Happy Juneteenth!
OK, peeps. We’re halfway through 2020–a year I’ll be thrilled to see the back of–and I want to know: What’s the best book you’ve read this year? And why?
Go!
Happy Juneteenth!
OK, peeps. We’re halfway through 2020–a year I’ll be thrilled to see the back of–and I want to know: What’s the best book you’ve read this year? And why?
Go!
I keep track of them so I’m ready for our Best of lists at the end of the year, and I’ve already got a few contenders. If I have to pick just one at this stage, it’d probably be Transactional Dynamics by Gregory Ashe, That said, he’s got several more books coming out this year – including the fifth and final book in the current Hazard and Somerset series, so that one may well get knocked off the top spot!
Runners up – Blue on Blue by Dal Maclean and Slippery Creatures by K.J. Charles.
ok, I am really sorry but I can’t pick just one! I am a brand new romance reader (since last fall) and I have been devouring about 5-7 books a week…soo the best I have read since January:
Duke of Shadows by Meredith Duran
The Spymasters Lady by Joanna Bourne
His At Night by Sherry Thomas
As You Desire by Connie Brockway
Seven Secrets of Seduction by Anne Mallory
Honorable Mention:
Untamed by Elizabeth Lowell, Reckless by Anne Stuart, The Proposition by Judith Ivory, Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase and Not Quite A Husband by Sherry Thomas
Wow, so many great books here. I loved Anne Mallory and was sad when she stopped writing. I really liked Seven Secrets of Seduction but the follow-up, One Night Is Never Enough was one of my favorite books for a long time.
Yes, I loved ONINE too!!
Mine too! Mallory is planning on coming back to HR.
Where did you read that? That would be great!
I emailed her awhile ago and she said that it will be few years but she plans to return.
Seven Secrets of Seduction is on sale on Amazon today! Just bought it from AARs Steals and Deals page!
Wow Beth! Great picks & you still have so many wonderful books to discover and love! Are you reading an authors full catalog after you discover a favorite or cherry picking? When I started reading romance I was dedicated to reading series in order & I would never read a 3rd book if I hadn’t read the first 2. I’m not as picky now – but I see quite a few authors with linked books on this list.
I also love Anne Mallory. She writes fantasy YA now under a pen name. I even think I have one of her books!
After I found AAR, I started by looking at ALL the best of lists,back to 1998, made lists of your DIK and looked at the old readers favorite lists…y’all have lots of awesome stuff in your archives!! I have devoured alll of Sherry Thomas’ historical backlist,but I am slowly picking my way through everyone else’s, like Judith Ivory, I am only 1/3 of the way through her backlist, but I saved my pennies and actually bought a copy of Bliss and can’t wait for it to get here!
and I have only read 1-3 titles from each author at this point…there is soooo much to read! and authors I haven’t even gotten to yet, like Jo Beverley, Julie Anne Long, Courtney Milan, Elizabeth Hoyt, haven’t even touched them yet!
But really favorite authors like Judith Ivory and Joanna Bourne and Meredith Duran, I now try to ration only 1 title a week so I don’t blow through them so fast, I was so sad when I finished all the Sherry Thomas titles.
Amazing list! So many wonderful authors and books. You are very smart to ration out the great authors with fewer published novels. Not only does it stretch them out it keeps you from getting overload where you start noticing any repetitions etc.
Joanna Bourne is one of my absolute favorites as well but new books from her are as rare as they are wonderful. Definitely savor them!
Yep, those are my favorite authors too, especially Judith Ivory. Nearly everything she wrote is wonderful. I loved Bliss so much, but Untie My Heart is my favorite and still one of my top ten favorite romances.
That’s good to hear about Anne Mallory. I always wondered what happened.
Such great choices.
I too loved Anne Mallory–One Night is Never Enough is, I think, the first DIK review I ever wrote for AAR. His At Night is my favorite Sherry Thomas and Duke of Shadows is my favorite Duran. Reckless is on my top ten favorite romances of all time and is my favorite by Stuart.
You and I and @chrisreader clearly have very similar tastes!
Dabney, you definitely turned me on to Anne Stuart!! you raved about Reckless somewhere and I just had to read it! (that opening line!!) I just received copies of Ruthless and To Love A Dark Lord in the mail from the used bookseller this week!
I think you should start collecting the Pennyroyal Green books–I suspect you’ll love them.
are they best read strictly in order or can I skip around?
Like Sherry Thomas’ Fitzhugh’s I think would lose so much if not read in order but the London trilogy didn’t seem dependent on each other.
I wouldn’t skip around but there are a few you could skip. If you want to read through and have the overarching storyline make sense, I’d read them in this order:
The Perils of Pleasure
Like No Other Lover
I Kissed An Earl
What I Did for a Duke
The Legend of Lyon Redmond
After you’ve read those, you can you back and read the other ones for fun.
Thank you so much!!
They remain, in my view, one of romance’s most rewarding series.
I didn’t read them in order, but I would strongly recommend reading ‘What I Did for a Duke’, it was my favourite! I also read it first, and I think it serves as a good stand-alone novel.
I don’t know why my comment keeps disappearing. I don’t think you would lose out if you don’t adhere too closely to the order. I would strongly recommend ‘What I Did for a Duke’. I read this book first, and it reads very much as a stand-alone novel. However, The Legend of Lyon Redmond requires prior reading of the other novels in the series.
As for which of these I like the best, I’d rank them thusly:
What I Did for a Duke
I Kissed An Earl
Like No Other Lover
The Legend of Lyon Redmond
The Perils of Pleasure
Not as necessary to the understanding of the two families’ story, but also much loved by me would be:
How the Marquess Was Won
A Notorious Countess Confesses
Hi Beth, I did not read them in order, and my absolute favourite was ‘What I Did For A Duke’. It was also (coincidentally!) the first one I read, I would strongly recommend reading it. One of my all-time favourite historical romances.
thank you!
What I Did for a Duke is my favorite too and still one of my favorite romances. I don’t think the Pennyroyal Green books desperately need to be read in order because each story is unique to its own couple. Alex from What I Did for a Duke is one of my all-time favorite heroes.
I guess I think if you’re tracking Olivia and Lyon’s story, reading the books in vague order matters. But all the books are functional stand alones.
I’m so sorry – my post keeps disappearing and reappearing, so I have probably triple posted! Completely agree with you Blackjack, Alex is definitely my all-time favourite heroes too!
I reread the series recently and was surprised by how little we learn in each one about Olivia and Lyon’s story except that they are tragically separated. I think their story stands on its own, though it’s not my favorite in the series.
I think the other novels created greater anticipation for Olivia and Lyon’s story. You are right though, the author doesn’t reveal anything about their relationship in the earlier books. I was actually quite disappointed by their story, I felt the pay-off wasn’t as great as the build up.
For me, the bigger joy in The Legend of Lyon Redmond was understanding the truth behind the Redmonds and the Everseas. I still find the overarching story of the two families to be wonderful. I even like the sequel set far in the future.
Completely agree with you about the family saga – it is one of the aspects of the series that renders it so different from other historical romance books. I love the notion of two rival families and star-crossed lovers. That’s such a lovely way of thinking of the Legend of Lyon Redmond, Dabney. Perhaps I should re-read it. I haven’t read the sequel, as I am not a huge fan of contemporary romances.
I always think of J.K. Rowling seeing the end of her Harry Potter story at the beginning. There’s a great joy, for me, in brilliant plotting over novels/seasons. It’s one reason Justified is one of my top three favorite TV shows of all time.
Same for me. It was one of my least favorite of the series.
I don’t think they need to be read strictly in order. I would strongly recommend reading ‘What I Did for a Duke’. I read that book first, and it reads very much like a stand-alone novel. However, with the Legend of Lyon Redmond, you definitely need to read the other novels in the series to understand the main characters.
You are having a ball! All very good books!
when you come so late to the party, you are beneficiary of everyone else’s experience! I rarely pickup something that has been recommended highly that I don’t get at least some enjoyment!
My favorite of the year thus far is Sarah Hogle’s _You Deserve Each Other_. Just a lovely debut novel about the twists and turns a relationship can take, even when two people are madly in love. The book transitions so cleverly from achingly romantic, to cold war, to a poignant second chance clawing of their way back to each other, and then to true partnership. Hogle has a snarky and sharp narrative voice that really appealed to me but may not be for everyone. I can honestly say this is a book that made me laugh out loud and sniffle my way through more than a few scenes, and it’s a book that has grown on me over time, which is always a nice thing. I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next.
Runners up include Mhairi McFarlane’s wonderful _If I Never Met You_ and Simone St. James’s creepy and brilliant _Sun Down Motel_.
Still haven’t read the Hogle – I tried to start it and sensed I wasn’t in the right head space so I put it off. I need to come back to it. I also loved the McFarlane.
I loved You Deserve Each Other and am not sure why I didn’t 5-star it. I have the McFarlane on the Kindle ready to read. I’ve been writing and really shouldn’t be reading romances, but I got sucked into 40-Love by Olivia Dade last night.
I think I’ll check out “If I never met you” – I read a Mhairi McFarlane book a couple of years ago that I really enjoyed (I think it was called “Here’s looking at you”?) and this sounds like I might like it :)
McFarlane is definitely an author I’m going to go into her backlist and read all of it. I don’t where I’ve been that I’ve overlooked reading her.
Wished I liked the Hoggle as much as you did!
I have friends who did not like it much and others who adored it, like myself. It seems to be one of those books that either hits you the right way or not.
“Loved “If I Never Met You” and Simone St. James’s “Sun Down Motel”. I would add “I Was Told It Would Get Easier” by Abbi Waxman, “The Boyfriend Project” by Farrah Rochon and “Party of Two” by Jasmine Guilroy
I see that Party of Two isn’t out just yet but I will definitely be looking for reviews of it. It sounds fun!
The best book I most recently read – and definitely on my shortlist for Best of 2020 – is Fair as a Star, by Mimi Matthews. One of those books that just make you sigh with pleasure. Gentle, poignant, low steam. It was a surprise. (RTC)
I already have a few Ashe books on this list, too, also Blue on Blue, and I have inhaled/massively enjoyed the 2 books and novella in Milla Vane’s A Gathering of Dragons series. So good.
The Roommate, a debut by Rosie Danan is also lots of fun. (RTC)
I’m really looking forrward to The Roommate and have heard lots of good things about it.
The best books I’ve read thus far this year are:
Overall winner: Long Bright River by Liz Moore
Best romance that’s already been published: Heiress for Hire by Madeline Hunter or The Winter King by C. L. Wilson
Best romance that will be published later this year: A Rogue of One’s Own by Evie Dunmore.
Two books for me. I tend to mix romance with history, usually social history. For fiction, I loved My Perfect Ex-Boyfriend by Annabelle Costa which made me laugh out loud and that doesn’t happen very often. She’s new to me and I have put several more of her books on my Kindle. Non-fiction would be The Regency Revolution: Jane Austen, Napoleon, Lord Byron and the Making of the Modern World by Robert Morrison. Always good to read something that correlates to my romance reading which is often in the Regency subgenre. A great read and I recommend it. I’m waiting for Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune: How Younger Sons Made Their Way in Jane Austen’s England by Rory Muir to come out in paperback as that one looks very good indeed.
Thanks for the Annabelle Costa recommendation. I just started reading MY PERFECT EX-BOYFRIEND and it’s terrific!
I haven’t been blown away by my reading yet this year, but I really enjoyed A Marriage Deal with the Outlaw by Harper St. George, a Harlequin Historical Western.
My relationship with Westerns is sort of on and off, but I liked the premise of this one. Caroline Hartford wants to be a physician but her parents won’t allow her to go to medical school unless she marries first on the grounds that being too educated might scare off potential suitors in the future. But on her way to a family gathering in Montana, she nearly gets kidnapped on the train and is rescued by some other outlaw. It turns out this outlaw, Castillo Jameson (also known as Castillo Reyes), is distantly connected to her family. So Caroline turns this to her advantage by making him pose as her fiancé under threats of blackmail.
As iffy as the setup sounds, it actually works really well for ninety percent of the book. And the sex scenes are on the hot end of the warm spectrum. (I think it helps that the guy is half-Spanish and the would-be physician heroine is no prude.) I won’t get into spoilers accept to say that, like many Harlequins, the last ten percent feels really rushed and contrived (as though the premise isn’t… :)).
Anyway, Harper St. George is a talented romance author whom I would definitely read again.
Sounds good! I’ll check it out! I enjoy westerns as well, but I am also picky.
I really enjoy Ellen O’Connell’s books which I never would have found without AAR and the readers here. Beautiful Bad Man is one of my favorites.
Glad you liked the rec! Unless I’m mistaken, I don’t think it’s reviewed on AAR. Found the book totally by accident through my library’s e-book program. They don’t have a huge number of Harlequins but enough to keep me busy. Apparently A Marriage Deal with the Outlaw is the second or third in a series, but it worked fine as a standalone.
Never heard of Ellen O’Connell, so thank you for the rec. :) Currently reading Hearts on Hold, which is a pretty good contemporary that I believe *was* reviewed here at AAR.
Hearts on Hold is a very sweet romance and I enjoyed it. (My only quibble is that the uptight Professor agrees to hook up on campus when she is obsessed with tenure and being ultra professional about her job because of her prejudiced and jerky department head).
I very rarely read Westerns but I really enjoy Ellen O’Connell so I second the recommendation although I would vote for “Without Words” as her strongest book.
Sorry—but I just can’t narrow it down beyond the seven I have so far on my “Best of 2020” list. (I know I’m cheating with one that was published in 2018, but all the others were published this year.) And since “angsty with a splash of melancholy” describes my ideal romance novel, you will not be surprised that the books on my list meet that criteria to a T:
CREDENCE by Penelope Douglas. “New-Adult/reverse-harem/enforced-proximity in an isolated house in the mountains,” while technically accurate, in no way captures the delicately painstaking way Douglas unfolds this deliciously-fraught story of a suddenly-orphaned 17-year-old girl who goes to live with her step-uncle and his two adult sons—and what happens between them over the course of a snowbound winter in the Rocky Mountains.
FINDING HIM by Rachel Van Dyken. Two people, both struggling with loss, work through the grieving process and gradually fall in love as they write a book together about the heroine’s late fiancé. A lovely, melancholy book.
WITHOUT YOU by Marley Valentine. Unique twist on the “man falling for his late brother’s widow” trope—the late brother was gay, so this is a case of a man (who has always identified as straight) falling for his late brother’s widower. A nuanced, bittersweet slow burn with amazing levels of sexual tension.
LOSING IT ALL by Kati Wilde. The four-year wait for the next installment of Wilde’s Hellfire Riders MC series was totally worth it. All of Kati’s hallmarks are here: a thoughtful & intelligent heroine, an alpha hero whose kind-heart and self-awareness keep him securely outside alpha-hole territory, a propulsive plot that puts both h&h through the wringer—emotionally and physically, smoking-hot sexy-times, angsty misunderstandings, a joyful HEA, and a nice catch-up-with-everyone epilogue. Plus, I’m mentioned on the book’s dedication page. ‘Nuff said.
THE BEST MAN by Winter Renshaw. Beautifully-written exploration of the roles chance and coincidence play in our lives. Two decent, honorable people, linked by a terrible automobile accident, try to avoid falling in love and hurting the one person who connects them both: his best friend and her former fiancé. Deeply emotional with just the faintest trace the otherworldly.
THE ITALIAN’S PREGNANT CINDERELLA by Caitlin Crews. A standard Harlequin Presents plot (super-efficient executive heroine falls in love, then bed, with her boss, leading to unplanned pregnancy and unanticipated heartache before the joyous HEA) elevated by Crews’s excellent writing and insistent subtext about how men marginalize and ostracize women they can’t control. A good corrective for the notion that HPs are nothing but retrogressive melodramas that reinforce dated gender roles and stereotypes.
DANE’S STORM by Mia Sheridan (published in 2018): After their plane crashes in the Rockies, a long-divorced couple must work together to survive and to come to terms with the grief that tore their relationship apart years before (cw/tw: stillborn baby). Nail-biting survival scenes and one of the saddest, yet ultimately life-affirming, second-chance romances I’ve ever read. You will cry…several times.
My favorite book so far this year is an “older” classic I have owned for years but never read- Jennifer Crusie’s “Bet Me”. What a wonderful read! It’s everything it was cracked up to be. Funny, smart, emotional, with great characters and a fantastic pace. It’s one of the few books I have read that made me laugh out loud. And what a great time to enjoy such a treasure! I think we have all needed a few laughs over the past months.
Another new to me discovery in the past few months was Kresley Cole and her Immortals series. I blew through those like eating popcorn. They’re angsty and over the top yet often funny. There was a huge backlist readily available so it fed my need for escapism reading.
“… so it fed my need for escapism reading.” I think we could all use some escapist reading right now. :)
I started a one of the books from the Kresley Cole series during quarantine after recommendations here in a guilty pleasures blog post, I think. It was a DNF for me, but more because I don’t love much fantasy romance generally. The unironic alpha-ness of the hero was just too much. Fast forward to this month, when I read the new Sarah Maas, A House of Earth and Blood. I was amused by the way she had her heroine make fun of the hero and several other ma