Beginning on the Summer Solstice, which falls on June 20th in the US and ending on September 22nd, right before the Autumnal Equinox, we invite you to play our 2025 Summer Romance Bingo.

Please save the image to use on your own! If you’d like to share on social media, please use the hashtag #SBTBingo so we can see how your card is coming along! Participants who complete at least one bingo are eligible for prizes, including stickers, swag, and a big ol’ box o’ books for one lucky winner or two.

The middle space is a free space, meaning any book will qualify there. Also, please use one book per space. No double dipping!

To submit your card, please fill out this form. Maximum of five entries per person!

Standard disclaimers apply: Void where prohibited. Must be over 18 and ready to read some excellent books. Open to international residents where permitted by applicable law.

The entry form will close September 23.

If you need clarification on any of the categories or want to crowdsource reading recommendations, feel free to ask or brainstorm in the comments section! Remember that bingo doesn’t kick off until June 20th, so don’t start reading qualifying books until then.

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/06/sbtb-2025-summer-romance-bingo/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=145867

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Posted by Tara Scott

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/reviews/the-woman-from-the-waves-by-roslyn-sinclair/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?post_type=reviews&p=145992

A

The Woman from the Waves

by Roslyn Sinclair
June 5, 2025 · Lucky Opal Press
LGBTQIAScience Fiction/Fantasy

CW: Religious trauma, internalized homophobia

I don’t typically read romantasy. I haven’t jumped on any of the big titles, even though friends and family, including my husband, have read at least one. And yet, I had to read this one, because the author wrote my favourite book. I don’t make the rules in my brain, I just have to abide by them. I didn’t really know much going into this book except that there’s a water horse spirit and a nun, which was the perfect way for me to read it. Given that, I’m tempted to tell you all to just go read the book because it’s excellent, but you are here for a review. So if you trust me, please skip to the buy link. If you need more, let’s get into it.

Hæra is an Each-uisge, which means she’s part of an ocean-dwelling, shapeshifting herd of horse spirits. Her father is dead, her mother and brother hate her, she has no friends or allies, and she doesn’t want to become a broodmare, because their lives are truly terrible. Instead, she dreams of becoming the first female Stormhorse, flying in the sky to rain down thunder and lightning like her father did when he was alive. To achieve her dream, Hæra has to find a worthy human to drown and eat so she can take their strength into her body. She doesn’t have many years left before she’ll be forced into the brutal, endless breeding cycle, but luckily Hæra finds someone with great strength of character and just has to lure her in.

Sister Madeleine Laurent is visiting one of the less-well-travelled Orkney islands in Scotland when she hears her name being called. This leads to a confusing encounter where she thinks she drowned a horse only to nearly drown herself trying to save it. The course of her life is changed when she’s saved and kissed by a naked woman, who tells her to return.

Six years later, Madeleine is not a nun anymore and is back on the island, looking for answers about the guardian angel (or demon?) who saved her. When she meets Hæra North, daughter of the now-sober man who had drunkenly helped Madeleine after her angel had left her on the beach, Madeleine can no longer pretend to herself that she’s not a lesbian. And Hæra? Her Stormhorse dreams are closer to being achieved than ever, since the worthy woman she’d saved has come back to her. But can she bring herself to hurt someone who churns so many unfamiliar feelings within her?

Each character has a distinct and well-fleshed-out arc, which were my favourite aspects of the story. Hæra’s arc is about obsession, because she has a singular goal that she pursues with tenacity and eventually has to decide whether she wants it after all. After spending decades as an underwater predator, Hæra has to adapt enough to at least seem human, since she’s still an Each-uisge on the inside. She puts her six years between meeting Madeleine and re-meeting her to good use, learning human customs, mannerisms, and skills including how to read, so she can be better prepared to have good conversations with Madeleine and understand her before killing and eating her. Of course, it’s not so simple when they reunite.

My favourite part of Hæra’s journey is how she wrestles to understand the difference between hunger and love, because hunger is something she deeply understands as a predator. But love? Not so much. This is also what makes the romance work so well for me, because I was captivated by the way Hæra comes to understand what love is and what it means to her. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the concept of love explored in quite this way and it makes all of the sense. She’s an Each-uisge trying to understand a specific person she feels a connection with, even though it’s because she initially wants to eat Madeleine (insert sex joke here).

For Madeleine, her arc is about finally choosing to live authentically and learning along the way what that means for her. We learn very early in the book that she’d joined the convent because she’d been alone and adrift, finding it a good place to hide from the world and from her unwanted attraction to other women. Making out with her angel/demon/beach saviour rips the bandage off the wound that is her internalized homophobia, kicking off a journey of self-discovery as she prepares and heads back to the Orkneys. Embracing authenticity isn’t easy for Madeleine, because it’s often painful to look at the parts of herself she’d kept locked away for decades.

Madeleine’s arc includes a thoughtful, in-depth interrogation of faith and its relationship to the self. Catholicism features so prominently that it almost feels like a side character, although I’m not sure I would call it a friend or a foe. I was especially struck when Madeleine’s conversations with Hæra invite her to consider whether the rigidity of Catholic tradition and doctrine serve her now or ever have. Even after years of therapy and healing, my mind was blown when Hæra tells her “If we don’t doubt or question what we’ve been told, we don’t learn. Haven’t you found that’s true?” In moments like this, I stepped back from the story to check in with myself, and I was pleasantly surprised each time to learn that I was okay. Instead of feeling uncomfortable, I was encouraged by Madeleine’s departure from a dogmatic, unquestioning place as she learns how to listen to the little voice within.

Speaking of religious trauma, if that’s something you have, especially from the Catholic church, you may not have the same positive experience I did. Frankly, if I hadn’t done as much therapy specific to religious trauma as I have, I’m not sure I would have had the same experience either. Madeleine’s internalized homophobia is bound up with her faith and what she was told about homosexuality by people she’d truly cared about, so challenging those narratives is often painful. I appreciated where the story leaves Madeleine’s relationship with the church and her beliefs, because it felt very real to my experience and reminiscent of what I’ve heard from friends who also live with religious trauma.

This is a book that got under my skin and left me flailing for a few days after I finished it. As much as I loved and believed in the romance, the character arcs and exploration of religious trauma stole the show for me. They gave my brain a lot to chew on and I’m going to need to read it at least a few more times to pull apart all the nuances, because there is just so much there. Even though it’s much longer than most books I read, topping out at around 560 pages, I could have read more, because I loved Madeleine and Hæra so much, from who they were at the beginning to who they are at the end.

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/reviews/the-woman-from-the-waves-by-roslyn-sinclair/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?post_type=reviews&p=145992

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https://amw.livejournal.com/469270.html

One of the awkward things about living in a country where you aren't a citizen is that it's difficult to participate in politics outside of the migrants' rights context. Personally i believe that in a democratic country it is the job of a politician to represent all of the people who live in their district, and not just those citizens with the ability to vote, but i get the sense that few politicians or voters feel the same.

In most countries migrants are second-class citizens by design, and this becomes very clear when even so-called liberal or progressive people don't push for non-citizen suffrage as a question of basic human rights. Far right nationalists and xenophobes like to accuse everyone to their left of supporting "open borders", but the reality is that the majority of people across the political spectrum see migrants as a lesser class, unworthy of the same rights they enjoy by accident of birth or by virtue of having gone through naturalization procedures.

Anyhoo, this post is not about migrants' rights, it's about Taiwanese politics, which even though i cannot affect it, still affects me.

Since the election last year, the Taiwanese government has been in gridlock. The presidency was won by the former veep, keeping the executive branch in the hands of the DPP, the party that considers Taiwan to be a separate nation to China and generally seeks stronger ties with Japan, the US and southeast Asia. But the majority in the legislature was won by a coalition of the KMT - the DPP's historical nemesis - and the TPP - a "third way" party centered around a populist leader.

The coalition, united in their shared annoyance that the presidency was won by a DPP plurality in a three-way race, proceeded to pass as many laws as possible that took power away from the executive and gave it to the legislature. This power-grab was so blatant that it caused mass protests, but because of the structure of the government it's gone ahead anyway, and most recently the legislature has also started using the budget to defund presidential priorities in an effort to further tip the balance of power in their favor.

As a result, people started a mass recall campaign. Recalls are a weird thing that i have only ever heard of in US politics, but i guess Taiwan has them too. Basically voters can petition to kick their representative out before the normal term of office is up. (In Taiwan that's 4 years.) Usually this only happens to officials who are massively incompetent and refuse to step down, but in this case almost every KMT representative in the legislature has been targeted and over 30 have passed the threshold to face a recall vote later this year.

To retaliate, the KMT and TPP have tried to mobilize their voters to attempt a recall of DPP representatives, despite the fact the DPP are a minority party in the legislature and haven't been responsible for the legislative power grabs that caused public concern in the first place. To be fair KMT supporters are also upset about security crackdowns on Chinese citizens living in Taiwan and TPP supporters are angry that their party leader is currently in jail facing corruption charges, but it's pretty weak sauce to try recall members of the legislative minority when what you actually object to are decisions made in the executive or judicial branches. Of course none of the political parties are directly supporting any of the recall efforts regardless of the motivation. Instead they are emphasizing only that it's the democratic will of the people (when their opposition gets targeted) or alternatively a cynical abuse of the system (when they are targeted). I'm not sure if this indirect approach is a legal requirement because it's outside of the formal election season or if it's just a matter of the parties trying to maintain a broad appeal, but here we are.

Anyway, i have been able to mostly ignore all of this until about a month ago when the anti-DPP faction turned the heat up on my representative. Taipei - and the north of Taiwan more broadly - is usually right-leaning and pro-China, i.e. KMT central. People here are (relative to the south) wealthy and worldly and often have family and business interests in China. They may not have Hoklo heritage and many do not speak any Taiwanese Hokkien, the language associated with the south and the historical pro-independence faction that grew into what today is the relatively uncontroversial DPP. But my district is an anomaly in the north with a hip and cool DPP representative, which makes me happy because the DPP is also the party that defended gay marriage and other LGBTQ rights.

So it kinda bums me out that out front of my house now, every day after work, there is a cluster of conservatives with megaphones trying to drum up support for recalling my rep. She's corrupt! She's stupid! Throw her out!

On the other hand, i appreciate the democratic theater of it all. There is no way stuff like this could happen in China. And even though i didn't grow up in countries where recalls are a thing, and at first i considered them somewhat undemocratic, i am changing my mind now that i see them in practice. Recalls really emphasize how many people in society actually care about politics. When all you look at is the top-line election results, you might imagine that 51% of people think this way and 49% of people think that way. But when a recall is attempted and only 1% or 10% or 25% of people show up, it becomes very clear that no matter which party was behind the action, a massive chunk of the population really doesn't give any shits about who represents them. They just show up to the main election and cast their ballot and then move on with their lives, entirely unbothered by politics for the next 4 years.

That's a humbling takeaway for those of us who actually do care a lot about politics. Everybody knows that politics wonks are a minority, and politics wonks know that most other people don't follow the ins and outs of government very closely, but the sheer scale of just how much most people don't care is worth being reminded of. Especially if you are also a member of an oppressed minority or marginalized community... Most people don't care. Which isn't to say most people are bigots, they're just ignorant. Perhaps willfully ignorant, perhaps just lacking in curiosity. Either way they really, really don't care. If a populist says trans people are the problem, they'll shrug and think "sounds about right" and that's the end of it.

Something about that makes me feel like maybe activism is more important than i previously thought. Not because it changes the minds of the majority, because it clearly doesn't. But exactly because the majority doesn't care, so there is an opportunity for motivated advocates to target folks who actually do have power. If a politician is made aware of a niche problem and does a solid for that minority constituency, doesn't really bother the masses who didn't give a shit anyway, but it can make a really big difference to the lives of the marginalized.

So then when i see the success of the efforts to recall the KMT representatives and (up until now) failure of the efforts to recall the DPP representatives, it reminds me that even if most people don't care, the few people who do care are people who want to maintain Taiwan's civil society and keep elected representatives accountable to the people and the constitution. That's a positive thing. In reality, the main "success" of the recall campaigns is that a formal vote will be scheduled for later in the year (that's why in my district there is such a hard push to get the signatures right now - they need to collect enough to qualify before the deadline). It's not unlikely that most or even all of the 30+ representatives who will be on the recall ballot will survive it due to not enough voters showing up on the day, but simply going through the motions and holding the fire to their feet is demonstrative not just to the legislators themselves but also to CCP agents and other fans of authoritarianism that there is a segment of the Taiwanese population that will not give up their democracy without a fight.

And then that comes back around to me feeling proud and reassured when i see democracy happening in front of me, while simultaneously feeling a bit removed because i am disenfranchised and unable to directly participate. I have spent most of my life as a migrant so i am not unfamiliar with the sensation, but i also don't usually walk right through the middle of a political protest/petition/recall campaign every single day after work.

Just something that's been going through my mind the past few weeks... Otherwise there is no new news from me. Work work work. Ride my bike. Drink sweet tea. Work work work.

https://amw.livejournal.com/469270.html

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Posted by Carrie S

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/06/kickass-women-in-history-claudia-jones/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=145518

This month’s Kickass Woman is Claudia Jones. Wielding a pen instead of a sword did not make this woman any less of a warrior, one who did battle in three countries in her short life and shared not only Black anger but also Black joy.

A balck and white photo of Claudia Jones, probably in her twenties, facing the camera with a huge smile, a bag over her shoulder and some kind of badge pinned to her lapel

Born in 1915, Claudia Vera Cumberbatch was born in Trinidad and Tobago, which was, at the time, a colony of Britain (it is now the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, consisting of several Caribbean islands). When she was seven years old her parents left for the United States in search of employment.

Claudia joined them when she was nine. She was radicalized by witnessing and experiencing racial and economic injustice in New York. Her mother, a garment worker, died a few years later and her father lost his job in the Great Depression. As a result of poor living conditions and poor nutrition, Claudia developed tuberculosis which left her with permanent heart disease.

Claudia graduated from high school and began her activism career with organizing protests regarding the Scottsboro case. She joined the Communist Party in 1936. She rose to a leadership position within the Communist Party of the United States of America, and was later jailed for her Communist beliefs in 1948. In 1955 she was deported and left for London.

The term “intersectionality” was not coined until 1989 by Kimberlé Crenshaw but Claudia was an early adopter of its principles. Her essay “An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Woman” in 1949 was a mission statement that expressed concepts Claudia would fight for all her life: that the fight for liberation must include gender and class as well as race:

A developing consciousness on the woman question today, therefore, must not fail to recognize that the Negro question in the United States is prior to, and not equal to, the woman question; that only to the extent that we fight all chauvinist expressions and actions as regards the Negro people and fight for the full equality of the Negro people, can women as a whole advance their struggle for equal rights.

For the progressive women’s movement, the Negro woman, who combines in her status the worker, the Negro, and the woman, is the vital link to this heightened political consciousness.

From the same essay:

No peace can be obtained if any women, especially those who are oppressed and impoverished, are left out of the conversation.

In London, Claudia quickly became a Communist Party leader and turned her attention to Caribbean immigrants. This was the era of the ‘Windrush Generation’ and immigrants struggled to access basic needs and rights. The Notting Hill Riots of 1959, where Black immigrants were attacked in their homes, further traumatized the Black community.

Jones in her London office at a desk that is covered with papers including an open newpaper. She is on the phone, pen in her fingers, in front of a typwriter.

Claudia looked to art in the face of violence. In the words of British Vogue:

A firm believer that “a people’s art is the genesis of their freedom”, she utilised the opportunity to uplift the community by celebrating its culture and heritage with the launch of a special showcase for Afro-Caribbean talent. Originally dubbed Claudia’s Caribbean Carnival, the first event took place at St Pancras Town Hall on 30 January 1959 and was televised by the BBC. The following six years would see the annual celebration staged in local town halls and community centres, where people would get together for a comparatively low-key version of the street extravaganza we indulge in today.

For the first few years the carnival’s motto was “A people’s art is the genesis of their freedom.”

As time passed Claudia’s Carnival became one of the inspirations for and precursors of the outdoor Notting Hill Carnival. It is now the second largest carnival in the world.

A black and white photo from the first carnival shows a crowd dressed up with, at center, a middle-aged Black woman in a white lace blouse, long gauzy skirt, and hat adorned with flowers and ribbons. Everyone is dancing and smiling. — Claudia’s Caribbean Carnival, 1959

Claudia’s impoverished youth and four imprisonments did terrible damage to her heart. She died of a heart attack at the age of 49, on Christmas Eve in 1964.

Her insistence that the rights of women, people in poverty, people of color, and immigrants all be upheld within the political Left, as well as without it, left a legacy of intersectionality that was ahead of its time.