AAR Loves… Comfort Reads

By |2022-07-27T12:45:50-04:00July 27th, 2022|Categories: Caroline AAR|Tags: , |

As I’ve been developing our “comfort read” tag, I’ve had time to reflect on the comfort read. Interestingly, while we at AAR label our top grades as “keepers,” I know I personally keep many books which didn’t get a DIK rating. Sometimes, these are books which excel at just one thing (I keep Susan Elizabeth Phillips’s Match Me If You Can entirely to reread the secondary romance). But most often, my keepers which aren’t Keepers (if that makes sense!) are the books I turn to when I need comfort.

Books are often in DIK territory because they’re doing something unexpected. While that’s exciting and valuable for the genre, it doesn’t make me feel cozy or soothed. A comfort read does exactly what you think it’s going to do, and usually just when you think it’s going to do […]

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AAR Loves… Fantasy Romance

By |2022-06-26T08:56:35-04:00June 27th, 2022|Categories: Caroline AAR, Reading, Romance, Romance reading, Special Titles Lists|Tags: , |

I originally came to romance through fantasy novels with what AAR would now describe as “strong romantic elements.” (Ok, yes, and X-Files fanfiction. It’s a strong overlap). 

Back before YA got its own major marketing classification, a lot of us teens who were good readers but cognitively still kids found that speculative fiction was a good landing pad between kids’ books and Literature For Adults. My pivotal book was Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonflight, which I read in sixth grade and which will be on my keeper shelf until I die. There was action! There was romance! There was psychic-bonded dragon sex! 

There was no going back.

At the risk of dating myself, other of the “greatest hits” of this era in my life included:

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley

Black Trillium by Andre Norton, […]

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AAR Loves… Jane Austen Adaptations

By |2022-03-01T17:42:23-05:00March 2nd, 2022|Categories: Caroline AAR, Romance reading|Tags: , , |

Romance, as a genre, stands on the shoulders of Jane Austen, but some books stand more directly than others. Her work has reached the levels of stories like Cinderella and Robin Hood in terms of being recognizable story archetypes adaptable to new times and places. And, of course, Austen’s novels are in the public domain, which allows for her work to be re-released directly. Authors produce sequels or re-imaginings involving the original characters, and Austen classics are frequently re-issued in new formats (for instance, as audiobooks or graphic novels). […]

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A Retro Write: Yes We Can! Our favorite Activist Heroines

By |2021-06-19T10:14:33-04:00June 19th, 2021|Categories: AAR Shannon, Caroline AAR, Dabney AAR, Heroines, Keira Soleore, Kristen D, Maggie AAR, Romance reading|Tags: , , , , |

originally published on February 3, 2017

Women have a long history of standing up for their beliefs, and there are great romance novels starring heroines doing just that. American and British suffragettes (or suffragists), Civil Rights activists, lawyers, writers, organizers, and military rebels – you’ll find all of them here, and more. Let these ladies inspire you to fight for your beliefs, whatever they happen to be.

Caroline Russomanno:

Erica Johnson – Unfinished Business by Karyn Langhorne

Erica, a teacher, is tired of seeing funding diverted away from the neediest and most vulnerable. She protests at the hero’s (a Southern Republican senator’s) press conference and is dragged out by police. This book is set during the W. Bush administration and Erica is a strong reminder that black activists have been working continuously, even when out of the […]

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AAR Loves… Romances Featuring Politicians

By |2020-11-01T14:14:03-05:00November 2nd, 2020|Categories: Caroline AAR, Romance reading|Tags: |

You’re probably aware that Tuesday, Nov. 3, is Election Day in the United States, whether you live in the United States or elsewhere, even if that “elsewhere” is “under a rock.” Yes, politicians (like lawyers!) have a dubious stereotype, but true public servants – people who dedicate their lives to improving the world and the situation of the people around them – make wonderful heroines and heroes. In honor of Election Day, here’s a list of some of AAR’s favorite romances starring politicians.

The Cowboy Says I Do by Dylann Crush

After Lacey Cherish’s father, the mayor of Idont, Texas, was removed from office and arrested, she ran and won. Now she’s trying to restore the family name and the city, which is saddled with major debt. Sheriff Bodie Phillips is both one of Lacey’s best […]

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AAR Loves: The Best Slow Burn Romance Novels

By |2020-09-28T15:14:50-04:00September 29th, 2020|Categories: Caroline AAR, tags|Tags: , , |

As someone whose path to reading romance included a lengthy period reading X-Files fanfiction (oh, man, who else remembers The Gossamer Project???), I am clearly a huge fan of UST – Unresolved Sexual Tension. In romance, this is the slow burn phase, where the energy of characters’ attraction builds up and up before being released. That’s why I love and developed our Slow burn tag, which I used to make this list of top slow burn romance novels. […]

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AAR Loves… Representation of Disability and Chronic Illness in Romance (Part Two)

By |2019-08-14T17:30:13-04:00August 14th, 2019|Categories: Romance reading, Special Titles Lists|Tags: |

Here, as promised, is Part Two of our latest AAR Loves… list, this time of romances  featuring characters living with disabilities and/or chronic illnesses (Part One can be found HERE.) It’s by no means an exhaustive list (nor is it meant to be), but as AAR’s Disabilities in Romance Special Titles List was last updated in 2013, we decided it was time for an update and for us to draw your attention to some of our favourite romances in this category that have been published since then. […]

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AAR Loves… Representation of Disability and Chronic Illness in Romance (Part One)

By |2019-08-06T14:52:38-04:00August 6th, 2019|Categories: Caroline AAR, Romance reading, Special Titles Lists|Tags: |

AAR’s Disabilities in Romance Special Titles List was last updated in 2013, and a lot of amazing books featuring disabled or chronically ill protagonists have been published or added to our database since then. We wanted to shout out some of our favorites, so welcome to the latest AAR Loves… and this one is a loooong list, so look out for part two soon! […]

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AAR Loves… Modern Historicals

By |2022-07-15T12:46:58-04:00June 5th, 2019|Categories: Caroline AAR, Reading, Romance, Romance reading|Tags: , |

There’s a book you love set in 1960, but is it a modern historical? Modern historicals differ from classic contemporaries in that contemporaries were written when the setting was “now,” but to a modern historical author, the setting was “then.” If that 1960 book was written in the sixties, it’s a classic contemp. That same 1960 story written and published a decade later? That’s a modern historical! […]

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