While the AAR staff each shares a list of books published last year they love, every year they are asked to come up with their FAVORITE read. This year, after being informed that “No, you cannot pick an author or a series,” most of our reviewers did indeed pick just one. Here are their choices. Enjoy! […]
The huge ratings and buzz for Netflix’s Bridgerton, coming on the heels of Starz’s success with Outlander, should make it clear to all but the most willfully ignorant producers that viewers are here for historical romance. And if you’re a producer looking for the Next Big Thing, Romancelandia will reciprocate. We’re here for you, with all the info you need to pick your next breakout Brit historical romance hit. […]
Here, in no particular order, are the books I enjoyed the most this year.
The Searcher by Tana French
I’ve been stanning Tana French since reading her first book, In the Woods, although her last, The Witch Elm, wasn’t to my taste. I was worried that I might not love The Searcher either given that it too is apart from her wildly brilliant Dublin Murder Squad books. My fear was for naught. The Searcher is a meditative tale about Cal Hooper, an American cop who impulsively retires to a small Irish village and becomes entangled in a missing person case. French’s writing has never been better–even the rooks who haunt Cal’s yard have more personality than the leads of many a lesser book. The plot is a slow burn tour de force and you’ll […]
This has been a Year to Read, and spending a lot of time stuck in the house, making minimal contact with the outside world, has resulted in a bumper crop of Good Books popping into my hand. Here, in no particular order, are my favorite reads of 2020. […]
2020 was a strange year for so many of us, and I’m beyond grateful for all the phenomenal books that helped me make it through the chaos. Below, I’m highlighting a few of my favorites in no particular order.
The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon
This was an utter delight from start to finish. I honestly don’t know if I loved the romance or the strong female friendships more. It was one of those books I just sort of fell into, and I would have read it in a single sitting if I could have.
We’re introducing a new look for our monthly Coming Soon posts, but the essentials haven’t changed; the AAR team has looked through various lists of forthcoming releases and picked those we think are most likely to provide us with good quality reads over the next few weeks. […]
Probably the most surprising thing about my Best of 2020 list is that it does actually include some books NOT written by Gregory Ashe! I know – What a Shocker: P He’s published a phenomenal TEN books in 2020 – I’ve read nine of them and every single one of those has received DIK status, which is, surely unprecedented; I’ve never given so many A grades to a single author in a single year. But every one of those DIKs is absolutely deserved; his books are clever, funny, insightful, gritty, angsty, and romantic – and no one – NO ONE – does rip-your-heart-out-and-stomp-on-it slow burn romance quite like he does.
Ideally, I’d just put “Everything Gregory Ashe has published this year” on the list, but I can’t*, so instead I’ve just made two random choices (random because I could […]
My best book of 2020 was not a romance, though it did have a romantic subplot. The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James was perfection in book form and was the highlight of my reading year. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, which also had a sweet romance running through it, was a close second. If you like mystery, suspense and a touch of horror combined with your romance, these are the books for you.
If not, you’re in luck! I also found several absolutely fabulous romance reads and they are as follows: […]
2020 has been a very long year for all of us. Finding something “festive” for TBR Challenge sounded like quite a challenge indeed. However, we dug into our respective piles of books and came up with an emotional m/m romance and an adventure-filled Tudor Christmas tale. One is a 2015 release, the other is 2016, and both were successful finds. We hope you have enjoyed our searches through the TBR pile and we will plan to see you again with more TBR reading in 2021! […]
I think we’ve all been ready for 2020 to be over since about May – and here we are (at last), looking ahead to December and the books we’re most eager to read to see out what has been a year like no other. It’s been tough on all of us, but one of the good things to have emerged is that many of us have had more time to read; various studies have suggested a boom in reading this year, so basically, it seems a lot more people have discovered something we and our readers already know, namely that there’s nothing quite like escaping into a good book! […]
