A new year is beginning and that brings a new TBR Challenge. As has been true for the last several years, the challenge is being hosted by Wendy the Super Librarian, and this month we’re tasked with reading something short – novellas, short stories, category romance, you name it. […]
Every year when it comes time to make a ‘best of the year’ list, I find that there are two criteria that help me decide what should make up my top ten: 1) Do I still remember the plot and the characters? I read an average of 200-300 books a year and something I read early in the year may end up in a ‘best of’ folder at the time of reading but lose some of its luster as it gets surpassed by other books and 2) Would I enthusiastically recommend it to someone now? […]
Australian authors and people in publishing have come together to host Twitter auctions under the hashtag #AuthorsForFireys, to raise money for the brave firefighters battling the catastrophic fires across Australia. Many members of the romance community are participating. The auctions opened on Jan 6 and will conclude on Jan 11, with winning twitter bidders generally needing to send proof of a donation to the CFA (Country Fire Authority) to the donor in order to receive their item. […]
Like many of my fellow reviewers, I’ve had a decent – if not outstanding – reading year. A quick look through my reviews shows a good number of B and B+ grades and a handful of DIKs, although my favourite genre – Historical Romance – made a pretty poor showing (again), with many of my previously “must-read” authors failing to deliver the sort of engrossing, emotionally satisfying stories I’d hoped for. Like last year, I’ve looked more and more often to other genres to feed my reading habit (!), and happily have found a number of other authors to add to that list. […]
Even as AAR staffers have been looking back at their favourite books from 2019, we’ve taken time out to look ahead to the books we’re most looking to reading in January 2020. We’re a diverse bunch with eclectic tastes and hopefully there’s something here for everyone – don’t forget to drop by and tell us which books you’re most eager to read this month in the comments. […]
2019 was my year of the B romance novel. Book after book it was a case of “I love everything about this story except. . . .” or “This novel was almost a DIK but. . . .” Fortunately, there were just enough exceptions to that list that I could come up with ten truly fantastic romances that I think almost anyone will love. […]
When it comes to romance, my criteria for greatness – or “best-ness” – is whether the story lingers with me. There are scenes or quotes that are so romantic and/or sexy that I can’t shake them and they’ll make me shiver happily when I recall them standing on a street corner waiting for a light to change, and make me think “oh, gracious, that’s life goals right there.” The books on this list are ones that lingered with me in 2019. […]
I hate making these lists, because I always feel like I can’t possibly judge the “Best of 2019” without reading at least, oh, another hundred or two hundred books. So I’m going to call this “The best books I managed to read by AAR’s internal deadline in 2019” and let you know that many well-loved books, from Bringing Down the Duke to Proper English, are still sitting on my TBR. But what are you going to do? […]
Many readers have been busy with celebrations for various holidays this week and many more do not spend much time on Twitter, so some may have missed the news that dropped on December 23, 2019. To get started, I would recommend checking out this thread of tweets from Alyssa Cole. Here Cole lets the public know that RWA (Romance Writers of America) has taken action to suspend author Courtney Milan as a result of an alleged ethics violation. […]
It’s always difficult to put together a ‘Best of’ list, and as usual I’m sure I forgot a few. But after much thought, here are the books which stood out for me this year. […]
