What We’ve Been Thinking About

Essays & Musings

Thoughts on books, reading, culture, and the literary life.

A Blast from our Past: Declarations of Love

February 14, 2016

Here’s a column from three years ago. It holds up well, we think. What are your favorite proposals? We at AAR wish all our readers a happy Valentine’s Day! Today is Valentine’s…

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The Birth of a Series: A Guest Post (and a giveaway) by Jodi Thomas

February 12, 2016

People often wonder how a series comes about. I’ve written several and sometimes I’ve asked myself the same question. My first trilogy was five books, my second was four and my…

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Court of Thorns and Roses: A Pandora’s Box

February 10, 2016

Dabney: Haley picked Sarah Maas’s Court of Thorns and Roses for her best Romance Novel of 2015. Here’s what she said about the book: This is a retelling of Beauty…

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A Guest Post and a Giveaway from Theresa Romain

February 8, 2016

A Gentleman’s Game is the story of Nathaniel and Rosalind. He’s a seemingly carefree Thoroughbred trainer and baronet’s son; she’s the baronet’s unlikely secretary. They’re both hiding more than a…

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The Best of 2015: Heather’s List

February 7, 2016

Some years are stellar reading years, while others are just meh. Fortunately for me, I’ve had the joy of reading several exceptional books this year. So without further ado, in…

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Best of 2015: Keira’s List

February 6, 2016

I read a total of 84 books. This was the year I read less romance than I’d read in a decade. However, what I read was superb so I really lucked…

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Writing in Pieces: A Guest Post (and a giveaway) from J.R Gray

February 5, 2016

Writing is a process. A deeply personal process. As artists who weave words, we all have our own variation of this process. I write in pieces. I used to think…

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There’s No Place Like Home: A Guest post by Virginia Kantra (plus a giveaway)

February 3, 2016

Reading (or writing) a small town series is like going on a family vacation. You know how you load into the car, going back to the same spot year after…

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The Captive Prince Series (and my love affair with online fiction)

February 2, 2016

I’ve been reading online fiction since it was a thing, and I don’t mean ebooks. Like most of my friends, I started with fanfiction, and then found the absolute wealth…

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The Best of 2015: Melanie’s List

February 1, 2016

To be honest, my reading slacked off a lot in 2015. I usually read half again as much as I did this past year, a lot of which were forgettable…

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New Directions: A Guest Post from Jill Sorenson

January 29, 2016

Hello All About Romance! I’m so happy to be here, celebrating my new release. Against the Wall might be my most anticipated book yet, because it features my most-requested character:…

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