Marsha Canham on writing what needed to be written
the [email protected]: What’s the most wildly romantic scene you’ve ever read?
On some rare occasions, if you’re favored, you read a passage or a scene in a novel so grandly romantic, you’re gobsmacked. You swoon, your heart feels tender and ardent. Whatever is said or happens in the scene, it’s what you’ve dreamed of receiving (and, if you’re extraordinarily lucky, have.) […]
The [email protected]: One Romance to Rule Them All?
Later this month, a friend of mine’s book club which typically only reads very serious books for adults is going to read a romance. They read about the RWA fiasco and have seen the increased coverage of romance in the big name press and so they decide to give one a try. For most, it will be the first romance they’ve read as an adult. […]
Catching up with Milla Vane… and a giveaway!
the [email protected]: What’s your favorite tearjerker romance?
Lately, I’ve been craving a book that will break my heart… and then put it back together again. It’s been so long since I read a romance that made me ugly cry that, honestly, I can’t think of any off the top of my head. Kristan Higgins’ women’s fiction has made me cry–I just reread If You Only Knew and, while doing so, used up a clutch of Kleenex. Circe made me cry but, again, not a traditional romance. The Time Traveler’s Wife destroyed me but, while it is a phenomenal love story, it is most certainly not a romance. […]
the [email protected]: An HEA? An HFN? How do you define a happy ending?
I’m not sure how old you have to be to cringe when you hear the K-I-S-S-I-N-G song. For those of you whose childhoods were blessedly free of this rhyme, it went like this:
(NAME) and (NAME)
Sitting in a tree
K-I-S-S-I-N-G!
First comes love
Then comes marriage
Then comes a baby
In a baby carriage! […]
The Best of 2019–Dabney’s List
Like many an AAR reader, I was a child repeatedly decried as “lost in a book.” I am a swift reader and, while growing up, read a book every two days. In 2019, I read 87 books (for the first time) and reread countless others. And, fortuitously, I lost myself in many. […]
the [email protected]: Why do YOU read romance?
A recent article in the Washington Post was titled Reading will supposedly make you a better person. That’s not the real reason to pick up a book. In it, the author wrote: […]
the [email protected]: Who’s your favorite couple (of all time) in romance?
Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman. Claire Randall and Jamie Fraser. Stella Lane and Michael Phan. Naledi Smith and Thabiso Moshoeshoe. Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. Dominic Frey and Silas Mason.
Just to name a few.
Romance is rife with swoon-worthy couples, lovers whose union is literally the stuff that dreams are made of. […]
the [email protected]: What was THE BEST in 2019?
AAR no longer has the manpower to run our annual reader poll but we still want to know what you think! So, give us your 2019 choices for:
Best romance novel
Best hero
Best heroine
Best secondary romance
Hottest read
Best debut romance novel
These are from books published in 2019. OK? Go!