Next up in our series of posts leading up to the Annual Poll for the best in romance published in 2015 is the Best Contemporary Romance category. Julie James has dominated this category in recent years with wins for her 2014 It Happened One Wedding, her 2013 Love Irresistibly, her 2012 About That Night, her 2011 A Lot Like Love, and her 2010 Something About You.
Will Ms. James win again? Her 2015 release – Suddenly One Summer – has not yet been reviewed at AAR. I’ve read it and quite enjoyed it, but decided to search for potential contenders. A quick power search at AAR reveals that we’ve given an A- to three contemporary romances so far this year:
- Heat Exchangeby Shannon Stacey
- Falling for his Best Friend by Katee Robert
- Rise by Karina Bliss
We’ve also given a B+ to four contemporary romances:
- A Taste of Heaven by Penny Watson
- Royal Wedding by Meg Cabot
- Last Hit: A Hitman Novel by Jessica Clare & Jen Frederick
- The One in My Heart by Sherry Thomas
I recently read Nalini Singh’s Rock Redemption and it’s currently in contention for my vote in this category along with Rise by Karina Bliss.
I asked my colleagues at AAR for their recommendations in this category, and they came up with a few additions to the above.
Lee B has enjoyed quite a few contemporary romances. At the top of her list are:
- Runaway Summer by Ruth Saberton
- The Status of All Things by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke
- If You Only Knew by Kristan Higgins
- Last Chance Llama Ranch by Hilary Fields
- A Time for Living by Ruth Saberton
- The Piano Man Project by Kat French
Lee also is looking forward to reading two additional books she thinks might be possibilities for this category: Anything For You by Kristan Higgins and The Bronte Plot by Katherine Reay.
Maggie also recommends Ms. Bliss’ Rise. In addition, she would recommend The Sound of Glass by Karen White. Shannon concurs, writing that, “The Sound of Glass was wonderful.”
Dabney read a lot of contemporary romance this year and enjoyed quite a few. Her list includes:
- The Bollywood Bride by Sonali Dev
- Taking the Heat by Victoria Dahl
- Good Time Bad Boy by Sonya Clark
- Ten Good Reasons by Lauren Christopher
- Chase Me by Tessa Bailey
- Bound to the Bachelor by Sarah Mayberry
Are there any other contemporary romances that you’ve loved this year (first published in 2015) that you might consider voting for in this category? And are there any that will be published before the end of the year that you’re eagerly anticipating, and think might be contenders?
We look forward to your suggestions!
LinnieGayl
Dabney Grinnan
Impenitent social media enthusiast. Relational trend spotter. Enjoys both carpe diem and the fish of the day.
Suddenly One Summer was okay but my 2015 5 star contemporaries were:
-Nalini Singh: Rock Hard
-Mariana Zapata: Kulti (loved it, one of my fav. sports romances ever)
-LH Cosway/Penny Reid: The Hooker and the Hermit (very funny)
-Marie Force: Fatal Scandal
Although I liked Trade Me, written by Courtney Milan, I think my favourite, this year has been Rock Hard by Nalini Singh. It’s the best contemporary I’ve read this year and I just cannot understand why the most visited romance webpages have ignored this wonderful book. For instance, AAR haven’t reviewed any of her Rock kiss novels.
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I usually love Julie James but her latest just didn’t do it for me. I recently fell down the rabbit hole of Lauren Layne’s 4 book Stiletto series and the first of the new Oxford series. All of them are SO! GOOD!
The best contemporary I read was:
Under the Lights
By
Shannon Stacey.
I loved it!
Heat Exchange is $.99 on AMZ- sold!
And so is If You Only Knew- there’s another buy :-)
My favorites were To Love a Cop by Janice Kay Johnson and Hollywood Dirt by Alessandra Torre.
As a new reviewer with AAR responsible for reviewing LGBTQ+ romances – I am so happy to have the chance to add my suggestions –
Marty and the Pilot – Harper Fox Quirky and adorable m/m romance illustrating how we change as we become adults, and how we sometimes let childish fears still influence us.
For Real- Alexis Hall Winner of Romance of the Year 2015 in Publishers Weekly An emotional, funny and sexy Dom/Sub romance with a twist
Beverley,
Thanks for adding these. I am reading For Real right now and think it’s great!
Dabney
I am a 90% historical reader, and was a little put out when I saw Sherry Thomas was venturing into contemporaries ( was scared I was going to lose her to the new genre). But I gotta tell you I love this book!!! I have read most of the Julie James books and the new one, Suddenly Last Summer was ok. I enjoyed Grace Burrowes’ “”Sweetest Kisses”” series this year.
I was pleasantly surprised too that Sherry Thomas’s foray into contemporaries produced such a strong book. I would definitely read more contemporaries from her if she keeps writing them.
Okay, I’m thinking I need to give the book by Sherry Thomas a try soon.
I love her and it was a miss for me.
I love her too, but the book was a DNF for me.
I really enjoy Thomas’s Elemental trilogy though and I’m not that big of a PNR.
Oh, no! I haven’t read ANY of those books! Maybe I should nominate Sonya Clark’s book just because she is one of few people I’ve ever heard of who spells my name with a *Y*! (It’s actually freaky to see my name online!)
I’ve actually not read enough contemporary romance this year to feel that I could nominate a “best” book.
I mostly read historicals, but I read Penny Watson’s A Taste of Heaven and I was a little disappointed. I wanted more romance and less competition.
I have in my TBR list The Bollywood Bride and Taking the Heat and I could try Reay’s The Brontë Plot if I like her Dear Mr. Knightley.
The only two I have read are Rise by Karina Bliss and Suddenly One Summer by Julie James. It will be hard to pick. Now I want to go back and read the reviews for all the books listed here. I am always interested in why readers pick them as favorites. One of the things that surprised me about Rise was how much my opinion of Zander improved as the story was told. I always like Julie James humor and I really liked the ending in this one.
This is a tough category for me because many of my favorite books this year have been contemporaries.
Defending Hearts by Shannon Stacey, Short Fuse by Rebecca Crowley, and Rock Hard by Nalini Singh are all top contenders. But I think I am going to go with Controlled Burn by Shannon Stacey.
I loved Rock Hard! I haven’t read Defending Hearts but have liked others by Shannon Stacey; time to download it! Thanks!
I’m more of a historical romance reader but this past year, these are my personal favorite contemporaries:
Consumed by Fire, Anne Stuart
The List, Anne Calhoun
Chemistry (Attraction, Heat, Capture), Penny Reid
The One in My Heart, Sherry Thomas
I would have to say that the Penny Reid trilogy was my favorite, though Anne Stuart’s first book in her new “”Fire””series, _Consumed by Fire_ is a very close second.
My favorites -the Penny Reid series
Oh, wonderful. They were my first Penny Reid books and I just loved them.