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
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.