If you’ve ever finished a historical romance and found yourself thinking about it for days—the way the heroine claimed her power (for better or for worse), the way another time and place burst off the page—you already know what makes this genre extraordinary. Maybe you’ve debated whether the title Duke is overused, have strong feelings about pining in second-chance romances, or still remember exactly how it felt the first time you read K.J. Charles for the first time or swooned over the latest Julie Anne Long. If that sounds like you, then you might be exactly who we’re looking for.
Many of you have said you miss seeing more historical romances reviewed at AAR. I miss it too. The good news is that we can change that—together. I’m looking for a few new reviewers who love historical romance and want to write about it for a community that genuinely cares. You don’t need professional writing experience–almost all of our reviewers were our readers first. You just need to read widely in the genre, be willing to think critically and kindly, and want to talk about what makes these books matter. You’ll get access to advance copies (often well before publication), and I’ll work with you to help shape your reviews into something thoughtful and distinctly yours.
AAR has always been built by its readers. The site exists because so many of us believe romance deserves serious attention—and joyful attention, too. If you’ve ever finished a book and wanted to talk about it in detail, or if you’ve wished more people were reading the authors you love, maybe it’s time to be part of the conversation in a new way. Send me a note to dabneygrinnan@allaboutromance.com. I’d love to hear from you.
I’d like to write a book in any genre but I’m dyslexic.
Sorry misread the article. Ironic.
Dyslexia shouldn’t stop you in doing anything, not one bit.
Thank you, but I misread the article my dyslexic self haha figures. But thanks anyway.
This is great! I have a lot of fondness for HR. My first love!
It was mine, too.
It’s early days to say this yet, but I feel like historical romance has been replaced by general historical novels with romance, and historical mysteries. It seems that both Willig and Kearsley have gone this route. That’s where I’ve been doing the little bit of historical reading that I now enjoy anyway.
I think there are still a lot of very good historical romances out there!
I think it all depends on how one defines the genre. When I first started reading romance, I was all historicals all the time. Back then the books were long and detailed, with folks like Roberta Gellis writing tomes that incorporated real events with unlikely love stories. Then there was a switch to all Regency all the time and lighter, more character focused novels. I just think things are switching back.
That makes sense.
There has also been a move, by a few of the big names in the genre, away from historical romance – Sherry Thomas is one, and Kelly Bowen another – and I think Manda Collins has moved more towards light-hearted historical mysteries as well. And as we’ve seen over the past few months, traditional publishers are dropping their HR writers left, right and centre, and those include good, established writers like Caroline Linden and Kate Bateman.
I know those two ladies are turning to self-publishing so I hope to see more from them in future. There are a lot of newer HR authors out there who self-publish, but don’t submit their books to us for review – maybe we should put out a call to those authors to do that!
It’s certainly hard to get books from anyone who isn’t on Edelweiss these days. I’d love to figure out a way to reach more new authors.
Probably 95% of the books I review these days is self-published, and while now I have relationships with most of the authors I review, before it was a case of signing up to newsletters and checking social media for news.
I just released my first HR since 2009 and went the indie route, and I’m here to tell you, it’s a bear to market a book without a massive marketing budget. Maybe we need a way for authors to announce their new releases?
There is – authors use their websites and social media. (I know you mean one central place, but there isn’t one that I know of.) But for a site like ours, it means we’d have to subscribe to hundreds of newsletters and social media pages! Back in the day, we’d get lists of new releases from publishers, but that model is long gone, and the only way to really keep track is to follow individual authors.
I regularly receive ARCs from self-publishing authors, but I signed up to a lot of newsletters and facebook pages in order to work out whose books I wanted to read and review.
We’re open to submissions – we can’t guarantee a reviewer will pick up everything we’re offered, but it would be great to get the word out to HR authors that we’re keen to hear from them.
Thanks! I did send an ARC to Dabney at AAR, but yes, I know that does not guarantee a review.
Using social media and my website isn’t getting me very far, but that’s on me – I’m just not good at it yet. So many books are released every month – it’s easy to see how they just get lost.
I will mention in my HR groups that AAR is keen to hear from them. Hopefully we can see an uptick in our beloved genre. I love the big, sweeping Woodiwiss style books, and I’d love to see a big comeback of them.
We are, I hope, adding a couple of reviewers interested in HR. I’m hopeful we will be able to do more reviews of the genre.
That will be so great, I’m looking forward to it!
I’m going to request to review your novel in my next batch!
Oh my goodness, thank you so much!
I recently went to a talk by a historical fiction writer. Not romance. She said all of historical fiction is in decline, not just historical romance. General historical fiction got stuck in a World War II rut. That’s one theory. But it’s a long running problem this century. Another theory is younger readers feel like it’s homework to read historical fiction (general or romance). Regardless, it’s not very popular anymore. A pity since I love it.
It’s funny because it’s still being pubbed in droves.
Bookriot believes it is still going strong. https://bookriot.com/the-best-selling-historical-fiction-books-of-all-time/#:~:text=Historical%20fiction's%20popularity%20has%20remained%20solid%20since%20the%2019th,into%20another%20place%20in%20time.
I do buy that younger readers aren’t so wowed. But I think the genre is quite big right now in fiction.
For younger readers, I haven’t seen much movement from Romantasy/fantasy/sci/fi. It could just be my own preferences are interfering with what the algorithm feeds me, but from what I can see, since the Potter/Hunger Games era, that’s pretty much all they read. A few (very few) seem to be leaning into the Kpop/kdrama trend, but we’re talking minuscule numbers there.
Yes–although I see a some movement toward contemporary romance as well.
That’s ironically MY issue with HF – there were so many World War II-era novels coming out at once, so many holocaust narratives after The Tattooist of Auschwitz became a huge hit, that they all blended into a single blob for me.
I only started reading historical romance when I was in my late twenties it has become one of my favourite genres. :-)