RWA Conference Reporting ... RITAs announced

LLB · Joined: 21 Mar 2007 Posts: 869 Location: Dallas, Texas

Kate Garrabrant, AAR's publisher liaison, and blogger in her own right, covered RWA's national conference this week for us. She's wrote four reports (the final report just went online Sunday afternoon), and this morning (Sunday), I posted the RITA and Golden Heart winners. Access everything here, and look for Kate's final report later today.
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Laurie Gold
http://laurie-gold.blogspot.com

LLB · Joined: 21 Mar 2007 Posts: 869 Location: Dallas, Texas

I don't know about you, but I was really happy to see Ice Blue win a RITA, although I've not yet read the book. I think the entire ICE series has been underlooked by so many people that I'm glad it won some recognition.

Right now I'm reading Madeline Hunter's latest, but her RITA winning book earned DIK status at AAR (it also earned a B level grade in a dual review). I think Hunter is hugely talented, so this thrills me too.

I seem to be one of the few people who liked the book for which Julia Quinn won a RITA. My guess is that this will be a fairly controversial win for the author.

Janice Kay Johnson's RITA win is for another book that earned DIK status here at AAR, as did J.R. Ward's Lover Revealed. That book was the one and only book I've read so far in the series, but I liked it enough that I've bought the rest.

We reviewed Kristan Higgins' books as well; it earned a B level grade.

As always some of the winners are for books without a lot of buzz online.
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Laurie Gold
http://laurie-gold.blogspot.com

LinnieGayl · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 752

I've read and liked a great deal two of the winners -- Janice Kay Johnson's Snowbound (contemporary series romance) and Julia Quinn's The Secret Diaries of Miss Mirance Cheever (Best Regency Historical Romance). I'm sure I read Lover Revealed, but at this point have stopped reading the series, and can't remember whose story that one is about.

I also have a sample of Dead Girls are Easy, so will be checking that out at some point. Helen Brenna's Treasure (contemporary series romance: suspense/adventure) looks like something I might like, but it's not available on Kindle.

I do have a sample of Terri Garey's Dead Girls are Easy (best first book) on my kindle, and will get to it at some point.
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LinnieGayl

LeeB. · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 1221 Location: Seattle, WA

I'm glad that Anne Stuart, Madeline Hunter and Julia Quinn all won RITA's but I prefer other books they have written. Oh well! Laughing

Congrats, ladies!

I did like Deanna Raybourn's Silent in the Grave quite a lot. Congrats to her and I hope she writes more books with her two main characters. They are very intriguing.
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willaful · Joined: 02 Jan 2008 Posts: 1468

I'm thrilled that Wicked Lovely won. It's a wonderful book and I hope will gain a wider audience because of the award.

Other than that, I continue to find the RITAs pretty baffling.
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"I say, don't read the classics -- try to discover your own classics; every life has its own." -- Rudolf Flesch, _How to Make Sense_