Riddle me this, Batman. You, being a civic-minded sort, have sat down to cast your vote for school board members. There are several races for open seats, and in one particular race, we have two candidates, both newcomers, and you must choose one of them. Unfortunately for you, I have riddled away most of the information about the candidates. No matter where you search, all you can find about the two is this:
Candidate A is a mother of five who graduated from Brigham Young University.
Candidate B promises to align education policies with the latest in generative AI technology.
Who do you vote for?
Candidate A
Candidate B
Voting ended onMay 16, 2025
By all means, Batman, please do reblog. It won't help you though. Good luck!
Someone on Bluesky was like, hey maybe don't rec romance novels and sexy books to people who are actively saying they don't like romance, and especially don't tag in romance authors in those discussions because it turns out that authors do NOT like having their works shat upon by people who don't enjoy them, huh, who could have foreseen.
So when IS a good time to rec romance novels and sexy books?
RIGHT NOW!
I love romance novels and sexy books and here are some of my faves:
IF YOU LIKE: young protagonists, princess/bodyguard, princess/bad boy, and excellent SF nonsense
TRY: Polaris Rising by Jessie Mihalik. It's the first in her Consortium trilogy, and all the books are a delight. The first is princess/bad boy, the other two are more princess/bodyguard, and they are ALL great SF, great adventure, and great romance!
IF YOU LIKE: middle-age protagonists complaining about their back pain, comedy, a religious order whose whole goal is to make things better for as many people as possible, and just a whiff of horror
TRY: Paladin's Grace by T Kingfisher. It's the first in her Paladin Romance series and they are all hilarious and sweet, with only a few severed heads. Hardly any. And only the one warrenmind. (Like a hive mind, but hares.) Bishop Beartongue is the very best.
IF YOU LIKE: leather, whisky, BDSM, overthrowing the patriarchy, and just, so many orgies
TRY: Beyond Shame by Kit Rocha. It's the first in their Broken Circle series, and it is an EXTENDED series. They were one of my gateway drugs into romance and I do love the extended metaplot.
IF YOU LIKE: fancy British society, clever unionizing efforts, and women who know how to play to their strengths
TRY: The Duchess War, by Courtney Milan. It's the first full novel in the Brothers Sinister series (there's a prequel novella called The Governess Affair) and it's fantastic. The second book in the series, The Heiress Effect, had one of the tightest plots I've ever read. Everything tied up with a bow at the end, in a way that I didn't see coming but made perfect sense as I read it. Beautiful.
IF YOU LIKE: The Mummy, Indiana Jones, pulp adventure, hidden magic, good guys who can do no wrong, bad guys who can do no good, strong women who are stronger than they think
TRY: Warrior, by Zoe Archer. It's the first book in the Blades of the Rose series and every book is cover-to-cover pulpy adventure goodness. The bad guys are cartoonishly evil. The good guys are pure of heart. The second book, Scoundrel, starts with a fight/chase themed around an Olympic pentathalon. It's SO good.
IF YOU LIKE: New York City, non-lethal violence, comedy, shifters who are decent but sometimes real assholes
TRY: Hot and Badgered, by Shelly Laurenston. It's the first in the Honey Badger Chronicles, but the series comes after the Pride Series. (I started with these books, it's fine.) One of my favorite depictions of shifters, in no small part because of the thought she put into how shifters behave. Like how obsessed the male lion shifters are with their hair, or how sleepy the panda shifter is. I laughed a LOT when reading these books, they're SO funny. Violent, too, but shifters heal quick.
IF YOU LIKE: blood magic, becoming a monster to overthrow the patriarchy, polyamory, disaster pansexuals, ancient Greek aesthetics
TRY: In the Ravenous Dark, by A.M. Strickland. We start with our narrator waking up, hung over, clutching a mostly-empty wine skin, with her on-again off-again girlfriend, on the roof of a pagoda-like thing above a fountain, in the middle of town. She makes choices based on wine and lust and anger and I love her.
IF YOU LIKE: subby men and Domme women, found family, overthrowing the patriarchy, long journeys, BDSM, ~angst~ and ~longing~ and ~guilt~
TRY: His Secret illuminations, by Scarlett Gale. It's the first in a duology and you may have heard of it as the fantasy pegging book. I regret to inform you that there is no pegging and not even any kink in the first book. I rejoice to inform you that there is a LOT of kink in the second one, His Sacred Incantations. (And yes, pegging.) He was raised in a monastery and taught that too much joy or pleasure will make him lose his magic. She's an Amazonian warrior woman who needs some help tracking down a missing book. They have an adventure! And, just, so much angst.
IF YOU LIKE: shifters, fighting the would-be conquerors, second chances, subby men and bossy women, grumpy/sunshine
TRY: The Leopard King, by Ann Aguirre. It's the first in her Ars Numina series. Book 2, The Demon Prince, is more bossy lady/subby man, along with some hurt/comfort. Book 4, the Shadow Warrior, is a lot more BDSM. Book 5, The War Priest, is angsty grumpy/sunshine and Grumpy does NOT want to like Sunshine as much as he does. They're all good fun.
IF YOU LIKE: thriller/horror with a "hang on what is HAPPENING here" vibe, second chances, fighting for freedom
TRY: The AI Who Loved Me, by Alyssa Cole. This book does a great job painting a scene that is just a little bit off, then slowly and subtly going more and more *wrong*. Not too scary, even for a horror weenie like me.
QUICK NOTE: I realized as I was making this that there are not enough Black authors on here. If anyone has any recs for science fiction / fantasy romance novels by Black authors, lay 'em on me!
Something I’m thinking about in our (stateside) current crisis of capitalism and COVID: what’s gonna happen to volunteers and the organizations that depend on them when everyone is either sick, disabled, or trying to do three jobs just to make rent?
Like, I volunteer for my eldest’s scout troop and the one thing I do (cookie manager) is a LOT, and it’s only for a few weeks out of the year. I’m trying out a higher level volunteer position, as part of the team that helps plan and organize things for troops in our area, and it’s a lot more work and stress. I don’t like it, and I don’t want to do it next year. And I don’t have time to help out with my youngest’s troop stuff at ALL. Nor do I have time to, say, be a coach for a sports team, be a volunteer adult for a sports team, help out at my kids’ school, or any of the other many, many ways that volunteers help make good things happen for kids.
And I’m one of the lucky ones who can afford to be a full-time parent.
I know, I know, community is important, no one can do every job, it takes a village, etc. That is, in fact, my whole point. I can’t do it all on my own, I don’t WANT to do it all, I actively WANT other members of my community to be able to share their expertise and wisdom with my kids in a variety of ways, none of which has anything to do with making a profit and, as such, will always be undervalued.
I’m just thinking about how I wouldn’t be able to do any volunteering if I was trying to hold down even a part-time job. About all the families with parents who both work. About how many people are getting sick and disabled with COVID each year. And how we only have so much time in a day, and food and shelter and caring for yourself and your family has to come before a second unpaid job, even if that job only asks for three or four hours a month, even if it’s important to you, even if you actively WANT to do it.
And what’s gonna happen as fewer adults have the time/health/resources to volunteer? What happens to little league and soccer teams and parent-teacher groups and school dances and scouts and field trips and all these other fun, good things?
There are so many problems right now, I know this isn’t even a top five. But it’s a knock-on consequence that will definitely have an effect on our kids’ lives and it’s not something I see mentioned often. And it gives me a worry.
