Below you’ll find the top 250 books from all the write-ins from Round One. Choose AS MANY of these as you’d like.
Please pick your personal favorites, as well as any you feel should be on the list on principle.This round will be open until May 7th at 8pm EST and you will only have the opportunity to vote once in this round. So please be sure of your choices before you hit “done”!
In the next round, we’ll combine the top vote getters from this round and the top ones from our original 50 list. You’ll have 150 books to choose from in that round, before we narrow it down to the top 100! The final round will be the Top Ten Shootout, where we’ll give you the top ten from round 3 and you choose your overall winner.
Please note: each book is using its proper title, so check the “A” “The”, etc. options as well.
Click here to vote!
Here again are the rules:
Round 1: Select as many books as you want from the list provided. It is meant to just be a starting point. There are fifty books on it–the list will ultimately have 100 books. Then, in the write-in section, enter up to ten books that are NOT on the current list you think must be. All book choices will be given one vote so a write-in has just as much weight as one on the list.
Round 2: The nominations from you, our faithful community, will be provided to be voted on.
Round 3: The ranking begins…
Round 4: Once the Top 100 is established, we’ll give you a final chance to rank the Top 10. This will be the only time your vote will be restricted to 1 book.
Spread this thing far and wide – we want it to be as reflective of Romancelandia in 2018 as it can be.
How can there be no Lord of Scoundrels in this list? It’s my absolute favourite, and has been top of this poll for years! I’m shocked.
This is JUST the write-in votes. In the next round, they will be combined with the 50 top titles Round One included. So, no worries. LoS will be in Round Three.
Hmm. What a dilemma. There are definitely authors on this list who I think should be included in any “best of” list, like Nora Roberts, Julie James, LaVyrle Spencer, Kristen Higgins, Susanna Kearsley, Patricia Gaffney,Jennifer Crusie, Pamela Morsi, etc. But, the books that are listed for them are either not my favorites or ones that I’ve not read. I’d hate to choose those books just so the authors will be included on my list.
On the other hand, I’m a little surprised at some authors — who I think are still earning their place on these types of lists — who have five and six books to choose from. I guess that’s a function of their being up and coming authors with readers who are currently enjoying them, and thus, including multiple titles in their lists.
We plan to do a “best series of all time” poll in the near future. This poll has always just done individual books.
I think I wasn’t clear. I wasn’t talking about series. I meant, there are very well-known authors on this list with only a few books from their catalogue to choose from on the list — one or two. In comparison, there are authors who I don’t think have reached the level of “best of” yet who have five or six of their books on the list. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? (I’m guessing it has something to do with newer readers choosing what’s being published now as opposed to books that are well-known in the romance genre from “the past” but are not as well-known to newer readers?)
I think this is something that always happens in public polls, regardless of subject. I, too, raised eyebrows at many of the names on the list (and I still can’t believe that The Madness of Ian Mackenzie is = or was – higher up than Flowers from the Storm in the last Top 100) – but it’s often a case of people having stronger memories of the things they read most recently, or of readers new to the genre who haven’t get had time to catch up with the books long-time readers regard as classics.
No Suzanne Brockman, that’s a surprise
I agree :-)
Also no Jo Goodman, no Cecelia Grant, and no Josh Lanyon . . . ? Very curious to see how this turns out!
Definitely think Josh Lanyon should be but which book do you choose?
In my personal Top 100, I have both Fair Game and The Dark Tide. I included The Dark Tide on my ballot. What about you?
Sorry for delay….yes Fair Game and Holmes and Moriarity series, Adrien English series, Mexican Heat with Laura Baumbach, Stranger on the Shore oh and Come unto these yellow sands! So many…
I also miss her in this list. Brockmann and Sandra Brown have both several books in my personal Top 100. But –generally speaking– romantic suspense is not a genre that is usually voted in Romancelandia. I think that people tend to remember more –and vote– Historicals.
I did also miss Cecilia Grant, who is one of my favourites.
On the other hand, I found 5 books that I have never heard of, and believe me, I visit A LOT of Romantic websites. But if that’s what people vote, it could be that they are ‘unknown jewels’, or that they have a lot of friends & fans voting for them.
Nevertheless, this is my favourite poll, because it’s done by readers and usually 95% of the list are good books, even if they are not my cup of tea –for instance, paranormals–.
Thank you for the vote of confidence. We’ve had almost 3000 votes in this round. It’s definitely a reader driven result.
I’m enjoying voting for my faves, but it’s weird to me seeing recently published books that I couldn’t say will really stand the test of time. Books that are a year or two old. So when you end up with the final list, maybe you could put the year published next to each title?
This was really tough, BTW. I chose some books, like Kiss of Snow and Duke of Sin, because I think they’re terrific, but not necessarily because I’m sure they’ll stand the test of time. It will be interesting to see the final list.
I can’t go back to the survey page to check now that I’ve filled it out, but I think Kleypas was misspelled once & Phillips twice.
Wow no Joanna Bourne
There are books by her on the original list that was voted on in the first round -so they are there. This is the list compiled of the ten write-in votes everyone submitted in that round. Round three will be a combination of both.
WOW! No This heart of Mine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips! I loved that book! I’m kind of surprised that The wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory made the list.
Hope Chase’s “Lord Perfect” was on the first list. My favorite. Glad to see more Connie Brockway and Anne Stuart on this list.
Me, too. I love Connie Brockway, and her books don’t get much love these days.
Yes, to all of these! Lord Perfect is still an all-time favorite as are both Brockway and Stuart.
As a POC, I’m upset to see so many titles by Linda Howard in this round. LH has made it abundantly clear that she opposes efforts (particularly by RWA) to be more inclusive towards marginalized authors. She has explicitly asserted that diversity constitutes discrimination. She is racist, period. To see so many of her books make the list, yet NONE of the AOC I nominated (Zen Cho, Marjorie Liu, Bettie Sharpe, Naima Simone), which includes 2 black authors, get a chance to be voted on by other readers.
I know AAR’s voting/nominating system is imperfect. However, I still feel more needs to be done to boost marginalized voices & give them a chance to be voted on, so that the top 100 is not overwhelmingly white, again. Also, is AAR really OK with so many slots being filled by LH in this round? I don’t want to see a racist in the top 100, let alone multiple titles by her.
Well, they tried with the round 1 votes to “seed” more diverse candidates, which I think was appropriate. Ultimately though it’s a reader poll. I don’t really know what the staff can do if readers don’t choose poc authors without it becoming not a reader poll.
Lisa, I don’t think you (and AAR, for that matter) is getting Griffina’s point, and what other AOC have been talking about for eons on social media.
It’s called systematic racism, and each of us has the power to stop it. Polls like this, that are based on readers’ nostalgia as far as far as I see, do nothing but keep but add to the hurt.
We understand the point you are making. This poll, done once every five years, is, as they’d say in Galaxy Quest, a historical document. We think there’s value in marking readers’ values–this is the sixth poll we’ve done in over 20 years.
Griffina, I second your words, and applaud you for speaking out. I am sorry that the outspoken racist Linda Howard, and others of her ilk, continue hurt by making lists like this. I decided not to participate as the final list will look no different from AAR’s list of five or ten years ago. And judging from the first 2 rounds, (and comments) I doubt AAR”S reader poll will ever reflect any other than white authors as being the best. But hey, this poll will be deemed a great success as it is a reader’s poll, and AAR will do a Pontius Pilate. Wipe its hands of any culpability in adding to systematic racism that exists in the romance publishing world.
Yes, this is our readers’ poll which we do every five years. Almost 2000 of them have voted on this list. We have opted to let our readers have their say here. The rest of the time, at AAR, we, the reviewers make choices and we own those. But this, this is what a huge swath of romance readers say they love.
HBO and Griffina, I’m listening to you and others in the community about your concerns. I’m making a point of reading authors of color. But I have to admit I did not nominate a book by an author of color in my short list of 10 this year. I’m sorry, but I haven’t read one yet that would displace one of the 10 I did nominate. I genuinely look forward to the day when I read them – I expect it will happen soon – thanks to the coverage sites like AAR have begun to give to POC authors. It wasn’t that long ago that LGBTQ romances would never have appeared on these lists . . . in fact there none in the last Top 100 in 2013. Now there a dozen or so nominated. I believe the same is in the works for POC authors.
So what should they do?
That’s the million dollar question. AAR can remove authors deemed racist from the first portion of the poll and risk them ending up in the rankings through write-in votes or they can require readers add a number of diverse authors or books to their nominations which might cause a different set of problems. It’s a difficult situation. All they can do is listen to readers like HBO and Griffina and try to improve.
Diverse authors, books and characters clearly deserve to be ranked on the list but this is a poll that’s subject to the whim of the popular vote. But there are notable signs of change and positivity there. Judging from the list people love K.J. Charles just as much as they love Linda Howard.
A top ten to twenty list entirely made of diverse authors and characters might make a good compromise. Otherwise readers can and should do some grass roots organization on the voting side of the poll and make some change. I know I have.
Lisa, for starters we ALL can be more proactive in being better allies by seeking out and purchasing books written by Black authors and other AOC, who have been denied publication, for decades, by the white gatekeepers of the industry–agents and the Big Five publishing houses. When I look around at the array of romance blogs out there, I see the same thing over and over again–another book featuring an all white (and straight) cast written by another white author. It’s boring. It’s tiring, even for me, a white woman. As consumers we have the power to push for change. But change cannot happen if we remain in our own safe little lanes. Is it uncomfortable to talk about erasure of other cultures, racism, etc, that does exist even in our beloved romances? Yes! Most certainly. Yet, if we do not speak up the status quo remains. I, for one, no longer accept that. We can and should do better.
*Consider the above to include ALL marginalised groups that have been denied representation not only in the romance world, but across most forms of entertainment.
Oh, I agree with all of these things as general operating procedure for the site and other institutions, including people who make ordering and shelving decisions at retailers etc, but I specifically meant for the poll.
I wasn’t aware until I read some of Linda Howard’s RWA comments that her viewpoints are so narrow and not embracing of diversity. I have read many of her books in the past and enjoyed them. However, now that I am aware of her viewpoints, I will not be comfortable buying her books in the future.
This is the first time I have seen anything brought up about Linda Howard and these issues. I don’t follow RWA or anything much about authors’ private lives, and as these aren’t “celebrities” in the greater sense (outside of their sphere) the mainstream media isn’t going to cover this. I assume most readers are in a similar situation. I don’t do background research on authors and assume most others don’t either.
There have been many reviews and lively discussions about Howard and her works here and I recognize many regular posters like Blackjack etc who have engaged in them. I personally hate Howard’s book “After The Night” because of the heroine’s treatment by the hero but I have been a big fan of her other works and I have expressed all these opinions freely. AAR is very accepting and agreement on every issue or author has never been a requirement.
In all the opportunities for discussion and debates about her books, (particularly in the past several months as the old top lists were re-reviewed and/or discussed) I don’t recall any posts or discussions even intimating anything about Howard you allude to.
It hardly seems fair now to chastise AAR about this issue. Maybe if this had been brought up before in a discussion or a review it may have changed the minds of many people who did vote for her. Maybe not, but either way it hardly seems fair *after the fact* to take issue with her inclusion or the fact that individual voters cast ballots for her.
Clearly there are hundreds, if not thousands of “silent” readers who enjoy AAR, read reviews, show up to vote in the polls but may never have posted once in a discussion or under a review. (I base this on the number of names I recognize from comments and discussions vs, the number of responses AAR seems to get from polls etc.)
If you want to educate people on facts you have, or want to influence their votes or reading habits the best way to do it is by actually commenting on reviews, sharing opinions or viewpoints. I read every comment and discussion about books I am interested in and comment on ones I have actually read. People have posted comments and views on books here and probably would never know they have influenced my purchases or viewpoint but they have.
Lamenting about votes after the fact and berating the unpaid staff at AAR (which has already tried to expand the number of AOC included in the poll) is not the best to go about expanding people’s views or changing their opinions.
We are at just under 2000 votes on this round alone–that’s 2000 people who’ve voted not books chosen.
Aww…did my comments offend you? Bless your heart, honey, but please don’t instruct me or other POC on how to speak or how to act when we want to call out blatant white privilege and racism.
AAR asks that all commenters respect each others’ views. We have worked to make this a site where all are welcome and that means treating each other with kindness.
I apologize for the tone of my reply, and will strive to be more respectful in the future. To be frank, it was difficult to respond with generosity & kindness when the import of Chrisreader’s comment was to dismiss the importance of the issues I raised and the way I raised them, and to then instruct me on the “best” way to speak and act about such issues. However, I will still try to be more respectful in future even towards such comments, while in this forum.
In the interests of moving forward amicably, could you please ask your reviewer below, who called me abusive, to stop doing so in future comments? I am not engaging in abuse by expressing criticism of this poll. Could you please additionally ask Chrisreader to stop calling me manipulative, as he does below (indirectly)? I am not a manipulative monster for expressing opinions Chrisreader or AAR disagrees with. Thank you.
My comment applies to everyone in this discussion. We all owe it to our community to use our words constructively rather than destructively. I will ask again that all who comment here make sure their words take our conversation forward. Kindness: Spread that shit around.
Spanish Brand Series by Carla Kelly –fantastic series of books, very entertaining!
Suzanne Barney
Griffina & HBO, I think you’re doing the right thing in speaking out. It is a readers’ poll and readers should hear you and hopefully are open to your ideas. I recently re-read Linda Howard’s books during AAR’s reposting of the top 100 and expressed my dismay at the representations of women, people of color, and transgender characters in her novels. I posted my honest thoughts on the books, to some readers’ dismay, and I continue to believe that dialogue on these issues is important.
Blackjack, I am not sure why people are so uncomfortable talking about these issues. And the conversation quickly dissolves into “you’re not being nice” especially when it’s POC speaking up. I changed my reading and T.V. habits a number of years ago; not because I was suddenly “woke” but because I was getting extremely bored of reading and watching the same thing over and over again–an all white (and straight) cast within the pages or on the screen, which does not represent REAL life.
First, let me just say that I am a disaster at picking out good books when left to my own devices. So, I rely on websites like AAR to point me in the right direction.
I enjoy reading books of diversity – ethnic, cultural, disabled, gender, religious – well, you get the idea. AAR has been very helpful to me in this regard. I looked at my 10 written in votes. I don’t think there are any POC authors on the list. I’m not 100 percent sure, because since I went to reading on an e-reader, I have noticed that pictures of authors no longer are part of the reading experience. Except for websites like AAR, I really have nothing to do with the romance community – I don’t “follow” authors and I am not a fangirl type. Put a good book in front of me, and I will read it – I’m a very simple woman in that way.
Of my 10 write in books, I have an YA with a heroine whose family is from India. In a Women’s Fiction book on my list, the hero and heroine are white, but two of the main characters are Hispanic (about half of the book is chapters written in one of the Hispanic character’s voice.) Another book (New Adult) has a permanently disabled heroine. And my favorite book, the one that was my favorite in the last Top 100 poll,, is an American Historical with an African American hero. It never makes the Top 100 list, sigh… (But I also have a book on my list that has a lizard for a Hero, so I’m probably not your average mainstream romance reader.)
Please don’t be upset or angry with me because I don’t have a POC on my top 10 list. Instead, share with me your POC books and authors who are on your top 10 list. At the very least, you will be saving be from my own horrific choices, and maybe you will help me and others who read your list find a favorite new author.
Our enjoyment of romance books is our common ground. Isn’t that a good place to start?
HBO – I think perhaps people often feel nostalgic for books they once loved and are not open to hearing criticism of them. I used to read Linda Howard and liked many of her books, but during a recent reread I was really shocked at how blatantly discriminatory some of them were. For instance, Mr. Perfect does a hatchet job on transgender characters and somehow, unfortunately, I did not pick up on this years ago. My hope is that AAR remains a site that is open to readers expressing their honest feelings about books, even if some readers are not comfortable reading criticism of ideas in a story and that tone policing does not take place to try to shut down conversations. I cannot see how any progress could ever be made if ideas cannot be examined.
I totally agree that speaking out to readers is important because they are the ones who need to be reached – both for this poll and for their buying habits. I also think it was fair to criticize AAR for a lack of diversity on the staff short list, and I appreciate the staff taking at least belated action on it. What I don’t get is people who are mad at AAR about the reader selected short list.
Lisa, why aren’t *you* mad that AAR won’t disqualify LH for espousing rampantly bigoted views towards POC, and instead has allowed her to have multiple slots in the shortlist? While readers voted for her, these polls are a form of author promotion by AAR. AAR’s intent may be to adopt a hands-off, neutral approach, but the actual effect is an implicit endorsement/condonement/celebration of all the authors who make it onto these lists, including LH, an unapologetic racist.
I feel AAR needs to draw a moral line and say for example: “While we recognize that LH’s works have been beloved by many, she has made it quite clear, in hurtful and offensive ways, that she opposes inclusivity and diversity; she has repeatedly wielded her white privilege to promote racism. We cannot in good conscience endorse an author with such bigoted views towards marginalized identities in the romance community. As such, we will be removing her name and replacing her in the lists. Since the way we generated our shortlist did not result in as diverse a number of authors as we hoped, we will be replacing LH’s slots with several underappreciated romances by POC that readers nominated.”
So, yes, I’m upset that AAR has not taken the above steps. AAR appears to be blinded by its own white privilege.
How intensely should AAR research authors private lives? A few years ago a pretty big romance author got in trouble for saying Donny Osmond was her childhood crush and tweeting or posting about him. At least one person was outraged because Donny Osmond is a practicing Mormon and the Mormon church does not condone gay marriage among other things and said they would never buy the author’s works again for liking him. (I don’t want to say the wrong author’s name so I will have to check as she wasn’t someone I read).
What about political affiliations? Is there a litmus there as well? Who gets to decide who is included and who isn’t?
Is the next step to decide who gets to post opinions here and who doesn’t?
The whole point of this is that it is a reader’s poll. It is to accurately reflect what readers consider to be the top 100 romances. Most of my write in choices didn’t make the cut to the next round but is that anyone’s “fault”?
Being angry that AAR didn’t somehow exclude people or manipulate votes doesn’t make sense. Even if you took Linda Howard out of the equation how would that somehow guarantee an AOC would have a greater chance? In all reality it would likely mean another book by a very popular, bestselling author such as Kleypas, Duran, Bourne etc, would move up the lists.
Writing about authors and their books, commenting on them and promoting them on chats and boards is what helps authors and gets them noticed and read more in addition to the reviews posted here (which get equal billing and equal time on the front page).
It’s from other readers and their comments that I discovered authors like Ellen O’Connell and Meg Maguire/Cara McKenna who don’t have big PR machines behind them (and both made it onto the top 100 voting).
Griffina – The reviewers and staff at AAR recognise white privilege and do our best to counter that in books we choose to review. We ask readers to tell us about good books by AOC and books with diverse characters. I was taken on 2 years ago to review Queer romance fiction to widen our coverage of the LGBTQ+ community, a community Im happy to belong to and I think AAR can be proud of the increase in Queer books we review. After several discussions by readers on SM regarding the ethnic make up of AAR, some quite unpleasant, we discussed between us how we identified and although it is not something we advertise I believe we have a majority of non-white identifying reviewers. So please no more abuse.
This round of the poll is merely the list of 10 books each sent to us by readers. I have heard of LH due to her uninformed book about transgender characters and no, I would not recommend her books or read them myself. However, if readers choose to include her books because THEY enjoyed them what would you have us do? If we say “no she is racist remove them” we are censoring a free vote and upsetting readers who voted for her. Many dont like “Jane Eyre” for her representation of women, and that mad woman in the attic is a feminist horror! Should we remove Jane Eyre or Pride and Prejudice? I wouldnt add 50 shades or Twilight, as I personally dont think they are well written and dont like what they represent. However, they sold millions and their fans will vote for them on polls. So Griffina, do we remove badly written books, or books whose endings are unbelievable? Who chooses what to censor and the reasons?
We present a poll of books chosen by readers. Books they love and enjoy. This is romance poll and whilst it is very important to address issues of racism, homophobia and misogyny in society you cannot dictate to readers what to read and what to like. You can affect covers that show white characters when the story has PoC as the main love interest, by not buying the book in protest. We can be aware of new AOC and current ones to review, but this is a review site and it is a readers’ poll..
Griffina, have you tried to target toward Amazon and other places that sell LH’s books? Hitting her in the pocket might be the best way to get action. I’ve sent letters to them but they’ve ignored my requests.
To expand on what chrisreader and BJ Jansen said – should this site remove their archived reviews of Cassie Edwards’ embarrassingly racist NA romances? Should it avoid reviewing Lisa Kleypas or Eloisa James after their recent racism-related missteps?
I’ve read most of the reviews for the books included on last year’s list. From the comments left behind on those reviews by the site’s staff a ranking isn’t an endorsement.
Thanks Anon. I get the idea of a slippery slope and why disqualifying LH from this poll is not seen as a workable remedy. I’m still concerned that if she ends up in the top 100, she will benefit from the promotion/recognition. But I do understand AAR’s position of not wanting to intervene. There’s no easy answer. I also really appreciated that, iirc, LH was not one of the staff-selected authors in Round 1 – if this was a conscious decision on AAR’s part, thanks AAR.
BJ – I appreciate your detailed response. However, could u please reconsider how you described my anger, and my punching up to AAR, as abuse? I am not being abusive. Thank you.
No one on this thread has seemed abusive to me. I am encouraged at the civility with which this conversation is taking place.
I will say that we’ve had over 2000 people now vote in this round. AAR doesn’t curate this list in anyway. It will be interesting to see what wins in the final 100 and next round.
I understand, Griffina! And I have hope that people won’t vote her into the final listing; I have a feeling that with the number of new authors and books involved that people will likely vote for other options
I’m pretty sure she wasn’t – all of the selections for this part of the poll seem to be fan write-in votes that got some significant part of the vote.
A lot of good things have been said here on both sides and no one necessarily needs my opinion, but I just wanted to chime in that I think the poll should continue to be based solely upon the work, itself, whether you read a book yesterday that really wowed you, or whether you read one 20 years ago that still remains with you for whatever reason. While I haven’t read Linda Howard in years — I think the last book I read was “Open Season,” which I liked — I remember a few of her books fondly and wouldn’t want to block them from being included. That being said, as we all know Linda Howard, herself, has been a big name in romance for decades, so her inclusion in our poll or not — I think — won’t affect her much. On the other hand, voting for a new work by an underrepresented author, may help them get more recognition for their work, so I’m all for that and intend to do my part to promote books that I’ve read and admired. But, I still want to be able to vote for books I enjoyed from the past.
On that note, I just wanted to add that back in the 1970s, when I started reading romances as a pre-teen, there wasn’t much diversity in romance. In fact, I don’t recall as many *Americans* in romances. Most romances I read seemed to be set in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand with heroines who were innocent misses right off the farm or out of small towns. LOL! Now we have so much more diversity, not only in terms of location and type of character, but in terms of POC, sexual orientation, and genre. I’m not a fast reader and have only read about nine romances in the past four or so months. But, of those nine, I think five of them were written by authors of color and all of those five had main characters who were of color. And I wasn’t even trying to single out these books! Not only that, but I gave high ratings to three of those books. So, I would say just by my example — from the 1970s to 2018 — that there’s been a definite change in the romance genre, at least in terms of what is available to read and what we are choosing to recommend. And, yes, this excellent work should be represented in our poll.
Summer Campaign by Carla Kelly
Edenbrook by Julianne Donaldson
I just wish to add that I believe we (as a romance community) are making progress. I can quite imagine, though, that for writers who have been systematically shut out it’s been too damn long in coming, and that the lack of representation should not have happened in the first place. It is also my understanding that we (white readers) are NOT being asked to stop buying/reading our favourite white authors, whoever they may be, and yes, even the outspoken racists ones. I make a choice that *I am comfortable with. But here is the problem I have with polls like this, which isn’t necessarily a reflection on AAR. Some of the older published books that continue to make the TOP Lists, I find extremely problematic–sexism, racism, erasure, etc, fill the pages. And, to me, they were just as problematic then as they are now. The difference is, we now have the internet to discuss such things. I will also add that *I am uncomfortable when an author, ANY author, chimes in on a review of her/his/their book, thanking the blogger for the reviews. I think it shuts down reader conversation. But that is just *my perspective. YMMV.