Essays & Musings
What We’ve Been Thinking About
Thoughts on books, reading, culture, and the literary life.
the ask@AAR: And the best enemies to lovers romance is…?
April 24, 2020Recently, seeking joy, I re-read The Hating Game which made me, well, happy. Josh and Lucy’s battle for superiority is gleeful and witty and their love story outstanding. (That kiss…
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the Wayback on Wednesday: The 2000 Annual Readers’ Poll
April 22, 2020(originally published on February 15, 2000) Here’s the link to this page which has not just the romance novels our readers picked–over 20 years ago!–as the best romance novels of…
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An interview with Maya Rodale–plus a book giveaway!
April 19, 2020Can a scandalized heiress… Beatrice Goodwin left Manhattan a duchess and has returned a divorcée, ready to seize control of her fate and the family business. Goodwin’s Department Store, once the pinnacle…
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the ask@AAR: What, in a sex scene, makes you say “nope?”
April 17, 2020I am reading a book in which the man nasty talks the whole damn time he and his honey are 1) talking about having sex, 2) having sex, or 3)…
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Tell Me Your Love Story: A Guest Post and a Giveaway from Julie Murphy
April 16, 2020When I married my Irish husband an article in the local paper in Boise, Idaho read as follows: ‘A writer of Harlequin love stories could develop a novel from the…
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How’s everyone doing?
April 13, 2020Hi guys! How you doing? Anyone got any good news to share? I organized a family Zoom meeting for my very global family and we managed to get my son…
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The Good Time Book Club at AAR: Read Manhunting with us!
April 12, 2020The votes are in and we’re reading Jennifer Crusie’s Manhunting! Here’s the summary from Amazon: Kate Svenson may be a dynamite businesswoman—but after three failed engagements, she’s decided she’s hopeless…
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the ask@AAR: Wanna read a book together?
April 10, 2020We’ve talked about having an AAR book club for what feels like forever and, you know what, it’s time. I made a few executive decisions so we could get started….
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The Wayback on Wednesday: Elizabeth Hoyt pens an epilogue.
April 8, 2020published on January 1, 2008 Earlier this year we presented to you, our readers, in celebration of our tenth anniversary online, parody epilogues. Unlike the PPP Contest, these epilogues are…
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the ask@AAR: What books would you add to our Top 100 Romances list? Take away?
April 3, 2020It’s been almost two years since we published our last Top 100 Romances list. This list, which AAR has done every five years or so, is a reader generated list–the…
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The Wayback on Wednesday: Loving Problematic Books
April 1, 2020originally published on June 13, 2013 Grading books is not always straightforward. For me, there is no rubric, no checklist of Do’s and Don’ts. I have a few deal-breakers, but…
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We’re all in this together–and we’ve got a page to prove it!
March 31, 2020Update: Just checking in to see how everyone is doing. Most of us are now living under shelter in place orders for at least the next month. For me, that’s…
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