Blog Archive
the ask@AAR: Closed door? Open door? Or somewhere inbetween?
Romance has always had a complicated relationship with sex. Not with desire—that’s a given—but with how desire is handled on the page. Is it explicit? Is it suggestive? Does it unfold in detail or dissolve with…
the ask@AAR: What romance belongs on the screen?
Romance novels are all over the big and small screen. Bridgerton, Virgin River, The Hating Game, One Day, Red, White & Royal Blue—they’ve all drawn huge audiences and proved, again, what romance readers have always known:…
Casablanca: Play it again
I recently watched Casablanca with my mother and my daughter—three generations of women. I’d seen it before, decades ago. It’s one of my mother’s favorites and my daughter–who picked it–had never seen it. As the final…
the ask@AAR: Wanna know what I think?
Thank you to everyone who filled out our survey. Sixty readers responded. That number represents a small portion of AAR’s audience, but the feedback was thoughtful, detailed, and deeply engaged. Some, I will, say, seemed a…
A Blast from the Past: AAR’s Tenth Anniversary Celebration!
AAR’s Tenth Anniversary Celebration! (originally published on April 2, 2008) January 1st: First came The Archives of Laurie Likes Books, which went online in October 1996 to house my original material from The Romance Reader. After…
the ask@AAR: Do you believe in love at first sight?
I think I do. It’s not the most common beginning to a love story, but I have seen it happen. And when it does, it deserves to be taken seriously. Love at first sight is not…
What have been your best reads thus far this year?
So far, 2025 has delivered the kind of reading year that makes me grateful to be a reader. I’ve fallen for romances, gotten deliciously tangled in mysteries, and savored short stories that left me thinking long…
