Blog Archive

Celebrating Black History Month 2023

It’s Black History Month in the United States, and AAR is celebrating by revisiting our DIKs by Black authors (of any country) reviewed since last February (to see previous Black History Month posts, visit 2022 and…

the ask@AAR: Will older heroines in romance mean older parents?

I have been thrilled to see more love stories published with older protagonists. I’ve just finished reading one–coming out this summer–where the heroine, age 49, is determined to get married and have kids. I confess, I…

2022: A Year of Book Sales in Review

Every year, I review the books purchased from Amazon by AAR readers. In 2022, our sales dropped, likely due to Kindle Unlimited. Through our links, readers bought 15,280 books for a total of $132,303.00 in 2022,…

The Best of the Best – Our Favorite Books of 2022

Each year, in January, the AAR staff comes up with lists of their favorite books published in the previous year–this year, these lists have the tag #Best of 2022. For 2022, we chose 87 books–we’ve conveniently…

the ask@AAR: What’s the most imaginative romance you’ve ever read?

As a child, I loved fantasy–The Chronicles of Prydain, The Dark is Rising Sequence, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, The Wrinkle in Time Quintet–these were books I read repeatedly, happily losing myself in a world of…

Coming Soon – The Books We’re Most Looking Forward to Reading in February 2023

February brings an interesting mix of new releases to look forward to – contemporary and historical romances, women’s fiction and mysteries, with a couple of paranormals and sci-fi romances in there, too.  Quite a few of…

The Best of 2022 – Dabney’s List

2022 was not my best year for romance reading. I read only three DIKs published in 2022 and, when I look at my Goodreads list, there isn’t a single five star read from books out last…

the ask@AAR: Is there still a canon for romance? What books should or shouldn’t be on it?

Almost exactly a year ago, I asked whether or not AAR should, as it typically does every five years, do a new Top 100 poll. As is the case with most questions, readers were split. They…

TBR Challenge January 2023 – Starting Over

It’s 2023, and time for a fresh start to the TBR Challenge year! This month’s prompt is “starting over”, and we both found great ways to explore that theme. Lynn read a contemporary category romance featuring…