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About, Info, and Contact

Books are important. We're merely the readers who partake of the magic.

We want to extend a warm welcome to all our book-loving visitors! Books & Benches is author-owned and volunteer reader-operated, and our mission is to support authors by promoting their work and helping readers find the books they love. 

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The Books & Benches Team

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About the Blog

This blog has been around since 2012, and because burnout happens, all involved required a break in 2022. We wanted a change, but also wanted to keep the B&B posts live for all to discover, read, and enjoy. For the benefit of our volunteers, we decided to scale back and take occasional blogging breaks while still sharing books and helping authors. 

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Genres

While we have featured a variety of genres in the past, we are now limiting them to the following:

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GENRES

We will accept books for features, and review requests from publishers, in the following genres:

  • Historical Fiction and Historical Mystery (prior to 1905 preferred; no WW eras for reviews)

  • Historical Romance (15th century through 1905 preferred; for reviews, we prefer settings in the British Isles, American West or Frontier, and Canada but will consider other settings.)

  • Historical Inspirational Romance (15th century through 1905 or contemporary; prefer settings in British Isles, American West or Frontier, and Canada.)

  • Dual-Time (must include a historical time set prior to 1905)

  • Time-Travel/Time-Slip Romance (must include a historical time set prior to 1905)

  • Contemporary Romance or Women's Fiction (small-town, clean reads only right now in contemporary)

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CONTENT

  • We will not feature books with gratuitous sex, violence, or swearing. It's just not our cup of tea. Steamy historicals are allowed, but books with over-the-top sex scenes will be rejected. All book reviews and features will include a sexual content rating: Clean, Subtle, Mild, or Steamy.

  • To be listed in the Clean Reads section, the book must not have on-the-page sex scenes or swearing (beyond 1-2 uses of hell or damn), and mild violence is acceptable only for books where it fits the time period, setting, and/or circumstances.

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No erotica or erotic romance.

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Additional genres were previously featured/hosted on this site. The genres listed above are what we currently accept for blog tours and features.​

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Blog Tour Companies and Publishers

We work with a few FICTION blog tour companies and publishers to feature authors and their books. If we do not currently work with your blog tour company, and you would like us to, please email us and we'll look over the books you tour.

 

We will feature authors and their books with an excerpt, interview (max 5 questions), or guest post. We will request content information (sex, violence, swearing) if it's not provided on blog tour invites or with publisher review requests.

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Contact

If you need to contact us about something regarding this site, or have a general question, please use the form below

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Site Ownership

This website is privately owned, and we celebrate the written word in all its glory, including our right to read and feature the books of our choosing, and we ban bullies without qualm. We never make reading or other decisions based on anything that falls within any political spectrum. Doing so would interfere with our happy reading goals.

 

This site is run by volunteers (so be nice) whose primary goal is to have fun while sharing one of our favorite things—books!

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Content Ratings

Content Codes Deciphered!

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0 Hearts: This book is as squeaky clean as it gets.

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1 Heart: Aww! This is a clean read appropriate for all audiences. May have sweet, clean kisses.

 

2 Hearts: Our hearts are aflutter. This author knows how to turn up the heat with some passionate kisses. Nothing graphic here!

 

3 Hearts: Chemistry is a little sweet and little spicy. A touch of detail, but the stuff that makes us blush is behind closed doors.

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4 Hearts: We're getting hot in here! These characters know how to have a good time. Lucky for us, they don't go into too much detail.

 

5 Hearts: Pull out your fans and grab a glass of ice-cold water because this book is steaming hot! One or more graphic sex scenes.

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**We do not feature or review erotica or erotic romance.**

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Content Ratings (Non-Romance Books)

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N/A: No Sex; No Violence

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PG: Non-Descriptive Sex; No Violence

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PG-13 (1): Non-Descriptive Sex; Some Violence

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PG-13 (2): No Sex; Some Violence

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R (1): Descriptive Sex and Violence

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R (2): No Sex; Graphic Violence

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