Today, Romance Writers of America (RWA), the trade association for romance fiction authors, announces the finalists for the 2019 RITA. The RITA — the highest award of distinction in romance fiction — recognizes excellence in published romance novels and novellas.
Every year, AAR looks at the RITAs to see which books we reviewed and whether or not we gave those books high marks. We’ll be updating this post throughout today and tomorrow and we’d love to hear your take on the nominees!
Here’s the link to the RWA page where they are releasing the nominations–they only put up a nomination after having spoken to an author. RWA says all the books will be on this page by 2pm CST.
We have created a 2019 Amazon RITA storefront where you can see all the books and their ebook prices. Please consider shopping with us–it’s all that keeps us online!
Julia Broadbanks reviewed Maria Vale’s The Last Wolf for AAR. She gave it a B+. In her review she wrote:
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Caz reviewed Mia Vincy’s A Wicked Kind of Husband and gave it an A-. She wrote:
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Maria Rose gave Stephanie London’s Bad Bachelor an A.
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Em so loved Kate Clayborn’s Best of Luck that she gave it a rare A+!
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Em (and Dabney and Dabney’s basketball loving spouse) all adored Kennedy Ryan’s dark but rewarding Long Shot.
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Em gave a B+ to Luck of the Draw, book two in Kate Clayborn’s Chance of a Lifetime series. RITA judges clearly really liked this contemporary romance series!
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Several of the AAR staff thought Melt for You by J.T. Geissinger was a winner. Em reviewed it and gave it an A.
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Caroline would not have given a RITA nod to Susannah Nix’s Advanced Physical Chemistry. Caroline wrote:
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Serena Bell’s Sleepover made several AAR Best of 2018 list. In her review, Kristen wrote:
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Caz bemoaned the lack of strong historicals in 2018–An Earl Like You by stalwart author Caroline Linden was one of HR’s 2018 bright spots. Caz wrote:
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Joanna Shupe’s A Scandalous Deal got a B from Caz.
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Caz enjoyed K.C. Bateman’s The Devil to Pay–she gave it B+.
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Kelly “Can Do No Wrong” Bowen’s A Duke in the Night got not one but two DIKs at AAR. In her review, Keira wrote:
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Readers appear to love Sally MacKenzie’s What Ales the Earl–it’s a 4.5 star read at Amazon–but Lisa did not. In her D review she wrote:
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Maggie gave Susanna Kearsley’s Belleweather an A-. It’s a dual timeline story that has depth and is more women’s fiction than romance.
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Shannon found Ellen Lindseth’s A Girl Divided to be a bit too hectoring for her taste. In her C review she wrote:
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For several AAR reviews, no one wrote better books in 2018 than Bec McMaster. Her London Steampunk series was devoured by Caz, Em, and Dabney. In her DIK review of To Catch a Rogue, Em wrote:
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Haley loves Katee Roberts’ O’Malleys series. The Bastard’s Bargain is the last of a strong six book series and Haley gave it an A.
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Shannon likes J.R. Ward and she gave Consumed a B.
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Kristen liked but didn’t love prolific author Maisey Yates’ Claim Me Cowboy. In her B- review she wrote:
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Caz found little to like about Never Dare an Earl by Renee Ann Miller.
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Shannon gave Brenda Novak’s Before We Were Strangers an A-.
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Caz read more romantic suspense this year and one she enjoyed is Relentless by Elizabeth Dyer.
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Like many of our favorite contemporary romance writers–Shalvis, Higgins–Sarah Morgan is now writing women’s fiction. Kristen wasn’t thrilled with How to Keep a Secret, her first effort.
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Just to be clear, my vote was yes on tags and not on categories for the reasons Em articulated. IF adding tags to power search is problematic technically, I wonder if there is another workaround, but I think a category is ethically a nope because of what it would communicate outside of the tech aspect.
We are going to go with tags! I do not know if we can add it to the Power Search–it may not be possible but we’ll figure something out.
I’d like to publish a blog post with all the AOC/POC/queer books we loved from 2018.
my vote is yes – because more options in the power search is better. Part of the RITA question is about characters of color rather than AOC (recognizing that there is clear overlap, but this distinction is being made). Whatever we do should be about content and character as much as authorship.
I think tags for POC Hero, POC Heroine, AOC, and OwnVoices would be good.
Twitter is justifiably outraged about the lack of queer and POC representation in the RITAs. Here’s a question for AAR: Should we create–which we got rid of ten years ago because the thinking was romance is romance–categories for POC and queer books?
Would we better serve our readers if they could search for POC and queer books in our Power Search rather than, as we do now, folding those books into the larger umbrella of romance?
What’s the best way AAR can continue to support diverse voices?
Yes.
Can we use tags for this?
We can use tags but tags can’t currently be searched in Power Search. Categories of books can. And we can have two categories for a book. We used to separate out queer romance and then stopped doing so after lots of discussion–it was seen as limiting.
I don’t think category is appropriate. A romance is a romance is a romance & I think it was a good decision to drop it in the first place. I do like tags. Is there a way to add it as a searchable option?
This is the crux of a debate that’s been going on for some time. I tend to agree with you. I’ll look into creating searchable tags. It’s often hard because our database is so huge and complex–adding things is hazardous unless done properly. But, you can now search on tags by clicking on them so I’m hopeful we could figure out a way to add it.
I think that would be a great idea!
I really liked Maria Vale’s The Last Wolf. I’m looking forward to the third in that series, which comes out next week. I also read and enjoyed Kearsley’s Bellewether, though I wouldn’t rate it as high as some of her others.
I rarely pay attention to RITA nominees or winners but it is an interesting list. I hope Kate Clayburn gets the recognition she deserves as her entire Chance of a Lifetime series was just so fabulous. Two of her books were nominated in the same year, and that’s pretty phenomenal.
Maybe the “missing” authors didn’t enter? or maybe they are judges and not eligible to compete? I just read the rules and that’s a bit unclear.
I’m thrilled that so many of the finalists got good or great reviews by AAR.
I am STUNNED that that MacKenzie made it and not, for instance, Alyssa Cole, Helen Hoang, Jenny Holliday, Sherry Thomas, Beverly Jenkins, Jo Goodman, JLC, Priscilla Oliveras and DOZENS of other romance novelists who better deserve the nomination. All of the other ones I can understand but good gracious I hated every character in that book.
* JAL, sorry, typo!
Also I have to add that Fenske is pretty underrated and I’m happy she got a nod.
I loved THE BASTARD’S BARGAIN (although I think UNDERCOVER ATTRACTION, the previous book in the series, is the best of the six O’Malley books), but I agree that you have to read the series in order to get the full arc of the story. I always admire a writer who can take the villain of one book (Dimitri appears—not very positively—in several O’Malley books prior the TBB) and make him a hero in a subsequent book—and Robert does a great job of doing that here.
I’m also stunned that The Kiss Quotient isn’t on the list. It felt like the biggest book of the year.
I had to double check the list to make sure I hadn’t passed over it. That legitimately shocks me.
It’s a 4.5 star read from almost 800 readers at Amazon. It’s been reviewed almost 60K times at Goodreads and was a GR Choice winner. Compare that to Nix’s book which has been reviewed by 110 readers at Amazon (4.5) and by 754 people on Goodreads.
Crazy.
Helen Hoang put out a statement that she did not enter The Kiss Quotient in the RITAs (likely because many of us were wondering how it wasn’t nominated).
Yes, I saw Helen Hoang’s post this morning that she believes the process is unfair to people of color and does not want to participate in it.
There are a LOT of books on this list that I haven’t read – yet! I’ve spent a good amount of my planning period sorting out the ones I still want to read from…well, there are quite a few on this list that have me scratching my head and wondering what the selection criteria is!
But let’s focus on the positives! I loved Long Shot by Kennedy Ryan, Melt for You by JT Geissinger & both of the Clayborn (Best of Luck & Luck of the Draw) novels that are nominated! The Vincy & McMaster (To Catch a Rogue) books were also excellent. There are a few other favorite authors nominated – but for me, these books don’t represent their best work – or the best in the genres they’re nominated in.
The Contemporary Romance: Long category is tough this year! So many great nominees!!!
This is an interesting group of nominees – even if it isn’t quite in line with my own picks.
It is great to see that AAR reviewed so many of the RITA nominees.
I’m startled to not see any Jenny Holiday–she had a banner year last year. Nor did Julie Anne Long, Sherry Thomas, or Alyssa Cole get nods. The latter really surprises me. Her Reluctant Royals series is beloved.
Happy to see Kennedy Ryan, Maria Vale, Kelly Bowen (yet again!), Katee Robert, Kate Clayborn, Serena Bell, Maisey Yates and Stefanie London on this list! I was also pleased to see Noelle Adams get a nomination nod this year, I really enjoy her contemporary romances.
I’m so glad to see Mia Vincy get a nod – A Wicked Kind of Husband was such a great read! It’s nice to see K.C. Bateman on there, too and about time Bec McMaster got a nod!
On the downside, I can’t believe the Sally Mackenzie and Marie Tremayne books are on the same list as those book and the Linden and Bowen. They aren’t fit to be mentioned in the same universe, let alone same sentence IMO.
ETA Same goes for the Miller which was terrible.
A Wicked Kind of Husband was my favorite HR of the year too. I read it 3 times! The Hollow of Fear and the Matrimonial Advertisement were close seconds.