It’s Valentine’s Day, that 24 hours each year the world celebrates romantic love. AAR’s a big fan of romantic love–we’ve been writing about it and celebrating it since the early 90s. Over the years, we’ve published thousands of reviews and blogs, conversed online with countless readers, and chatted up hundreds of authors. We’ve given DIK status to almost 2000 books and reviewed another 12000 we cared enough about to share how we felt about them. We love what we we do and what we read and, most of all, we love sharing our passion for books with you.
I’ve been a part of AAR since early 2011–can it really only be eight years?–and, in that time, I’ve come to love romance and its readers with a fierce passion. Trust me when I say that there are no better readers out there. You guys are the best. You’re thoughtful, smart as hell, engaged, and critical. You think about what you read and what we review and when you think we’ve done well, you cheer us. And when you think we’ve screwed up, you let us know. (We’re grateful for that, we really are.)
This week Goodreads put out its list of Top 100 Romances. I’m happy they’re celebrating the genre but I had to roll my eyes at what they call a romance. Just to be clear: a romance has to have a Happily Ever After (HEA) or a Happy For Now (HFN) in order to be a romance. It’s the one rule. Me Before You? That’s a no. Gone with the Wind? Hell no. Memoirs of a Geisha? I don’t think so.
I’m not sure what the Top 100 Romances are. I know our list, heavy on historicals and not very diverse, isn’t in any way the definitive version. But I do know that you, our readers, know great romance when you read it. And we hope that the reviews we publish every day help you find more fabulous love stories to light up your lives.
We love you, we do. And just because we want to show you we care, we’re sending a box of some of what we think are the best romances of the past year to one lucky US romance reader. What will be in it? Well, give us some suggestions. What do you think were the best books published in the last year (or so)? We’ll draw from those who comment below.
And, in the meantime, Happy Valentine’s Day. We wouldn’t be here without you. <3
Dabney
Impenitent social media enthusiast. Relational trend spotter. Enjoys both carpe diem and the fish of the day.
I’m going to bookmark this post so I can keep referring back to these great suggestions! So many books to read! (Happy book sigh.) My favorite book of 2018 by an author I already read was Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. My favorite book(s) by a new-to-me author was The Last Wolf and The Wolf Apart by Maria Vale. So happy to discover these books and this author.
In addition to a lot of great new books (The Kiss Quotient, Wicked and the Wallflower, A Duke by Default, Band Sinister), I binge read Bec McMaster’s Steampunk London series like I was starving and it was chocolate cake.
Hmm! My favorite reads published in 2018 were:
Andrews, Ilona – Diamond Fire
Bowen, Sarina – Speakeasy
Bowen, Sarina – The Accidentals
Burrowes, Grace – My One and Only Duke
Draven, Grace – Phoenix Unbound
Estep, Jennifer – Kill the Queen
Gilley, Lauren – Prodigal Son
Hoang, Helen – The Kiss Quotient
Vincy, Mia – A Wicked Kind of Husband
I think I will have to scribble down some titles I may have missed in my reading last year.(Based on some of the books the rest of you have mentioned.)
I haven’t got a chance to read most of the releases from 2018 as I was busy with my new born baby.. Among the ones I read, here are my favorites:
Marriage of Inconvenience and Doctor Strange Beard by Penny Reid (I love all the books by Penny Reid)
Hello Stranger by Lisa Kleypas
Pretty Face and Making Up by Lucy Parker
First Time at Firelight Falls by Julie Anne Long
The Thing About Love by Julie James
A Duke in the Night by Kelly Bowen
A Duke in the Shining Armor by Loretta Chase
A Lady’s Code of Misconduct by Meredith Duran
One and Only by Jenny Holiday
My TBR from 2018 (these authors are auto buy for me)
The Governess Game by Tessa Dare
The Other Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
Victorian Rebels series by Kerrigan Byrne
TBR based on the recommendations from AAR:
The Sins of Lord Lockwood by Meredith Duran
K. Ashe’s The Earl, M. Balogh’s Someone to Care, J. Bourne’s Beauty Like the Night, G. Burrowes’ My One and Only Duke, L. Chase’s A Duke in Shining Armor, T. Dare’s The Duchess Deal, L. Heath’s When a Duke Loves a Woman, E. James’ Too Wilde to Wed and Born to Be Wilde, V. Kelly’s Princess Bride, C. Linden’s An Earl Like You, M. Rodale’s Duchess by Design, S.Thomas’ A Conspiracy in Belgravia and The Hollow of Fear – I loved them all. Some of these may not have been published in 2018. I no longer write those dates in my notebook. I read or listen to 3-4 books a week since I retired, but these were ones I starred.
Love: The Other Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn, The Governess Game by Tessa Dare and Hello Stranger by Lisa Kleypas (looking forward for Devil’s Daughter, can’t wait)!!! Reread A Week to be Wicked by Tessa Dare, and still love it :)
So lovely to have this giveaway on Valentine’s Day♥ Favorite romance for the past year would be: The Other Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn, The Governess Game by Tessa Dare and Hello Stranger from Lisa Kleypas (looking forward for Devil’s Daughter♡(∩o∩)♡
Tempest by Beverly Jenkins, Hurts to Love You by Alisha Rai, Thirsty by Mia Hopkins, Picture Perfect Cowboy by Tiffany Reisz, and Rafe by Rebekah Weatherspoon would be on my list.
Some of my favorites published last year are (in no particular order): Hello Stranger by Lisa Kleypas (only 5 more days till Devil’s Daughter is published! Yay!); Marry in Scandal by Anne Gracie (sad I have to wait 5 more months till her next book); The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang (pre-ordered her next); Dr. Strange Beard by Penny Reid; The Woman Left Behind by Linda Howard (not my favorite of hers, but she’s a must buy for me); The Unlikely Master Genius by Carla Kelly (I love her Royal Navy books); The Duke that I Marry by Cathy Maxwell. Thanks.
I am a new Tessa Dare convert (Late to the party, I know), but When a Scot Ties the Knot makes me ridiculously happy.
And I love Maya Bank’s Scottish historicals.
These are my top scoring 2018 books I’ve read:
Title; Genre+Author; Sub-genre; Score
Hot and Badgered; Laurenston, Shelly; pc; 4.5
My One and Only; Alder, Alanea; pc; 4
Hot Heir; Grant, Pippa; c; 4
Rockaway Bride; Grant, Pippa; c; 4
Stud in the Stacks; Grant, Pippa; c; 4
The Pilot & the Puck-Up; Grant, Pippa; c; 4
The Billionaire’s Wake-Up-Call Girl; Martin, Annika; c; 4
Chef Sugarlips; Fenske, Tawna; c; 3.5
The Hero and the Hacktivist; Grant, Pippa; c; 3.5
Alpha’s Mate; Langlais, Eve; pc; 3.5
The Dance Before Christmas; Alexander, Victoria; h:V; 3
The Lady Travelers Guide to Deception with an Unlikely Earl; Alexander, Victoria; h:V; 3
Wild Prince; Arend, Vivian; pc; 3
Got It Bad; Barth, Christi; c; 3
The Varlet and the Voyeur; Cosway, L. H. & Reid, Penny; c; 3
Sergeant Sexypants; Fenske, Tawna; c; 3
The Test; Fenske, Tawna; c; 3
Picture Imperfect; Frame, Mary; c; 3
A Touch of Flame; Goodman, Jo; h:A; 3
Beauty and the Beefcake; Grant, Pippa; c; 3
Royally Pucked; Grant, Pippa; c; 3
Hosed; Grant, Pippa & Valente, Lili; c; 3
Lionheart; Harrison, Thea; pc; 3
Promise Not To Tell; Krentz, Jayne Ann; c; 3
Grumpy Fake Boyfriend; Lau, Jackie; c; 3
He’s Not My Boyfriend; Lau, Jackie; c; 3
Mr. Hotshot CEO; Lau, Jackie; c; 3
Not AnotheFamily Wedding; Lau, Jackie; c; 3
Bound foEden; LeSue, Tess; h:A; 3
Malcolm & Isabel; Long, Julie Anne; c; 3
EveFallen In Love; MacAlister, Katie; c; 3
Pick Six; Monroe, Max; c; 3
Wildcat; Monroe, Max; c; 3
Making Up; Parker, Lucy; c; 3
Dr. Strange Beard; Reid, Penny; c; 3
Rocky Mountain Cowboy Christmas; Ruggle, Katie; c; 3
Barbarous; Spencer, Minerva; rh; 3
A Wicked Kind of Husband; Vincy, Mia; rh; 3
The Daisy Game; Warren, Nancy; c; 3
More Than Meets the Eye; Witemeyer, Karen; h:A; 3
My favorites this past year, like so many have mentioned, are The Kiss Quotient, The Prince, The Trouble With True Love, Beyond Scandal and Desire, and The Earl I Ruined, but also An Earl Like You by Caroline Linden and A Notorious Vow by Joanna Shupe I very much enjoyed (I love historicals). One of my favorite subgenres is Fantasy romance, and Grace Draven’s Phoenix Unbound was a good read.
I just noticed today that The Prince by Katharine Ashe is now out on audio, so I’m hoping to enjoy that book all over again.
I’m not good at reading books in the same year they are published, because I have such a huge TBR pile. However, I can certainly list books I read in 2018 that I gave an A or A- rating whether they were published that year or not. (Plus, one bonus book I read this year that’s not been published yet.)
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
The Thing About Love by Julie James
Dating You Hating You by Christina Lauren
Wrong to Need You by Alisha Rai
Falling for Trouble by Sarah Title
All In by Simona Ahrnstedt
The British Knight by Louise Bay
The Accidentals by Sarina Bowen
Eversea by Natasha Boyd
Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton
A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole
Plus a couple of fiction books with romantic elements:
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (2017) – Gail Honeyman
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Bonus:
The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis Graves – to be released in April 2019
I really enjoyed A Wicked Kind of Husband by Mia Vincy! Thanks to AAR for the recommendation!
Loved One Day in December and books by Alyssa Cole.
I agree with many of the titles that have been offered in comments. However, The Kiss Quotient is the one that absolutely springs to mind for me. Happy Valentine’s Day!
My current favorites, most anything by Mariana Zapata, Penny Reid, Lucy Parker, Kate Clayborn, Elizabeth Kingston, Sally Thorne, Sherry Thomas, Meredith Duran, Julie Anne Long, Loretta Chase, Simone St. James, and C. S. Harris. Also, I adore Sandra Antonelli’s In Service books.
Other than Penny and Simone, our lists are the same. I’d add Kelly Bowen an Katharine Ashe to the list.
Loved Elizabeth Hoyt’s latest book!
Here are my favorite reads from last year. With the exception of Julie-Ann Long, I think all of these titles are either published in 2018, or are part of a series with a 2018 title.
The Hollow of Fear Sherry Thomas (3rd in a series)
How to Bang A Billionaire Alexis Hall (two books in this series; book 3 to be published much later this year)
Dealmaker Lily Morton
The Last Wolf Maria Vale
Idyll Fears Stephanie Gayle (3 books in this romantic suspense series so far)
Band Sinister KJ Charles
Beginner’s Luck Kate Clayborn
What I Did for A Duke Julie-Ann Long
Once Upon a Haunted Moor Harper Fox (9 books in this Tyack & Frayne series)
In Other Words . . . Murder Josh Lanyon (book 4 of the Holmes & Moriarty series)
A Touch of Flame Jo Goodman
The Kiss Quotient Helen Hoang
Many of these were AAR recs, BTW. Thanks for all the great reviews.
Kate Clayborn is delightful!
Definitely Sherry Thomas and the Hollow of Fear! The Kiss Quotient. The Earl I Ruined. The Governess Game. Someone to Trust. Well basically anything you all loved!!!
From last year, I really loved THE EARL I RUINED by Scarlett Peckham, THE GOVERNESS GAME by Tessa Dare, THE TROUBLE WITH TRUE LOVE by Laura Lee Guhrke, and THE KISS QUOTIENT by Helen Hoang.
Thanks for the giveaway. These titles are among the best romances I read that were published in 2018:
The Hollow of Fear—Sherry Thomas; The Prince—Katharine Ashe; Diamond Fire—Ilona Andrews; First Time at Firelight Falls—Julie Anne Long; Born to be Wilde—Eloisa James; The Governess Game—Tessa Dare; The Kiss Quotient—Helen Hoang; Hello Stranger—Lisa Kleypas; The Trouble With True Love–Laura Lee Guhrke; Someone to Trust–Mary Balogh; The Other Miss Bridgerton–Julia Quinn; How to Keep a Secret—Sarah Morgan
I want to say ‘anything and everything by KJ Charles in the past 24 months. And any other M/M romances that you guys have rated high the past year or two.’ However, I think almost none of these is in paperback, so there wouldn’t be anything in the box.
Alternative: The audiobook (I actually believe somewhere it’s on CD?) of Flowers from the Storm. You all keep saying it’s amazing, but the St. Louis County Library system (and specifically the reference specialist who took my call) says it doesn’t exist.
The audiobook of Flowers from the Storm is available at Audible.
https://www.amazon.com/Flowers-from-the-Storm/dp/B00D780J8A/ref=sr_1_1_twi_audd_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1550176574&sr=8-1&keywords=flowers+from+the+storm+by+laura+kinsale
Aha, so it does exist. Thanks, Dabney. I’ll check it out.
This was my first ‘read’ by Laura Kinsale – it’s narrated by Nicholas Boulton and is an excellent listen! (my copy was also from audible).
Actually, it takes a while for mm romances to make it to paper format, and they are “expensive” e.g. usually tradepaper pricing at minimum, but I checked that several of my recs (KJ Charles and Alexis Hall) are indeed available to read off a page. :-)
The Kiss Quotient, One in a Million by Lindsey Kelk, Duchess by Design by Maya Rodale, Long Shot by Kennedy Ryan and A Girl Like Her by Talia Hibbert were my favorites from last year.
I haven’t heard of Kelk . I’ll check her out. Thanks.
Scandal and Desire by Lorraine Heath, Borne to Be Wilde, by Eloisa James, Shana Galen’’s Survivor series were very good. The best favor I did for myself this past year was to get audiobooks of my DIK romances — Devil’s Bride, Lord of Scoundrels, Devil in Winter, and Dreaming of You!!
Going back several years, Kerrigan Byrne’s Victorian Rebels have been amazing reads–even the the later books of the series. Minerva Spencer’s Scandalous and Dangerous gave me a new go-to author. I also read and loved most of Grace Draven’s catalog and am impatiently waiting for Dragon Unleashed.
I really enjoyed the Chance of a Lifetime series by Kate Clayborn, Fall by Kristin Callihan, Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren, everything Sarina Bowen wrote, Thirsty by Mia Hopkins, Hate to Love You by Alisha Rai, and The Governess Game by Tessa Dare. My 5 stars for last year (with 2018 pub dates) were heavily contemporary. I reread The Bridgertons which are always 5 star for me and I can hardly wait for Julie Anne Long’s new historical.
What’s your favorite Bridgerton? And Lady Derring Takes a Lover is worth the wait.
#3 and #4. Hard to beat Colin!
In the last year or so I’d say Penny Reid, Lisa Kleypas, Meredith Duran, Sherry Thomas, Sara J Maas, Lorraine Heath and Talia Hibbert.
Some of the best authors writing last year were Joanna Shupe and Sarina Bowen.
What if it’s us was sooo good!
How does one pick? Blue Eyed Devil, Lisa Kleypas; Head Over Heels, Jill Shalvis; Just the Sexiest Man, Julie James; McKenzie’s Mountain, Linda Howard; Bet Me, Jennifer Cruise.
Really, anything Shalvis, Kleypas, James has written. Howard’s old books. Nora Roberts. I could go on and on!
Some of the best for me last year (and not all were new). “Sins of Lord Lockwood by Meredith Duran; Iron Duke series by Meljean Brooks; Making Up by Lucy Parker; Magic Triumps, Iron and Magic, and Diamond Fire by Ilona Andrews; Lady Truelove books by Laura Lee Gurke; Julie Ann Long’s Hellcat canyon and Malcolm and Isabel and so many more… thanks to the great reviewers here! You’ve helped me try so many good books.
Thank you! We aim to spread the gospel of good romance far and wide!
I’d go by author rather than book. Include something by one or more of the following and it’ll be a great day: Anne Calhoun, Jill Sorenson, Kati Wilde, Cara McKenna, Caitlin Crews/Megan Crane, Sarina Bowen, Melanie Harlow, Annika Martin/Carol Crane, Skye Warren, Jackie Ashenden, CD Reiss.
I miss Anne Calhoun. I hope she’s still writing. Jill Sorenson is now writing under the name Susan Cliff. We liked her last book. I wish Annika Martin would go back to writing some Carolyn Crane books but she says she’s combatting the world with happy stories these days.
I don’t know what happened to Anne Calhoun. Her last book was published almost two years ago and her website hasn’t been updated since then. Someone said she closed her Twitter account too. I hope she’s ok and just taking a break (ditto Cara McKenna—I think she was quoted as saying writing wasn’t fun anymore).
As for Annika Martin/Carolyn Crane, I’m there for whatever she writes (even her “kinky bank robbers/reverse harem” books). She has a new book being released on February 19: BREAKING THE BILLIONAIRE’S RULES. You know I preordered that. I’ll probably leave my kindle on all night so the book will download at 12:01 am!