What books should be included on our upcoming AAR Top 100 Romances poll? Vote and let us know!
Here are the books, published in the last ten years or so, AAR readers have suggested we consider for our upcoming Top 100 Romance Novels of all time list. I’ve created a survey so we can begin to narrow down this list. Ultimately, the final poll choices will include ones from this list, all the choices from the AAR Best ofs lists since 2018, and the current top 100 Romances list.
Kohl by Abigail Kelly
Against a Wall by Cate C. Wells
Role Playing by Cathy Yardley
Temporary Partner by Nicky James
Band Sinister by KJ Charles
A Gentleman’s Position by KJ Charles
A Seditious Affair by KJ Charles
An Unnatural Vice by KJ Charles
We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian
Peter Cabot Gets Lost by Cat Sebastian
The Soldier’s Scoundrel by Cat Sebastian
The Playing Game by Ainsley Booth
Goaltender Interference by Ari Baran
Variation by Rebecca Yarros
Metal Slinger by Rachel Schneider
Devil’s Daughter by Lisa Kleypas
Paladin’s Faith by T. Kingfisher
Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher
Paladin’s Hope by T. Kingfisher
Paladin’s Strength by T. Kingfisher
Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell
Pretty Face by Lucy Parker
Battle Royal by Lucy Parker
The Austen Playbook by Lucy Parker
Headliners by Lucy Parker
Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
Bride by Ali Hazelwood
Deep End by Ali Hazelwood
Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood
Love Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
Desire of His Blood by Zoey Draven
Firestorm by Rachel Grant
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James
The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin
Blood Moon by Sandra Brown
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
Phoenix Unbound by Grace Draven
The Midnight News by Jo Baker
The Impossible Boy by Anna Martin
The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary
Out on a Limb by Hannah Bonam-Young
Yield Under Great Persuasion by Alexandra Rowland
Trust by Kylie Scott
Bench Player by Julianna Keyes
You Give Me That Feeling by Julie Kriss
Angel in a Devil’s Arms by Julie Anne Long
Lady Derring Takes a Lover by Julie Anne Long
Hot in Hellcat Canyon by Julie Anne Long
Fireman’s Carry by Eli Easton
From Lukov with Love by Mariana Zapata
The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
Not Here to Be Liked by Michelle Quach
Dark Horse by Michelle Diener
Madison Square Murders by C.S. Poe
Managed by Kristen Callihan
Melt for You by J.T. Geissinger
Homebound by Lydia Hope
Bitter Legacy by Dal Maclean
Notorious Vow by Joanna Shupe
A Shore Thing by Joanna Lowell
If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane
Just Last Night by Mhairi McFarlane
Mad About You by Mhairi McFarlane
Reign & Ruin by J.D. Evans
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
The Bride Test by Helen Hoang
The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare
Sea of Ruin by Pam Godwin
Whisper by Tal Bauer
The Fall by Tal Bauer
City of the Lost by Kelly Armstrong
Sundays with Oliver by Kelly Jensen
Perfect Day by Sally Malcolm
Last Kiss by Sally Malcolm
Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry
Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez
Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez
Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez
The Ones That Got Away by Roni Loren
Iron and Magic by Ilona Andrews
Sweep of the Blade by Ilona Andrews
The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite
Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade
10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall
A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
For Real by Alexis Hall
How to Bang a Billionaire by Alexis Hall
Waiting for the Flood by Alexis Hall
The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley
The Lord I Left by Scarlett Peckham
The Devil Comes Courting by Courtney Milan
Duke, Actually by Jenny Holiday
Bollywood Bride by Sonali Dev
The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan
A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas
The Hollow of Fear by Sherry Thomas
American Love Story by Adrianna Herrera
10 Things I Hate About the Duke by Loretta Chase
Dukes Prefer Blondes by Loretta Chase
The Summer We Fell by Elizabeth O’Roark
Beautiful Hearts by Jax Calder
The Unlovely Bride by Alice Coldbreath
Dukes Are Forever by Bec McMaster
A Dangerous Kind of Lady by Mia Vincy
A Wicked Kind of Husband by Mia Vincy
A Duke to Remember by Kelly Bowen
Convenient Vows with a Viking by Lucy Morris
Hera Takes Charge by Kate Healey
Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn
Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn
The Sins of Lord Lockwood by Meredith Duran
A Lady’s Code of Misconduct by Meredith Duran
The Sweetest Oblivion by Danielle Lori
Lips Like Sugar by Jess K. Hardy
The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory
Two Tribes by Fearne Hill
Work for It by Talia Hibbert
A Girl Like Her by Talia Hibbert
A Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert
The Mars House by Natasha Pulley
The Mechanics of Lust by Jay Hogan
In Step by Jay Hogan
Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan
Night Will Find You by Julie Heaberlin
Fake Empire by C.W. Farnsworth
Pathfinder’s Way by T.A. White
The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin
Wear It Like a Crown by Zarah Detand
Wild Rain by Beverly Jenkins
Wildflower for a Duke by Laura Linn
The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen
These Old Lies by Larrie Barton
Thrown Off the Ice by Taylor Fitzpatrick
Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid
The Long Game by Rachel Reid
Time to Shine by Rachel Reid
Until You by Briar Prescott
Has anyone read Celia by Frances Burney? It was published in 1782 and apparently influenced Jane Austen.
I’d never heard of it until I read about it in Time’s 50 Best Romance Novels of all time.
Here’s the blurb from Time:
Thank you for this list, it’s a lot of work. I always find interesting what my fellow readers like. I understand the difference between my taste and mainstream authors. Jiménez or Hazelwood’s books, for instance, are not my cup of tea, but I understand why people find them attractive.
I took note of the 140 books we could choose from, to find new and interesting books. Lucy Morris is one of those Harlequin Historicals with quality, I’ve enjoyed several of her novels. Only in HH can you find historicals set in the Middle Ages nowadays. For those who, like me, read these kind of books now and then, Vows with the viking is, as a matter of fact, the title of a duetto, Morris’ contribution is called ‘Her bought viking husband’. The other one is by Sarah Rodi.
We’ve had close to 100 readers fill out this poll These are the top 50.
Sweep of the Blade by Ilona Andrews
Iron and Magic by Ilona Andrews
The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen
A Duke to Remember by Kelly Bowen
A Gentleman’s Position by KJ Charles
A Seditious Affair by KJ Charles
An Unnatural Vice by KJ Charles
Band Sinister by KJ Charles
10 Things I Hate About the Duke by Loretta Chase
Dukes Prefer Blondes by Loretta Chase
Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn
Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn
Dark Horse by Michelle Diener
Phoenix Unbound by Grace Draven
A Lady’s Code of Misconduct by Meredith Duran
The Sins of Lord Lockwood by Meredith Duran
Bride by Ali Hazelwood
Love Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez
Bench Player by Julianna Keyes
Devil’s Daughter by Lisa Kleypas
Paladin’s Faith by T. Kingfisher
Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher
Paladin’s Hope by T. Kingfisher
Paladin’s Strength by T. Kingfisher
Angel in a Devil’s Arms by Julie Anne Long
Hot in Hellcat Canyon by Julie Anne Long
Lady Derring Takes a Lover by Julie Anne Long
If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane
Just Last Night by Mhairi McFarlane
The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary
Battle Royal by Lucy Parker
Headliners by Lucy Parker
Pretty Face by Lucy Parker
The Austen Playbook by Lucy Parker
Madison Square Murders by C.S. Poe
Until You by Briar Prescott
Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid
The Long Game by Rachel Reid
Time to Shine by Rachel Reid
Peter Cabot Gets Lost by Cat Sebastian
The Soldier’s Scoundrel by Cat Sebastian
We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian
A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
A Dangerous Kind of Lady by Mia Vincy
A Wicked Kind of Husband by Mia Vincy
The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare
Thank you so much for doing this, Dabney! I’m pulling for one of my absolute favorites from the past few years, How to Tame a Wild Rogue by Julie Anne Long, makes it onto the survey.
Long has SO many great reads.
People are filling out our poll. Share our link with your romance reading friends!
Here are the top 25 romances from the past decade readers have chosen thus far.
10 Things I Hate About the Duke by Loretta Chase
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
A Wicked Kind of Husband by Mia Vincy
The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary
Pretty Face by Lucy Parker
Dukes Prefer Blondes by Loretta Chase
A Dangerous Kind of Lady by Mia Vincy
The Sins of Lord Lockwood by Meredith Duran
A Lady’s Code of Misconduct by Meredith Duran
Angel in a Devil’s Arms by Julie Anne Long
Lady Derring Takes a Lover by Julie Anne Long
Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid
A Seditious Affair by KJ Charles
We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian
The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare
The Long Game by Rachel Reid
Devil’s Daughter by Lisa Kleypas
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn
Hot in Hellcat Canyon by Julie Anne Long
An Unnatural Vice by KJ Charles
Battle Royal by Lucy Parker
Headliners by Lucy Parker
Sweep of the Blade by Ilona Andrews
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
Interesting that only 16 authors are represented in that top 25 with seven authors having multiple books and both Julie Ann Long and Lucy Parker having three each.
Also interesting to see the number of m/m books represented, but no f/f. Hoang makes it but no Jimenez, Milan, Jenkins, Hibbert, Herrera etc.
This does not surprise me–every time we’ve ever done this poll, favorite authors, many of whom have been publishing for decades (Long, Duran, Chase, Kleypas, and Quinn, for example) are chosen by readers. F/F books are, overall, fairly new in romance–the first ones we published were in 2016.
Romance has become much more–yay!–diverse in the past ten years but, again, this poll almost always ends up with books that have been around for a long time. Jimenez was first reviewed here in 2019, Hibbert in 2018, Herrera in 2019. Milan’s work became less traditional, for lack of a better word, in 2019. Milan has four books in our most recent Top 100 poll and I would bet she will be on the upcoming one too. Jenkins has never been on our Top 100 poll, I don’t think, and I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s because she writes American History romances and our readers like European Historical romances.
If you look at the polls over time, they are becoming more diverse. It’s clear than M/M books are now fairly mainstream for mainstream readers which you can see in this poll. (Remember–this is just books from the past ten years, not the final poll.) We at AAR have worked hard to expose our readers to all kinds of romances but, tastes change slowly.
Hi Dabney. The first F/F books are much older than that! Naiad Press started publishing in 1973. What happens is that most women read F/M and, eventually, M/M. The F/F books have less readers. I’ll have a few one that are my absolute favourites.
We did not review any until 2016. I think, for our readers, they weren’t on most people’s radar until the past five years.
Ah. I mistook your comment. Anyway, I have included some in the survey. (My favorites, of course!)
No worries.
Oh I agree – in order to be popular a book needs not only to be good but widely read. I think AAR provides a valuable role in providing informative reviews that lower the risk factor and make readers more likely to try an unknown author: I discovered Alexis Hall, Courtney Milan and many other new-to-me authors via AAR. As you say, of the 16 authors represented, 12 were around before 2018, and nine of those were on the AAR Top 100 poll – the three exceptions are Alexis Hall, Cat Sebastian and Kate Clayborn.
I am less surprised to see long-established authors like Julie Ann Long in the list than newer authors like Mia Vincy and Rachel Reid who both debuted in 2018. Still given the number of commenters who listed Jimenez in their best of the decade lists I’m surprised she isn’t represented, but maybe her vote is split over too many books to make into the top 25.
However, I am dismayed that your explanation for Milan’s absence is that she became “less traditional” in 2019, i.e. when she started putting Asian characters on her covers. All of those books are great and AAR reviews are in the B+ to A range – I really hope people who loved “Unveiled” and “The Governess Affair” have read her more recent work.
Although now I look at it, only one of Milan’s books was in the 140 list from which we were choosing, so if people preferred “The Duke Who Didn’t” or ” The Marquis” then they wouldn’t have the opportunity to vote for her work.
This was the list that readers nominated.
I know, and the results of readers’ choices (including mine!) are interesting.
What I meant by less traditional has nothing to do with her Asian covers! Her plots became less traditionally Regency. Her recent books are great and they’re less mainstream than her older works.
Milan has never been very traditional or mainstream imho. Although her most unconventional older stories (e.g. wigmaker/magistrate (“Unraveled”) or journalist/viscount (“The Suffragette Scandal”) are not the ones that made it into the 2018 Top 100. It’s not surprising that the most popular books are conventional – conventions are usually the result of what’s popular, and the best books can make those conventional elements sing.
I hear you. It’s interesting to look at the number of ratings on her Goodreads page. Her most popular reads are from the Brothers Sinister series and the Turner series. That doesn’t mean those are her best but those are the ones most read.
I don’t think It has anything to do with Asian characters. She was one of my favourite authors, but I don’t read he anymore. BTW, the last of her books that I enjoyed was ‘Hold me’, a contemporary with characters of Chinese ancestry. It’s a pity she didn’t write more books in the Cyclone series. After reading three -for me- very boring stories (In the pursuit of, After the wedding and Mrs.Martin’s…) I just stopped reading her books.
Same. I read the first few in the Worth saga, but found the romances so unappealing, I stopped reading her books.
IMO, the Brothers Sinister series is her best work.
Having read everything she published until 2019, I agree with you.
Totally fair, personally I’d put those in my second tier of Milan’s books, and everyone’s tastes are different. I didn’t mean to imply that Milan or any author should automatically have a place in a best of list as I think the difference between a good book and a great book is pretty much individual preference.
My initial point was more that authors of color made up 4% of this top 25/50, despite the long list (140) at 10% being closer to the industry average for the last decade (6-12% according to Ripped Bodice, whereas according PEN readers are closer to 25%). So is that the wider AAR voter pool isn’t reading authors of color, or they are but there’s less consensus about which are best, or is it the quirks of random chance from a small sample size, or something else?
It might be that large scale lists that look at books over the decades tend to reflect, in large part, the books that were best sellers over time.
I have read and reviewed both m/m and f/f. Whereas m/m romance has been a huge part of my reading for years now, I don’t read any f/f books anymore, thinking I’m not the public for those books. Your comment makes me think that perhaps those that I tried were just bad books. I wouldn’t mind giving them another chance, could you help me and give me three or four f/f titles that you think are so good that they should be included among the best of the romance genre? It could be very helpful for me of I try again.
You did not ask me, but I had a similar wake-up moment very recently:
Based on a 10 best books in 10 years list here, sorry I do not remember whose, I have just read Clare Ashton Oxford series, I liked all 3 a lot. And Lee Winter, Breaking Character and Brutal Truth. All of them utterly excellent.
A few months ago, my first f/f in forever, I read Ruthie Knox/ Annie Mare book Big Name Fan.
All these are staggeringly good books that make me feel beautiful in my femaleness, and I love the relationships, though the erotic parts are more esthetic / theoretical to me.
All recommended to someone who is not into f/f (yet).
I took a break after that because I do not want to burn out on the 3 authors mentioned. But will return to their books !
Thank you for your help!
Tbh I’m not a huge f/f reader either – I was more just noting a trend in the survey results.
That said I love Olivia Waite’s historical f/f romances, particularly “The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics”.
Looking back through my reading log to come up with more reccs, and I realised I read a lot more f/f in sci-fi fantasy than I do in romance. Other options with strong romantic elements:
Casey McQuiston – One Last Stop (Time Loop romance)
Freya Marske – A Restless Truth (Edwardian fantasy)
Melissa Caruso – The Last Hour Between Worlds (fantasy)
Tanya Huff – Direct Descendant (fantasy)
Lorelie Brown – Far from Home (contemporary romance)
Cat Sebastian – A Little Light Mischief (Historical Romance novella)
KJ Charles – Proper English (Historical Romance)
Alexis Hall – Murder Most Actual (contemporary mystery w a married couple)
Malka Older – The Mimicking of Known Successes (sci-fi mystery)
Roan Parrish – The Holiday Trap (both f/f & m/m, contemporary romance)
Silk and Steel – ed. Janine Southard (fantasy anthology)
Definitely a few items on this list that I agree with! I’m looking forward to seeing how this gets put together (and I know it’s a lot of work and I thank you all for it).
I am amazed that no one apparently nominated “Bet Me” by Jennifer Crusie which was, IIRC,. the #1 book in the last AAR survey, years ago. I’m rereading it now and it holds up very well.
How did I miss your soliciting nominations? How did you ask people for their selections?
We asked several times for books published in the past ten years. This is just one survey we are using to narrow down the final survey which will include all the books in the current Top 100 Romances including Bet Me.
I haven’t read a lot of these. It will be interesting to see how the whole thing turns out.
This list is one of three we will work with. After this one, we’ll narrow down all the ones from our Best of lists since 2018 and the ones from our current Top 100 List.
Sounds like a lot of work! Thank you for doing this. In the past, your Top 100 was the major way I found new authors.