Chick Lit/Women's Fiction Recommendations for Best of 2013?

By |2017-06-23T08:30:34-04:00December 13th, 2013|Categories: Lee AAR, LinnieGayl AAR, Reading|Tags: , , |

loveliestchocolate LinnieGayl: One of my favorite categories in AAR’s Annual Poll is Best Chick Lit/Women’s Fiction. In most years I’ve read several books in the category and have a hard time deciding which book to vote for. This year is different. With just one month before polling begins on January 13, I realize that I haven’t read a single chick lit or women’s fiction book that I would consider voting for in the 2013 Annual Poll.

So I decided to take the advice we give readers: Do a power search at AAR. For Chick Lit titles published in 2013 that didn’t produce very helpful results; only Katie Fforde’s A Perfect Proposal, which received a B- from Maggie, has been reviewed this year at AAR.

A power search for best Women’s Fiction yields more titles published in 2013, including the following that interest me: […]

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Heads Up! The Annual AAR Reader Poll is Coming

By |2017-06-23T08:30:34-04:00December 4th, 2013|Categories: All About Romance, Cindy AAR, Lee AAR, LinnieGayl AAR, Polls|Tags: |

winteriscoming Can you believe that in less than a month we will be celebrating a new year? Before that, we hope that many of you will have lots of free time during the holiday season with more time to read. So, with those wonderful thoughts of time to yourself running through your head we would like to remind you that on January 13, 2014 we will open AAR’s Annual Reader Poll for romance books published in 2013. That’s right, it’s time to buckle down and read those “to be read” books of 2013.

This year’s poll will be a bit different from previous years as we lay to rest a few categories that AAR readers have shown little interest in (Guiltiest Pleasure, Best Inspirational and Most Disappointing) while adding/changing categories that we hope will spark some interest.

First we are going to split the Paranormal category into two new categories: […]

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2013 Reading Year: In Search of Great Chick Lit/Women's Fiction

By |2017-06-23T08:30:39-04:00August 19th, 2013|Categories: All About Romance, Reading|Tags: , , |

questions2 It’s hard to believe but we’re now into the eighth month of the 2013 reading year. This means there are only four months left to read the best of romance novels published in 2013 before voting begins for AAR’s Annual Reader Poll. As one of the three pollsters at AAR (along with LeeB and CindyS), I find myself thinking early about books I might vote for in the Annual Reader Poll.

Over the last few years one of my favorite categories has been the Best Chick Lit/Women’s Fiction. I tend to favor Chick Lit (lighter, less angtsy) over Women’s Fiction, but have enjoyed a number of Women’s Fiction titles as well. Many AAR readers express confusion about what the difference is between Chick Lit, Women’s Fiction, and Contemporary Romance. Last year I wrote a similar piece here and provided some links to descriptions of just what […]

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And the Results are In!

By |2017-06-23T08:30:52-04:00February 4th, 2013|Categories: All About Romance, Cindy AAR, Lee AAR, LinnieGayl AAR, Polls|Tags: |

poll

Thanks yet again for your continued support of the Annual Poll. We would also like to thank all the authors, publishers and readers who publicized the poll, whether online or just by word of mouth.

This year’s AAR Annual Reader Poll for Best 2012 Romance Books had some pretty interesting new obstacles. With the proliferation of so many ebooks being published, the votes for authors, titles and characters were incredibly wide-ranging. Publication dates also caused some confusion for readers and for us. As a result, we took extra precautions to make sure books were published for the first time in 2012 and were not previously published in a digital format. Another interesting outcome is that only two categories yielded honorable mentions meaning almost every category had a standalone winner showing that this year our readers were very decisive about the books they loved. And finally, there is a phenomenon that we […]

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News and Announcements

By |2017-06-23T08:30:53-04:00January 14th, 2013|Categories: All About Romance, Lynn AAR, Romance reading, Television|Tags: , , , , , , , |

Decisions, decisions…. – If you haven’t voted yet, don’t forget that our Annual Reader Poll runs through Sunday, January 20, 2013. I’ll admit that I’m one of those still procrastinating over my ballot. My votes for some of the categories jump out at me right away: The Siren was definitely the most unforgettable erotica I read this year and nothing was as much a tear-jerker for me as The Sleeping Night. However, it’s very hard for me to vote for just one book in some of the other categories.

So, what books are you all thinking about as you go over the poll this year? […]

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And…It's Time for the 17th Annual Reader Poll!!

By |2017-06-23T08:30:54-04:00January 7th, 2013|Categories: All About Romance, Cindy AAR, Lee AAR, LinnieGayl AAR, Polls|Tags: |

Doldrums from the holidays setting in yet? Too much snow or rain or just too cold to go outside? Nothing new on TV? Well, what better way to start off 2013 than by voting in the AAR Annual Poll? Yes, it’s that time of year again and we want you to let us know which stories, authors and characters you loved from books published in 2012. Today we are thrilled to be opening our 17th AAR Annual Reader Poll.

The Annual Reader Poll is very special here at AAR. The poll is a way for AAR readers to let us – and authors and publishers – know which books you feel deserve honors (and maybe those that don’t). We know that several AAR readers keep spreadsheets, Goodreads/Librarything shelves, or charts in some form or another and hopefully those will help you in filling out the poll. […]

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Heads Up: The Annual Poll Will Be Here Soon – And We Want Input!

By |2017-06-23T08:30:55-04:00December 4th, 2012|Categories: All About Romance, Cindy AAR, LinnieGayl AAR, Polls|Tags: |

It hardly seems possible, but in just over a month the AAR Annual Reader Poll for romances published in 2012 will be here. Yes, once again, we’ll be polling for your favorite romances published during the past year. The poll will start on Monday, January 7, 2013, and run for two weeks until midnight U.S. Eastern Standard Time on Sunday, January 20, 2013.

If you’re new to AAR, or have never voted in one of the Annual Reader Polls, you may want to check out the results from last year, as well as our write-up of the results, including comments from some of the winning authors. We plan to retain all of the categories in last year’s poll, listed below: […]

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AAR Annual Reader Poll: Voting Closes on January 29th

By |2017-05-24T17:30:35-04:00January 25th, 2012|Categories: All About Romance, Authors, LinnieGayl AAR, Polls|Tags: , |

We plan for AAR’s Annual Poll for months and since January 16th we’ve been frantically entering your ballots. Now, as hard as it is to believe, the AAR Annual Poll for books first published in 2011 is nearly over. Yes, this year’s poll closes at midnight Eastern Standard Time on Sunday, January 29th.

Have you voted yet? If you have, thank you! It’s truly a joy to look at all of your votes and tally the results In the past we would receive a flurry of votes the first few days and then things would die out until the last days of the poll. Not this year. So far, we’ve received a large number of ballots each day since voting opened. This keeps us busy, but very happy.

If you haven’t voted, don’t despair. There’s still plenty of time to vote. And more importantly, your vote can make the difference in many categories. Right now most of the categories […]

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And…the Annual Reader Poll Begins!

By |2017-06-23T08:31:17-04:00January 16th, 2012|Categories: LinnieGayl AAR, Polls|Tags: |

voting_m-300x225 It’s the beginning of a new year and many of us readers are looking forward to the next must-have title by our favorite authors and those wonderful cherry-on-top moments of discovering a new auto-buy author during 2012. We know this time is special and fun, and we ourselves are basking in the newness of it all. And yet, we need your help in looking back at the books you loved and those that left you wanting so much more from last year, 2011. Today is the start of our 16th AAR Annual Reader Poll .

The Annual Reader Poll has a long tradition at AAR, and is one of the highlights of the year for many readers. It is a time when AAR readers pick the best and worst reads of the previous year. This is your poll and your moment to […]

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Heads Up: The Annual AAR Readers Poll is Coming

By |2017-06-23T08:31:18-04:00December 13th, 2011|Categories: Characters, Heroes, Heroines, LinnieGayl AAR, Polls|Tags: , |

I know that many of you are in a pre-holiday frenzy right now, and the last thing you need is more pressure. Then again, it’s better to have lots of warning. If you’re a longtime visitor to AAR, you know what’s coming in January. But if you’re new to AAR, let us give you a heads-up now. Yes, even though 2011 isn’t over, we at AAR are getting ready for the AAR Annual Reader Poll for 2011 romances!

Voting in the 16th AAR Annual Reader Poll will begin on Monday, January 16, 2012 and will end two weeks later at midnight on Sunday, January 29th. The Annual Reader Poll has a long tradition at AAR, and is one of the highlights of the year here.

The categories we used last year worked quite well. By changing the previous category of Erotica to Romantica/Erotica and the category of Worst Romance to Most Disappointing Romance, we were able to announce winners quite […]

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