7 Worst Things to Do On a Date

No matter which niche you’re dating in, including BBW dating, there are certain etiquette rules for a first date that we should all follow not only to ensure we get a second date, but simply to avoid acting like a total jerk. Below we discuss the top 7 worst things you can do on a first date that will make the other person run for their life.

#1: Forget Your Manners

Your date will pay more attention to how you treat other people around you than to how you treat them. Be nice and polite, smile, and show respect to everyone, from the waiters and other patrons at the restaurant, to the random people on the street. Obviously, don’t forget your ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ when talking to your date.

#2: Not Let Your Date Talk

Allow your date to tell you their story, and don’t interrupt them when they’re talking. Don’t talk over them or for them. You want to make them feel like you care about their opinion. Also, be careful about the little things, such as ordering food for them. It’s best to let them speak for themselves throughout the evening, and you’ll have nothing to worry about.

#3: Not Say Enough

The other person is interested in you and wants to get to know you. Unless you talk about yourself, your life, your opinions, beliefs, and all those things that come up on a date, you won’t give them a chance to find out what kind of a person you are. Don’t forget that often they might conclude that you’re not interested in them enough if you’re quiet all evening.

#4: Get Too Drunk

Having a drink or two is absolutely acceptable if you’re out on the town on a Saturday night, but know your limit and don’t cross it on a first date. Getting drunk with a group of friends who know you well is one thing, but putting yourself in a position to say things you don’t mean to share or do stuff you normally wouldn’t do should be avoided.

#5: Talk about Your Ex

Obviously, everyone has a past, but your past has no business being with you on a first date. Don’t even mention your ex, let alone talk about them because the person listening is likely to conclude the past is not the past, and there is not enough room in your life for someone new.

#6: Mention Marriage or Children

If there ever was an off-putting topic for a first date, marriage and kids has to be it. Nobody likes the idea of any kind of a clock ticking, pressure, and especially desperation. It’s worse than an overly zealous sales person desperately trying to sell you something to meet their quota.

#7: Be Cheap

The matter of who pays the bill at the end of a first date is still, for some reason, open for debate when it really shouldn’t be. It’s not written in stone that the man should pay, but that’s usually the way it goes. At the same time, the girl should absolutely offer to pay or at least split the bill and mean it. If there are multiple checks to be picked up, such as dinner and a movie, it’s perfectly OK for one person to pay for the dinner and the other for the movie. It’s only fair!

5 Things You Should Be Doing For Younger-Looking Skin

It doesn’t matter if you’re a young girl or a proud woman of the cougar dating niche, you probably want to stay young as long as possible. Aging is a natural process that can’t be stopped or reversed (except in the Curious Case of Benjamin Button), but it can be slowed down. One of the ways to achieve that is by having a younger-looking skin. So, without further ado, here are the 5 important things you should be doing if you want to have healthier and younger skin.

Drink Lots Of Water

As you probably know, the human body is 65% water, which means you need to hydrate yourself in order to stay healthy and have younger skin. Experts say that in order for your body to work properly, you need to drink a minimum of 2 liters of water every day. However, if you want your skin to look fabulous, you have to drink a bit more than that. It’s important to remember that other fluids like alcohol and sweetened sodas will only lead to breakouts and inflammation of the skin. Therefore, you have to stick with clean water. Drink 8-10 glasses of it every day and your skin will be grateful.

Change Your Sleeping Positions

Having a good night’s sleep is also one of the best ways to keep your skin young and flawless. However, sleeping in the same position every night for years can cause certain wrinkles and lines to appear on your face. So, if you want to prevent this from happening, you should change your sleeping positions every once in a while. Sleeping on your back is the safest option, but if you can’t fall asleep in that position, try to change sides every other night.

Steam Up Your Bedroom

If you have a dry skin, you should definitely moisturize it every chance you get. However, this is not always that easy, especially because skin tends to be rather dry during the night when you sleep. So, in order to keep it moisturized, you should definitely use a humidifier during the night. You don’t have to do this on those hot summer nights, but cold winter air tends to dry out your skin, so make sure to use a humidifier during winter months.

Protect Yourself From UVA and UVB Rays

Being exposed to UVA “aging” rays on a daily basis can cause changes in your skin that eventually lead to wrinkles, sunspots, and dryness. So, it’s extremely important to wear a sunscreen every time you go out on a sunny day. SPF 30 sunscreen is enough to protect you from harmful UVA and UVB rays.

Wash Your Face Before Bed

If you’re a modern woman, you simply need to clean your face every night before you go to bed. This way, you’ll remove all the makeup, dirt, and sebum that stay on your face throughout the entire day. Cleaning your face with warm water before bed will help you prevent pimples, inflammation, and breakouts. In other words, you’ll have a clean, soft, and young-looking skin for many years to come.

Dating Sites Study: Women Are Pickier Than Men

It’s safe to say that online dating has revolutionized the general dating scene all around the world. Ever since it became one of the best matchmaking options for single people, most individuals have changed their routines and their attitudes when it comes to romance. For example, people nowadays don’t have to go out and search for the perfect date, they have it all in one place, just a few clicks away. If a guy wants to meet a mature hottie, for instance, he can simply visit a cougar dating website and find a perfect match. The same goes for women; they can now look for a perfect companion from the comfort of their own home. Even though these advantages sound rather nice, some studies show that online dating platforms have made women pickier than men. Let’s see how and why.

Ladies Are Very Specific In Their Searches

One of the main reasons why most women are pickier than men is the fact that ladies are rarely looking for one night stands and casual relationships. Moreover, most of them are searching for suitable partners with whom they’ll be able to start a serious relationship. This is why most single ladies are rather specific in their online searches. On the other hand, the majority of young single dudes who have profiles on dating sites are not that specific, simply because they’re ready to settle for less in order to have some fun.

Their Potential Date’s Education Is Very Important To Them

Women, no matter how young or restless, are always thinking about their future. This is why they will never settle for someone with whom they can’t fulfill their dreams and achieve their goals. This is why they consider the level of education to be one of the most important indicators when it comes to their potential match.

Namely, women associate education with intelligence and success, which means they will continue to search until they find a good-looking man with a college diploma. We can honestly say that most men don’t take this parameter too seriously, which also goes in favor of the claim that ladies are pickier than fellas.

Women Are Most Picky Between the Ages Of 18 and 30 – Here’s Why

According to an Australian study that was conducted by Dr. Stephen Whyte and later published in Psychological Science, women are at their pickiest between the ages of 18 and 30.  Whyte and his team came to this conclusion by analyzing the dating routines of 41,936 persons. But what are the possible reasons for that?

Well, the fact is that women are most fertile during those years, which means they’re simply looking for a man who will prove to be a suitable partner and a potential father of their children. Naturally, most women don’t want to start a family with just anyone. What is more, they’re looking for a perfect companion with many virtues and qualities that are in their opinion essential for establishing healthy marriage and happy family.  Given the reason for the pickiness in this case, we have to agree it’s fully justified.

8 Dating Hacks from Single Women

Skeptics will tell you there is no way you can have dating hacks, but we’re here to prove them wrong. Listed below are the top 8 hacks from single women of all ages and backgrounds that can help you find love online, and keep you sane in the process.

#1: Choose the Lowest Possible Distance

Using the distance filter at home or when traveling proves to be very useful on so many levels. There is no time wasted on someone who just lives too far away when you’re not at all interested in a long-distance relationship, plus planning a first date is far easier with someone who lives nearby. If there are no good prospects in the area, you can always increase the range little by little.

#2: Check them out on Social Media

One of the easiest ways to weed out the guys who don’t seem like a good match is to check them out on social media. Find them on Instagram or Twitter, and send them a friend request on Facebook. If they don’t reply to the request, they’ve probably got something to hide. Keeping in mind that most people put the best possible photos of themselves on display online, take the time to try and dig out something that may attest to the fact that person might not be such a good match.

#3: Only Use Apps in the Morning

If you only swipe in the morning, you’ll save yourself plenty of time at midday, plus you’ll see which users are up at a decent hour. If you swipe him right, and he doesn’t reply until 3 pm, what could that tell you? Among other things, that he works nights, which could involve dangerous situations or drugs and alcohol, just to name a few.

#4: Standards Can Be Flexible

Not everyone you meet will be marriage material, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be awesome for a (few) one-night stands. Maybe you don’t like what they do, the way they dress or they just seem they could be trouble down the road, but that doesn’t mean you have to be in a relationship with them. Maybe their smile is irresistible, and they’re a really good kisser. That’s a great candidate to have some fun with despite your high standards!

#5: Engage Your Dog to Help

Who says that a date has to take place on a Saturday night? How about a Sunday morning at your local off-leash dog park? You can get a better idea of what someone is like when you see them during the day than when they posh up for evening, plus it’s harder to put the moves on someone at 10am than at 10pm, which will give you a better picture of the kind of person you’re dealing with. Also, you can tell a lot about a person based on how they interact with animals!

#6: Dance

It’s true that not all guys out there would be thrilled to be seen on the dance floor, but if a cutie you’re chatting up on Tinder plans to seducing you right, he better start on the dance floor! Dancing can be extremely sensual, which isn’t necessarily what you have to go for, but it can tell you a lot about a person’s level of self-confidence.

#7: Let Him Woo You

It’s nice to be in control on your dates, and in many cases it’s also a turn on, but sometimes you just need to let go, and let your date court you old-school style. Allowing yourself to be wooed doesn’t make you any less of a feminist, and doesn’t mean you’re giving up the right to vote! Finally, if the guy is willing to invest his time and energy into the courtship process, that sets the stage for a fulfilling relationship down the road.

#8: Don’t Forget to be Yourself

There are plenty of people out there searching for the exact same things that you have to offer. Hate Sci-Fi? Love sports? Don’t be afraid to say that! We all like to travel and think we’re not difficult, but that’s not what makes you unique. Fly your flag openly and catch the right kind of fish, instead of the slippery one!

No Use in Fighting it or What I’ve Learned by Giving Someone a Chance

Down with insistence on how one can easily find love online. As hard as dating can be sometimes, many of us have good stories to tell thanks to the matchmaking abilities of our friends. Needless to say, kissing a few (or lots of) frogs in the process is pretty much a given, but at least it is all worth it in the end. This blind date story has a happy ending thanks to my friend D who set me up A out of the blue one early spring Saturday.

Blind dates are possibly even worse than job interviews because there are lots of interviews out there where you walk in knowing the interviewer or at least being acquainted with them. On a blind date, you don’t have the slightest idea who the person sitting across the table from you is. Sure, you’ve seen their photo and heard a short bio, but still.

In any case, I decided to give it a shot not really believing anything would come of it. I agreed to meet up with A one Thursday afternoon and go for a joint dog walk through the park, my Labradoodle Ben and his Weimaraner Romeo in tow. Side note: for a blind date pick, as neutral a ‘venue’ as possible, and if dinner seems too formal as it does to me, go ahead and take it down a notch. Since a dog walk can take anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours depending on how much fun you’re having, you’re going in with a bullet-proof exit strategy in case things turn out badly. And if they go well, you can tell all your friends (kids and grandkids included) that you’ve met by chance at a park walking your pooches!

I wasn’t taken aback by A immediately. It took me some time to really get his vibe so it’s not like this was love at first sight. He wasn’t really my type either. He had dark hair and dark eyes, and I’m a sucker for baby blue eyes, you know, like Cillian Murphy’s. Anyway, I was surprised how much we had in common and the more he talked the more I realized I really liked what he had to say. I was becoming more interested because I didn’t feel like he was trying to play me at all. He was just being himself, and pretty much everything he said was spot on. He took initiative, was smooth, and seemed to care just a touch about impressing me, which I found cute.

Then I realized he was cute! He had full lips and a beautiful set of pearly white teeth, something I never really pay attention to because I always look at the eyes. And his weren’t blue but they were just as deep. It usually takes a pair of pale blue eyes looking deep into mine for the butterflies in my stomach to start having a party, but this time it took a smile. Or several smiles, that is, one for every time I said something he was impressed with, like what my job was or which countries I’ve lived in.

We didn’t stay too long. After about an hour and a half, we said good-bye and went our separate ways. The next morning, he gave D, my matchmaking friend, a ride to my place because she needed to pick something up from me. Did I think this was just a ploy to see me again? Sure. Did I think it was lame? Not a chance because for a full 24 hours after our ‘date’ I was still drunk on the whole thing without having a drop of alcohol.

A few days later, he sent me his first text, and that was more than a year ago. He still makes me weak in the knees despite the fact we moved in together a few months back. I don’t know where D kept him all this time, but I know our encounter was definitely not by chance. I was meant to meet him and realize that you absolutely never know where or who is going to sweep you off your feet.

5 Reasons Summer Love Feels so Different

In the summer, when everyone is outside with far less on their plates than during the rest of the year, you don’t even need to find love online! Love is literally everywhere you look, and you can just let things take their course without worrying whether a hot summer romance is in the cards for you. Below are the top 5 reasons why romance feels so different in the summer, why the anticipation of the first kiss is so strong, and why it will happen to you!

#1: More Opportunity to Meet New People

Days are longer during the summer, and we’re all spending more time outside giving us more opportunity to meet new people. Also, sunshine generally puts people in a good and festive mood, and most of us get invited to parties, barbecues and the like during the summer much more frequently than in February, for instance. Sparks fly when you’re meeting new and intriguing people week after week, you start to feel more confident when you social calendar gets fuller, and you notice the confidence in others making them more attractive in your eyes, too.

#2: Warm Weather Means Better Mood

When you’re in a better mood, and an overall sunny and positive person, you’re more attractive in the eyes of the people around you. Plus, sunshine puts everyone in a better mood than usual, meaning a new person that enters your life is more likely to catch your eye as well.  Just 30 minutes spent outside in warm weather make people more open to new experiences, in this case new encounters than can lead to romance or sexual attraction.

#3: Fewer Responsibilities Allow you to be Spontaneous

We all remember how excited we were for every summer break while we were in school, and ever since then we’ve tried to make every summer feel more or less like a holiday. Nobody is swamped with work, chasing their end-of-the-year bonus and the workload is usually lighter when those high July and August temperatures hit. As a result we feel less under pressure to perform, impress our bosses or work our behinds off to meet goals. When the summer mindset sets in, most people feel much more laid back than during the other seasons, and spontaneity leads to more exciting decisions that can result in being hit by Cupid’s arrow straight through the heart.

#4: Summer Makes You Feel Sexy

Lighter clothes, warm nights, fewer commitments, and good sangrias make you feel sexier in your own skin. Also, most people ditch heavy meals drenched in fat and opt for salads, soups, and other dishes that will keep them hydrated when it’s really hot in the summer. These healthy foods coupled with being more physically active from all the time spent outside results in flatter bellies, slimmer figures and more flaunting of your skin.

#5: Summer Equals Freedom

Everyone feels far less pressure to commit and a stronger urge to find a passionate romance during the summer. No-one talks about the future, and very few people even have any plans past Labor Day. People live in the moment, which is why those hot summer relationships feel so much more exciting and erotically charged. They may not last a lifetime, but are certainly unforgettable.

5 Cliché First Date Ideas that are Overrated

Regardless of whether you’ve met a girl or a guy at a bar or you’re trying to find love online, there’s about 100% chance that you’ll have to go on that first date sooner or later. And seeing as most people dread that first date in terms of what to do and where to go, we’ve decided to look into it with detail.

Namely, we wanted to discuss first date ideas that are so cliché and so “already seen” that most of us can only bear seeing something like that in rom-com movies. In that name, here are the top 5 cliché first date ideas that are completely and absolutely overrated.

Picnic

Remember those old films where the handsome guy would take his high school sweetheart on a picnic date and they would have such a wonderful time? Well, that kind of date probably isn’t something you want to find yourself on.

A picnic can easily go from lovely and romantic to uncomfortable and insect-infested. A lot of things ride on weather conditions and your surroundings, so try avoiding picnics as a first date idea.

Movies

First dates are supposed to be the perfect opportunity to learn something about one another, so why would you take your date to the cinema where you can’t even talk or communicate with each other in any way?

It just doesn’t make any sense. However, if you’re already dating this person for some time, the movies can be a good call if you just want to spend some quality time with each other and watch an entertaining flick together.

Long Walks

Even though taking a long, relaxing walk is a good way to allow yourself to talk and actually get to know the person you’re dating, it’s not exactly recommended as a first date idea since it becomes very boring very quickly.

Once again, you’re letting a lot of things rely on temperature and general weather conditions, which isn’t something you want happening on the first date when you’re trying to somehow impress the other person.

Wine and Dine

Seriously? Take him or her to dinner and have a glass of wine – sounds like the most boring date in the world, and here’s why.

First of all, you don’t know what the other person likes eating or what kind of restaurants are they into. Secondly, you’ll be forced to interact so much that you’ll be running the risk of running out of the things to talk about, since it is your first date with each other and neither of you want to share exactly everything about themselves.

Group Activities

Remember when we mentioned that you want to impress the other person on the first date? Well, if you opt out for a group activity date, you’ll have impress that same person with the addition of his or her friends.

Dating isn’t supposed to be a circus and you shouldn’t force yourself into situations that require you to have 100% concentration and that demand immense effort so that everyone included will like you.

Feminism and Egalitarianism – Why Do They Fail?

Looking at modern day feminism in the US, it’s clear that the movement has come a long way. However, at the same time there are plenty of feminist groups crying oppression at every corner as if it were 1919. On the one hand, they claim to be fighting for equality of the sexes, which is also made clear by the Merriam Webster Dictionary definition of the word feminism – “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes”. But on the other hand, anyone who’s ever dug a little deeper into the feminist movement of today has seen that what they really want is special treatment. This is exactly why feminism can’t be taken seriously, and why egalitarianism requires a joint effort not just to fight discrimination against the oppressed groups, such as Native Americans, handicapped people, HIV singles, women, and anyone else who is discriminated against in daily life, but to ensure equal rights for all.

Feminism VS. Egalitarianism

If we look at the definition of egalitarianism, we see that it is “a belief in human equality especially with respect to social, political, and economic affairs”. At a first glance, feminism and egalitarianism seem to be quite similar, if not synonymous, but in reality things are much different. If you talk to die-hard feminists about egalitarianism, they say they would support it 100%. But when you explain that egalitarianism actually means that sex and race (among other things) would play absolutely no role in how people are treated in everyday life, meaning they’d be judged purely on their abilities and accomplishments, that’s when things first hit a wall. A die-hard member of the feminist movement would say that women and visible minorities have been oppressed for so long that they would surely be discriminated against even if judged ‘solely’ based on their abilities and accomplishments. As a result, you’d learn that feminists actually believe that more women should be included in university programs, that more women should be hired by the tech companies, that more girls should be more encouraged to pursue a degree in science, and a plethora of other things that couldn’t be further from equality of the sexes, but are borderline discrimination of the sexes.

Failure to Reach Equality

Feminism preaches equality, but it’s unlikely they would ever truly start practicing what they preach, which is why in the eyes of many people they keep failing. It’s a stretch to say that equality of the sexes means just fighting for women’s rights as men’s rights aren’t without their problems either. In the world of feminists, it is only the rights of one sex that matter, and as a result they can never achieve equality. It is precisely this hypocrisy that always stands in their way. Anyone who honestly believes in equality doesn’t think that women, gay people, disabled individuals, members of the visible minorities or anyone else who faces discrimination on a regular basis should be given special treatment because of their sex, the color of their skin or political, sexual or any other kind of preference. People who truly believe in equality believe in equality for all, every man, woman and child, not those men, women and children who are for whatever reason discriminated against. To make it perfectly clear, we live in a world full of discrimination, but the only way we can achieve equality is if we all work together, united on all fronts.

Top 4 Myths about Fetishists

Having a fetish isn’t as bizarre as it may sound. Having a paraphilia – a physical object, role or thought that is the principal center of your sexual drive – can be somewhat invigorating and fun in the room. It doesn’t matter if you’re into straight, gay, bi, transgender dating or just want to meet online – fetishes can show up anywhere and under any conditions.

Some people develop fetishes at a very young age due to various causes, while others only figure out that they have a sexual paraphilia much later in life by accident. There are pretty simple and common ones, like fetishes that focus on body parts which already have established sexual attributes, and then there are rarer and more intriguing, such as fetishes that put odd things in a person’s sexual focus (feet, hair, nostrils, etc.).

Still, it’s by most considered as weird, freaky, even disgusting and sick for some unknown reason, even though it doesn’t have to be that way. For the most part, this is caused by prejudice and people’s fear of that which they do not understand or which they do not perceive as a part of everyday life – which fetishes totally are for some folk. In that name, here is our attempt at explaining the phenomenon that are fetishes by addressing the top 4 myths about fetishism.

Fetishists are Perverts

Does having an interest make somebody debased? With respect to why that happens, hypotheses extend. One, clarified by therapist and sex scientist Justin Lehmiller, is established in traditional molding, whereby “to the extent that a specific object repeatedly appears just before we experience sexual arousal, we may eventually come to see that object as a cue for sexual arousal.” Another hypothesis is geographic, as the zone of our brains that control our sexual parts may cover or be firmly situated to another piece of the cerebrum — say, “the region that manages your feet.”

Once again, this myth can be attributed to the common misconception that just because something is “out of the box,” it automatically has to be freakish and bizarre. Surely, there are certain fetishes that can make others queasy, but that does not justify any prejudice which would mark fetishists as weirdos or perverts.

Only Certain Folk are into Fetishes

There is no such thing as a standard fetishist, as the obsession group is extraordinarily various — indeed, it’s not even a solitary group. “There are communities for foot fetishes, latex and rubber fetishists, chastity fetishists, lingerie fetishists, diaper fetishists, and myriad other specialized sexual interests,” sexologist Gloria Brame said.

Indeed, even inside individual interest groups, tastes can change, as a certain foot fetishist wrote in a 2014 Medium exposition: “It’s all a matter of taste, and like music, some fetishists have a narrow, refined taste while some guys don’t care if their girlfriend has hooves and sausage toes.”

Basically, this means that having a fetish isn’t a simple phenomenon in any way. As we’ve mentioned before, there are fetishes that focus on things that are already sexualized in general (and sometimes people don’t even know that they’re having a fetish), while on other occasions there are fetishes that are very specific and very out-of-the-ordinary. This all means that there’s no telling who can or cannot become a fetishist or who is or isn’t one already.

Fetish is the same as Kink

Yet another case misdefining something that has to be defined right in order to be understood.

As noted over, a fetish is frequently based on a physical object or particular activity. Kink, in the interim, is frequently used to depict any sexual practices that fall outside of the standard — however, there can be overlapping, making some perplexity even inside the group.

“I have always referred to my main kink, which is being spanked, and being submissive to my partner, as my fetishes,” Jessica Wakeman wrote for the Frisky in 2013. “Technically-speaking, however, my ‘spanking fetish’ and my ‘submission fetish’ are not fetishes.”

If we were to really get into the terminology here, we would have to separate spanking and submission from fetishism simply due to them belonging to two different groups. The first two are actually a part of a very complex sexual preference known widely as BDSM (bondage, discipline, domination, submission, sadism and masochism), while for something to be described as a fetish, it needs to have a paraphilia, or in other words, an object or body part that would be in the center of a fetishist’s sexual focus.

Fetishists are Hard to Find

Despite what might be expected, Internet people group propose that fetishists are all around, and they exist in huge numbers. Interpersonal organization FetLife alone has almost 4 million individuals.

“The Internet has been the single biggest boon to sexually unconventional hook-ups in human history,” Brame says “It has been demonstrated time and again that if you build a site for an interest you don’t think anyone in the world shares, within a few months you’ll have a bustling membership.”

If we’re being honest, weirder things than fetishists can be found on the web, and furthermore, it’s not really that hard finding them. Remember all those fetishes Gloria Brame mentioned earlier? Foot, latex and rubber, chastity, lingerie, diaper – all these fetishes and many more can be found all over the internet, from sites that deal with the social and sexual problems  and dilemmas of fetishism to full-blown pornographic videos and live sex cams that revolve exclusively around fetishes.

Top 5 Books to be Released in 2018

January and mid-February 2018 have already brought some pretty compelling reads, and come spring-time there won’t be anything else for us to do, but sit back and relax with a bunch of great books that are to come. Our list of the top 5 2018 releases features stories written by award-winning authors who keep raising the bar in their genres, and drawing in more readers with each subsequent release. Instead of spending what is left of this winter logged into Tinder, trying to meet people online, check out our picks for the best fiction books we look forward to reading in the following months, and see for yourself why we think these new novels about to hit the shelves are so incredible.

#1: A Long Way from Home by Peter Carey

Set in the remote country towns in Australia, A Long Way from Home is a story about a married couple, Titch and Irene Bob, who enter a 10,000-mile, 17-day car race to promote Titch’s used car business with the help of their neighbor Willie Bachhuber. Along the way, Willie faces issues related to his heritage, and the book beautifully explores the shameful treatment of the Indigenous people in Australia.

#2: An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

Celestial and Roy are a happily married couple in the New South with the anniversary of their first date as a safe word to stop rough sex or conversation aimed at painful topics, “November 17”. That night, as Roy utters these words during a fight with Celestial, he’s wrongly accused of committing a violent offence, and subsequently sentenced to 12 years in prison.

#3: The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

Word has spread of the arrival of a mystical psychic, who can tell everyone the date they will die, to Manhattan’s Lower East Side in 1969, and four Gold adolescents sneak out to hear their destiny. Their next five decades are mapped out, and they each go their separate ways to probe the line between fortune and choice, telling a wonderful story of the nature of belief and family bonds.

#4: The English Wife by Lauren Willig

Annabelle and Bayard Van Duyvil live in New York during the Gilded Age, have three-year-old twins they adore, and following their passionate romance in London decide to make their family home in Manhattan. When Bayard is killed on the night of their 12^th Night Ball, and Annabelle goes missing, Bayard’s sister Janie forms an alliance with a reported to uncover the truth. The more she learns about her brother and his wife, the more the story unravels, revealing who Bay and Annabelle really were, and why Bay died with a name George on his lips.

#5: The Wife between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

A story about a tangled love triangle, The Wife between Us seems to be about a jealous ex-wife, and her younger, beautiful replacement who’s about to marry the man they both love. Assume nothing as this twisted story exposes the dangerous truths we ignore in the name of love.