEE.fail works against DDR5, allowing them to work against the latest TEEs.
Yes, these attacks require physical access. But that’s exactly the threat model secure enclaves are supposed to secure against.
spikedluvsmartbitches_feedBig news!!
You’ll still see ads in the sidebar, or between content if you’re on mobile but that adserver is in-house – meaning I manage, administer, and control it.
Which also means that you won’t run into ads for things that are offensive or anathema to the community values here at SBTB, such as banners for pregnancy “crisis” centers, concealed carry options, right-wing candidates or referendums, or *shudder* ICE.
I won’t get into the long story of trying to play whack-a-mole with advertisers who may not always represent their businesses accurately, but I can say that over the past few months, trying to stay ahead of ads that are harmful or appalling has been a job. I have categories I approve of, and categories I requested be blocked, but that doesn’t mean that the ad itself is coded correctly by the advertiser. One hypothetical example: homeland security is not “home and garden.”
You may have noticed the proliferation of ICE ads and other DHS blather freaking everywhere, and many outlets have been covering how Spotify, HBO, and other streaming services are replete with these ads.
I’ve been dealing with a similar challenge with the podcast – a listener let me know a dynamic ad for ICE recruitment had run prior to the show, and as a result they would no longer be listening. To be clear: I don’t blame them. I am eternally grateful that they let me know what was happening, and grateful to the podcast community for helping me turn off those external ads, too.
Basically, not to dwell on this though I think and rant about it A LOT, it’s lucrative to run right wing ads. Right wing grift is abhorrently well-funded, and being complacent and letting ads like those run means more passive money for the creator (me) and for the platform that serves the ads.
Ad spend for these spots tops $20 billion dollars, and comes with higher percentages of revenue for creators than non-political campaigns. In other words, they’re more profitable than your average ad, and businesses like podcast platforms, streaming services, and internet ad brokers want to run them.
They make SO much freaking money.
Your support through After Dark membership means I can remove all of them for everyone who visits.
Your support has made the site better for all the readers who come to hang out here. Thank you.
Other upgrades that aren’t as visible include a server upgrade (woo!) and a caching options that should make the site load much faster, plus some improved functions coming in 2026.
One example: I’ll be moving the SBTB Daily newsletter and the Books on Sale newsletter from MailChimp to an in-house newsletter manager (as soon as I, um, teach myself how to use it) and SBTB will be able to offer weekly digest options and a newsletter of just After Dark content for community members!
And as I mentioned earlier in October, we’ve got plans for fun stuff:
*I procured some truly opulent old skool romances and will be sharing pics and requesting direction on which one to read and review first.
And I’ll be continuing with the monthly Crafty Zoom Zoomy Craft hangouts, plus Tarot After Dark, After Dark at the Movies, our in-depth commentary and analysis about romance and publishing trends, and everything else you’ve been enjoying.
But most of all:
I am having trouble finding the right words to explain how much that means.
In the past 20 years, everything about the internet has changed, and very few people are doing what we do here at Smart Bitches. I take your trust in us very seriously, and I don’t take for granted that we’re part of your digital routine when you visit.
We’re turning 21 in January, and I’m really looking forward to celebrating another year with all of you.
If you’re not a member of After Dark, and would like to join, we would LOVE to have you.
Because if our community is important to you, we need your help to keep our doors open to everyone who wants to connect with romance readers around the world to discuss the books we love to read.
Also – if all these gifs are making you think about how much you want to watch Robin Hood: Men in Tights, here are your streaming options!
smartbitches_feedWelcome back to Cover Snark!
Kiki: Hey friends, have we considered moving to shelter and NOT standing in the middle of the road while a tornado heads towards us?
Elyse: Pretty fucking relaxed about that tornado.
Sarah: It’s the tornado of love don’t you get it.
It’s going to bring them even closer together. By smashing them with debris.
Tara: They are letting fate decide!
Sneezy: I need them to not with this “first characters to die in a horror movie” energy.
Elyse: Deez are my teefs.
Amanda: When we can see our cats’ teeth peeking out while they’re sleeping, we call them Teefer Sutherlands.
Sarah: I had another root canal this week (my fifth this year – one more and I get a free one!) and because I need extra anaesthetic, this is literally what I was doing all day. Can I feel my face? No? Still no. Is my nose moving? No? Ok. Am I drooling? Ugh, yes.
Sneezy: Root canal is hot now. You heard it here first, folks!!!
From MegCat: I have questions. Where is her butt? Is she kneeing him in the balls? How come both of them look so effortless in what would be a physically challenging pose to hold for both of them? How long until they both fall over? Should I really have looked at this cover just fresh off a workout when my brain was still in “what muscles should I be working?” mode…
Sarah: First, they’re going to fall over. No idea which direction but gravity will win.
Second, my physical therapist would be HORRIFIED at how they’re treating his lumbar region. Third, is that Olivia Wilde?
Elyse: His hamstrings must be hella loose.
Sarah: Or his ankles are in cement?
Lara: Her legs don’t seem long enough, somehow.
Sneezy: Is she kneeing him in the balls?
Sarah: It really looks like that’s the case – maybe that’s why he’s half bent forward? Nailed him right in the pool noodle.
From Leslie – who designs covers: When I design book covers I always reduce them to thumbnail size to make sure they read well because that is how most of us are going to first encounter a new book, particularly via booksellers’ newsletters. Here’s a fail in that regard.
At first I thought the gal’s varicose veins had ruptured. Then I thought she had red tinfoil wrapped around her legs. After I figured out those red wrinkled things are boots, I got confused about the right boot tip. Is that a cloven hoof?
And eeeuwww—ass crack alert! I like a shapely male tush as much as the next woman, but even on a good body an ass crack is not edgy or sexy, it’s just an ass crack. In that regard, this cover offers up a “2-for” with those droopy jeans, the ever predictable result of in an ass-crack situation. Shout out to the gal wrapped around our hero for doing her heroic best to pull his pants up.
One last rant: I am so over grey bodies on covers when served up with a hit of color. I’d have to look through my graphic trick book but I think this is trick no. 32—a hard one to do well. Case in point: dead bodies with animate boots.
But those boots ain’t walking. I say cook ’m up and serve ’m since they seem more like raw steak than boots. I’ll take mine well done.”
Sarah: I can’t tell if the pants are going up or down, but her ankles and calves do look violently abused.
Also everything in the composition is pointing to the asscrack. Why?
Amanda: Meanwhile, I find his vertebrae very distracting.
Sneezy: Those look like heels…the pointy front makes me think the heel is the skinny stiletto kind.
mindstalkI've been reading Goodman's The Domestic Revolution and should blog about it sometime, but a brief post for now. In my current section she's been talking about the evolution of cleaning as Britain transitioned to burning coal in homes, like how beforehand cleaning was mostly sweeping/brush, scrubbing with wood ash or sand, and using lye on laundry. Also talking about massive advertising by the later soap companies, associating soap with all forms of cleanliness, and British imperialists overlooking ways that e.g. Chinese people were cleaning their homes, like earlier British people.
Anyway, one thing she says is that often just hot water will get something clean, but a lot of people won't accept it unless soap was involved, and that echoed with me. Even as a kid, I noticed that if you rinse a bowl used for milk-and-cereal right away, that's pretty much all it needs. Ditto for a glass of orange juice. But if you let them sit and develop dried milk or juice residue, then eww.
Much more recently I'd noticed that hard surfaces, when greasy, often get clean just from a jet of hot water, like the grease simply melts off. Cleaning to the point of being squeaky-clean, even. But, I realized, today, it may really depend on the material.
Metal fork and spoon? Squeak.
Ceramic (or maybe hard plastic, I'm not sure in this Airbnb)? Squeak.
Rubbermaid plastic? Nope. A lot leaves, but a greasy film and its tomato stain remained, until I brought soap in.
Notably, I was removing the same stuff in all three cases: a fatty tomato pork sauce. To be fair, the Rubbermaid had been storing the sauce for days, while the other pieces only had minutes of exposure. Still, I suspect that glass storage could have gotten clean with just hot water.
torachan
runpunkrun - #684, Bashōlsanderson - 2025.11.10smartbitches_feed - Holly Black, Hockey Romance, & Moreemrinalexander - The place I liveemrinalexander - US supreme court finally does something rightoursin - Menz....solarbird - Get on ’em RIGHT NOWyhlee - weaving underway!cimorene - Delicious delicious vanilla custardotw_news_feed - Fandom Friendships: A Zinebruce_schneier_feed - New Attacks Against Secure Enclavesspikedluv - The Day in Spikedluv (Sunday, Nov 9)smartbitches_feed - Thanks to Smart Bitches After Darksnowynight - Music Monday: Toy-Box - Tarzan & Jane (Official Music Video)oursin - (no subject)smartbitches_feed - Cover Snark: Let Fate Decide!mindstalk - non-soap cleaningsettiai - Titansfall D&D: Summary for 11/9 Gamemuccamukk - Music It's Monday Most Placestorachan - Daily Happinesstimeasmymeasure
