Here is another round of our occasional series of mini reviews. This time Emily, Kristen, Maria Rose and Rike share their thoughts on some recent reads.
Emily’s Reads:
The Fixer by Jenny Holiday
Matthew Townsend is a senior art prodigy, with a moody and solitary reputation. More […]
A long time ago in a far-off galaxy … you nominated some books for five of AAR’s Special Titles Listings. And then … nothing. Several months of nothing, and then more than a year. We apologize most sincerely. But – we are glad to announce that finally the revised versions of Scots & Irish Romances, Teachers and Governesses, Villains, Beta Heroes, and Favorite Funnies are online.
The main reasons for this delay are two: Last year, all of us who work on the Special Titles Listings were struck with a hefty dose of real life. Nothing bad, but a lot of stuff that was extremely time-consuming. So with a sigh, we put aside our work on the list. And then came the period during which material was being prepared for the new site. We felt we’d prefer to publish the revised lists at a point when the new site was […]
Sensuality: Hot
Publication date: June 2010
We’re happy to announce that this morning we’re opening four Special Title Lists for new submissions. That’s right, your Special Title Lists’ team hasn’t abandoned you. The lists that will be open for the next two weeks are: (1) Beta Heroes; (2) Marms, Teachers, and Governesses; (3) Favorite Funnies; and (4) Villains.
Beta Heroes: When we began updating the Special Title Lists in late 2012, we asked AAR readers to pick their favorite lists; Beta Heroes was near the top. The romances in this list feature kinder, gentler heroes, the kind of men who will change your flat tire, open doors for you, help your kid with his homework, and bring you soup when you are sick. They are the antithesis of the testosterone-filled chest beaters found in many earlier romances.
Marms, Teachers, and Governesses: Last updated in March of 2010, the romances in this list […]
Now that we’ve revised the more popular Special Titles Listings, we are left with a number of the smaller categories that appear to be less in demand, but still interesting to some. So as we open them for new submissions, we considered these lists among ourselves, wondering what is attractive and what is less attractive about them.
For the Love of God is a list that suffers from the fact that titles which fit here are not so easy to spot. Many of the romances featuring characters for whom religion plays a major role are firmly anchored in the inspirational arena. They tend to center on the Christian faith and the main protagonists’ relationship with God, and actually this relationship is of equal importance as the actual romance. In many of these romances great emphasis is placed on a character being “saved” by his or her renewed faith. This is all well and good, but to find these titles […]
When we collect nominations for the Special Titles Listings, usually we greet the individual submissions with an affectionate moan: We love the new titles, but we grumble a bit at the work of looking up the books online, preparing the new entries, possibly even browsing through them to make sure they fit the category.
This time around, there was a change: Because we opened the lists just before Christmas (we might have known …), there were very few submissions at first. We panicked a bit, and went off to nominate some books ourselves.
In my (Rike’s) case, this meant literally walking up and down my bookshelves, browsing through the titles and desperately trying to remember where there was a full-figured heroine, or a guardian who fell for this ward.
After I’d stopped panicking it was actually a rewarding exercise. I opened some books I hadn’t had a closer look at in years, and rediscovered some oldies. In addition, I impulsively bought […]
Each year, the AAR staff picks their favorite Buried Treasure–a book that ran under the radar or that we think many readers may have missed. Last year’s list–which you may read here–featured books by Tessa Bailey, Caroline Linden, and Jay Bell, just to mention a few.
This year, several staff members felt they hadn’t encountered a Buried Treasure, so our list this year is a little shorter than last year’s. Here are the picks from the staff who did indeed find unheralded gold.
Caz: I’ve already mentioned my Buried Treasure as being one of my favourite books of 2014 – The King’s Falcon by the British author, Stella Riley. She’s been a favourite author of mine since the first book […]
(This column will not be the only piece we run on the best books of 2014. We will still run a separate Buried Treasures piece and several staff members will be sharing their lists of the best books they read this year.)
Each year, we ask the AAR staff to pick one book as the best romance published this year. Here are our picks for 2014:
Maggie: Mambo in Chinatown by Jean Kwok was my number one read of 2014. I loved the Cinderella nature of the tale, the unique look into Chinese-American culture, the heroine Charlie and her irrepressible spirit and generosity and the gentle, hopeful nature of the love story. So few books do a good job of capturing what it’s like to be a first generation American but this novel, reviewed here, captured it perfectly.
Lea: 
What […]
We hope you are all having a lovely time baking holiday treats and choosing gifts for the your friends and family. Hopefully there is also some time left for reading (although we know from experience this is not always the case in December). With everything being a bit busier than usual, we have decided to open this month’s Special Titles Listings late enough to extend until after the holidays. We’re hoping that if not straight away, you will find a moment to nominate some titles in the more quiet days.
When we looked at the lists this time, we realised with some astonishment that almost all of them have been opened and revised since we took up this task a bit more than two years ago. This means we will be able reopen some of the more popular lists quite soon. In the meantime, here are four more lists that have […]
Since we started updating the Special Title lists in 2012 we’ve asked AAR’s readers to tell us which lists they would like updated first. We’ve taken your priorities to heart and have gradually been working through your favorite lists. We’re now down to the lists that very few readers listed as their favorites. Needless to say we were nervous when we opened the latest five lists for updating; would anyone submit titles? Our worries proved groundless. Once again, you’ve submitted lots of great titles. […]
