Every Friday, we ask you what YOU think about an issue in romance. The questions are good (we think)–the comments much better! So join us, every Friday at the ask@AAR!
the ask@AAR: What’s the most imaginative romance you’ve ever read?
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 [...]
the ask@AAR: Is there still a canon for romance? What books should or shouldn’t be on it?
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. [...]
the ask@AAR: Will ChatGPT ruin the writing? The world?
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 [...]
the ask@AAR: What were the trends in romance in 2022?
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 [...]
the ask@AAR: a 2022 retrospective
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 [...]
the ask@AAR: What books, shows, movies, or other things are you looking forward to in 2023?
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 [...]
the ask@AAR: Do you like holiday romances?
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 [...]
the ask@AAR: What was the best thing that happened this year?
'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 [...]
the ask@AAR: What’s your FINAL pick for best romance of 2022?
Hi there AAR readers! Happy December! The staff has begun submitting their Best of 2022 Lists. (I adore these--every year I discover great reads I missed!) I confess I'm having a hard time with mine. [...]
the ask@AAR: What do we think about trigger warnings in reviews?
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 [...]
the ask@AAR: How do you like your love stories?
I was struck by a sentence written by romance novelist Adriana Herrera in the Washington Post this week. Herrera, in an article entitled The 10 Best Romance Novels of 2022, wrote: For me, this year [...]
the ask@AAR: What is a feminist romance?
Each day my inbox is full of emails about upcoming books romance readers might like to read. And, if publishers are right about romance readers--and who is to say they are or are not?--what we [...]
This is good. Now all the arguments are in a single place.
Ha ha ha!