Review: Armadillo's Instinct by Elva Birch This book is pretty cute BUT I do not recommend reading it as a standalone. If you want shifter toddlers, fated mates but we're chill about it, and some evil scientists doing bad guy stuff…just start with an earlier book in the series.

Cosigning because this book fucking rules

April Releases We're Excited About

Miss Bates writes beautiful reviews, which romance book nerds might find of interest

Erin's using her powers (of obsessing for multiple years about Heated Rivalry) for good, and today presents you with a list of books that match that ineffable Heated Rivalry vibe.

Our favorite reads in March!

Since it's a new month, it's time for a wrap up! Here's what we got up to in March.

I'm not gonna lie and say this didn't get me for a hot second, because it did. Mainly because I was like, "oooh, how can I subscribe to this? it will get me off the internets!"

Looking for a new author to read? Here's everything you need to know about Charlotte Stein's books, so you can decide if they're for you.

My personal fav is Every Night Is Pizza Night, which my kids have grown out of reading but we didn't give away because it's got the family pizza recipe in it

Here's what @thebookqueen.bsky.social doesn't say: The starchy hero takes off his glasses and then uses his stern voice to tell the heroine what to do. *insert gif of me fanning myself*

I’m-going-my-part-dot-gif.

Review: The Baby Dragon Bookshop by A.T. Qureshi The vibe is Gilmore Girls meets The Hating Game with South Asian influence and the premise has promise, but Ingrid had some issues with the writing style.

Appreciation for azteclady and her zeal in putting a bunch of anti-AI resource links together in one spot.

It's Sunday night, which means it's time for some Tumblereads. (Or, you know, save it for your Monday morning commute.) This week, we're talking about when romance book moms do things that are Not Cute.

Oop, but Lord of Scoundrels is an excluded product, so I guess not

Although honestly, my feelings can probably be summed up by a picture of an old lady yelling "get off my lawn"

Review: Sparring Partners by Erin Rose This book wasn't bad, it just mega wasn't for Holly. And she'll tell you exactly why that is.

Obviously a sign of the death of histrom (/s)

Review: Castle Swimmer vol 3 by Wendy Martin Erin says, "This book is cute in a twee way, and I will probably keep reading by myself, but I think it’s time for the series and the blog to part ways because the burn might be too slow."

So is anyone tracking the whole Amazon is not paying affiliates for sexy books thing? Because the other day a book that I know was blocked in early March was back to normal.

Review: The Dark Lord's Guide to Dating (and Other War Crimes) by Tiffany Hunt It took a minute for Ingrid to get into it, but she's glad she did—and is now anxiously awaiting the sequel.

This might be Kelly Bowen's only histrom that I haven't read, might need to rectify that

hey look! Rears & Vices was read by the Smut Reporters!! I was so floored when they made the book their March pick. This episode is not only excellent analysis (as usual), but also *hilarious* to me as the person who basically had no choice but to write Everard the way he is. i'm so sorry. 😂 🫣

TSR Book Club pick this month was Rears & Vices by E.M. Caro, which is a very messy poly pirate situation with lots of historical detail. Highly recommended if you're cool with paying attention to what you're reading.

PSA: if you don't want Bluesky's puritan filters to keep things like book covers, works of art, and so forth, from you, you must disabled them all; if you only set the module in your accounts to allow things, Bluesky's own filters will still fuck you over. Prudishly.

I really enjoyed Flirting with Forever and am glad that when they cartoonified the cover they got rid of the dog (there is no dog in the story) and also fixed the MMCs clothes and also made the background townscape actually look like NYC

Review: A Lady for All Seasons by TJ Alexander This is a delightful caper with a lot of big feelings. I had a great time reading it.

This week in My First Smut, author Maria Levato talks about teen romance and advocating for smut.

Review: The Games Gods Play by Abigail Owen All the romantasy books Ingrid is reading are starting to blur together. She writes: In some ways this was really fresh and fun, and in other ways I kept thinking “have I read this before??”

These books are both really wonderful (and there's 10 hours left to bid on special copies of them)

Happy Sunday! Today on Tumblereads, Holly prepared nothing, so she just asked Erin and Ingrid the simple question of what they were reading and the rest is history.

I've been catching up on my ARCs, which means that I read 4 queer histroms in a row and they were all BANGERS. And now I'm reading a generic MF contemporary and am so annoyed by everything that is happening.

Guys, I cannot recommend this book enough, it is so weird and delightful. Also, the cover art is also so weird and delightful and definitely not AI (the author painted it)

This book is so fab if you, like me, love a bitchy heroine. The cutting comments! The angst! The pining! Plus magic and mayhem.

Don't forget yesterday's deals, including Candace Harper, Elizabeth Lowell, and Darcy McGuire!

300+ QUEER EBOOKS ON SALE TODAY ONLY! This is a GREAT sale and includes Mrs. Mix Up by yours truly! Check it out and see how much longer your TBR gets! Check it out at queeryourbookshelf.c...!

Series Review: Wild Magic by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland These are ok if all you care about is the romance, but they are a phenomenal family saga

I can't say that doing the TBR Challenge has made my TBR any smaller, but it IS fun to actually grab one of those books that I've been meaning to read off my shelf

This week in My First Smut, E.M. Caro talks about Clan of the Cave Bear and connecting with their mom.

Fun fact, I got married in Pi Day (in 2015! when there were more digits! for extra fun!) so I always love to see a pi(e)-themed romance

#romancelandia ICYMI, our discussion post from yesterday smutreport.com/2026/03/10/l...

Review: Two Left Feet by Kallie Emblidge Erin says: "It’s not a particularly new story in any way, but the deep focus on (British) Premier League soccer is better than usual for a soccer romance, and I did get such swooping feels while Ollie and Leo unlocked a new part of their HEA."

What, new Murderbot book coming out??? *smashes preorder button* bookshop.org/a/9436/97812...

Today, the smut report team is talking about the long lost heir trope, and how it looks different in The Princess Diaries vs in Every Single Romantasy Book.

Review: Accomplice to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer This is firmly a bridge book setting up the final installment of the series. Ingrid is excited to get to the conclusion, but doesn't recommend picking this up unless you liked the earlier ones.

It's Sunday night, which means it's time for ridiculous podcast nonsense from the Smut Report team. This time, we're talking about the things that authors do to ruin kisses.

Review: Vowed to the Vulture God by Ruby Dixon This one is not Ingrid's favorite in the series, but she's is very invested in the larger story

It's time for Tumblereads! This week, we're talking about fanfic