As a child, I loved fantasy–The Chronicles of Prydain, The Dark is Rising Sequence, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, The Wrinkle in Time Quintet–these were books I read repeatedly, happily losing myself in a world of someone else’s extraordinary imagination. In high school, I began to read science fiction as well but, in college, I abandoned made up worlds for books firmly rooted in our physical world.

Then, in 1991, I had my first child and, as I created a library for him and his siblings, I filled the shelves with fantastical children’s books. I loved Sendak, Seuss, Prelutsky who, along with so many other wonderful writers, filled their books with magic and myth. In 1995 my best friend’s sister, a children’s librarian, sent my friend an advanced copy of The Golden Compass. I thought–and still think–the book was astonishing. (She also, in 1997, recommend a book that was selling […]

Almost exactly a year ago, I asked whether or not AAR should, as it typically does every five years, do a new Top 100 poll. As is the case with most questions, readers were split. They also made interesting suggestions.

People love top 100 lists. Put in Top 100 Romances in Google search (AAR comes in at third, after Amazon and Goodreads.) and you’ll see list after list. Are any of them definitive? No–how could they be? Are they evil? Some people think so. I’m not so sure. I see such lists as a source, not a final word, and as such things that may be mined for possible enjoyment.

We will be doing a Top 100 post this year. How, exactly, I’m still pondering. Feel free to offer suggestions! One place to start is to ask: What do you think does or doesn’t belong in a very best of romance novels list? What do you feel absolutely […]

It’s fair to say I’m obsessed with ChatGPT. What’s that, you ask? Hmmm… let me try and explain.

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence bot that answers questions in fairly fluent language. It can answer almost any query in a way that sounds, depending on your standards, human and coherent. Its verbiage is authoritative, clear and, somewhat alarmingly, droll. Many feel it will destroy jobs, education, and even our emotional lives. Others feel it will be a force for good.

Since the program was released to the public at the end of last year, I’ve spent hours playing around with it. I’ve asked it to summarize Moby Dick, give me a good recipe for fried chicken, and to clean up my own reviews. Every time, it’s felt eerie to chat with. It feels alive and does a damn good job although it is routinely inaccurate and kind of a suck up. (It’s forever apologizing.)

Here is an unedited […]

Now that 2022, is in the books, what did you notice about it in romance? From my perspective, there definitely were some trends. Here, in no particular order, are some things I think happened.

• Was it just me or were there a lot more cooking/reality TV based shows?
• Lead that struggled with mental illness seemed to be a lot more prevalent.
• BokTok sold more romances than ANYTHING… for better or worse. This has helped contemporary romances and self-pubbed authors rule.
• Sexually diverse leads were everywhere compared to earlier years. Trans, gay, asexual, polyamorous–it felt like this was the year that non-het lovers were found in every sub-genre.
• Leads must now be saving the world to be respected. Across genres, heroines and heroes are trying to, no matter their context, to rescue the poor, topple the patriarchy, eradicate disease, etc….
• Neurodivergent characters also began to appear with far more frequency in the past.
• Nothing has dethroned cartoon covers.

What do you […]

In 2022–including this one!–AAR has published 52 the ask@AAR columns. Many of these generated lots of comments. Readers had the most to say about their pet peeves in romance, trigger warnings in reviews, the election issues they felt the most passionately about, and romances that most love but that readers emphatically did not. Other topics were clearly not engaging: our posts about the best party every attended, thoughts on Kristan Higgins, Romeo and Juliet retellings, and a discussion of our new Power Search all garnered fewer than ten responses.

It was a good year for commenting kindness towards others. In 2020 and in 2021, there were many times we had to ask people to retract or reframe a comment because it came across as a personal attack. In 2022, that happened only five times. For this, I thank and applaud you all.

The ask@AAR column is one of the most popular features […]

Another year has flown by and–I can barely believe this–2023 is almost upon us. I’m super pumped for this coming year–my husband is going to retire and I can’t wait. But that’s not the only thing I’m looking forward to.

Here, in no particular order, are 2023 events I’m excited for:

The final season of Endeavour. I’ve written about my TV crush on Shaun Evans here at AAR and the final season of Endeavour is must see TV for me. I know there won’t be a happy ending–and I haven’t watched Inspector Morse so don’t spoil me, please. Whatever is in Morse’s future, I’m sure I’ll enjoy the finale.

I discovered Leigh Bardugo this year and have read everything she’s written. I adore Ninth House—my review is here–and can’t wait to see what Alex Stern will do next. If you’ve not read Ninth House and love brilliant world-building, snarky women, and a hellaciously smart plot, you’re missing out. […]

Currently we have over two hundred reviews tagged as holiday romances. One, One Christmas Knight by Kathleen Creighton garnered one of our rare (55) A+reviews. There’s also an snarky F–our reviewer had nothing good to say about Johanna Linsey’s 2000 release, Home for the Holidays. We’ve Hanukkah love stories–I couldn’t find a Kwanza one which is something we’ll have to work on–and holiday HEAs for all sorts of lovers. I had a wonderful time looking through these festive reviews. (We talked about our favorite holiday romances a few years ago as well.)

That said, I don’t really love holiday romances. They’re often just too sweet for me. To this day, the only holiday romance I love is Courtney Milan’s A Kiss for Midwinter which begins an unwanted pregnancy and a horrifically inept physician. But, hey, maybe I’ve just not found the right one yet. How about you? What holiday romance do you adore? And why?

‘Tis the season to be jolly, right?

2022 was a reasonable year. It wasn’t the sh*tshow that 2020 was or filled with 2020 PTSD like 2021. Billions of vaccines were administered world wide, Michigan beat Ohio State for the second year in a row, all 50 states have now–finally–sent a woman to Washington, Wordle entered our lives, Britney and Britttney were freed, streaming services gave us a plethora of great shows, and the Top Gun sequel was actually pretty great. (This is my things to be happy about column–I’m steadfastly ignoring the year’s bad news here.)

Personally, I had a good year. I was able to travel, see friends and family and new places. My husband and I edged towards retirement. My children all survived, even (mostly) thrived. I saw the library at Ephesus. My health, and that of my amazing mother, is good. My hot flashes finally went away. I like my daughter’s new boyfriend […]

It’s the Friday after Thanksgiving here in the US, a holiday famed for its abundant food, contested history, and familial arguments. I confess my family doesn’t fight at Thanksgiving–we leave most of our giant arguments for our annual summer vacation where we’re together for a week and have time to resolve most disputes. Thus I did not bring up this question at our heavily laden table but it’s been on my mind since earlier in the week when the New York Times published a measured article entitled Brave Little Warriors in which it, inadvertently, made an argument against trigger warnings. I thought I’d ask youall about it instead–you cannot throw mashed potatoes at me or yell at me in front of my mom.

The Times article extols the benefits of exposure therapy which it defines here:

The decades-old treatment, which is considered a gold-standard approach for tackling […]