Best of Archives : All About Romance

The Best of the Best – Our Favorite Books of 2022

By Caz Owens|2023-01-30T13:43:24-05:00January 30th, 2023|Categories: Best of 2022, Romance reading|Tags: Best of, Best of 2022|

Each year, in January, the AAR staff comes up with lists of their favorite books published in the previous year–this year, these lists have the tag #Best of 2022. For 2022, we chose 87 books–we’ve conveniently put them all into an Amazon storefront! Then, we ask each reviewer to choose their Best book of the year–here is this list. It’s a diverse list–there’s something for every romance reader. Enjoy!

Alexandra

Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan

Grab the tissues – Ryan’s latest book is about a divorced couple reuniting after a number of shared losses and grief. Yasmen and Josiah have two children and a successful restaurant, but their marriage is broken. Despite the strong feelings they’ve always had for each other, losing a child and a parental figure all at once caused issues […]

The Best of 2022 – Dabney’s List

By Dabney Grinnan|2023-01-22T10:35:46-05:00January 23rd, 2023|Categories: Best of 2022, Best of List, Dabney AAR|Tags: Best of, Best of 2022|

2022 was not my best year for romance reading. I read only three DIKs published in 2022 and, when I look at my Goodreads list, there isn’t a single five star read from books out last year–almost all the books I adored are from earlier years. That said, the year did offer books I enjoyed enough to happily recommend them to others. This is THAT list.

The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell

I’ve never read a bad book by Lisa Jewell – she’s received only high marks here at AAR. This one is one of her best – and I say that as someone who didn’t read its prequel, The Family Upstairs. The Family Remains is suspenseful but not at all scary or violent. It’s more an explanation of a stressful time rather than a […]

The Best of 2022 – Caz’s List

By Caz Owens|2023-01-15T08:34:24-05:00January 16th, 2023|Categories: Best of 2022, Best of List, Caz AAR, Romance reading|Tags: Best of, Best of 2022|

I had a more than decent reading year in 2022. Looking back through my reviews I can see I’ve been lucky enough to read a lot of good books, but when I came to put this list together, I realised that while I’ve given a lot of B/B+ grades, I haven’t given all that many DIKs, which are the books I usually base my lists on. At least that has narrowed the field a bit and meant I haven’t had to struggle to whittle the list down, so I suppose… clouds, silver linings and all that!

Pack of Lies by Charlie Adhara

Charlie Adhara’s Big Bad Wolf series is one of my favourites, so I was really excited when she announced a spin-off was in the works. Pack of Lies is the first book in […]

The Best of 2022 – Jessica’s List

By Jessica Grogan|2023-01-03T07:47:27-05:00January 9th, 2023|Categories: Best of 2022|Tags: Best of, Best of 2022, the best of 2022|

This year proved to be less fruitful than others for me in terms of books I loved, however, there were a few I really enjoyed.

Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron by Julia Quinn

As an avid Julia Quinn fan, I had been reading about this ‘made-up novel’ in her other works for years. So of course, when it came out as a graphic novel – with illustrations by Quinn’s late sister, Violet Charles – I purchased it the day it released and absolutely adored it. It is just as ridiculous as Quinn wrote about it being in her other works and I am here for it. I laughed out loud multiple times at the antics of Miss Butterworth and her titular “mad” Baron.

Buy it at: Amazon or your local bookshop

The Best of 2022 – Maria Rose’s List

By Maria Rose|2023-01-01T10:30:32-05:00January 4th, 2023|Categories: Romance reading|Tags: Best of, Best of 2022|

This is the first time since I started doing best of the year lists at All About Romance that I didn’t have trouble coming up with my list. In years past, I’ve had too many books from which to choose. This year, it’s the opposite. I watched more TV (the food network, especially baking challenges, got a lot of my attention) and as a result I read less in 2022 (100 books for the year according to goodreads which is where I keep track of my reading). Of those books, several were published in previous years or were re-reads of older favourites. I don’t expect every year to be like this, but it was a nice change not to have to agonize over my choices. Here they are, in no particular order.

Tanked by Mia Hopkins

I read […]

The Best of 2022 – Caroline’s List

By Caroline Russomanno|2023-01-01T10:29:21-05:00January 2nd, 2023|Categories: Romance reading|Tags: Best of, Best of 2022|

Some years I have a “type” – the year of the contemp, the year of comedy. This year, the only thing consistent in my favorites is that they had very little in common with each other! I hope this list will be useful to people who like a variety of reads, because whatever you like, I’m pretty sure I made one of them a favorite!

Tanked by Mia Hopkins

The first time I read Hopkins, she made my Best Belated reads list because I didn’t catch her in her release year. I was NOT going to make that mistake again, and I had Tanked nearly as soon as it released. This working-class contemporary about a social worker and the third brother who helps run the Eastside Brewery in a gritty part of L.A. is full of heart, hope, […]

The Best of 2022 – Charlotte’s List

By Charlotte Elliott|2022-12-26T07:00:54-05:00December 26th, 2022|Categories: Best of 2022|Tags: Best of, Best of 2022, the best of 2022|

It’s been a good reviewing year for me, mathematically speaking: six recommending grades and four As. Here are the four Desert Isle Keepers I read this year that got me waxing poetic. While they all have something in common—I liked them!—every one has a special quality that I highlighted by giving them each my own “Best of” award in a different category.

Lucy on the Wild Side by Kerry Rea

Best Sense of Humor DIK. The romance is quiet in this women’s fiction/romance crossover about a primate keeper at a zoo and a famous nature TV personality, but the laughter is definitely not.

Buy it at: Amazon, Audible or your local bookshop

How to Fake it in Hollywood by Ava Wilder

The Best of 2022 – Dolly’s List

By Dolly Sickles|2022-12-17T16:51:05-05:00December 19th, 2022|Categories: Romance reading|Tags: Best of, Best of 2022|

It’s been a long year, y’all, but thankfully there were a lot of great books to read. Here are my favourites.

The Kiss Curse by Erin Sterling

I was surprised by how much I really enjoyed this, because I’m not really a fan of supernatural stories. But this rom-com was happy and sexy and charming, and full of addictive characters who kept the engaging plot moving swiftly. It reminded me a bit of Harry Potter, wherein the world of Graves Glen, Georgia is normalized with magic. There’s no great rift between the human and supernatural worlds; rather, they coexist effortlessly. Vivi Jones is one of the top witches in town and it’s her business to make everybody else’s business hers. Rhys Penhallow is the descendant of the witch family that imbued Graves Glen with its power source, and when the power […]

The Best of 2021: Best Belated Reads

By Caz Owens and Caroline Russomanno|2022-03-16T18:55:38-04:00February 2nd, 2022|Categories: Romance reading|Tags: Best Belated Reads, Best of, Best of 2021, CarolineAAR|

Every year I do a “Best Belated Reads” column to accompany my “Best of” column, because a lot of my year’s reading is not books that were published in that year. Here are some books I read and loved in 2021 which were published earlier, and which I finally caught up with!

The Society of Gentlemen series by KJ Charles (click link to find individual reviews).

I binged this SO HARD. I loved how the couples were all so dramatically different from each other, how their courtships intertwined with the social and political events of the day, how the recurring characters from previous books were actually interesting and relevant (and sometimes… gasp… troubled?) when they reappeared. The series is, quite simply, a triumph.

Buy at Amazon: A Fashionable Indulgence: A Seditious Affair: A Gentleman’s Position

Best of the Best of 2021

By Caz Owens|2022-01-31T09:19:23-05:00January 31st, 2022|Categories: Alexandra AAR, Best of 2021, Best of List, Caroline AAR, Caz AAR, EmAAR, Lisa F, Maggie AAR, Maria Rose|Tags: Best of, Best of 2021|

Every year, after we’ve run all our individual “Best of” lists, we ask each reviewer to choose their ONE favourite book of the year from their list. We’re an eclectic bunch when it comes to our reading habits, so this is an eclectic list – hopefully with something for everyone! […]