June TBR Challenge – Pick Your Favorite Trope

By |2017-06-23T08:29:58-04:00June 21st, 2017|Categories: Caz AAR, Historicals, Lynn Spencer, Reading, Romance, Romance reading, TBR Challenge|Tags: , , , |

A Rumored Engagement by Lily George

I’m a sucker for second-chance-at-love stories. I have autobuy authors I love and certain settings catch my eye, but when I’m taking a chance on a new author, favorite plotlines will often call my name. And second chance stories are definitely near the top of my list, with friends-to-lovers being a close second. For favorite tropes month on the TBR Challenge, I read A Rumored Engagement, a 2014 historical from Lily George. Though published as part of the Love Inspired Historical line, I suspect fans of Regency trads might like this one as well.

As the story opens, Susannah Siddons and her sisters prepare to open a millinery shop in the village of Tansley. Upon arrival, they run into a mishap with their door and when a man from the past comes to their […]

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TBR Challenge: Lovely RITA

By |2017-06-23T08:30:19-04:00July 15th, 2015|Categories: Caz AAR, Lynn AAR, Romance reading|Tags: , , , |

mrsdrew July’s prompt was to read a book that had either won or been nominated for a RITA award; Mrs Drew Plays Her Hand won the award for Best Regency Romance back in 1995.

As she does in so many of her books, Carla Kelly imbues a serious story with humour, warmth and tenderness, and writes a pair of engaging central characters whose flaws only make them seem that much more human.

Roxana Drew was happily married for a number of years, bearing her husband – a clergyman – two daughters before he became seriously ill. For the last few years of his life, he was a bedridden invalid, and Roxana nursed him cheerfully and tirelessly. Six months after his death, she receives a very unwelcome and unpleasant proposition from his older brother, Lord Whitcomb. He must appoint another to the living which means that […]

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TBR Challenge – Back to the Classics

By |2017-06-23T08:30:29-04:00June 18th, 2014|Categories: All About Romance, Caz AAR, Lynn AAR, Maggie AAR, Romance reading|Tags: , , , , , |

seventearsforapollo This month’s TBR challenge, reading one of the classics, had me scratching my head for a little bit. Did I want to reach for one of those books that could be considered part of the romance canon(to the degree we have one), or did I want to pick a classic trope or author? In the end, I decided on Seven Tears for Apollo. When we start talking about old school romantic suspense or gothics online, certain names tend to pop up. Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt, Barbara Michaels – all have their fans. However, Phyllis Whitney is one of those names that seems to be mentioned almost as an afterthought.

I’ve read a few Phyllis Whitney novels, all historicals, and I did enjoy them. However, I had yet to read one of her contemporaries and so I gave this one a whirl. Written in 1962, […]

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These are a Few of My Favorite Tomes

By |2017-06-23T08:30:37-04:00October 18th, 2013|Categories: Guest Posts|Tags: , |

carlakelly Note: Do you ever wonder what authors enjoy reading when they’re not busy writing? So do we! So we decided to pose the “What are your Top Ten favorite books?” question to some authors. Today we welcome beloved author Carla Kelly to the blog to talk about some of her favorite books.

Put it to music, because books are music to me. The idea of narrowing down my ten favorites is trickier than I thought it might be. I’ve discovered – ahem – that the older I get, the longer the list. What I’m offering here are lists of fiction and non-fiction. I’m a historian by training and trade, and an author of historical fiction, so please allow this old girl that leeway. I’ll tell you what and why they mean so much to me. […]

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AAR Staff Top Ten Favorites – Blythe’s Picks

By |2019-05-10T13:07:50-04:00September 20th, 2013|Categories: AAR Blythe, All About Romance, Romance reading|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |

boundbyyourtouch I put off writing my top ten until the last possible moment for a variety of reasons. I wanted some time to think about it, but I knew even though I had lots of time I’d still be making choices at the last minute; it’s not unusual for me to make my Reviewer’s Choice top pick while I’m writing the column. I also decided my top seven fairly easily, and then got stuck on the final three. I agonized over which three deserved the final honors, and then ended up with some also rans. I’ve been reading romance for a long time, and that presented its own problems. Should I choose early, sentimental favorites, or more of the quality Johnny come lately offerings? Well, in reverse order, here’s my top ten (ish).

Also rans: Just for fun, my books that didn’t quite make the short list but almost […]

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AAR Staff Top Ten Favorites – Pat's Picks

By |2019-05-10T13:11:37-04:00August 13th, 2013|Categories: All About Romance, Pat Henshaw, Romance reading|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |

slightlydangerous Coming up with a list of my top romances is not romantic at all. In fact, it can be downright unromantic as I found out the first year I tried to compile a list of my Top 100 favorite romance novels. Really? They must be joking, right? Especially since I’m constantly reading.

My first try at a Top 100 garnered 76 titles, and as I go back over the list, I can barely remember some of the books after #50. How can the books after that be called “top”? So now I keep a running Top 100 list that I purge now and again. But the Top 12 seem to stay fairly constant—until I change them.

What puts a book on my Top 12 list? Readability. I’ve read these books over and over. They are my comfort reads. They are safely tucked away on my Kindle and go with […]

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AAR Staff Top Ten Favorites: Caroline's Picks

By |2019-05-10T13:11:07-04:00July 30th, 2013|Categories: All About Romance, Caroline AAR, Romance reading|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |

again Everybody has had so many interesting ideas for how to choose a top ten – breaking down by genre, assuming “pocket copies” of classics, choosing only books which haven’t been listed by other bloggers – so I apologize for using yet another methodology. I’ve chosen books which were so good that I have or would recommend them to non-romance readers. These are books which, in my opinion, stand as books, enjoyable and even lovable by people who will cut them no slack for genre conventions. I hope you love them as well!

Again – Kathleen Gilles Seidel

Again is a true buried treasure: an A grade here at AAR and my personal pick for single best romance ever, and yet it isn’t even in print. Seidel transports you into the meticulously researched world of a historical soap opera called My Lady’s Chamber (think Downton Abbey, but Regency), […]

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AAR Staff Top 10 Favorites – Lee's Picks

By |2019-05-10T13:10:09-04:00June 25th, 2013|Categories: All About Romance, Lee AAR, Romance reading|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |

bronzehorseman Week after week after week I’ve been reading the other AAR staffers Top Ten blogs and have been hoping they wouldn’t choose some of my favorite books, but some were indeed chosen (The Windflower by Laura London; Mr. Impossible by Loretta Chase; Chase the Moon by Catherine Nicholson; and The Spymaster’s Lady by Joanna Bourne) so I decided to go with books that haven’t been chosen yet (I hope).

I don’t review books but instead help with behind the scenes work as well as being one of the three pollsters who calculate ballots for the Annual Poll and the Top 100 Poll which AAR runs every three years.

If I’m on a desert isle, and I can only have ten books, I want stories with excellent plots, memorable characters and that extra something that makes me feel an emotion – laughter, sadness (but not too much sadness), joy, angst, […]

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Melting Pot Challenge: Hispanic Characters

By |2017-06-23T08:31:00-04:00September 14th, 2012|Categories: Characters, Maggie AAR, Romance reading|Tags: , , , , , |

aztec_gold My very first romance novel was Lord of La Pampa by Kay Thorpe, an old Harlequin Presents title. It starred a naïve British girl and an arrogant Argentinian cattle rancher. She had come to Argentina for a dancing job and instead found herself facing the possibility of working at a less savory profession. He had to be married in the next three days in order to inherit some land. The two make a bargain to marry without love but at some point – well, I’m sure you know what happens from there.

So it’s no exaggeration to say that romances with Hispanic characters have always been a part of my reading, even if some were drawn in somewhat stereotypical fashion. For many years Harlequin was my primary source. Along with novels by Kay Thorpe there were literally dozens of others published every year by authors like Anne […]

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Before They Were Authors

By |2017-06-23T08:31:24-04:00September 12th, 2011|Categories: Authors, Maggie AAR|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

career The recent Labor Day weekend had friends and I discussing the changing job market. Many of us had launched into second (and even third) career paths, something that certainly wasn’t expected when we initially graduated from college. This got me to thinking of others who have a secondary career path (or sometimes even just a second job!); the writers who keep me supplied in romances.

Contrary to what many in the media may think, an author does not, as Eileen Dreyer so succinctly put it, choose this path because she is “a sexually frustrated loser dressed in a robe and bunny slippers who lives in a dreary apartment with my cat and lives vicariously through my devastatingly beautiful heroines.” Most seem to choose it because it is a girlhood dream. And many, many, many of them come to writing only after having pursued […]

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