the ask@AAR: What do we think about babies these days?

April 11, 2025

Lately, I’ve been thinking about babies in romance novels. Not as plot twists or conveniently timed disruptions—though a surprise pregnancy can still complicate things in interesting ways—but as a future…

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the ask@AAR: What is the perfect comfort read when you’re grieving?

April 4, 2025

Grief is the price of love. This phrase, popularized by Queen Elizabeth II, is on my mind today. This week, the life of a close friend, an amazing woman, was…

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the ask@AAR: As Fiction Changes, Does Our View of Men Change Too?

March 28, 2025

For many years, one of the ways women encountered men—beyond family, school, and daily life—was through books. The novels most often assigned in schools treated male characters with complexity and…

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Selling Death as Depth

March 24, 2025

I’m watching Season Three of Reacher—my husband, who loves the books, is also suffering through it—and I am furious. Not just at the show, which is violently dull and predictably…

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the ask@AAR: Who’s the greatest romance author of this decade?

March 21, 2025

We’re nearly halfway through the 2020s, and romance has never been bigger—or harder to pin down. It dominates bestseller lists, fuels the publishing industry, and inspires endless debate over what…

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the ask@AAR: Do you want to go back?

March 14, 2025

Tell the truth: Do you wish we could go back? Because lately, it feels like many of us are looking to the past with longing. We pine for yesterday somehow…

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the ask@AAR: What romances help you cope?

March 7, 2025

Sometimes, a book is more than just a book. It’s a refuge.  Lately, almost everyone I know feels anxious and uncertain. Right now, life feels like a pressure cooker—though, let’s…

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the ask@AAR: Where’s the next great sports romance?

February 28, 2025

For years, sports romance has belonged to football and hockey. But lately, they’ve started to feel a little… played out. Football? Too many concussions, too much off-field drama. Hockey? Too…

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the ask@AAR: How Much Heartache Is Too Much?

February 21, 2025

Lately, I’ve lost my appetite for angst in romance. Not conflict—romance needs conflict. A love story without obstacles isn’t a story at all. But these days, I have no patience…

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the ask@AAR: Are you heroine or hero centric?*

February 14, 2025

Some readers are here for him. The hero is the reason they pick up a book, the reason they stay up too late reading, the reason they ignore texts from…

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the ask@AAR: Is romance over men?*

February 7, 2025

Imagine: A brilliant, kind, and compassionate heroine—we’ll call her Avery—has just gotten home from an awful date. This time, the guy–we’ll call him Chandler–had the nerve to talk mostly about…

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the ask@AAR: Is it time to bring sexy back?

January 31, 2025

In romance blurb after blurb, books with love scenes in them are referred to as spicy. Why? I suspect it’s because spicy sounds less sexual than sexy. Which, given that…

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