We’re still experimenting with formats for our regular On Sale lists, and plan to launch our New Look soon. Until then, here’s a look at what’s new for January.
Where possible, titles are linked to Amazon.
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| 13 Hours | Gideon, Francis |
| Bloodstained Heart | Lee, Kassandra |
| Borders of Infinity | Bujold, Lois McMaster |
| Branded by Flames | Michael, Sean |
| Breaker | A.F. Henley, Kelly Wyre |
| Deliver Us from Evil | Brennan, Alison |
| Diablo Lake: Protected | Dane, Lauren |
| Diffraction | Anastasi, Jess |
| Divine Awakening | Davis, Lia |
| El Presidio Rides North | Romero, Domashita |
| Justice Ascending | Zanetti, Rebecca |
| Phantom Kiss | Neill, Chloe |
| Raging at the Stars | Davis, Lesley |
| She Wolf | Wohl, Sheri Lewis |
| The Crow Maiden | Heckhart, Kelley |
| Apprentice in Death | Robb, J.D. |
| At Close Range | Griffin, Laura |
| Bitten | Pillar, Amanda |
| Blood Money | O’Fallon, Tee |
| Into Thin Air | Levig, Jeannie |
| Law and Disorder | Graham, Heather |
| Lethal Game | Reus, Katie |
| Lit Fuse | Quinn, Caisey |
| The Devil’s Daughter | Robert, Katee |
| The Devil’s Due | Vali, Ali |
I wish, in the future, that you’d organize this list and the others by authors’ last name.
If do you choose to do so by title, please observe organizational rules: any title that begins with “a, an,” and “the,” should be alphabetized by the next word. For example, your first title, _A Certain Age_should have been filed under “Certain, ” not “A.” If you were organizing thousands of titles, given the commonness of these articles (a, an, the), it is so much more efficient to ignore them and file by the second word. This organizational pattern is standard.
I second Lynda X’s request. I look for new books by author myself. Romance titles are unreliable indicators of a story’s content. Plus there are any number of different novels with the same name. But when I see the name of a favorite author, my attention zooms right in. These lists are a very useful feature and will keep me coming back.
Since I didn’t make this list, I won’t be incredibly rude and bossily inform a bunch of volunteers giving me a free service that they’re doing it wrong. Instead, I will just say: “I, too, like to search by authors, and I agree with the reasons listed in Mzcue’s polite, thoughtful, and unentitled post.”
Linda X, you do realize that the staff at ARR does NOT get PAID to do any of the work that they do for this site? They are all volunteers who contribute many hours of their time to make the site a useful, welcoming place for book lovers to find information and fellowship. If you are ready to volunteer some of your time to organize lists, analyze polls, moderate comments and all of the other jobs that go into the upkeep of this site, I’m sure they’d be happy to have your pedantic advice on how to make things better. In the meantime, if you have suggestions, perhaps a “please” and a “thank you” would go a lot further.
Oh Lordy, the troll is back. And in a response to a request. I guess our president-elect isn’t the only one so very thin skinned, wanting only praise. Lynda X was a reliable, thoughtful poster on the old board and I miss her a lot! among others, like Kay, Dick, Eggletina, Nana, HBO and many, many others.
BTW, if you run into the Key Master (Ha!) tell her if the viewing and/or comment totals are up it’s likely because of how very often the other “staff” reviewers comment–far more than average readers! It just jumps out all the time to anyone paying attention.
Now have at me. You’ve done so before, I notice you show up ONLY when you want to be MEAN spirited about something.
Eliza, why? This is an ENTERTAINMENT site for readers to ENJOY all things related to romance and romantic fiction.
Whilst healthy swapping of views on BOOKS is lovely and ENCOURAGING your comments and those of Lynda X were just MEAN.
As I mentioned this is an entertainment site run by people who donate a lot of time and effort to it. WHY would you post comments like this ?
WHY do you try to hurt people you have never met?
WHY would you read so much of a site you obviously despise?
I’m still around. My withdrawal from commenting has nothing to do with the site transfer and everything to do with personal circumstances.
And I’m disappointed to find my name in a comment like this. I don’t want to be associated with personal attacks on a commenter and site administrator. Dabney has a difficult task managing a huge and expensive site which updates daily, using only a staff of volunteers. She has my respect. I don’t know the commenter, but I don’t consider her comment to meet the level of trolling (it has emotion, yes, but it’s on topic, not ad hominem, and provides relevant information supporting her perspective on the issue at hand).
I appreciate being called thoughtful, Eliza, but I’d ask you to re-read what you wrote and ask yourself if “thoughtful” is the right word for it. Be what you want to see on these boards.
Thank you.
Eliza. One of the reasons that the reviewing team comments on reviews is because we recognise that having the ability to comment on reviews is different to the way the site worked before and we are encouraging our readers to interact with us in a different way. This means that WE need to have more of a presence, too. After all, we can’t expect others to offer comments and opinions if we don’t do the same.
You and I don’t know each other; we have interacted here maybe a handful of times and I am completely stunned by the fact that you feel so comfortable with making such an unpleasant, vitriolic comment about a group of people you have never met. Regardless of who we are and what we do, there is absolutely no excuse for such bad manners. I would be embarrassed to walk into a room full of people and say what you said, and that is in effect what you have done. Just because you can’t see us doesn’t mean we don’t have faces like everyone else.
You are entitled to your opinion, as am I and everyone else. But there are better ways to express those opinions – as I am now doing, because believe me, saying what I am thinking right now would have required far fewer words.
Eliza, seeing as I have yet to read a single comment by you that wasn’t in some way nitpicky, complaining, snarky or outright mean, I really don’t know that you have room to call anyone think-skinned or to remark on the commenting habits of others. This sight is a much more pleasant place when you are in one of your flounces of “I”m leaving!” So just go. Please, just go.
Lynda, as it says at the top of this post, this is a temporary format. Speaking as the person who spends hours upon hours compiling, adding links and formatting these posts, the organisational issues you mention are already on my to do list.
I posted a list of Upcoming Releases at the new AAR Group at Goodreads. I’d share the link but I am not sure how. I look forward to seeing what everyone else is looking forward to in the next few months. I am excited for Eloisa James new book, Seven Minutes of Heaven. There are quite a few coming out in February that look good.
We’d love it if you’d post it here too! Thanks!
My list of upcoming releases includes books coming out from now until the end of 2017. If you want me to post the list here I would be happy to. I thought you might just want January ones here.
We like having stuff on site!
These are the upcoming releases I am looking forward to. I would love to hear what others are waiting for..
01/26 The Rule Maker, Jennifer Blackwood
01/31 Seven Minutes of Heaven, Eloisa James
02/07 Sophie Kinsella, My Not So Perfect Life
02/07 Kerrigan Byrne The Duke,
02/07 Mary Balogh, Someone to Hold (Westcott Novel)
02/20 Lucy Parker, Pretty Face
02/21 Lisa Kleypas, Devil in Spring,
03/07 Kristen Ashley, The Deep End (The Honey Series)
03/14 Lorraine Heath, Making Merry With the Marquess,
03/14 Grace Burrowes etc. Anthology, Duchesses in Disguise
04/17 Emma Chase, Royally Endowed
04/17 Julie James, The Thing About Love
05/02 Graeme Simsion, The Best of Adam Sharp, love affair rekindled after 22 years
05/09 Amanda Quick, The Girl Who Knew Too Much,
05/30 Quinn, The Girl with the Make-Believe Husband (A Bridgertons Prequel)
05/30 Lorraine Heath, An Affair with a Notorious Heiress
05/30 Madeline Hunter, The Most Dangerous Duke in London by
06/06 Kristen Ashley, The Farthest Edge,
07/?? Sally Thorne, The Comfort Zone
08/?? Elizabeth Hoyt, Duke of Desire, Book 12 and the last in the series)
08/?? Stephanie Perkins, There’s Someone Inside Your House
08/29 Tessa Dare, The Duchess Deal,
08/29 Katharine Ash, The Duke, A Devil’s Duke
08/31 Karina Bliss, Resurrection (Stormy and Moss’s story)
10/?? Jennifer Ashley, Alec Mackenzie’s Art of Seduction,
11/?? Loretta Chase new book
11/07 Kristen Ashley, Complicated,
Fall 2017 Mary Balogh Someone to Wed, Alexander’s story
If you don’t mind my taking your comment as an invitation for I suggestion about things readers like to find on Romance blogs, I like to make one. I love the favorite quotes feature that many blogs used to offer. The only one left that I read regularly that does that now is Guilty Pleasures. I discovered so many wonderful authors through those quotes, many of whom became favorites. I don’t know what assembling or offering quotes like that entails for a blog, and indeed it might be too labor intensive or cost prohibitive. I’d assumed it was some interaction with the way GoodReads offers quote lists, but that was just a guess. Anyhow, it’s an offering I greatly enjoyed. I regularly visit the Guilty Pleasures blog and refresh the page several times just to bring up new quotes. And I do indeed keep finding new authors and books.
Mzcue, I’m not sure what you mean? Do you mean our favorite quotes from this month’s releases?
I posted new releases info on the AAR “new releases” thread on Goodreads but here is my updated list for those interested:
2/14 Wild Fire (Fire #3) Anne Stuart
2/21 Pretty Face Lucy Parker
2/21 Devil in Spring Lisa Kleypas
2/28 A Lady’s Code of Misconduct Meredith Duran
early spring — After the Wedding Courtney Milan
4/2017 Dating-ish Penny Reid
5/6 Beauty Like the Night Joanna Bourne
6/6 A Touch of Frost Jo Goodman
6/2017 Motion (Laws of Physics #1) Penny Reid
7/2017 The Comfort Zone Sally Thorne
7/2017 Space (Laws of Physics #2) Penny Reid
8/29 Dirty Dancing at Devil’s Leap (Hellcat Canyon #3) Julie Anne Long
8/2017 Time (Laws of Physics #3) Penny Reid
9/5 A Conspiracy in Belgravia (Lady Sherlock #2) Sherry Thomas
9/2017 Beard in Mind (Beau: Winston Brothers #4) Penny Reid
10/17 This Side of Murder (Verity Kent #1) Anna Lee Huber
10/17 Once Upon a Christmas Eve Elizabeth Hoyt
11/2017 Unknown Title Loretta Chase
Thanks!
I always liked your list, Kay. I wish you’d start your own blog so I don’t have to wade through all the comments here. Good to see you!
Thanks for posting this! We will add these to our spreadsheet if we’ve missed any.
I am happy to see that you are going to continue this feature as I was in the habit of checking it every month. I, too, tend to search for authors I read or have heard about vs titles. The reviews here at AAR keep me coming back; they are well-written, balanced, and point out specifically what worked and didn’t work for the reviewer. Thank you for all you do to keep the site going. I value it greatly.
That is lovely to hear. Thank you. Each week myself and the AAR staff spend hours of time on the site–it’s a big job to produce this much curated, original content. It’s wonderful to hear it’s appreciated.
I think I’m the Key Master mentioned by Eliza (and, by the way, the original Keymaster in Ghostbusters is a demi-god, so thanks!)
Staff did not make up for the 6500 more visits we had this past month nor the almost three thousand more users. (These stats are taken from Google Analytics comparing this month to the one before it.) I am hopeful these rising numbers are due to the ever improving quality of the work our staff does and our booming social media presence.
Those are great numbers, Dabney !!
I very seldom comment but I have been frequenting (lurking) AAR on and off since the early days and I have to say this is by far the best and most easily accessible it has ever been. So, thank you for all your hard work and for having introduced me to so many incredible authors and books.
Thanks. We are working hard on making it even better. We love connecting readers with books and it’s lovely to hear we succeeded in doing that for you!
Kay and Blackjack, thank you for those lists. I found a few titles I had missed in my year-look-ahead. I’ve added them to my spreadsheet now.
Dabney, thanks for following up. The favorite quotes I mean are taken from the novels themselves. Sometimes they’re just a single sentence of dialog, or a bit of narration. For example, in Dragon Bound the heroine is given a piece of jewelry by the Dragon hero and asks, “Have I just been added to his hoard?,” whereupon a henchman says, “No cupcake, I’m pretty sure you’ve replaced it.” Coming across that quote launched me on a long run of delightful reads (and many purchases) of Thea Harrisons’s PNRs. The favorite quotes get to me much more than cover art. That’s why I love to read “favorites” from blogs and reviewers whose opinions I respect.
@Mzcue: Are these favorite quotes also collected in periodic blogs?
There are quote collections on the GoodReads site, organized by author. Readers/fans may add to the collections. The other place I still see them I mentioned above, the GuiltyPleasures blog: http://www.guiltypleasuresbookreviews.com/. You can see today’s example if you scroll down the home page, where you’ll find “Favorite Quotes” at the bottom of the middle column. I just now noticed that in fact there is an identifier saying “GoodReads Quotes.” The “Scorching Book Reviews” blog has gone on hiatus, but it also used to include favorite quotes. I don’t know if that’s what you meant as periodic blogs, so please let me know if you meant something else.
Should also say that I have no idea the amount of time, effort or cost involved. I was simply responding to the sense that as you redo the blog, AAR is interested in hearing what appeals to readers. The time and effort required to mount and maintain a great Romance blog are clearly massive, so this was just a thought I was tossing out.
It’s always good to see what new and interesting things are out there that readers enjoy. So thank you for bringing this up. I can see how reading snippets can be good entree into books you might want to try.
By periodic blogs, I was thinking that a collection of 20-25 quotes would be put together in a blog and posted to the site occasionally. But this box idea is nice.
I believe Smexy Books does this as part of their review header. Like:
Title
Author
Grade
Favorite Quote
I like this too. I’ve bought books because I liked a cute and kicky or romantic quote.
Hmmmm…. That might be a cool thing to put at the bottom of reviews. I like that idea. I’ll work on it!
The Guilty Pleasures site has a quote in a box on the home page that changes periodically. They’re drawing from Goodreads Quotes though, not generating from their own database.
On the Guilty Pleasures site the favorite quote changes each time the page is refreshed, so it must be drawing from some sort of supply. It seems to be a randomized pattern from a finite supply, so I assume some sort of app is involved. Maybe it’s something that Goodreads makes available, since they’re now identified as the source of the quotes. BTW, as a reader/site visitor, I’m quite touched that AAR has shown this much interest. Thank you.
I think I’ll add a place on reviews that reviewers can put in favorite quotes for a book if they want to. Once we have a database, maybe I can figure out how to have it show up somewhere. #learningtoprogramstill
Perhaps your readers who are fans of a book might be moved to leave a quote in their comments beneath your review. In essence that’s where the GoodReads favorite quotes come from, after all.
This is a tricky one for me. As a reviewer, unless I’m reviewing a book that I’ve purchased post-publication, I’m generally reading books that are very early ARCs, many with major editing/formatting/wording/spelling issues. I’m truthfully afraid to ever list quotes in my reviews pre-release as the ARCs warn that they’re not the final copy.
Yes, I do know that lots of volunteers are responsible for a lot of the work–if not most–that goes on AAR. I do thank them.
I didn’t realize that my comment would stir up such hurt feelings. That was not my intent. If anyone felts dismissed, belittled, or hurt by my original organizational request and explanation of standard organization of books (see any library card catalogue, for example), I am sorry. I am truly amazed that my comment caused such a response–I stated a wish (which by definition if personal and hardly worded as an order) and I did say “please” when explaining standard organization. I do realize that nobody knows all the little things that are seen often as irrelevant. Heaven knows the millions of things that I don’t know. Again: if I offended you, I regret that.
Thanks for that. Tone is so hard to modulate online. We’re actually happy this line of comments ensued–it’s nice to hear from so many that the work we do is appreciated.
I really like the “Books on Sale” posts (my wallet does not :) ). I appreciate all of the hard work and time that goes into putting them together.
With respect to formatting suggestions, I too prefer the listings to be by author. With so many Dukes and Scandals or Scandalous Dukes, the titles get confusing. Also is it possible to have a separate link/category for these posts so that they can be accessed directly from the menu?
Thanks for all of your efforts in keeping this site thriving.
Note about the quotes on review: nearly every eARC I get contains a request to not include direct quotes in review since the book is still going through edits. So while having the quotes sounds lovely, I want to echo LinnieGayl that we need to sort a way to respect the publishers/authors as we do!
I apologize for not threading this correctly, but I’m not getting a reply link for Kay’s comment and wonderful list. I was just going to say that The Rule Maker by Jennifer Blackwood is actually out today, 1/16. Guess what’s on my kindle already? Wheeee!
I have this book for review and (spoiler alert) am loathing it. That’s why the review is late – I have to force myself to keep reading. Hope it goes better for you.
This book was an okay read for me – I gave it 3.5 stars. I do generally like this author’s writing, but I hadn’t read the first one in the series.
Call me crazy, but if an author gives you a book to review, but then asks that you not quote directly to it because the editing not quite finished, it’s called having your cake and eating it too. To me, that request is unreasonable.
I, for one, want to request the old site’s ability to pose a question or a review to the general population. I miss hearing what others have to say about topics not directly pertinent to the review of a particular book. It’s what made AAR so appealing. If anything, I think AAR should be thinking of ways to expand that service.
I appreciated AAR asking for people’s reactions to this new site (before you eliminated them), but reading people’s thoughts is sorely missed. I’m suspect I’m not alone, but there’s no real way to register our requests to reinstate the discussions.
Do you mean restore the Boards? Or do you have another way we could accommodate this?
Thanks to all of you who have worked on this site, past and present. It’s a thankless job sometimes, but your hard work is appreciated. I will say I do like lists by author, but having said that, I got back on the reading train by your releases by upcoming month. P.s. Amazon needs to have a downloadable format so you don’t have to enter everything all over again. I bet you have all wished for the same thing!
Yes, DGR, I think it would be great if the boards could be restored. I’d also just make it one board–I’ve always thought the division was confusing.