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Thoughts on books, reading, culture, and the literary life.
The Countess Conspiracy: a Pandora’s Box
January 17, 2014Today, Mary and Dabney discuss (and disagree about) Courtney Milan’s The Countess Conspiracy.
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It’s time for the annual AAR Reader Poll!
January 13, 2014It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year may be a song about the Christmas season and, in the last many years, that day when kids finally go back to…
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Where do you keep your romances?
January 10, 2014I lived a transitory, small-apartment life for a number of years, and my romance keepers lived in the spare room of my mother’s house. Now I’m living for the first…
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How to write a romance… or not
January 8, 2014Since I learned there was such a thing as a How to Write book, I’ve loved those suckers. Even the books that were too basic for me offered something —…
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An interview with Courtney Milan (and a giveaway!)
December 30, 2013I am a Courtney Milan fan. I’ve read all her novels and novellas. She shines for me in two very clear ways. One, she is a superb novella writer. Two,…
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Sarah MacLean talks about romance, the New York Times, and upending tropes
December 16, 2013Sarah, this fall the New York Times Book Review published a “Sex” issue that lacked any coverage of the romance or erotica genre. (I read it and steam came out of…
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the perfect eReader will have….
December 9, 2013Over the past couple of months, I’ve had the good fortune to help develop a new e-reading app. I’ve been a fan of e-readers since the day I got my…
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An interview with Serena Bell
October 28, 2013Serena Bell’s debut novel, Yours to Keep, interested me because the heroine is an undocumented immigrant living in the United States. I know Serena on Twitter and asked if she’d talk…
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Pandora’s Box: The Last Hour of Gann
October 21, 2013Wendy Clyde here. Dabney Grinnan and I are discussing R. Lee Smith’s The Last Hour of Gann, which was released in September. While Dabney had read Ms. Smith, this is…
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The results of the AAR Top Ten Lists are in and the winner is….
October 7, 2013Back in April, we began, on each Tuesday, publishing a reviewer’s Top Ten list. There were no rules other than the books be in the romance genre. Over the next…
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Shannon McKenna talks alpha males and uber villians
September 30, 2013Shannon McKenna’s latest release, Fatal Strike, is the tenth in her McCloud and Friends series. The books feature seriously macho heroes, really awful bad guys, and scorching sex scenes. She…
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AAR Staff Top Ten Favorites: Dabney’s Picks
September 24, 2013It was the summer of 2008 and I, a passionate reader, had my first Kindle. It was magical–a device you could just push a button and get books, as many…
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