About Dabney Grinnan

Impenitent social media enthusiast. Relational trend spotter. Enjoys both carpe diem and the fish of the day.

Finding Romance in Yosemite: A Guest Post by Karen Barnett

Which of these sounds more romantic to you—the lights of Times Square or the starry skies of Yosemite? The sounds of an orchestra or of a rushing waterfall? Truffles or s’mores?

I’m not sure about you, but to be perfectly honest, I’m more of a graham cracker and starlight kind of girl.

I fell in love with nature at a young age, and was fortunate enough to spend several years working as a park ranger and a naturalist. Eventually my life went in other directions, and I settled into a career as a novelist. When I got ready to write my newest series, I was drawn to my memories of working in these amazing places. I couldn’t imagine a more exciting and romantic location to set a story than our national parks. Wilderness holds inherent danger as well as beauty, and that […]

By | 2018-06-15T10:08:18+00:00 June 15th, 2018|Categories: Guest Posts|Tags: |4 Comments
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From the blank page to the shelf: Olivia Boothe talks about her journey as a romance writer

My career as a writer didn’t begin like most authors. I wish I could say I wanted to become a writer since I was five years old. Or that I wrote my first book at the age of ten. Or that I have several books under my belt. The reality is, I am embarrassed to say I didn’t even like to read recreationally until I was out of college. I picked up my first novel by accident as I scanned the small bookrack at a convenience store while I waited in line to pay for my bag of potato chips. Map of Bones by James Rollins sparked my love of reading. Something about the cover caught my eye. Once I flipped open the first page, I was in love. The rest is history. I’ve been an avid reader ever since.

Even […]

By | 2018-06-12T14:17:04+00:00 June 13th, 2018|Categories: Guest Posts|1 Comment
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Female Friendship And Too Many Tears: a Guest post and Giveaway by Toni Anderson

I was a little worried that the heroine of my newest Romantic Suspense Cold Blooded comes across as a little overemotional at the start of the story. The readers meet her under duress, and then it gets worse. Pip West finds her best friend face-down in the lake and spends an hour trying to revive her before paramedics arrive and pull her away. Naturally she’s devastated, but there’s a certain dispassion to a book’s audience, especially when the reader has only just met the heroine.

“Don’t make her a whiner.”

In the back of my mind, I hear former editors’ comments about how “no one likes a crier.” And “not to overuse tears.” So, I allow Pip to cry for a little while but then I force her to get a grip and pull herself back together from those million, non-orgasm induced, shattered pieces.

It got me thinking about friendship. About women. Those deep […]

By | 2018-06-10T18:05:56+00:00 June 11th, 2018|Categories: Guest Posts|Tags: |3 Comments
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AAR’s Top 100 Romances: 2018

Welcome to the results of the 2018 AAR Top 100 Romances Poll. This is a reader generated poll we do every five years or so. This year, we had over 5000 votes and so many marvelous books nominated.

We’ve decided not to rank these books, but rather just put them in alphabetical order. We did rank the top ten and you can see them here.

A printable list of all 100 may be found here.

Previous years’ polls may be found here.

Enjoy!

aAct Like It

Lucy Parker

Contemporary Romance

2015/11

A-

read our review here

Ain’t She Sweet?

Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Contemporary Romance

2005

B-

read our review here

Almost Heaven

Judith McNaught

European Historical Romance

1991

A

read our review here

An […]

By | 2018-05-30T13:27:58+00:00 May 30th, 2018|Categories: Best of List, Polls, Top 100 Romance|55 Comments
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The AAR Top Ten Romances… with a new number one!

Thank you to all–the thousands of you–who voted in the AAR Top 100 Romances poll. This is a reader determined poll and we are thrilled so many participated. (All totaled, we had well over 5000 votes!)

Later this week, we will be releasing the final Top 100 Romances List which will NOT be ranked. Today, we share the Top Ten Romances which are ranked.

There are four romances on this list that have never appeared in this poll before, one of which we’ve never reviewed. Five were in the top ten in our last poll. Five are historical romances, three are contemporary romances, two many claim aren’t truly romances but have nonetheless shown up in the top ten again and again.

And, shocker, we have a new number one. After holding the top spot for the past 18 years (polls done in 2000, […]

By | 2018-05-28T09:48:36+00:00 May 28th, 2018|Categories: Best of List, Polls, Top 100 Romance|36 Comments
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Round Four of the Top 100 Romances Poll: Picking the Top Ten

We had over 5000 votes in the past three rounds of the AAR Top 100 Romances Poll. From those, we have our list of our readers’ favorite one hundred romances. We’ll share it soon. That list will not have any rankings. We do, however, want to give our readers the chance to pick their top ten. So, we have one last survey for you!

We’ve taken the top fifty from the top 100 list and, from it, you get to pick your top romance. Yep. You get to pick one. This is the love story that if someone asked you to pick your favorite romance ever, you’d choose. (from this list of 50)

This poll will be up for one week. So vote! We can’t wait to see what you choose!

https://www.research.net/r/AARRound4

By | 2018-05-20T18:39:53+00:00 May 20th, 2018|Categories: Best of List, Polls, Top 100 Romance|Tags: |25 Comments
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How a People-Pleaser Found Her Voice By Kristen Granata (and a giveaway!)

I first started writing Collision while sitting on my couch in a sling just after shoulder surgery. I had not turned thirty yet, and in addition to the excruciating shoulder pain, I was experiencing unhappiness in another area of my life – my marriage. My very good friend, Dorthy, sent me some books to read to keep myself from going stir-crazy. As I read them, I imagined what it would be like to know a man like the love interest in any of those books. I held a pity party for myself, and felt saddened to think that those fictional men don’t exist in real life. (If they did exist, I would have met at least one, right?!) I decided that if I couldn’t find the kind of man I longed for – I would write him into existence.

No […]

By | 2018-05-17T08:09:28+00:00 May 17th, 2018|Categories: Authors, Guest Posts|13 Comments
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The Art of Love: A Guest Post by Suzette D. Harrison

1930S – BOOTLEGGERS, PROHIBITION AND ROMANCE

The Art of Love is Suzette Harrison’s contribution to the Decades: A Journey of African-American Romance project. For readers who may be unfamiliar with “Decades”, the series consists of 12 books, each set in one of 12 decades between 1900 and 2010. Each story focuses on the romance between African American protagonists, but also embraces the African American experience within that decade. […]

By | 2018-05-09T08:22:25+00:00 May 9th, 2018|Categories: Authors, Guest Posts|Tags: |5 Comments
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Round Two of the Top 100 Romance Poll closes on Monday….

Below you’ll find the top 250 books from all the write-in​s​ 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 […]

By | 2018-05-05T12:19:03+00:00 May 5th, 2018|Categories: Best of Romance, Polls, Top 100 Romance|73 Comments
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