Jean AAR Archives : All About Romance

You need to watch this show. Right now.

By Enya Young|2017-06-23T08:30:05-04:00November 12th, 2016|Categories: Jean AAR, Music, Pop Culture, Television|Tags: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Musicals, Rachel Bloom, YouTube|

crazy-ex-girlfriend-first-season-38605 So I didn’t use the show’s name in the title on purpose, because if you’re like me you’d be put off and wouldn’t even read below the break. Which is fine, except you’d be missing one of the most amazing shows currently on TV.

Still here? Okay: the show’s called Crazy Ex-Girlfriend – don’t run away!

If you’re anything like me you won’t have seen it (very likely – the ratings suck), you’ll read that, and you’ll think “not in a bajillion years”. That’s what I thought. Show with a title like that? Probably kooky characters who are adorbs even if they’ve got lots of troubles. Love triangles. Lots of cringing that comes with artificial situations that only happen on TV. Exhausting and phony.

You wouldn’t necessarily be wrong, because CEG does all of that. Except it’s not exhausting or phony. It takes every one of those situations and turns them on their heads. […]

Peddling Visions of Beauty

By Enya Young|2017-06-23T08:30:28-04:00July 1st, 2014|Categories: Jean AAR, Romance|Tags: beauty, Fashion, ideal|

Three weeks ago the weather turned, and I opened my closet to find some light summer skirts. No such luck – I’d put on weight, so the old ones didn’t fit, and the others were too heavy for humid 27 degree weather. So I went shopping. I chose a mall and went with an open mind and larger than usual budget – I’m in my thirties, I want fairly good quality that’s not going to break the bank, and I have a body shape that can be difficult to shop for, vertically challenged and horizontally inconsistent. So yeah, I wasn’t expecting to find $10 skirts.

After three hours I was ready to do my head in. I’d run the gamut from Walmart to the Bay to Banana Republic, but I was a victim of Fashion, which this year seems to be either maxi dresses or skirts that just barely […]

Interview and Giveaway with Sharon and Tom Curtis

By Enya Young|2017-06-23T08:30:29-04:00April 28th, 2014|Categories: Book news, giveaways, Interviews, Jean AAR|Tags: Laura London, sharon and tom curtis, Windflower|

Sharon and Tom Curtis. The husband-and-wife team started writing in the 70s and stopped writing in the 90s, and since then some of their books – especially the pirate romance The Windflower – have entered into legend. Hyperbole from a fan? Well, if you haven’t yet read the Curtises, who publish as Laura London, you’ve got your chance. Grand Central is reissuing all but two of their stories, which includes tomorrow’s release of The Windflower. To celebrate, we have an interview with the authors, and we have three (3) Advanced Reader Copies of The Windflower to give away. To put your name in the draw, just comment below before 11:59PM EST, Wednesday April 30, 2014, and we’ll pick three winners. (Unfortunately, because of the cost of postage, this contest is only open to those in Canada and the USA.)

And now without further ado, Sharon and Tom Curtis. – Jean AAR

You’re a writing duo! […]

AAR at the Movies: Catching Fire

By Enya Young|2017-06-23T08:30:34-04:00November 26th, 2013|Categories: AAR afterhours blog, Jean AAR, Movies|Tags: Catching Fire, Hunger Games, Movies|

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAzGXqJSDJ8

Friday night, my friend and I went to see the second instalment of Suzanne Collins’s massive smash hit trilogy, adapted for the screens. I wasn’t going to see it, honestly. I’d seen the first one, and there was something about seeing the physical and psychosocial trauma that hit me viscerally in a way that the books couldn’t translate. Yes, I knew it was fiction, and yes, I knew what happened anyway. But I found the experience quite frightening, to be honest.

But then the reviews for Catching Fire came out (mainly glowing, in a nutshell), and my curiosity got the better of me. I also had a free movie voucher, and I thought, well, I could save it for The Devastation of Smaug’s Cumberbatched Voice (aka The Hobbit part 2), or I could suck it up, be my age, and see Lenny Kravitz, Jena Malone and Stanley Tucci do their thing. And you know what? I’m […]

The results of the AAR Top Ten Lists are in and the winner is….

By Dabney Grinnan|2017-06-23T08:30:38-04:00October 7th, 2013|Categories: AAR Blythe, AAR Jenna, Alexandra AAR, All About Romance, Anne Marble, Caroline AAR, Caz AAR, Cindy AAR, Dabney AAR, Haley AAR, Heather S. AAR, Jean AAR, Lea Hensley, Lee AAR, LinnieGayl AAR, Maggie AAR, Mary AAR, Melanie AAR, Pat Henshaw, Rike AAR|Tags: Laurie Gold, Top Ten List|

Back in April, we began, on each Tuesday, publishing a reviewer’s Top Ten list. There were no rules other than the books be in the romance genre. Over the next five months, we published twenty-three lists. Out of the 230 entries, we listed 201 books. We hit every genre (although we have a definitive fondness for historical romance), and waxed upon the works of 121 authors. After every one had weighed in, only one book garnered five–the most–votes: J.R. Ward’s Lover Awakened. […]

AAR at the Movies: Iron Man 3

By Enya Young|2017-06-23T08:30:45-04:00May 17th, 2013|Categories: AAR afterhours blog, Jean AAR, Movies|Tags: Iron Man 3|

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke1Y3P9D0Bc

Lord above, at least it was better than “Iron Man 2”. Tony Stark goes out with a bang (at least from the movies, but not from the Avengers), Pepper Potts kicks some serious butt, a kid gets called a pussy, and Jean wonders why Brits and Aussies are better at American accents than Americans are at British ones. Not a total waste of time, but it left me with some ethical dilemmas. […]

AAR Staff Top Ten Favorites – Jean's Picks

By Lynn Spencer|2017-06-23T08:30:45-04:00May 14th, 2013|Categories: All About Romance, Jean AAR, Romance reading|Tags: Georgette Heyer, jennifer crusie, Jo Goodman, Joanna Bourne, Katie Fforde, Mary Stewart, meredith duran, Nora Roberts, sharon and tom curtis, Thea Harrison, Top Ten lists, top ten romance novels|

See, I knew that signing up for this blog would cause me a headache. How are you supposed to choose the top ten romances that rock your world? How? How? (At the back of my mind I have the Baha Men singing along, except it’s “How do you choose now? How, how, how, how?” Great. Hence the headache.)

Anyway, I figured the only way I can keep sane is a) recognize that I won’t hit them all, and b) acknowledge that if I am actually stuck on a desert island with only ten romance novels, I’d go crazy anyway, no matter what I chose. (Unless I chose, like, the Koran, Paradise Lost, and Journey to the West. Then maybe I’d not go all loopy.)

I decided that what I’d probably crave the most is variety, a little bit of every genre to suit every mood. It actually turned out to be relatively easy once I’d decided on […]

Thank You, Roger Ebert

By Lynn Spencer|2017-06-23T08:30:48-04:00April 8th, 2013|Categories: Jean AAR, Movies|Tags: Roger Ebert|

Around the time that I discovered the internet as a place of leisure, and not just research, I discovered movie reviews. I found it hugely satisfying to read movie reviews in the major publications – the New York Times, the New Yorker, Rolling Stone. It was like sitting in on a cinematic round table with the leading lights of the film critics’ world. Some of their reviews were near works of art, literary pieces in their own right, offering insights into films that I couldn’t possibly dream of, and sometimes didn’t understand. I reacted to films and I could analyze my response, but not on the same level.

But there was one critic whom I read for his own sake, not the publication’s reputation, and that was Roger Ebert. I’d never seen his shows, either with Siskel or with Roeper, so I only know Ebert’s […]

AAR at the Movies: Les Miserables

By Enya Young|2017-06-23T08:30:54-04:00January 2nd, 2013|Categories: AAR afterhours blog, Jean AAR, Movies|Tags: Les Miserables|

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuEFm84s4oI

I have been waiting, and waiting to see this, ever since I heard they were doing a movie of the musical. Les Mis is one of my favourite musicals of all time – I practically know it by heart. Then, of course, after I saw the killer trailer (above), I nearly wept with relief that they (probably) hadn’t screwed it up. What’s my verdict? Read on.

[…]

Cycling in the city

By Enya Young|2017-06-23T08:30:59-04:00September 29th, 2012|Categories: AAR afterhours blog, Jean AAR, Real Life|Tags: bicycle, bike, city, cycling, Toronto|

bike-fashion Confession: I’m completely lazy. If I do something, it’s because I enjoy it, not because I feel I should or it’s good for me. So when it comes to physical activity, I have to find something I like and enjoy, or else I won’t do it.

Considering how expensive public transit is getting in T.O., and considering I refuse to drive downtown, the most sensible decision that combines transport and fitness is cycling. And I figure if it’s 2 hours round trip, that’s a pretty excellent fitness regime. In the month or so since I’ve gotten back into it, here are some random cycling notes:

It’s scary. It’s soooooooooooo scary. Toronto is not the most cycling friendly city in the world, and when you have to cross a 16-lane highway into the bargain, it just complicates things on a whole other level.
Scariest part of all? The pedestrians. And the other cyclers. […]