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[personal profile] oursin

"Hate brings views": Confessions of a London fake news TikToker:

London is being used as the backdrop for inaccurate viral videos that reach enormous audiences around the world by playing into the worst stereotypes about the capital.

This was an investigation into one man who was doing this thing:
Last summer, the man says, he found himself sitting in his car, analysing trends on TikTok. His day job was conducting viewings for an estate agency but he was trying to come up with an idea for a viral video account that could be run as a money-making side-hustle.
“I was thinking of unique videos I can do for people,” he says on the tape.
That’s when he had a brainwave: “Hate brings views.”
At that time protests outside asylum hotels were spreading across the country. The man says he noticed “far-right people” were among the most engaged on TikTok. They were easy to rile up: “They hate such videos of illegal migrants. I was like, why not?”
....
The TikToker appears to have no concept of the potential real-world impact of his uploads, instead considering everything in terms of view counts and pieces of content.

So he made fake videos about immigrants being housed in prime properties, to which he had access through his job.

He had originally found he could make money through posting videos on TikTok but 'TikTok immediately deleted his account because he was just stealing other people’s videos and reposting them'.

There seems to be just a total disconnect going on in the guy's mind (or he's just ethically vacuous) and generally he does not appear the sharpest blade in the drawer:

Despite fostering online hatred, the man recorded.... insists he doesn’t personally share the views expressed on his TikTok account. Instead, he suggests his fake anti-migrant house tour videos were just a way to game the algorithm, build an audience, and hopefully make money.

He's also
baffled. He can’t understand how London Centric traced his anonymous hate-filled London TikTok account back to his employer by geolocating the wheelie bins in his videos.
“I thought no one’s gonna notice that,” he says. “Why would someone?”

As if people aren't doing this sort of thing all the time.

Vampires, Dark Romance, & More

Feb. 12th, 2026 04:30 pm
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Posted by Amanda

The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love

The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love by India Holton is $1.99! I hope this deal lasts! It’s the first book in Holton’s Love’s Academic series.

Rival ornithologists hunt through England for a rare magical bird in this historical-fantasy rom-com reminiscent of Indiana Jones but with manners, tea, and helicopter parasols.

Beth Pickering is on the verge of finally capturing the rare deathwhistler bird when Professor Devon Lockley swoops in, capturing both her bird and her imagination like a villain. Albeit a handsome and charming villain, but that’s beside the point. As someone highly educated in the ruthless discipline of ornithology, Beth knows trouble when she sees it, and she is determined to keep her distance from Devon.

For his part, Devon has never been more smitten than when he first set eyes on Professor Beth Pickering. She’s so pretty, so polite, so capable of bringing down a fiery, deadly bird using only her wits. In other words, an angel. Devon understands he must not get close to her, however, since they’re professional rivals.

When a competition to become Birder of the Year by capturing an endangered caladrius bird is announced, Beth and Devon are forced to team up to have any chance of winning. Now keeping their distance becomes a question of one bed or two. But they must take the risk, because fowl play is afoot, and they can’t trust anyone else—for all may be fair in love and war, but this is ornithology.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Blackthorn

Blackthorn by J.T. Geissinger is $2.99! This dark romance released in November and I mentioned it on Hide Your Wallet. I’ve read a few of Geissinger’s previous romances and found them to be potato chip books.

From the diabolical mind of New York Times bestselling author J.T. Geissinger comes a scorching new enemies-to-lovers romance filled with explosive secrets, nail-biting, gothic suspense, and the dangerous lure of dark magic.

You never forget your first love. Especially when he’s also your worst nightmare.

Twelve years ago, Maven Blackthorn fled her small hometown, leaving behind the wreckage of her mother’s suspicious death. But now, drawn back for her grandmother’s funeral, Maven steps onto Blackthorn soil once more, only to find herself thrust into a fresh her grandmother’s body has vanished.

The Blackthorns immediately suspect the Crofts—the ruthless titans of Croft Pharmaceuticals, whose bitter blood feud with the Blackthorns has spanned generations. But when Maven comes face-to-face with Ronan Croft, the son of her mother’s suspected killer and the only man she ever loved, she discovers the forbidden passion they once shared is as alive—and dangerous—as ever.

As long-buried family secrets claw their way to the surface, betrayal lurks behind every whisper, and old vendettas ignite anew. The deeper Maven digs for answers, the more treacherous the game becomes. And the one man she can never seem to escape is hiding a truth that could burn their whole world down.

In a town where the dead won’t stay buried, is love salvation…or the deadliest game of all?

Blackthorn is a page-turning gothic romance with darker themes and scenes that may not be suitable for everyone. Please see the author’s content note at the beginning of the book.

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You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire

How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks is $1.99! This is book one in the Love at Stake series, which came out in 2009. It’s since had a cover update. I think the setup sounds really interesting with a dentist heroine.

Nobody said love was perfect…

Roman Draganesti is charming, handsome, rich…he’s also a vampire. But this vampire just lost one of his fangs sinking his teeth into something he shouldn’t have. Now he has one night to find a dentist before his natural healing abilities close the wound, leaving him a lop-sided eater for all eternity.

Things aren’t going well for Shanna Whelan, either. After witnessing a gruesome murder, she’s next on the mob’s hit list. And her career as a dentist appears to be on a downward spiral, because she’s afraid of blood. When Roman rescues her from an assassination attempt, she wonders if she’s found the one man who can keep her alive. Though the attraction between them is immediate and hot, can Shanna conquer her fear of blood to fix Roman’s fang? And if she does, what will prevent Roman from using his fangs on her?

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You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Role Playing

Role Playing by Cathy Yardley is $2.49 on Amazon! Many of you were excited for this one and we had Yardley on the podcast to talk about it. Did any of you pick it up? What’d you think?

From Cathy Yardley, author of Love, Comment, Subscribe, comes an emotional rom-com about two middle-aged gamers who grow their online connection into an IRL love story.

Maggie is an unapologetically grumpy forty-eight-year-old hermit. But when her college-aged son makes her a deal―he’ll be more social if she does the same―she can’t refuse. She joins a new online gaming guild led by a friendly healer named Otter. So that nobody gets the wrong idea, she calls herself Bogwitch.

Otter is Aiden, a fifty-year-old optimist using the guild as an emotional outlet from his family drama caring for his aging mother while his brother plays house with Aiden’s ex-fiancée.

Bogwitch and Otter become fast virtual friends, but there’s a catch. Bogwitch thinks Otter is a college student. Otter assumes Bogwitch is an octogenarian.

When they finally meet face to face―after a rocky, shocking start―the unlikely pair of sunshine and stormy personalities grow tentatively closer. But Maggie’s previous relationships have left her bitter, and Aiden’s got a complicated past of his own.

Everything’s easier online. Can they make it work in real life?

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You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

(no subject)

Feb. 12th, 2026 10:01 am
oursin: Brush the Wandering Hedgehog by the fire (Default)
[personal profile] oursin
Happy birthday, [personal profile] lenores_raven and [personal profile] lindra!

And Now, Back to You by BK Borison

Feb. 12th, 2026 07:00 am
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Posted by Lara

Rant

And Now, Back to You

by B.K. Borison
February 24, 2026 · Berkley
Contemporary RomanceLGBTQIARomance

When I sat down to write this piece, I had no idea it would turn into a rant, but it did. My head swirled with thoughts and all of them were burning a hole in my stomach, desperate to be let loose. Release the Kraken!

I shouldn’t have read this book. It irritated me MULTIPLE TIMES. It’s irritated me so much that I can’t even bring myself to do a recap of the premise like I usually do for reviews. I just don’t want to spend more time with these people than I have to, so here’s the blurb:

Jackson Clark and Delilah Stewart have had their fair share of run-ins over the years, often ending in disaster. While Jackson thrives on routine and organization from the comfort of his radio booth, Delilah loves the spontaneity and adventure out in the field. When they’re partnered against their will to cover the snowstorm of the century, they find themselves scrambling to figure out how to work together.

Eager to be taken seriously as a journalist, Delilah offers Jackson a deal. If he can help her ace this assignment, she’ll help him rediscover his long-lost fun side. With an undiscovered chemistry burning beneath their clashes, the unlikely partnership quickly tumbles into an easy and surprising friendship.

But when other feelings start to enter the equation, can Jackson and Delilah withstand the storm? Or does what happens in the mountains, stay in the mountains?

Before I let loose all my thoughts, some context.

This is my first BK Borison book. I know her work is popular so I figured there was a decent chance that I’d enjoy it. The writing is really strong, which grabbed me and I was only 2% in when I signed up to review it for the Bitchery. This was a book that demanded to be read. Each sentence led me to the next sentence, drawing me in. The picture that was being painted was vivid and compelling.

But then at 11% something happened. The book that had been cohesive and immersive up to that point, bounced me out of the story entirely. There’s a meeting between a radio station boss and a TV station boss and their respective weather reporters.

Up to this point, Delilah has been a quirky doormat. Suddenly in this meeting she speaks up for herself, challenging her terrible boss in front of ‘outsiders’. And she challenges him consistently during the meeting.

Huh? Is she a quirky doormat or does she not give a fuck? I know people contain multitudes, but you usually don’t display those multitudes this early in a romance novel when you’re still building the characters for the reader.

Show Spoiler

Jumping ahead to the end, the lesson the quirky doormat needs to learn is to speak up for herself and demand more.

But she did that at 11%! And then, I guess, promptly forgot about it and went back to being a quirky doormat.

Delilah is also a quirky doormat, I might add, who has the single dumbest reason for wanting the job she has. Okay, maybe not the dumbest as I’ve read some terrible books in my time. She has a hostile boss who actively undermines her. At the start she has the support of precisely one colleague who doesn’t actually do much until the end.

Show Spoiler

Yet she keeps the job because her grandpa with Alzheimer’s likes seeing her smile on his favourite local TV station.

Maybe I am showing my evil underbelly here, but that is a terrible reason to stay in a job that makes you miserable.

Full disclosure, in books, quirky doormats make me rage. I can’t abide them. I can’t stomach them. And I definitely don’t want to spend my precious free time with them. Characters in need of a spine are just so annoying.

It wasn’t just the once that I was bounced out of the story:, it happened often because these two do not know how to talk to each other about their feelings. If you like books with clear communication, this one will drive you around the bend. Delilah and Jackson are the opposite of clear communicators. When they talk about their feelings, they speak in half-truths and apparent riddles. There is zero consistency in what they ask each other for. None. Zilch. I want to be friends. I want something casual. This is just temporary. I want to be your best friend. I want ???

What? What do you want? Do you know? Spoiler alert, they have a VAGUE inkling of what they MIGHT want from each other, but not on your nelly are they going to communicate that until the last possible second.

At 71% through, I very nearly gave up on reading. Why didn’t I? It is undeniably well-written. I had to know what happened next. Even if it didn’t make sense and made me grumpy. I just had to know. So I persevered.

Everything clicked into place for me when I read the author’s bio after the acknowledgements at the end. Cosy. Contemporary. COSY. No wonder this book made me go off the rails. It was a cosy contemporary! It is entirely possible that millions will love this story if cosy contemporary is their thing. Cosy novels are anathema to me. I can’t stomach the tweeness, the gentleness, the lack of bite. I know that says more about me than I’d probably want publicly known, but there you have it.

Perhaps the inconsistencies that drove me so crazy in this story were cosy characteristics that I’m just not destined to love. I don’t know. Cosy aficionados, sound off the comments.

What I can say is that if I, terrible grump, still felt compelled to finish, then someone who enjoys cosy contemporary will probably love this story. Is this my first and last BK Borison title? Absolutely. This level of irritation is not good for me.

But do I still think that this book deserves to be read by those who will appreciate it? Absolutely, yes I do.

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Posted by Amanda

Workspace with computer, journal, books, coffee, and glasses.Welcome back!

Hey, remember when I had the flu earlier this year? Well I have it again! Yipee! This sucks!

I also got to talk with KJ Charles today for a separate project and it was so much fun, despite me sounding like a chain smoking frog. I’m going to start dousing my body in hand sanitizer.

On the plus side, I’ve eaten a lot of soup and I love soup.

After thirty years, All About Romance has announced its retirement. The site will be kept up as an archive, but will not be posting new content.

Sonja Norwood of Wickd Confections is recreating lost Black American recipes on her Instagram channel. I’ve been following her for awhile and enjoy her stuff!

This link was sent in by EC Spurlock. Author Olivia Waite is talking about Heated Rivalry and queer desire over at Reactor. 

I’ve been loving Rebecca Black’s post-“Friday” career. Here’s her genius cover of Addison Rae’s “Fame is a Gun.”

Don’t forget to share what cool or interesting things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!

Mary Balogh, a Boxed Set, & More

Feb. 11th, 2026 04:30 pm
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Posted by Amanda

Give Me a Reason

RECOMMENDED: Give Me a Reason by Jayci Lee is $2.99! Guest reviewer Lisa gave this an A-:

Give Me a Reason is absolutely packed with restrained passion and yearning. There’s too much hurt between Frederic and Anne for them to initially approach each other, and yet they still want to be together.

An instant USA Today bestseller!

In this modern retelling of Jane Austen’s PERSUASION, a K-drama actress gets her second chance at love with the man she left to save her family, if only she can work up the courage to risk her heart on forever…one last time.

For ten years, Anne Lee told herself that Frederick Nam was her past. To save her father from bankruptcy, she dropped out of UC San Diego to pursue an acting career in Korea. Anne had to stop Frederick from following her and ruining his future. Breaking up with him was the best way she could love him.

After Anne left him, Frederick spent years loving her, missing her, and hating her until he decided to live his life for himself. He followed his dream and became a firefighter in Culver City. He didn’t need romance. He had his work and his friends.

When she returns to Los Angeles, Anne and Frederick find themselves in the same wedding—she as her cousin’s bridesmaid and he as his friend’s groomsman. Even though he is cold and distant with her, Anne can no longer deny that she never got over him. Not even close. As for Frederick, needing to take care of Anne is a habit he can’t seem to kick, but that doesn’t mean he has to forgive her.

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You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Someone to Honor

Someone to Honor by Mary Balogh is $1.99! This is the sixth book in the Westcott historical romance series. Balogh is a favorite at SBTB, especially if you’re looking for tender romances and comfort reading.

First appearances deceive in the newest charming and heartwarming Regency romance in the Westcott series from beloved New York Times bestselling author Mary Balogh.

Abigail Westcott’s dreams for her future were lost when her father died and she discovered her parents were not legally married. But now, six years later, she enjoys the independence a life without expectation provides a wealthy single woman. Indeed, she’s grown confident enough to scold the careless servant chopping wood outside without his shirt on in the proximity of ladies.

But the man is not a servant. He is Gilbert Bennington, the lieutenant colonel and superior officer who has escorted her wounded brother, Harry, home from the wars with Napoleon. Gil has come to help his friend and junior officer recover, and he doesn’t take lightly to being condescended to–secretly because of his own humble beginnings.

If at first Gil and Abigail seem to embody what the other most despises, each will soon discover how wrong first impressions can be. For behind the appearances of the once-grand lady and the once-humble man are two people who share an understanding of what true honor means, and how only with it can one find love.

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You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

A Seditious Affair

READER RECOMMENDEDA Seditious Affair by KJ Charles is $1.99! This is a gay historical romance and was the subject of one of our very first Squee from the Keeper Shelf was about this book:

Many congratulations to K.J. Charles proving that it can be done. Romance can incorporate meaty socio-economic and political context into the story-telling. And the resulting tale can be riveting and most definitely hot.

K. J. Charles turns up the heat in her new Society of Gentlemen novel, as two lovers face off in a sensual duel that challenges their deepest beliefs.
 
Silas Mason has no illusions about himself. He’s not lovable, or even likable. He’s an overbearing idealist, a Radical bookseller and pamphleteer who lives for revolution . . . and for Wednesday nights. Every week he meets anonymously with the same man, in whom Silas has discovered the ideal meld of intellectual companionship and absolute obedience to his sexual commands. But unbeknownst to Silas, his closest friend is also his greatest enemy, with the power to see him hanged—or spare his life.

A loyal, well-born gentleman official, Dominic Frey is torn apart by his affair with Silas. By the light of day, he cannot fathom the intoxicating lust that drives him to meet with the Radical week after week. In the bedroom, everything else falls away. Their needs match, and they are united by sympathy for each other’s deepest vulnerabilities. But when Silas’s politics earn him a death sentence, desire clashes with duty, and Dominic finds himself doing everything he can to save the man who stole his heart.

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You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

New Zealand Ever After

New Zealand Ever After by Rosalind James is $1.99 at Amazon! This set features three full-length contemporary romances with rugby players. Are you a James fan?

Escape to New Zealand once again with the new series from bestselling author Rosalind James.

Over 1,300 pages of funny, heartwarming, heart-pounding, steam-inducing entertainment, starting with combat of both the military and the more metaphorical sort and ending with an escape from a religious cult, with plenty of stops along the way.

Meet a rich-lister ex-model home from Afghanistan minus a leg, Debbie the Boy Duck, a retired rugby player with a yurt and a strong desire not to be a hero, a four-year-old who is convinced that she can lay an egg if she just tries hard enough, and a whole lot more.

Includes Book 1, KIWI RULES, Book 2, STONE COLD KIWI, and Book 3, KIWI STRONG.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

oursin: Photograph of small impressionistic metal figurine seated reading a book (Reader)
[personal profile] oursin

What I read

Finished Cakes and Ale, which is partly that early C20th litfic convention of a first-person narrator who just happens be around to hear a lot about the actual protags and the plot or at critical moments of same, but actually complicates it with Ashenden knowing that Rosie is not actually dead as everyone else supposes. Not sure the ending really worked.

I then, having got into an Edwardian/Georgian novelist rhythm, went 'ah! time for some Arnold Bennett! the one about the hotel', except I picked up The Grand Babylon Hotel (1902), which is 1900s thriller hijinx mode with European royalty shenanigans, false identities, etc etc (though I was wondering whether it might adapt into a screwball comedy movie?), and wasn't actually the one I'd read many years ago that I was thinking of.

Which was Imperial Palace (1930), which struck me as, although lacking the highspeed thriller plot element, remarkably like D Francis in its fascination for infrastructure (in this case, running a luxury hotel in London) and competence porn. The running-the-hotel bits and the trials posed for the new supervising housekeeper are, perhaps, at least these days, more interesting than the bits involving Hotel Manager and Rich Man's Daughter Gracie. To give her (and actually, Bennett as author) her due, she is not, whereas she would be in a lot of novels by his contemporaries, an unmitigated bitch (Aldous Huxley's Lucy Tantamount) or a tragic bitch (Michael Arlen's Iris Storm), she has some good points and was a competent racing driver, but she is still annoyingly entitled and egocentric.

I took a break from this because I suddenly had a whim to re-read Mary Renault, The King Must Die (1958) for the first time in absolute yonks. You know, Mary, the sexism and misogyny is not entirely just being Accurate for Period, is it, hmmmm? There is some great stuff in there, but.

On the go

Imperial Palace is very long, and still on the go.

Up next

I think I am up for some Agatha Christie, seriously.

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