Romance Reading Quiz answers: Part Two

As I mentioned in the last post I had the hardest time choosing my favorite anything. This is not new to me. Way too often indecision paralyzed me so badly that it keeps me from doing things, makes me late etc. But I didn’t want to let this be one of those occasions so I forced myself to choose. And I’m glad I did, but it did result in, how should I put it, kind of weird-ish answers perhaps.

Out of a bunch hard choices this was possibly the hardest. I honestly don’t think I’ve tried to figure out who my favorite author is in any genre since I was in my teens and my favorite authors (even then there were three) were Ursula K. LeGuin, Iain M. Banks and William Gibson. (Science fiction was pretty much all I read at that point in my life, and I do still have a fondness for the genre.) It felt easy giving that answer back then, I was so sure about it, those three were special in ways no one else was. Since then, I’ve had favorite books, not really favorite authors. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that I have a whole bunch of favorite authors and even more authors who have written one or two books that are very important to me even if the rest of their works are not my thing. It just feels impossible to rate one above the others. I do not know how. How do you tell who your favorite author is?

I did answer the poll, though, and my answer was Ainslie Paton. Not because I think she’s my all time favorite romance writer, but I’ve been reading through her back catalogue (I’m not done yet) lately and been impressed with almost everything so far. It’s once again hard to choose a favorite, so I’ll pick two to make it a bit easier. Hooked On A Feeling (set in the 1970s Sydney) and lets say The Love Experiment (contemporary) since it’s been reviewed here although it might just as well have been Unsuitable. And that wasn’t actually two, it was three. Go me.

Julie Anne Long…What I Did for a Duke.

I have several favourites from the past who will always be admired by me, a number of whom were mentioned in the quiz results, such as Mary Balogh (auto-buy), Loretta Chase, Carla Kelly and, of course, Georgette Heyer. But this year and last I discovered three new authors who have joined my personal favourites list and I have enjoyed all three so very much. Annabelle Costa whose books make me laugh out loud; Emily Larkin whose fun embellishments using the slightly wacky supernatural; and Mimi Matthews whose The Work of Art was a stunning story and so I have been gloming her back list. So that’s my old and my new.

I also interpreted this as the author I love most of those books I have recently read (say, in the past year). This year I discovered my pick Sally Malcolm and my favorite of hers is Perfect Day. I also love many of the other authors listed above. Another discovery this year is Lily Morton and my favorite of hers is Rule Breaker. Of note, I found both of these authors due to AAR reviews so thank you! I have long read Mary Balogh and Lisa Kleypas so I’ll give my favorite picks for each of their more recent books. For Balogh it is Someone to Honor and for Kleypas it is Chasing Cassandra.

My favorite (or at least most-reread) book by a favorite author is Ravished by Amanda Quick.

I interpreted the question as favorite author I’ve been reading lately – like this year. And while my favorite book so far this year is Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall, my favorite author has to be Gregory Ashe because . . . . there is just so many great titles to choose from. My favorite this year is whichever one I’m currently reading. Which happens to be The Same Breath.
 
Ok, so I kind of sort of cheated there, working in two favorite authors. And even then I feel badly because there have been a number of excellent titles so far this year. But Ashe’s sheer volume of publication in the last two years puts him clearly at the top of my list as favorite current author.