A recent comment at AAR made me wonder, for the thousandth time, if AAR reviews the novels our readers are interested in.
My very cursory assessment of this year’s reviews is thus: We’ve published close to 200 reviews. Of those, 84% were published this year. In terms of genre, the breakdown of 2022 books is roughly:
Contemporary Romance: 57
Erotic Romance: 1
Fantasy Romance: 2
Fiction: 6
Gothic: 1
Historical Fiction: 6
Historical Romance: 28
Inspirational Romance: 4
Mystery: 17
New Adult: 2
Paranormal Romance: 5
Psychological Thriller: 3
Romantic Suspense: 9
Science Fiction Romance: 1
Steampunk: 1
Women’s Fiction: 13
Young Adult: 10
About a third of these, across genres, are queer romances. Close to a third feature authors of color and or characters of color.
Is this coverage working for you? If not, why not?
Thanks!
Impenitent social media enthusiast. Relational trend spotter. Enjoys both carpe diem and the fish of the day.
Interesting discussion. In the categories Dabney has listed, there are just 5 where I expect to find something I might want to read. The m/m, f/f categories are, after trying hard, are not for me so that eliminates even more books. Actually, romance generally has disappointed me for the last 18+ months or so and I struggle to find things I truly want to read. I don’t mind that there are other categories listed because reading is, for anyone, a matter of personal choice and the idea of AAR being an outdated name for this site is probably accurate. The “genre” has widened out so much that it is no longer easily “definable”. After my husband and I literally pigged out on all of the Bosch TV series, I have started reading Michael Connelly’s back-list including the Lincoln Lawyer series. For me, it’s a bit of a nostalgic look back as I lived and worked in the San Fernando Valley once upon a time so I generally can place the locations, appreciate the atmosphere and the plotting is so clever – I can’t put them down. About 75% of Amazon “samples” I have downloaded lately have been deleted once read, the full book never purchased and I am averaging 1-2 books per month being deleted and refunded (DNFs), mainly because they had stupid plots, careless prose and the H/h were either or both TSTL. Overall, AAR usually works for me with the reviews posted and mentions of other books in discussions.
AAR has been one of my daily sites for more than 20 years, and I can’t guess how many books and authors I have discovered through reviews, blogs, and message boards here. I suspect that I first found well over half of my current auto-buy authors through AAR. As a male reader of romances, I’m not in the main target audience, and with humor in romances as one of my strongest selection criteria I winnow out a lot of books with high recommendations but no hint of humor. Also, all our senses of humor are unique, so many recommendations for humor don’t pan out. I have definitely seen changes in sub-genre emphasis over the years as markets and available reviewers here have both changed, but that has simply broadened the range of books I have ended up trying.
I will adapt an analogy read in an SF story years ago to explain my approach to humor in romances. Imagine a container full of large rocks, with those rocks making up the plot that makes a story fit an assigned genre. Now imagine filling the container with water that fills in all the air-spaces around those rocks. In this analogy, that water is humor. A story in ANY genre can have humor (water) filling in the spaces around the rocks (bones/skeleton) of the plot, or it can just have the original air (no humor added). This is why I say I look for romances with humor rather than saying I look for rom-coms.
One of my favorite authors is JAK/JC/AQ. Even though most of her books are (less intense) romantic suspense, her inclusion of humor is reliable enough to keep her as a read ASAP author.
AAR reviews & discussions over the years have let me find many romances with humor outside the limits of the rom-com designation and outside the sub-genre I started with (traditional Regencies).
I like the fact that AAR reviews such different books. My own reading may generally fall into somewhat narrow categories (although I do like that you review mysteries and some WF along with romance), but I think it important that, just as I see myself represented in books, so do others. We all deserve to be shown as fully realized people who deserve to have our stories told and to get our HEA in the end.
Wow! Almost 200 reviews and it’s only the middle of June? Very impressive output, you amazing AAR team! I truly appreciate each and every one of your thoughtful, well-written and objective reviews. I love that a diverse array of authors and genres are presented. That range gives me a perspective on the broader world and nudges me to try new things.
I love the idea of checking in with us to find out what we’re reading more often. Here is a potential suggestion related to that: because AAR is on top of things, reviews usually appear at the time a book is released, so there is not much chance to actually discuss the book at that time simply because we haven’t read it yet. Perhaps we could occasionally have a discussion of a book that has proven popular (which you would discern from these occasional What are You Reading discussions.) I know you’ve tried to have a book club with an assigned reading, but that is different from what I’m suggesting. Just a thought.
One way to do that would simply be to return to the review and start a discussion in the comments – although I can see that there would need to be some “improved visibility” so other readers are able to find it and join in.
If you look at the comments feed on the left side of the Home page, it will tell you the most recent comments. If you started one that said: WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THIS BOOK?, I bet people would respond on the review.
I have also noticed reviews, especially for highly anticipated books, coming out on or just before release date. On the one hand, a review before the release date might save me from buying a book I’m not going to enjoy. On the other hand, if a review gets a good grade or I’m going to read it no matter what, I don’t actually thoroughly read the review but just skim it so I don’t get spoilers (although AAR is pretty good at minimal to no spoilers). Then I do kind of feel a need to hurry up and read the book because I want to take part in the discussion. That’s one of the joys of an online romance community – talking to others about books! But I feel that the pressure to read the book is really just on me.
I will say that very often, if I read a book weeks after the review then make a comment, almost always the reviewer makes a comment back. Just that little bit of engagement makes me really happy!
When someone comments on my reviews, it’s one of the greatest things. Everything on the internet sometimes feels like shouting into the void, so it’s always a thrill that someone actually read something I wrote.
I read many of the reviews, and I wonder if I should say thank you every time and let you all know how much I appreciate it. You are not shouting into the void— you and everyone here are doing a valuable service and your reviews are a gift!
Please reply! We love conversation. As Caroline said, so much of the internet is silent and unresponsive. It’s lovely here that it’s not!
Me, too, Becky. I don’t want to appear like a stalker! LOL!
I can see I haven’t been clear, so I had better clarify. I am suggesting a get together, a chance to come together as a community and say, “Hey, so many of us read this book and have feelings. Let’s talk about it! We can use this fabulous review as a jumping off point and share our thoughts.”
Now this discussion may happen spontaneously in a “What’s everyone reading” session, so it would be redundant to have a separate session. But what I’ve noticed is some people read new books right away while others wait to get it from the library (me) or for a sale. So it might take a number of months before there is a critical mass of readers who are ready to discuss a work. If every week or so people say they are reading, for example, Nora Roberts’ latest, and after several months a bunch of people have made mention of it, then perhaps a community discussion would be fun.
To me, that is different than looking up a review that is a few months old and adding my single comment, which is absolutely worth doing, and I really should do that more. Anyway, it’s just an idea I’m throwing out there, and hopefully I’ve made myself a little clearer.
I got what you meant, so no worries about not being clear. As Dabney said you could start that discussion in the comments on the review – it happens that way a lot; I’ll be looking through the most recent comments and will see one on an older book and click through out of curiosity! Otherwise you can start a thread about a specific book on the Agora. Starting one on the main site though would mean a dedicated blog post – which is certainly do-able, but we’d need to know which book to focus on!
I try to post comments to existing/older reviews once I’ve read something, particularly if I really enjoyed the book. That is my way of 1) thanking reviewers who’ve tipped me off to something that I enjoyed as well, and 2) letting other AAR readers know that I found the book enjoyable as well. Sometimes I’m months or years later but I figure another shout out might help another AAR reader find something they will enjoy too.
And I use the “more recent comments here” link regularly. I scan to see if anyone else has added something that links to a review or conversation about something I might like to read or consider as well.
Me too! I use recent comments daily.
I’m just not sure how we would do that. We could repost book reviews, something we already do a bit of. Is that what you mean?
I don’t think Becky is talking about reposting reviews – I think she’s talking about a dedicated discussion post for a book a few months after release so more people have had a chance to read it. I can’t see how we can do that at the main site though. I think options would be:
1. A post at the Agora
OR
2. Commenting on the review to start up some discussion.
Reposting the review is an idea, but again, as would be the problem with creating a discussion blog, we’d have to know which book people want to talk about.
I think options 1 or 2 are the most practical ways to do this. And I’d gravitate towards 2, because as someone has said recently, the Agora can be a bit temperamental.
How would we know what books to do that with?
I think the Agora will be less temperamental soon! It may be the best way for readers to do this.
How would we know what books to do that with?
Exactly my point!
As far as book selection, that would not be hard. I’ve noticed, on other sites, when people are asked what they are reading, certain titles come up again and again. Person A mentions it one month, then Persons B and C say they read it because of Person A, and then the next month a few more mention it and so on. So when you see a bunch of people mentioning the same book, it seems like it might be fun to have a discussion about it. It could be that the Agora is the best place for this. I rarely go there, so I didn’t think of that. But that is a possibility, and I can also make comments under existing reviews more often and see what happens.
I do think the Agora is the best place for this. It is true that you have to sign in but that keeps away the trolls.
All I’ll say is that being an old fogey, by the time I notice Person B’s comment, I will likely have forgotten about Person A’s and won’t make the connection! :P
I am reposting a comment from the thread on Happy Pride. I thought you guys might find it interesting.
I think we are covering trad romance pretty thoroughly, although I can see why it might not seem that way–until five or ten years ago, most of our coverage was straight, white romance and we’ve definitely expanded what we review.
But your comment got me wondering if maybe what you are responding to–and you are not the first reader I’ve heard this from–is the sense that AAR reviewers are no longer excited about traditional–which typically means straight and white–romance. So I tallied up all the DIK reviews from 2022.
I divided the reviews into three general categories: straight, queer, and POC. Books could be in in just one category or two–there’s straight and queer POC/AOC books. Then I broke those categories down by genre.
Of the 67 books we’ve given A grades to this year, 45 have featured straight leads, 25 queer leads, and 13 POC leads. The genre breakdown is this:
Women’s Fiction: 4 straight, 1 POC
Historical Romance: 7 straight (one was an older book), 2 queer,1 POC
Contemporary Romance: 13 straight (three were older books), 10 queer, 1 POC
Historical Fiction: 5 straight, 1 POC
NA/YA: 3 straight, 1 queer, 1 POC
Romantic suspense: 3 straight, 1 queer
Fiction: 3 straight, 1 POC
Mystery: 4 straight
SFF: 2 straight, 1 queer
These numbers say to me that we are currently very enthusiastic about contemporary romance which is a shift from our coverage of years past when I think we were most excited about historical romance.
These again are just our DIK reviews, not numbers that reflect our overall coverage.
I like the current percentages of romance subtypes and the amount of queer and author/character of color. I also think there is a good mix of books for which there is a lot of buzz vs hidden treasures.
What I debate in my mind is the presence of reviews of mysteries and women’s fiction. I come here for reviews of romance and I don’t typically read the non-romance reviews. However, I don’t mind that they are there and it is nice for a reader to get a recommendation for a non-romance book from a reviewer they trust.
I don’t read every review and I like the tags on the side of the review which allow me to quickly determine if I want to read the review based on reviewer, type, sensuality rating, etc. The site has a good stability of reviewers and over time I have come to know which reviewers have similar tastes to mine. That really helps me determine whether to take a chance on a new book/author.
I also really like the comments sections. The readers of this site provide lively debate and great recommendations.
So overall, I’m pretty happy with the coverage and thank you!
I’m especially glad to hear you like the comments here. Thank you–I needed to hear that today!
The mystery/women’s fiction/romance line can be really hard to distinguish. For example, Jennifer Ryan writes WF but I found her most recent book – The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle – a lot more romance centered than Nora Robert’s Nightwork, which was some mixture of romance/suspense and general fiction. I’ve mentioned this before but lately, I feel a lot of books take an “everything including the kitchen sink” approach in an effort to appeal to a wider audience. Or maybe that’s just what people want these days, not sure.
Mystery readers and romance readers tend to have a wide intersection. I actually started reading more mysteries because AAR was reviewing them, so I think the WF/Mystery/Romance combo done here can be a good thing. Just my .02 of course.
I agree with you that mystery and romance readers have a wide intersection. I used to read a lot of mysteries in my teens/20s. I still read some and especially enjoy if there is a romance element. It’s just that if you look at the numbers above and add together mystery, psychological thriller and women’s fiction, it is actually a pretty good percentage of the total. For a site named All About Romance, I would really expect just romance reviews. But again, I am not necessarily advocating a change, especially if the site’s reviewers enjoy doing other genres and the readership is receptive.
I like the site evolving with the interests of its reviewers, and I like reading reviews from people who care about the books they review.
If that means that I get a different mix of books reviewed, more thrillers than I personally want to read, or crime that is a bit too brutal, I go with it. As long as there books are still relationship-centric, and most often contain a significant romantic thread, I feel that it fits the AAR portfolio.
Also, I like reading reviews even for books I do not want to read. And sometimes, AAR changes my mind :-)
So, I prefer this to a very narrow « romance only » interpretation.
Just my 0.02
If we weren’t such a brand as AAR, I would change the name. I think we have evolved to a site that covers relationally centered fiction!
The WF is the key factor in that many of my most romantic reads, in terms of concentration on the relationship in the writing or a really great relationship in the book , have come from this genre recently. So to me, books in this category can often be considered romances even though they are published/hyped as WF. And again, just giving an opinion based on my own reading experiences.
Working for me. Reviewers are volunteers and should be able to choose titles they genuinely want to read. If someone isn’t seeing reviews for something they think should be reviewed, Kay’s suggestion below for blog posts about what people are reading or would recommend will help to bubble up even more titles/authors.
I particularly welcome reader comments to reviews or blog posts once readers have had a chance to read something someone else has recommended (or panned) – whether new reader agrees with the original post/review or not.
I like that AAR is a welcoming place to find new books, whether its from reviews, blogs or comments from other readers. I’m always interested to see what books other readers are enjoying and would love to see more conversations on that. I recently tried to start a post on Angora like that but it didn’t really take off. I like that you do What are You Reading blogs sometimes. It’s hard to believe we are already 6 months into 2022. I wonder what readers favorites are so far?
Great suggestion! I’ll do that this week.
I second Kay’s comments, especially more conversations about what people are reading/enjoying/want to recommend (maybe even books that people hope/expected to be good but are falling short?). And some posts that are genre specific could be good too (e.g. anyone want to recommend (new or old favorite) romantic fantasy? Or maybe what would be on people’s top ten lists of favorite romantic fantasy?)
I think people have trouble using the Agora (sometimes have to log in, other times not). So some blog posts asking for reader input makes sense.
I think it’s a good spread but could do with less mystery and women’s fiction reviews, mostly because I don’t care at all for mysteries and I get plenty of women’s fiction type reviews from other sources. I’m not sure if the categories I don’t care for are displacing other reviews though? maybe there’s room for everything…
I read every review you publish, even for books I know I won’t be interested in reading. Reading reviews is fun and informative. I rarely fail to learn something I didn’t know, read a turn of phrase I particularly like, laugh about something, roll my eyes about something, or generally just enjoy a well-written review.
AAR has a talented group of reviewers and I like the fact that they choose the books they want to review instead of being assigned books, or only given a handful of choices. I like that not every book reviewed is a new release.
I would really hate to see AAR start artificially trying to meet quotas about the types of books reviewed instead of letting reviewer interest lead. Years ago I reviewed for Audiogals and here for AAR’s Speaking of Audiobooks column and I know it’s not an easy job (I’m not as talented a writer as many, so it was challenging, thankfully I had a good editor). I loved reviewing the books I chose, but struggled when I was given limited options (audiobooks overall were more limited, so it wasn’t necessarily anyone’s fault).
I like that a third of the books are queer romances and a third are authors or characters of color. It seems to mean something is being done to showcase marginalized groups, which is a good thing.
Don’t worry–we will always let reviewers pick the books that call to them. No quotas here!
I’m just curious what readers think.
I like your reviews. You are a valuable resource to me.
They do not always match what I like to read, but they are well written, careful and give me good guidance.
So I can try out some new authors, or new trends, with a safety net, so to say.
And steer clear of things I do not like, such as YA and NA, crime with too much violence for me, or a lot of romantic suspense, and historicals that are too much “contemps in long dresses” for my taste.
Through you, I have discovered a lot of authors, the m/m genre, and have learned a bit about romance trends which I yet need to dip into (Latin Gothic).
I seem to be in a bit of a slump as far as books you are reviewing are concerned, but that is more on me, I have gone on a glom of R.Cooper (Beings in Love, wonderful stuff, m/m) and then moved onto Fantasy such as Terry Pratchett or Wen Spencer, so right now, I just look through your reviews and do not read much of the books.
Also, some recent books are just too expensive to take a risk on, right now – ebooks above $10 are just not my price range for an experiment.
Trad. publishing prices have gone through the roof lately, that’s for sure. Thankfully, most of the books I’m interested in these days are self published, and generally under £5. I have to think hard to justify paying more than that for a book right now.
Well, KU means that many books render authors pennies. I can see that in that small window where readers are willing to pay for books authors try and at least make something.
I’d argue that it worked better when there was no KU nor so many discounted books and books cost between five and ten dollars each.
The biggest issue for me re: pricing is what KU is doing to the market. Too many books are available only via KU or outright purchase – and not available to the rest of us who depend on (or just prefer) libraries.
In the short term, KU is a “good deal” for readers – the price of a book (or less) per month – for unlimited reading; and self-pub authors must think this is their best shot at breaking into the book market. It is certainly a cheap way for trad publishers to find authors with a following. Ultimately, though, everyone but Jeff Bezos will be the poorer for it in the long run – authors, libraries, bookstores, AAR, and readers.
I do understand your point, but I think it’s a lot more involved than pricing books between $5 and $10 each. Unless KU leaves, those books get published another way, and get bought by libraries, there would actually be more limited access to many author’s books. Authors do chose to put their books there, after all. At first it was used by unknowns, but many successful author’s still choose to put their books on KU. I know some people put the books on for limited amounts of time, or certain series, etc. Many public libraries have very poor romance sections and almost no queer romances. I’m really fortunate to have a system that does, but I have plenty of friends who have a lot more limited selection for romance at their libraries.
I read between 200 and 300 books a year. I know an author doesn’t owe me their book and I’m willing to pay what I can, but I couldn’t afford to pay those prices. I would simply have to stick with buying fewer books/audiobooks and relying on what ever the library carried. Like I said, no author owes me their book for “free.” I’m just saying doing away with discounts and KU wouldn’t increase what I already have in my yearly budget for books, but instead would just limit what I could read. Not an easy fix.
Agreed. I think libraries are wonderful and necessary, but my local one doesn’t have any books or audiobooks I’m interested in. If it wasn’t for the ARCs and ALCs I get I wouldn’t be able to afford the read as much as I do. I buy way more self-published books than trad. ones these days which is just as well – many of those authors price their books under 5 quid which is my upper limit these days.
Fan of libraries. Not a fan of KU.
I understand that. I’m just saying some of us can’t afford the prices you listed. We depend on places like KU, Chirpbooks, Audible sales, and libraries to find our reading materials. If KU left, I would just be reading fewer books, not spending more money. Fewer authors would get slightly more money of mine. And I guarantee you even if they weren’t contracted to Amazon through KU, many indie authors would not get the exposure needed to get libraries to buy them.
I’m not saying I’m a fan of Amazon’s tactics, but I honestly think that without KU, many authors wouldn’t be getting published, period. So it seems we’d lose something valuable there, too. I don’t think this is as easy as getting rid of Amazon/KU.
We’re never getting rid of KU is my bet.
Again, libraries are a much better deal for authors than KU. And yes it’s true that KU enables lots to publish. I’m not sure that’s inherently a good thing.
As a reviewer, I’ve DIK’d inspys, erotic romance, young adult, LGBTQ+, trad regencies, SF/fantasy romance, graphic novels, romantic suspense, Harlequins, etc. As a site user/reader, I’ve found reads of all stripes from other reviewers here. To me, it’s less what AAR is covering than how good the covered books are.
I know there’s a balance to be struck between reporting on buzzed-about books and reviewing of books we love, but personally, I come here to find great reads. Romance as a genre is not only hugely prolific, but also poorly covered and respected. Without the robust work of online communities, I don’t know how I’d navigate it.
I think you guys do a great job. No site can review every romance (which is such a huge umbrella to begin with) that gets published, and I like that the reviews you do publish are of books your reviewers choose because they personally feel a connection to and want to read them.
Aw….
In general I like the coverage of the page, I read inspiring romance and I also like fantasy romance (where it is not reviewed as much as I would like) but I am not complaining either since everything depends on the offer and what the reviewers want to read, besides AAR steers clear of successful trends in romance that I personally don’t care about (like gothic or dark fantasy romance of the kind where the hero is a cruel serial killer who threatens and humiliates the heroine and then redeems himself.. ..at best apparently sometimes not).
Perhaps this is not conscious but AAR seems to prefer so far romances of the type where the hero protects and cares for the heroine and not so much the extreme factor that stories have where the hero is more of a villain.
I like fantasy romance too but have struggled to find books to read in that genre. I wasn’t wild about Jeffe Kennedy’s latest few (B minus range) and am pretty much down to reviewing Ilona Andrews (love her, she’s always an A). Who are you reading in this genre? I’m looking for new authors but don’t seem to be having much luck in finding them.
Sarah Delena White, K.M Shea and. Tara Grayce They are some authors who write fantasy romance and not all of their books are focused on teenagers, on the other hand they are on the lower end of the sensuality spectrum (unlike the authors you mentioned) so I don’t know if they are what you are looking for.
I actually prefer the lower end of the sensuality rating, so I will for sure check these novels out. Thanks for the recommendation!
Ilona Andrews has a long long list of recommendations on her blog right now, from readers who say what they liked recently, and some give explanations why they did. You might like to check that out, I saw a lot of new to me authors there – also a lot of non-romance, but also some of that, and most people say whether their recommendation contains romance or not.
Thanks, I will definitely look at that list and see if I can find some new authors.
As a fellow fantasy reader… I think it’s time for a blog post of fantasy recs!