Wednesday, April 23rd, 2025 08:00 am

Posted by Amanda

This post is being sponsored by AdamandEve.com and they’ve offered us a coupon code for the Bitchery!

Here is the most important information:

AdamandEve.com is offering Smart Bitches readers 50% off a single item plus free standard shipping in the US and Canada with code SMART. Please note: certain exclusions apply, but the coupon covers most of the store.

If you’d like to see some of the toys we’ve featured in previous posts, check out our Adam & Eve tag!

I’ve titled this post “Summer Lovin'” as a reminder to, if you can, slow down and take some time for yourself (and/or your partner) during the lazy season. Also, yes…I hope the song is stuck in your head.

This post is extremely NSFW! You have been warned!

Loveline: The Traveler – $64.99 $32.50 – 50% off with SMART coupon!

This is a sleek and discreet travel vibrator with ten different vibration modes. It also contains a hidden compartment, if you wanted to fill it with lube or toy cleaner without worrying about the 3oz liquids limit. Very clever!

A burgundy small vibrator with a rose cold cap.

 

Eve’s Triple Pleasure Gift Set – $89.99 $45.00 – 50% off with SMART coupon!

I personally think this is a fantastic deal! Three toys for under $50?! I also find them to be super cute, if aesthetics matter to you in terms of toy choices. The set contains three separate bullet vibrators with different tips for a variety of sensation. I myself am a bullet evangelist and I’m tempted to grab these for myself.

A trio of bullet vibrators in different pastel colors. There's a pastel green vibrator with rabbit ears, a pastel purple with a rounded tip, and a pastel blue with an angled and textured tip.

 

Dolce Thumping G-Spot Vibrator – $99.99 $50.00 – 50% off with SMART coupon!

I’m really digging the design and color palette of this one. This vibe has two distinct sensations. One is vibration and the other is a thumping mode; both have ten different patterns each. Please note that this is only compatible with water-based lubricants.

A pink vibrator, kind of shaped like a Q. The middle is hollow and rimmed in gold.

 

Maia Shroomie Mini Wand Massager – $59.99 $30.00 – 50% with SMART Coupon

For all you readers who love a bit of whimsy, check out this mushroom-inspired vibrator! This one boasts 15 stimulation modes and is rechargeable. I honestly hate messing around with batteries, as inevitably things will die mid-use/ Nothing kills the mood quite like hunting for AAAs in your junk drawer or figuring out which remote to steal them from.

A small vibrator shaped like a mushroom with a white base and red top.

 

 

Slay Amaze Me Mini Rabbit Vibrator – $39.99 $20.00 – 50% off with SMART coupon!

Honestly, I could do a whole post on cute toys that look like other things. (Should I?) This rechargeable vibrator can run up to 90 minutes on a single charge, which is hella impressive. Plus, it’s waterproof and comes with a variety of vibration settings.

 

A teal vibrator in the shape of a rabbit. The bottom is rounded (like a weeble wooble) and is gold.

 

Thank you to Adam and Eve for the coupon, and for sponsoring this post!

Don’t forget – AdamandEve.com is offering Smart Bitches readers 50% off a single item plus free standard shipping in the US and Canada with code SMART. Please note: certain exclusions apply, but the coupon covers most of the store.

I hope you’re able to do something special for yourself this summer! If you have other recommendations from Adam & Eve, please leave them in the comments below.

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025 08:51 pm

transformativeworks:

Spotlight on Open DoorsALT

Garlic Press and Poison Pen Press, publishers of Star Trek: The Original Series fanzines including Spockanalia and Masiform D, are importing the zines’ fanworks to AO3. Learn more at: https://otw-news.org/2p93cjp7

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Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025 07:05 pm

Posted by therealmorticia

Garlic Press and Poison Pen Press, publishers of Star Trek: The Original Series fanzines including Spockanalia and Masiform D, are importing the zines’ fanworks to the Archive of Our Own (AO3).

In this post:

Background explanation

Spockanalia (1967-1970) was the very first all-Star Trek fanzine ever published, and Masiform D (1971-1998) was the longest running Star Trek fanzine, so Open Doors is delighted to be preserving these fanzines’ works as part of the AO3 Fanzine Scan Hosting Project (FSHP).

The fanzines to be imported are:

The purpose of the Open Doors Committee’s AO3 Fanzine Scan Hosting Project (FSHP) is to assist publishers of fanzines to incorporate the fanworks from those fanzines into the Archive of Our Own. It is extremely important to Open Doors that we work in collaboration with publishers who want to import their fanzines and that we fully credit creators, giving them as much control as possible over their fanworks. Open Doors will be working with Garlic Press and Poison Pen Press to import the fanzines listed above into separate, searchable collections on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving the fanzines in their entirety, all art in the fanzines will be hosted on the OTW’s servers and embedded in their own AO3 work pages.

We will begin importing works from Garlic Press and Poison Pen Press’s fanzines to the AO3 after April. However, the import may not take place for several months or even years, depending on the size and complexity of the task. Creators are always welcome to import their own works and add them to the collections in the meantime.

What does this mean for creators who had work(s) in Garlic Press and Poison Pen Press’s fanzines?

We will send an import notification to the email address we have for each creator. We’ll do our best to check for an existing copy of any works before importing. If we find a copy already on the AO3, we will add it to the collection instead of importing it. All works archived on behalf of a creator will include their name in the byline or the summary of the work.

All imported works will be set to be viewable only by logged-in AO3 users. Once you claim your works, you can make them publicly-viewable if you choose. After 30 days, all unclaimed imported works will be made visible to all visitors.

Please contact Open Doors with your creator pseud(s) and email address(es), if:

  1. You’d like us to import your works, but you need the notification sent to a different email address than the publishers have a record of.
  2. You already have an AO3 account and have imported your works already yourself.
  3. You’d like to import your works yourself (including if you don’t have an AO3 account yet).
  4. You would NOT like your works moved to the AO3, or would NOT like your works added to the fanzine collections.
  5. You are happy for us to preserve your works on the AO3, but would like us to remove your name.
  6. You have any other questions we can help you with.

Please include the name of the publisher or fanzine in the subject heading of your email. If you no longer have access to the email account the publishers have a record of, please contact Open Doors and we’ll help you out. (If you’ve posted the works elsewhere, or have an easy way to verify that they’re yours, that’s great; if not, we will work with Garlic Press and Poison Pen Press to confirm your claims.)

Please see the Open Doors website for instructions on:

If you still have questions…

If you have further questions, visit the Open Doors FAQ, or contact the Open Doors committee.

We’d also love it if fans could help us preserve the story of Garlic Press and Poison Pen Press and their fanzines on Fanlore. If you’re new to wiki editing, no worries! Check out the new visitor portal, or ask the Fanlore Gardeners for tips.

We’re excited to be able to help preserve Garlic Press and Poison Pen Press’s fanzines!

– The Open Doors team and Devra Langsam

Commenting on this post will be disabled in 14 days. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments regarding this import after that date, please contact Open Doors.

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025 12:49 pm

Posted by Zach Weinersmith



Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
The thing I miss most about the 90s is the ability to time travel.


Today's News:
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025 03:30 pm

Posted by Amanda

A Letter to the Luminous Deep

RECOMMENDED: A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvia Cathrall is $2.99 and a Kindle Daily Deal! Elyse read this one and gave it an A:

If you are looking for a cozy fantasy read with excellent romance and worldbuilding, I highly recommend Letters to the Luminous Deep.

A charming fantasy set in an underwater world with magical academia and a heartwarming penpal romance, perfect for fans of A Marvellous Light, Emily Wilde’s Encylopaedia of Faeries and The House in the Cerulean Sea.

“An underwater treasure-chest to be slowly unpacked, full of things I adore: nosy and loving families, epistolary romance, gorgeous worldbuilding, and anxious scholars doing their best to meet the world with kindness and curiosity.” —Freya Marske, author of A Marvellous Light

A beautiful discovery outside the window of her underwater home prompts the reclusive E. to begin a correspondence with renowned scholar Henerey Clel. The letters they share are filled with passion, at first for their mutual interests, and then, inevitably, for each other.

Together, they uncover a mystery from the unknown depths, destined to transform the underwater world they both equally fear and love. But by no mere coincidence, a seaquake destroys E.’s home, and she and Henerey vanish.

A year later, E.’s sister Sophy, and Henerey’s brother Vyerin, are left to solve the mystery, piecing together the letters, sketches and field notes left behind—and learn what their siblings’ disappearance might mean for life as they know it.

Inspired, immersive, and full of heart, this charming epistolary tale is an adventure into the depths of a magical sea and the limits of the imagination from a marvelous debut voice.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Swordcrossed

Swordcrossed by Freya Marske is $2.99! Many of us were very excited for this release. Sarah also had Marske on the podcast to talk about it.

High heat. Low stakes. Sharp steel.

The cozy, low stakes of Legends & Lattes meets the scorching bodyguard fantasy of Jennifer L. Armentrout’s From Blood and Ash in this enemies-to-lovers romance where, yes, the swords do cross.

A LitHub most anticipated book of 2024

Mattinesh Jay, dutiful heir to his struggling family business, needs to hire an experienced swordsman to serve as best man for his arranged marriage. Sword-challenge at the ceremony could destroy all hope of restoring his family’s wealth, something that Matti has been trying—and failing—to do for the past ten years.

What he can afford, unfortunately, is part-time con artist and full-time charming menace Luca Piere.

Luca, for his part, is trying to reinvent himself in a new city. All he wants to do is make some easy money and try to forget the crime he committed in his hometown. He didn’t plan on being blackmailed into giving sword lessons to a chronically responsible—and inconveniently handsome—wool merchant like Matti.

However, neither Matti’s business troubles nor Luca himself are quite what they seem. As the days count down to Matti’s wedding, the two of them become entangled in the intrigue and sabotage that have brought Matti’s house to the brink of ruin. And when Luca’s secrets threaten to drive a blade through their growing alliance, both Matti and Luca will have to answer the how many lies are you prepared to strip away, when the truth could mean losing everything you want?

“There’s nothing in fantasy or queer romance that Marske can’t do.”—Sarah Rees Brennan

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Dream Girl Drama

Dream Girl Drama by Tessa Bailey is $1.99! This is book three in the Big Shots series, which are sports romances. I believe Elyse has enjoyed these! Fingers crossed this deal doesn’t poof!

A steamy chance encounter between a professional hockey player and the manic pixie dream girl he just can’t seem to forget takes a turn when the pair realize that their parents are engaged—in an all-new rom-com by #1 New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey.

When professional hockey player Sig Gauthier’s car breaks down and his phone dies, he treks into a posh private country club to call a tow truck, where he encounters the alluring Chloe Clifford, the manic pixie dream girl who captivates him immediately with her sense of adventure and penchant for stealing champagne.

Sparks fly during a moonlight kiss and the enamored pair can’t wait to see each other again, but when Sig finally arrives to meet his dad’s new girlfriend over dinner, Chloe is confusingly also there. Turns out the girlfriend is Chloe’s mother. Oh, and they’re engaged.

Sig’s dream girl is his future stepsister.

Though the pair is now wary of being involved romantically, Chloe, a sheltered harp prodigy, yearns to escape her controlling mother. Sig promises to teach her the ins and outs of independence in Boston—but not inside his bedroom. They both know there can never be more than friendship between a famous hockey player and his high-society, soon-to-be stepsister. But keeping their relationship platonic grows harder amid the developing family drama, especially knowing they were meant for so much more…

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

A Master of Djinn

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark is $2.99! I picked this one for a previous Hide Your Wallet. Historical fantasy mystery with a badass main character and a supportive girlfriend.

Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner P. Djèlí Clark returns to his popular alternate Cairo universe for his fantasy novel debut, A Master of Djinn

Cairo, 1912: Though Fatma el-Sha’arawi is the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, she’s certainly not a rookie, especially after preventing the destruction of the universe last summer.

So when someone murders a secret brotherhood dedicated to one of the most famous men in history, al-Jahiz, Agent Fatma is called onto the case. Al-Jahiz transformed the world 50 years ago when he opened up the veil between the magical and mundane realms, before vanishing into the unknown. This murderer claims to be al-Jahiz, returned to condemn the modern age for its social oppressions. His dangerous magical abilities instigate unrest in the streets of Cairo that threaten to spill over onto the global stage.

Alongside her Ministry colleagues and her clever girlfriend Siti, Agent Fatma must unravel the mystery behind this imposter to restore peace to the city – or face the possibility he could be exactly who he seems…

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025 02:00 pm

Posted by Amanda

This HaBO is from Britain, who wants to find this romance:

I was hoping you could maybe help me find the title of this book I’ve read a couple of years ago.

I don’t remember much, but I remember the heroine working in social media or something like that and she wants to create a platform/app for women and their body sizes. Heroine meets the hero (who I believe plays sports. I don’t remember if it was hockey or boxing or something else) at dinner with her friend who is also her partner for this platform/app. Somebody takes a photo of the heroine and hero standing close to each other, making everyone assuming they’re dating. They enter a fake dating arrangement, but later on the heroine ends the arrangement when she see photos of the hero with another woman taken during the hero’s night out celebrating the team’s win. It turns out the other woman is a friend of the hero and he has been helping this woman by pretending to her boyfriend because she gets harassed a lot by men since her body developed early. That’s all I can remember. I think it was an indie book so maybe it’s not that known.

Any lead would be appreciated! I’ve been hunting this for a while now.

Let’s HaBO!

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025 01:00 pm

Posted by john (the hubby of Jen)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thanks to Julie Anne, Annabel J., Allison M., & Natalia L. for forcing all the kids out there to explain "Trololo" to their parents.

*****

P.S. This one's for the groom and all my fellow gamers out there:

"I Paused My Game To Be Here" T-Shirt

It comes in lots of fun colors at the link, plus classic gray and black.

*****

And from my other blog, Epbot:

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025 11:00 am

Posted by Tracey Cataldo

My wife and I are socially monogamous but have a DADT arrangement that applies if we’re not in our home city. While my wife would prefer that I divulge details to her, I don’t want to hear her details, so we defaulted to DADT based on my preferences. Because we aren’t out to friends about … Read More »

The post Defaulting appeared first on Dan Savage.

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025 11:00 am

Posted by Nancy Hartunian

My what a busy friend! While a woman and her boyfriend were going through a painful, temporary separation, she confided in and was consoled by a male, bi friend of hers. He helped her through the difficult time. But he was also propositioning her ex-boyfriend at the same, damn time! Now that she is back … Read More »

The post In Defense of Faking Orgasms appeared first on Dan Savage.

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025 07:00 am

Posted by Amanda

Welcome back!

It’s another short and sweet release week for us! However, the last week of April promises to be much beefier.

Is there anything you’re excited for this week? Let us know in the comments!

Anywhere You Go

Anywhere You Go by Bridget Morrissey

Author: Bridget Morrissey
Released: April 22, 2025 by Berkley
Genre: , ,

A small-town waitress and a big-city Broadway press agent swap homes to escape the messiness of their personal lives, only to find new purpose—and new love.

Tatum Ward and Eleanor Chapman lead totally opposite lives. Tatum’s never left her Midwestern hometown. She resides in a quaint guest cottage on her parents’ property while working part-time as a waitress, where she spends most shifts ignoring her feelings for a beautiful regular named June. Eleanor dedicates every waking hour to her high-profile press career, sacrificing personal relationships for professional success, save for the occasional hookup to fight off her loneliness. When both women’s lives unexpectedly blow up at the exact same time, they each need an escape, and fast.

In Tatum’s hometown, Eleanor expects a quiet hideaway where she can recharge. Instead she gets wrapped up in the family drama that Tatum left town to avoid, pulled in by Tatum’s charismatic older sibling, Carson, who charms Eleanor at every turn. Tatum ends up in Eleanor’s New York high-rise apartment with June. One week together in the big city might make it impossible for Tatum to avoid not just her true feelings for June, but her real dreams for her life.

Amid a friendship with a reclusive Hollywood actress and a complicated family reunion, Tatum and Eleanor each discover much more than they bargained for away from home. Their house swap won’t last forever, but it might be just long enough for both women to surrender their defenses and finally fight for the life—and love—they deserve.

Sarah: Aside from having one of the most beautiful covers, I have a quiet weakness for house-swap romances.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

Bold Moves

Bold Moves by Emma Barry

Author: Emma Barry
Released: April 22, 2025 by Montlake
Genre: ,

From the author of Bad Reputation comes a smart and sexy second-chance romance, where exes reunite to adapt a memoir, only to discover that after a decade apart, they might finally be ready for more.

Working with your ex isn’t that bad an idea—not with artistic integrity on the line. Jaime Croft is determined to prove his directorial range, and Scarlett Arbuthnot’s biography is the perfect project. He once thought Scarlett was his perfect match too, but it’s been seventeen years. Surely he’s over it by now.

Or maybe not.

Scarlett is a grand master taking the chess world by storm. If she can handle that pressure, she can handle Jaime Croft. Even if that means working together in close quarters…and constant reminders of how she broke his heart. She didn’t do it without reason, but if he knew the details, he would despise her even more.

As Jaime and Scarlett pore over her memoir, they unlock their own memories, and old feelings rise to the surface. But giving in means abandoning the walls they’ve built to protect themselves, and that’s a move neither one seems ready to make.

Emma Barry’s books have been recommended before and this one features a grand master chess player as the heroine!

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

Great Big Beautiful Life

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

Author: Emily Henry
Released: April 22, 2025 by Berkley
Genre: ,

Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry.

Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: To write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years—or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the 20th Century.

When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game.

One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over.

Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication.

Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as competition.

But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room.

And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad…depending on who’s telling it.

Lara: I will read anything Emily Henry writes, even though it always makes me cry.

Elyse: I ordered the Afterlight special edition of this and I can’t wait to read it.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

Monday, April 21st, 2025 05:37 pm

Long ago, what YouTube tells me is Seven Years Ago, Gabe ran an episode of my old Acquisitions Incorporated: The "C" Team show. Called simply Jimterlude, because it was a Mike Krahulik DM Experience Tee Em, of course it involved an incredibly elaborate, fully functional board game called Wizard Kart. I want to emphasize that Wizard Kart is our wholly owned, original IP and any resemblance or even direct references to other games are either just some thing you made up or direct attacks on our sovereignty. In either case, they're deeply unwelcome!!!