Category Archives: Book Talk

Decades: A Journey of African American Romance Guest Author Patricia Sargeant Talks Hope, Love, Courage on the Decades Journey

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Hi friends! I’m delighted to welcome back Patricia Sargeant, who is a total sweetheart. We’ve had a slight deviation in schedule, and Patricia, who has been awesome throughout the year with organizing posts and such, stepped in. <3 It’s a really thoughtful, wonderful post, so I hope you read it and chime in!

Also, if you’ve missed any of the previous Decades posts at ALBTALBS you can find them all here. 🙂

Decades: A Journey of African American Romance
Guest Author Patricia Sargeant Talks Hope, Love, Courage on the Decades Journey

Note: The Decades: A Journey of African American Romance series launched in January 2018. It consists of 12 books, one released each month. Each story is set in one of 12 decades between 1900 and 2010. Each story focuses on the romance between African American protagonists, but also embraces the African American experience within that decade. Join the journey on our Facebook page.

My research for my Decades story, Campaign for Her Heart – Decades: A Journey of African American Romance, Book 12, reinforced for me a widely held belief that history is cyclical. I realize that my story is set in the 2010, 2012 to be exact. But to understand where we are, it’s important to understand where we’ve come from. For example, Black Lives Matter was founded on July 29, 2013, in response to deadly violence against black and brown people by states and vigilantes. That fact takes on a different perspective when you consider that 96 years earlier, hundreds of people participated in the Silent March, a demonstration that took place in New York City on July 29, 1917, in protest of the vicious lynchings and other race-related violence against African Americans. Continue reading →

My [Limecello’s] 2018 Reads Part 1

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Hi friends! I think it’s pretty clear we’re uh … >.> pretty chill here at ALBTALBS (A Little Bit Tart, A Little Bit Sweet). Also that blogging has become largely dictated by various aspects of my health. I’m a bit mixed because I feel like I should apologize, but also that I absolutely should not because you know. Medical issues. A) It’s absolutely not something I can control, and obviously if I could I wouldn’t be in the boat I am now. Which speaking of boats, perhaps someone should send one because holy cow all the rain of late.

ANYWAY. That’s the vague update on the “state of things” currently. Now let’s get to the fun stuff which is … books I’ve read from January-June 2018. I’ve already posted Aidee and Babs‘ lists, which you should definitely check out. They had some overlap.

I haven’t been reading as much this year – but it’s been picking up some, and I always hope to read more.  So here we go! This list also isn’t set in stone – it’s what I have documented which may be hit or miss. Continue reading →

Babs’ Books Read January-June 2018

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Hi friends! Me again and my bad, jumping on on Babs’ list, which she :X sent me back on 7/11. I hope you’re enjoying these lists, that you can maybe add (or take!) from your TBR – and possibly find a reviewer that your book taste lines up with. 😀 Cheers!

Babs’ Books Read January-June 2018
January
Flame in the Dark (Soulwood #3) by Faith Hunter B+ (The mmpb at $7.83 is actually a smidge cheaper than the kindle version, and I don’t know if this is universal but the page is also showing me there’s a 48¢ extra coupon.)
Beyond the Empire (The Indranan War #3) by K.B. Wagers B+
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Vol. 1: BFF by Amy Reeder B+
Faith and the Future Force #1 by Jody Houser B (You can get 1-4 in paperback for just $7.40 right now!)  Continue reading →

Aidee’s Mid-Year List of Books Read

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*EN: Hi friends! I’ve been under the weather and just mblergh, so apologies for the delays and nothingness – but we’re trucking along and Aidee sent me those post about a month and a half ago, but I’m just getting to it now – so apologies to Aidee and the rest of you. Thank you for understanding! <3 

I did not keep this list religiously, so it’s not in order, but it is complete, to the best of my knowledge and abilities. I thought I was reading slowly this year, but this list would like to differ with me on that. Continue reading →

Ask Me Anything 2.0

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Hi friends! Today’s post is on a whim. Yes, the topic is right and true. You can ask me anything. It’s inspired by a conversation I had at RWA. Jamie Beck told me I did something nice – and to be honest I’m still not entirely convinced she meant me – and that she isn’t confusing me with someone else … but it was really nice to hear, so <3.

ANYWAY ideally, this is a time for you to ask anything book related. Blogging, guest posting, reviews, so on. I promise to answer any question you might have about it. “The industry.” Of course, we all understand the answers are all just from my experience/my opinion. I also invite anyone else to chime in with their own answers too! 🙂

You can feel free to ask me a question about anything else as well … but I reserve the right to not answer that.

You can also check out previous instances of “AMA ALBTALBS Style.”

Happy weekend, and start firing off those questions!

SAPAHM Encore Guest Eilis Flynn Celebrates a Festival of Stars in a Year of Diversity

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Hi friends! I hope you’ll join me in welcoming Eilis Flynn to ALBTALBS!! For once I didn’t include any of her other book covers because I think the focus is as it should be – on Festival of Stars and I hope you’ll find a new book to love. (I’m also super excited to have this little visit back to APAHM.) I love fairy tales and twisted fairy tales! <3 

Celebrating a festival of stars in a year of diversity

By Eilis Flynn

Like the fairy tales that kids in Western culture grow up reading and hearing about, the story of the festival of stars is one that kids all over Asia know. The annual meeting of the Weaver Princess and the Cowherder—that’s the version I knew when I was a kid growing up in Japan; you’ll find it under several different names—is a wonderful, tragic, yet hopeful love story, and I always wanted to adapt it to modern, American times. It goes like this: The princess and the cowherder meet one day, and fall in love. But because they neglect their duties in their devotion to each other, the Celestial King rules that they must be separated, with only one chance a year to get together. This is the “romance of the Milky Way,” the Tanabata, as the ancient Japanese poems refer to it, the Festival of Stars.

That kind of love is universal, and it speaks to us all, I figured. Right? So I wrote it.

When this book was originally published in 2007, it was the book of my heart, allowing me to retell the story of what I had always regarded as the ultimate romance, but set in the United States of contemporary times, taken from the Japanese folktales with which I had grown up. But I ran into a road block when I was told, and told again, that the majority of readers wouldn’t be able to relate to it because of its theme of biracialism and bigotry. Editors to whom I submitted it literally told me that Asians didn’t read (which surprised the heck out of me and possibly to the billion literate Asians out there) and thus would have no interest. In any case, when I did sell it, despite decent reviews the book sold poorly, so when I eventually got the rights to it back, I laid the book to rest, assuming it would never see the light of day again. Continue reading →

Debut Author Eve Pendle Dishes British Inside Jokes

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Hi friends! Today we have Eve Pendle guesting with us, and her debut book Six Weeks with a Lord was released on June 25th! Congratulations, Eve, and thank you for visiting us!

Five jokes in Six Weeks with a Lord that only British readers will get

I love historical details, but I also like to make little puns and jokes in my stories that refer to modern things, to delight the diligent reader. When you read Six Weeks with a Lord, you’ll easily catch the jokes about how many Dukes there are in London and the endless puns on Grace’s name. But there are more!

British readers will see in six weeks with a Lord some little jokes that they’ll wonder whether they’re deliberate. The reference will be just a little bit obscure. So I’m going to tell you about some here and hopefully American and other non-UK readers will be able to share the joke. Though bearing in mind that if you have to explain a joke, it’s not that funny. Please expect very mild spoilers. Continue reading →

SHM Pride Guest: Tamsen Parker on The Power of the Female Default

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Hi friends! I’m super excited to welcome our first Pride guest author of 2018, Tamsen Parker! A new friend to ALBTALBS, so please welcome another first timer with a fabulous post!

The Power of the Female Default: Why I Love F/F Sports Romance

Fire on the Ice by Tamsen Parker Book CoverI went to an all girls high school, and one of the best things about being at an all-female school was that all the resources were devoted to us. Classrooms and the dedication of our teachers, but also both of the gyms, the theater, all of the squash courts and tennis courts, the classrooms, and the weight room were for women. They were women’s spaces that centered women’s effort and accomplishments.

The romance genre is also a space that centers women. As a genre that is written primarily by and for women, it centers the pleasure, agency, and voices of women in a way that most genres do not.

When the worlds of sports and romance combine, it can sometimes be jarring to find most of the books in the popular subgenre of sports romance dominated by male athletes, especially those hitting the tops of the charts. Which perhaps shouldn’t be surprising. The big money sports—both professional and at the college level—feature primarily men. That’s where the money and the media and the fame are weighted. But still… Isn’t this a space for women? Why do so few sports romances feature female athletes? Continue reading →

Mini Interview with Courtney Milan

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[Aidee here!] Courtney Milan generously answered some questions I had following the release of her most recent novel, After the Wedding. I have not yet read this book, and this mini-interview contains no spoilers. After the Wedding is the second full-length novel in the Worth Saga, which begins with Once Upon a Marquess. Milan writes historical and contemporary romances; the Worth Saga is her current historical series. What I enjoy most about Milan’s books is the humor and the way she subverts common tropes. Without further ado, here is the mini-interview!

First, I’d like to know how you think authors can change romance’s centering of England in the historical genre, aside from not setting the story in England?

Once Upon a Marquess by Courtney Milan Book CoverHistoricals used to range the whole wide world and I think one of the reasons this stopped is because people very awkwardly realized that there were massive issues with unproblematically glamorizing certain portions of the past. Like there used to be a whole genre of southern historical romance novels that just…glossed over the issues with slavery? Yeah. Or the entire spectrum of historical titles involving stereotypical Native Americans, sometimes with racial slurs in the actual titles? Eeeeek. It seems almost horrific to me that those exist, and yet there were probably hundreds, if not thousands, published over the years. Continue reading →

SAPAHM Guest: Ines Bautista-Yao on Filipino Characters in Filipino Settings

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Hello friends!!! I’m thrilled to introduce another first time guest to A Little Bit Tart, A Little Bit Sweet. Ines Bautista-Yao was kind enough to respond to my request for guest posts for APAHM!I know that “#ownvoices” is the “trendy thing” right now but … it’s not a trend – it’s life, and I’m so pleased we’re able to continue celebrating SHM months!

Filipino Characters in Filipino Settings
By Ines Bautista-Yao

Growing up, my favorite books were by authors Enid Blyton, Carolyn Keene, Jahnna N. Malcolm, and Sheri Cobb South. I would lose myself in the adventures, heartaches, and triumphs of the characters. That was easy. Emotions, no matter where in the world you belonged, were universal. What wasn’t so easy was trying to imagine what it would be like to see what the characters saw, and to interact with people who had blue or even green eyes, and flaming red or flaxen hair. Funnily enough, my classmates and I didn’t know what flax was, but when we read “flaxen hair” in a book, we all knew it meant blonde. So whenever my classmates and I would write stories or imagine characters, they would more often than not have blue eyes and that so-called flaxen hair. It had gotten to a point where I would stay after a movie was over so I could read the credits and file away the last names in my mind. I didn’t know enough American last names for my characters, and movie credits were a good source of information.

It had never crossed my mind to write a story about a little Filipino girl like me. Continue reading →