February 3rd, 2012
It’s that time of the year – when we get to celebrate our favorites and do nothing but gush. As usual, everyone picks one favorite (but can also mention their favorite runners up).
This year is similar to last in a few ways: Historicals seem to be carrying the day for many of us, and there isn’t a lot of consensus. Only two books received more than one top nod, and our winner received only three. Though a majority are historicals, our choices include some paranormals, Urban Fantasy, and YA. Here are the books that had us sighing with pleasure and turning pages into the night in 2011:
Louise: The best books that I read this year were not 2011 books, so I had trouble with both the poll and this question. I guess if I was going to name the best 2011 book that I read there would give a slight edge to Jamie MacGuire’s Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire – a great story about two people who are both scarred from their pasts and who become something of a train wreck as a couple until they learn to work things out and realize how much better they are together than apart.
I also loved Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison – an all around great book – clever, funny, steamy, romantic, plus a great starting place for a new series. I guess a third choice would be Spellweaver by Lynn Kurland because as a fan of the series, this book was one I anxiously waited for and thoroughly enjoyed. It is hard to place it on a “best book” list, though, because it is really part two of three and the story wasn’t complete until the third part.
Bessie: I haven’t been reading a lot of straight romance. This year has been catching up with some series of urban fantasy. The new series that was the most fun is by Kevin Hearne -The Iron Druid Chronicles. Atticus is a 2000 year old druid who looks like a 20-something slacker. He runs an occult bookshop in Arizona and lives with his Irish wolfhound Oberon. They share and psychic bond and have some hilarious conversations. The first three titles were all published in 2011: Hounded, Hexed and Hammered. Number 4 is coming out this spring: Tricked. The other series that I zipped through was the Cal and Niko Leandros series by Rob Thurman. Blackout came out in 2011.
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Posted in AAR Blythe, Authors, Books, Reading, Romance reading, Settings | 6 Comments »
February 2nd, 2012
During an e-mail conversation about the AAR poll, one person asked a question about 2011 debut authors. Several of us threw out some names of people we thought were first time authors, only to be informed that while a certain book is the first book released under this particular pseudonym, the author has a long history of published books. Then I discovered that a book that I requested to review by a new-to-me author was in fact an author that I read before. It was discouraging in a way because I didn’t finish her last book, and had I known that this was a pseudonym of hers, I wouldn’t have requested this book. So that got me to wondering how relevant pseudonyms are in today’s environment.
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Tags: All About Romance, pseudonyms, writing
Posted in Authors, Leigh AAR, writing | 16 Comments »
February 1st, 2012
It is now almost one year since I bought my Nook Color. Some things have changed – I definitely access more books than I used to, and some of it (maybe 30-40%) is digital. But I confess I’m still primarily a paper reader. For me, it’s a matter of comfort, and I just can’t use the Nook Color as my primary reading source.
But my friend came over the other day and looked at my shelves and shelves of books. And she said, “Wow. You have a lot of books.” She’s not wrong – guesstimating, I’d say I have about 350-500 romance novels, depending on whether I have random stacks hidden away somewhere (which is probably a yes), and most of which I’ve accumulated in the last two years. And I still gain about 4-5 romances a month.
Well, what if my house burns down? Am I going to have to lose all those books? It seems stupid not to take advantage of the digital age and just get eBooks. I’m sure most of us agree that uniformity amongst the publishers has far to go, but the convenience, pricing, and durability of an eBook make total sense at this point. And yet why shouldn’t I buy a paper copy if I want, especially since they’re still available, and it’s what works for me?
Then it hit me: Digital copies. They don’t do it for CDs, because it’s legal to buy a CD then make a digital copy yourself. But they do it for DVDs, because it’s illegal to rip a DVD, even if you own it. So you pay a little more, get extra features or Blu-Ray, and get licensed to download a digital copy of your DVD. And you’ll have it for all eternity. (Frankly, the legality of ripping CDs versus DVDs doesn’t make much sense to me, but whatever. They’re both on their way out.)
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Tags: ebooks
Posted in Books, E-books, Jean AAR | 30 Comments »
January 30th, 2012
I know there are romantic suspense workshops out there for writers. I’ve seen them mentioned at RWA, among other places. But what makes romantic suspense good for the reader? In reviews, we often mention the balance between romance plot and suspense plot, but I don’t think that’s really all we can go by. After all, you can have a romance that splits the plotting 50-50, but it just never gels. And then there are books like Viper’s Kiss or like many of Karen Rose’s romantic suspense thrillers where the suspense portions of the plot really dominate the story. However, the romance still works. It may get less time and fewer pages, but the leads still have plenty of chemistry.
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Tags: All About Romance, Brenda Novak, Julia Spencer-Fleming, Karen Rose, romantic suspense, Shannon Curtis
Posted in Lynn AAR, Romance reading | 15 Comments »
January 27th, 2012
Although today’s column features our usual list of upcoming romance releases and a number of audiobook reviews as well, we’re starting out with a close look at Jeaniene Frost’s Halfway to the Grave, an urban fantasy romance with a kick. What’s the kick? Bones the hero. Read on!
Bones and Cat and Tavia Gilbert
As I wrote my review for Blackstone Audio’s Halfway to the Grave, I found myself wanting to talk with narrator Tavia Gilbert about the choices she made in performing Bones’ character. When I contacted her with my request, she graciously agreed to join us today and give us a view of this audio production from the inside out.
But first – the review for all who have yet to listen to Halfway to the Grave:
Jeaniene Frost’s Night Huntress series is one that garners a good bit of attention from time to time here at Speaking of Audiobooks. Halfway to the Grave is the first in this excellently written series that has a boatload of fans both in print and audio although the audio version carries with it some cries of disappointment over Tavia Gilbert’s depiction of Bones, a vampire around 200 years of age.
Bones is front and center in the series and I believe he is one of the best-written heroes – ever. I can’t recall when I have found one single character as entertaining and I fell for him immediately. Ms. Gilbert understands Bones perfectly but she also performs his character as written complete with a Cockney accent from around 1800 although this fantasy world is set in present day. And that is where the complaints come from. I guess we want Bones to sound like the American modern day hero he is.
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Tags: Audiobooks, speaking of audiobooks
Posted in Lea Hensley, audio books | 11 Comments »
January 25th, 2012
We plan for AAR’s Annual Poll for months and since January 16th we’ve been frantically entering your ballots. Now, as hard as it is to believe, the AAR Annual Poll for books first published in 2011 is nearly over. Yes, this year’s poll closes at midnight Eastern Standard Time on Sunday, January 29th.
Have you voted yet? If you have, thank you! It’s truly a joy to look at all of your votes and tally the results In the past we would receive a flurry of votes the first few days and then things would die out until the last days of the poll. Not this year. So far, we’ve received a large number of ballots each day since voting opened. This keeps us busy, but very happy.
If you haven’t voted, don’t despair. There’s still plenty of time to vote. And more importantly, your vote can make the difference in many categories. Right now most of the categories – including Best Romance of 2011, Best Romance Hero, and Best Romance Couple – are wide open with just days remaining in the poll.
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Tags: AAR, Annual Reader Poll
Posted in All About Romance, Authors, LinnieGayl AAR, Polls | 6 Comments »
January 24th, 2012
Wow! It seems like forever since I’ve been to a booksigning. Fortunately, I have a couple coming up in the next few months to make up for the dearth of events the past few months. Over the next few months look for me to report on events with Lauren Willig and Julie Hyzy who are both coming to my home town.
I have managed to find a number of events around the country that AAR readers may be interested in. But, as always, I could use your help. Do you know of any authors who are coming to your home town? If so, please let us know about it. If you know of any events that we missed between now and mid-February, please post them in the comments section. If you know of any events occurring after mid-February, please send them to us at aarbooksign AT gmail.com and we’ll add them to our mid-February post.
Disclaimer: I found these signings by extensive searches of both author and bookseller Web sites. They all appear to be free, but please contact the bookstore before you attend an event for additional information. And please let us know if you do attend a booksigning, and how you liked it. A few of the authors on the list aren’t strictly romance authors, but have either been reviewed at AAR in the past, or have appeared in AAR forum discussions.
Upcoming Booksignings:
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Tags: Authors, booksignings, romance authors
Posted in Authors, Book Signing News, LinnieGayl AAR | No Comments »
January 23rd, 2012
AAR’s sensuality ratings have come under discussion lately due to the changing nature of the romance industry in general. With the recent proliferation of racier novels, what was once declared Hot may now be considered barely Warm by our readers. The language used in love scenes, once a deciding factor in rating, has also changed drastically in recent years. Quaint euphemisms such as “manhood” or “heated channel” have fallen by the wayside.
If we update our sensuality ratings in response to changes in the industry, what sort of changes should we make?
One issue under discussion was possibly adding another category after Burning. For instance, Penelope and Prince Charming by Jennifer Ashley was given a Burning rating because of some mild anal play and very frank love scenes. But does PaPC compare to Sarah’s Seduction by Lora Leigh which would be given the same rating by today’s rules?
And how should language affect rating? In the not so distant past the words “cock” and “clit” were pretty rare in mainstream romance, their presence garnering a Hot rating just on principal. Is it shocking to read a review rated Warm, only to find language once considered very blue when you read the book? Conversely, some readers may be disappointed to purchase a book rated Burning because of language or one delicately described incident of alternative lovemaking, when their hope was for something more raunchy.
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Posted in All About Romance, Defining Romance, Online, Romance, Romancelandia, Wendy AAR | 52 Comments »
January 20th, 2012
We have all seen the trend that is happening in Romance novels these days. The Series. I can’t even remember the last time that I read a book that wasn’t a part of a series. Paranormals, fantasy, Regencies – it doesn’t matter the genre, all the books seem to be a part of a series. For me, that isn’t really a problem. I like that. I like that I don’t have to say goodbye to characters that I love and have come to care about after I finish a book. I like that a younger sibling or a best friend that we like in one book finds their own HEA in the next book. So this trend hasn’t bothered me all that much. That is until very recently.
While I have no problem with the trend that all books are a part of a series, I have started to see something that I don’t like. Usually, I enjoy a good epilogue. It used to be that the epilogue was a small chapter at the end of the book where we get a chance to peek at the future. This used to be a place that transcended the “series” chronology and jumped forward a few years and let us know that despite what may be happening is the great story arc of the series, this is what is happening with the couple currently. A good example of this would be Lover Awakened by J.R. Ward. At the end of this book, we get an epilogue that takes place 18 months after the book ended and the epilogue is a scene with the main couple, Z and Bella, and it steps out of the chronology of the series and gives a glimpse of the future. I love these scenes. They reassure us that all is well with the couple in the future, they reaffirm the HEA, and they satisfy any curiosity of children that may have been born or events that might have played out off page.
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Tags: series
Posted in Authors, Books, Characters, Heroes, Heroines, Louise AAR, Reading, Romance, Romance reading | 23 Comments »
January 18th, 2012
There’s always a TBR pile or several to be had at my house, so I decided to sign on for the 2012 TBR Challenge. This month’s theme is category romance, which made things easy for me. I’m a bit of a category romance hoarder, so I have a box of them in my guest room. To choose this month’s book, I just reached into the box and randomly picked – Double Deception (Harlequin Romantic Suspense, #1667) by Merline Lovelace. It’s an August 2011 title, so it hasn’t been aging in the TBR box as long as some.
When I started the book, I didn’t quite know what to expect. I’ve read a number of Lovelace’s books and my experiences have been all over the map. She’s written some wonderful historicals set in unusual times and places as well as romantic suspense set all over the globe. However, she’s also had a few books that didn’t really work for me. In the end, Double Deception was probably one that I’d grade at C+. It’s a bit better than the average, but still rather uneven.
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Tags: All About Romance, Merline Lovelace, TBR Challenge
Posted in Lynn AAR, Romance reading | 6 Comments »
