the ask@AAR: What’s your favorite Marriage of Convenience romance?

the ask@AAR: What’s your favorite Marriage of Convenience romance?

One of my very favorite tropes is the marriage of convenience love story. It’s a common one in romance, perhaps more so in historicals–we have 85 books tagged as such here and I’m sure we’ve missed a bunch. My favorites, off the top of my head, are Ravishing the Heiress and (loosely) Dukes are Forever. (I…

the ask@AAR: What are the best romances set in Ireland and Scotland?

the ask@AAR: What are the best romances set in Ireland and Scotland?

This September, I will be traveling for the first time to Ireland and Scotland. And while I am extremely anxious about having to drive there–it’s the wrong side of the road for me!–I am thrilled to finally visit these two places. To prepare–I did just rewatch the first season of Outlander–I thought I’d ask for…

the ask@AAR: What love stories do fertility, abortion, and adoption well?

the ask@AAR: What love stories do fertility, abortion, and adoption well?

Babies and the decision to have or not to have them are part of every human’s life in some way. But in romance, the way having children or not having children is handled rarely reflects reality. I confess, I’ve never understood why we can’t discuss abortion. Perhaps it’s because I grew up in that era…

the ask@AAR: Does anyone write multiple books a year well?

the ask@AAR: Does anyone write multiple books a year well?

In a comment she wrote on my recent review of Sarina Bowen’s Good As Gold, Caroline wrote: When I look at Bowen’s output, it doesn’t surprise me that the quality is starting to fall off. I started to feel like something was off in the 2021-2 releases of the Brooklyn Bombshells (Bombshells, Shenanigans, and Love…

the ask@AAR: If you could pick five romance novels could change haters’ minds about romance, what would they be?

the ask@AAR: If you could pick five romance novels could change haters’ minds about romance, what would they be?

I’ve been asked, by friend who runs a few newspapers, to write a column about what are five romances that would change haters’ opinions about the genre. Whew. Tough gig. One way I considered is to list five misapprehensions about romance–it’s not funny, it’s too frothy, you can’t learn anything from it, the plots are…

the ask@AAR: What are some of your favorite romances featuring artists?

the ask@AAR: What are some of your favorite romances featuring artists?

It feels to me as though I’ve read many a romance where the lead or leads are writers or musicians but nowhere nearly as many featuring heroes and heroines who are visual artists. Off the top of my head, I recall that Sherry Thomas has a secondary character who’s a painter, the second Mackenzie novel…

the ask@AAR: What are your stories about the kindness of others?

the ask@AAR: What are your stories about the kindness of others?

When I think of Tennessee Williams, I think of A Streetcar Named Desire (the movie) and, in my head, I hear Vivian Leigh saying, “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” In the film, the viewer knows Blanche’s trust’s delusional and that the kindnesses done to her are, in truth, cruel or uncaring….

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