All About Romance’s News & Commentary Blog

We’re at it again! With the help of our readers we have found the right formula for adding new titles to the Special Title Listings. This month we are opening: (1) Nerds & Absent-Minded Professors, (2) Bluestockings and Feminists, (3) Beauty is in the Eye and (4) Unrequited Love. We look forward to seeing your submissions for these lists starting today Monday May 6th and going for the next two weeks ending Sunday May 19th at midnight. As a reminder, any additions to the list have to be: (1) the best of the best, (2) stand the test of time, and (3) actually fit the list for which they were submitted. (more…)

Since reopening the Special Title Listings we have learned many things but the prevalent realization was that unless we had read the book in question, we had to do some serious investigating to ensure the titles submitted fit the definition of the category. Some categories are easy – Unusual Professions would be a category where we could find reviews that would let us know the occupations of the protagonists if our readers forgot to put in the information.
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Start searching through your reading records, because today we’re opening up five more Special Title Lists for updates. From today, October 16 through Sunday, October 28 at midnight we’ll be accepting submissions for the following lists: (1) Reunited, (2) Cabin and Road Romances, (3) Tortured Heroes, (4) Arranged Marriages, and (5) Shotgun Weddings. We hope you’ll recommend some of your favorite romances for these lists. Before you send in any recommendations, please take a minute to check the descriptions of each list below and then visit the page itself to check out some of the romances that are already on the lists.

Reunited: Romances in this list “have heroes and heroines who loved each other before, were separated, and are now reunited. These stories tell of their second chance at love.” This does not include one-night stands featuring strangers, after which the hero and heroine don’t see each other for years. The couple must have loved each other in the past.
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We’re pleased to announce that after nearly two years, the first of what will hopefully be many updates, have been completed for four of the Special Title Lists: Beta Heroes, Favorite Funnies, Marriages of Convenience, and Troubled Marriages. A big thanks to all of the AAR readers who took the time to send in their suggestions for additions to these four lists. We’ll be opening up additional lists on Monday, October 15, so make certain to check back here on that day.

We have incorporated most, but not all, of the recommendations submitted by readers onto the revised lists. While a couple of readers wrote on their submission form that we should just accept everything the readers entered, we used the three criteria stated at the top of the submission form when reviewing the submissions. Any additions to the list have to be: (1) the best of the best, (2) stand the test of time, and (3) actually fit the list for which they were submitted.
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We asked you, our readers, what you wanted to see on the site and we heard you loud and clear. We are pleased to announce that AAR’s Special Title Listings are being dusted off and re-worked and we would love to get more reader input in how you would like to see the list managed. For those who have lobbied successfully for this change we know you are excited, and for those of you who have not visited the Special Title Listings, we invite you to head on over there and take a look around.

The Special Title Listings were started in 1996 and are organized differently than by genre, setting, or grade alone. After all, when browsing a bookshelf for a great new read, the simple classification of “historical romance” or “category romance” is not enough information for a reader to decide to pick up the book. (more…)