Blog Archive

The Best of 2022 – Rachel’s List

Romance is always my go-to, though this year my reading has been a bit wider, and I’ve branched out into more science fiction and fantasy. These books in particular have brought me out of reading slumps,…

The Best of 2022 – Maggie’s List

A busy, often difficult year called for lots of laughter and joy in my reading and the following novels are those that really delivered what I was looking for. By the Book by Jasmine Guillory Beau…

the ask@AAR: What’s your FINAL pick for best romance of 2022?

Hi there AAR readers! Happy December! The staff has begun submitting their Best of 2022 Lists. (I adore these–every year I discover great reads I missed!) I confess I’m having a hard time with mine. For…

Coming Soon – The Romances We’re Most Looking Forward to Reading in December 2022

Well.  Here we are – the final Coming Soon of 2022; or rather, the final Coming Soon for 2022 releases (we’ll be back to sift through the first new releases of 2023 at the end of…

the ask@AAR: What do we think about trigger warnings in reviews?

It’s the Friday after Thanksgiving here in the US, a holiday famed for its abundant food, contested history, and familial arguments. I confess my family doesn’t fight at Thanksgiving–we leave most of our giant arguments for…

Setting Smackdown – Coffee Shop vs. Bakery!

It’s a weekend morning, and you have time to take it slow. Get yourself a treat. And maybe… meet someone special? But where do you think you might find your sweet-as-candy sugar pie? In the land…

the ask@AAR: How do you like your love stories?

I was struck by a sentence written by romance novelist Adriana Herrera in the Washington Post this week. Herrera, in an article entitled The 10 Best Romance Novels of 2022, wrote: For me, this year has…

TBR Challenge November 2022 – Lies

With a TBR prompt like “Lies,” one might think that we’d be heading straight for the unreliable narrator-packed thrillers. Maybe it’s current events, maybe it’s because we’re coasting into the end of the year – who…

the ask@AAR: What is a feminist romance?

Each day my inbox is full of emails about upcoming books romance readers might like to read. And, if publishers are right about romance readers–and who is to say they are or are not?–what we want…