Here’s another Blast from the Past from March of 2006.
Enjoy!
AAR 2006 Annual Reader Poll
(For 2005 releases)
“Jump link” to Accompanying ATBF Column
Post to the Potpourri Message Board
Interim Results
We invite the winners to pick up their awards hereBest 2005 Romance Novels
- Best Romance : Mr. Impossible by Loretta Chase
- Favorite Funny : Match Me If You Can by Susan E. Phillips
- Honorable Mention : To Die For by Linda Howard
- Most-Hanky Read – tie : A Breath of Snow & Ashes by Diana Gabaldon / Till Next We Meet by Karen Ranney
- Honorable Mention : Passion by Lisa Valdez
- Most Luscious Love Story : Passion by Lisa Valdez
- Best Cabin/Road Romance : Mr. Impossible by Loretta Chase
- Best New Author : Lisa Valdez
- Honorable Mention : Lydia Joyce
- Best Buried Treasure : The Music of the Night by Lydia Joyce
- Honorable Mentions : Passion by Lisa Valdez / The Perfect Rake by Anne Gracie
- Guiltiest Pleasure : Passion Lisa Valdez
- Author Most Glommed – tie : Anne Stuart / Mary Balogh
- Honorable Mention : Loretta Chase
- Best Medieval/Renaissance : Return of the Warrior by Kinley MacGregor
- Honorable Mention : Warprize by Elizabeth Vaughan
- Best European Historical : Mr. Impossible by Loretta Chase (set in Egypt)
- Best Traditional Regency : Dedication by Janet Mullany
- Best Amer Hist/Frontier : A Breath of Snow & Ashes by Diana Gabaldon
- Best Contemporary : Match Me If You Can by Susan E. Phillips
- Best Series Novel – tie (Series = Category Novel) : The Mysterious Miss M by Diane Gaston / With Child by Janice Kay Johnson
- Best Romantic Suspense : Black Ice by Anne Stuart
- Honorable Mentions : To Die For by Linda Howard / Hot Target by Suzanne Brockmann
- Best Alt Reality/Paranormal : Dark Lover by J.R. Ward
- Best Chick Lit/Women’s Fict : The Givenchy Code by Julie Kenner
- Honorable Mention : To Die For by Linda Howard
- Honorable Mention – Short Story : Falling for Anthony in Hot Spell by Meljean Brook
Best 2005 Characters
- Most Tortured Hero :- Bastien Toussaint in Black Ice by Anne Stuart
- Strongest Heroine :- Eve Dallas in Survivor In Death by J.D. Robb
- Honorable Mention :- Blair Mallory in To Die For by Linda Howard
- Best Hero :- Rupert Carsington in Mr. Impossible by Loretta Chase
- Best Heroine :- Blair Mallory in To Die For by Linda Howard
- Honorable Mention : Daphne Pembroke in Mr. Impossible by Loretta Chase
- Best Couple : Rupert & Daphne in Mr. Impossible by Loretta Chase
- Best Villain (unnamed to avoid spoilers) : It Happened One Autumn by Lisa Kleypas
Worst of the Year for 2005
- Lead : Blair Mallory in To Die For by Linda Howard
- Author You Gave Up On : Julie Garwood
- (Dis) Honorable Mention : Stephanie Laurens
- Author Others Love/You Don’t : Nora Roberts
- Most Disappointing Read : It Happened One Autumn by Kleypas
- (Dis) Honorable Mentions : Breaking Point by Suzanne Brockmann / Killing Time by Linda Howard
- Worst Read – Tie : Passion Lisa Valdez / What Do You Say to a Naked Elf? by Cynthia Sterling
- Purple-est Prose : Passion Lisa Valdez
This is too much fun! 2006 was the year I graduated high school & my reading life would’ve looked very, very different if I had found AAR as a teen.
I read Mr. Impossible for the first time a few months ago and I’d argue that it’s one of the greatest historical romances ever, but FYI, it does have its colonial paternalism/white savior moments.
I also read Warprize for the first time a few months ago and…don’t get it. The first person present POV made me want to light my hair on fire. After Joanna Lindsey’s non-PC spanking barbarians in Warrior’s Woman, were Elizabeth Vaughan’s consent-conscious steppe horse-warriors infinitely more appealing? Should I stop my elderly millennial whining and just be glad the barbarian torch was passed to Milla Vane, Ruby Dixon, and apparently, Kristen Ashley?
I’m a big fan of Karen Ranney (R.I.P.) and I enjoyed Till Next We Meet. Great to see her get a shout-out.
Who is Lisa Valdez???
Crazy to think this was the beginning of J.R. Ward’s “Black Dagger Brotherhood”! The world didn’t know what had hit it, haha.
Lisa Valdez was considered super racy at the time. Passion is set in 1851 and the first few pages start out with the heroine at an exhibition seeing a stranger and hooking up with him behind a screen and having sex using pretty raw language (especially for 2006).
I just pulled my copy out for a reread and got knocked out of the story in the first few pages when I saw “taught” was used when it should be “taut”. It’s very dramatic and over the top book and one I never see mentioned much anymore unlike most of the other winners.
Thank you, Chrisreader! I read your comment downthread, comparing her to Robin Schone, and that helps place her in context too. I’m fascinated by how histroical romance went from closed door or euphemistic sex scenes to the explicitly erotic content we have now, but wow, I’m with you, stuff like the taut/taught error would be very distracting.
I do have to say Robin Schone is (IMHO) a far, far better writer than Valdez. She was one of the first to really push the boundaries of what could be called historical romance rather than erotica but she always crafted books with solid historical research and her characters, though forward thinking, always sounded like educated 19th century people.
I started re-reading Passion and the people in it use the F word like members of an MC or as one poster here said the construction workers on her house did. It’s absurd it’s so bad. She’s supposed to be the genteel widowed daughter of a Vicar and he’s a Marquess or Count or something and they sound like an episode of the Sopranos.
And just to say I certainly have been known to drop an F-bomb under the right circumstances and and frank language isn’t a problem at all for me but this book is a comical mix of explicit purple prose and F words.
Loved this! I always looked forward to the Annual Reader Polls (and the great-for-a-laugh Cover Contests) so this was a chance to remember those books I did read and re-consider those I didn’t. I’ve always loved the old Signet Trad Regencies so have just put Dedication by Janet Mullany on my ever-lengthening kindle TBR pile. Thank you, Dabney, for resurrecting this, more please!
Ohh, I also miss the cover contest! Some cover art featured there was really gorgeous… and some was really horribly funny! ;)
Passion really is a bonkers book. That whole cervix thing. The biggest dick–literally–in London. I re-read it a few years ago and spent much of the time shaking my head in disbelief.
I think Valdez was part of the Robin Schone school of anatomical feats in romance. I think there was a similar issue in The Lady’s Tutor and some people were just like “no thanks”.
This was the year I started reading romance, and Mr. Impossible was the first book I read. (As I’ve mentioned before, I started at the top.) I remember using this list to get me started exploring. I didn’t read all of them—I was pretty sure Passion wasn’t my cup of tea—but it was a great introduction.
Wow “It happened One Autumn” by Kleypas got Most Disappointing? I thought that was a bunch of people’s favorites. It’s not my favorite of the series but IMHO it’s in no way disappointing. I think Lillian’s great and there are some really fun moments.
It’s funny how one book like Mr. Impossible would dominate the awards in a year. I don’t think that happens as much anymore does it?
Oh Passion- there’s a book I think I own and haven’t looked at since 2006. I remember that was super racy and “shocking” back in 2006.
What’s your favorite Wallflowers??
Like you, I thought It Happened One Autumn was one of the stronger books, but Secrets of a Summer’s Night was my favorite. I’m gone for a heroine who is aware of her beauty and uses it to her advantage and it felt historically consistent that she would dismiss a working class suitor. But I know that’s a hot take — everyone is crazy for St. Vincent!
I do love St. Vincent too but I have always appreciated a heroine who is honest and practical. Even beloved Lizzie Bennet knows a “handsome man must have something to live on as well as the plain” and that certainly applies to women too.
For a lot of years romance heroines had to be these saintly creatures who floated along only being supremely good and not caring about money while they landed the richest duke or the biggest billionaire because they were so, so lovely and good. While I don’t want a heartless Scarlett O’Hara who will steamroll over friends and family I also like a heroine to be practical and have common sense.
I tend to think of it as a job in the modern sense, while you want to do something you are proud of and follow your interests you also wouldn’t say “Oh I don’t want you to pay me money.” People have to live and eat so why wouldn’t you want the best deal for your family and yourself? I think we are all walking that line daily between happiness and practicality.
“You never read the same book twice.”
Lists like this remind me how true that is. I used to love the Chicago Stars books by Susan Elizabeth Philips, especially on audio narrated by the talented Anna Fields (RIP). But this Spring I tried to listen to Natural Born Charmer, one of my favorites, and had to stop. I got so angry with Blue’s high-handed interference between mother and son. I don’t remember that bothering me before. Match Me if You Can was another favorite of mine and I’ve been afraid to revisit it.
Black Ice was also a favorite, again on audio, with Xe Sands narrating. I’ve been thinking about relistening to it, but I’ve been afraid I wouldn’t deal well with the cold,dispassionate hero this time around.
I’ve reread a few Linda Howard books this year and they were fine, but not quite as special as I’d remembered them, and yeah, Blair Mallory is irritating.
It’s interesting that Passion shows up in the Best of and Worst of categories. Romance readers area diverse group!
Sounds like it’s one of those books that’s so bad it’s good?
I have a love hate relationship with romance and fantasy audiobooks. Authors I’ve loved in the past when I’ve read them seem to lose something in an audiobook. Mistakes and over the top language that I don’t notice when reading become super obvious when listening. It’s spoiled a few of my formerly favorite authors!
That’s really interesting! I’ve found the opposite to be true. Good books with good narrators are a joy; and a gifted narrator can save a so-so book for me. Bad narrators – especially the ones who mispronounce words, for example – I just ignore. Of course, I’m fortunate to be able to read off a page (I’m not dependent on audiobooks.)
I think I recall that Janet Mullany added back a couple of scenes to Dedication that had to be deleted for it to be published in 2005 (bondage scenes, I think?) and republished it in 2014 or thereabouts. Republished as an e-book, I am not sure about any other format.
Mr. Impossible, Match Me If You Can and Hot Target all in one year? I remember my first read of each of these books very distinctly.