We had over 5000 votes in the past three rounds of the AAR Top 100 Romances Poll. From those, we have our list of our readers’ favorite one hundred romances. We’ll share it soon. That list will not have any rankings. We do, however, want to give our readers the chance to pick their top ten. So, we have one last survey for you!
We’ve taken the top fifty from the top 100 list and, from it, you get to pick your top romance. Yep. You get to pick one. This is the love story that if someone asked you to pick your favorite romance ever, you’d choose. (from this list of 50)
This poll will be up for one week. So vote! We can’t wait to see what you choose!
That was hard to do!
So how does this vote show up in the final? Are you doing a separate list of the top ten vote getters in this round.
This vote will determine the top ten. We will post those ten. We will also post a top 100 list.
There were only two books I would of chosen. I am a little stunned…..
Same for me. It was a really tough choice between my two, which for me stand out head and shoulders above the rest for their freshness, vivid sense of time and place and beautiful prose. And the way my heart broke for the characters and then was put back together again.
I haven’t read everything on the list, though, and some of them not for years; my memories may be unreliable. I can only say that most of my favourites from previous rounds didn’t make the top 50.
I reckon some readers are going to have far more choices to grapple with than I did.
Oh man!! I could have equally voted for at least 3 (maybe 4, 5) for my top favourites, and in the end, I went for the older more prolific choice that is still with me.
This took a little bit of doing for me too, but I think I picked wisely!
I agree with Mel – there were 2 that, for me, are everlasting, head and shoulders above the rest and most likely to be read 50+ years from now – one of which has been read for 150+ years (guess which!). For me, there were more than a few “airport reads” that I don’t believe will stand the test of time. A bit disappointing and too “of the moment” stuff here.
You said it perfectly. Thank you.
There are laws against cruel and unusual punishment! The Geneva Convention forbids this!
Sorry. Feeling a bit dramatic this morning. 🙂 Picking one was hard!
Hi All,
I sat down this morning and put the Top 50 in Author Alphabetical order for my own clarity. Perhaps others will find it helpful as well.
Burn for Me – Ilona Andrews
Magic Binds – Ilona Andrews
Wildfire – Ilona Andrews
White Hot – Ilona Andrews
The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie – Jennifer Ashley
Persuasion – Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
Slightly Dangerous – Mary Balogh
The Spymaster’s Lady – Joanna Bourne
Him – Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
A Seditious Affair – K.J. Charles
Lord of Scoundrels – Loretta Chase
Lord Perfect – Loretta Chase
An Extraordinary Union – Alyssa Cole
Bet Me – Jennie Crusie
Welcome to Temptation – Jennifer Crusie
A Week to Be Wicked – Tessa Dare
Radiance – Grace Draven
Outlander – Diana Gabaldon
The Bride – Julie Garwood
Flowers from the Storm – Laura Kinsale
Blue Eyed Devil – Lisa Kleypas
Devil in Winter – Lisa Kleypas
Dreaming of You – Lisa Kleypas
It Happened One Autumn – Lisa Kleypas
Marrying Winterborne – Lisa Kleypas
Nine Rules To Break When Romancing A Rake – Sarah MacLean
The Governess Affair – Courtney Milan
Act Like It – Lucy Parker
It Had to Be You – Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Nobody’s Baby But Mine – Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Ravished – Amanda Quick
The Duke and I – Julia Quinn
Romancing Mr. Bridgerton – Julia Quinn
The Viscount Who Loved Me – Julia Quinn
Hate To Want You – Alisha Rai
Beard Science – Penny Reid
Neaderthal Seeks Human – Penny Reid
Naked in Death – J.D. Robb
Angels Blood – Nalini Singh
Heart of Obsidian – Nalini Singh
Kiss of Snow – Nalini Singh
Slave to Sensation – Nalini Singh
Not Quite a Husband – Sherry Thomas
The Hating Game – Sally Thorne
Dark Lover – J.R. Ward
Lover Awakened – J.R. Ward
Kulti – Mariana Zapata
The Wall of Winnipeg and Me – Mariana Zapata
–Janie
I liked looking at the list this way. I’m struck by the new writers to make it since the last major poll five years ago:
Ilona Andrews, Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy, Grace Draven, KJ Charles, Alyssa Cole, Penny Reid, Lucy Parker, Alisha Rai, Sally Thorne, and Mariana Zapata .
Half of the these authors will be new to me this year as I do want to read all of them.
Thank you for doing this wonderful list, I nearly always enjoy it. But today has been difficult, how to chose just one when 7 of my all-times favourites are in this list!
It was cruel and difficult and, awful.
Even if the others are not of my liking I have to recognize that they are good books and I have seen wonderful reviews of nearly all of them. Nevertheless, three of them were quite out of my radar. I’m always surprised by my fellow readers.
Thankyou Janie for sorting out the list alphabetically by author name and Thankyou Blackjack for pointing out the authors who are new to the list.
Norma I agree with you : choosing was cruel and unusual punishment. Like Elaine, in the end I went for a title I believe will still be read in 150 years time.
Before this format was announced, I made a new list of my top 100 (as we used to submit). The book I ranked at number 1 was part of this top 50. Another book I had in my top 10 is also listed. But only 5 books total from my personal list are part of this top 50 and I don’t imagine the final list of 100 will have many others.
I realize the sorting is limited by the poll software, but I hope when the final list is posted here at AAR that it will be correctly alphabetized either by title or author.
It will be interesting to see what makes the final list and the top ten.
I liked almost all the books I’ve read that are in this list, only two I feel I would never, ever pick to be in a best of/top anything.
I haven’t read 13,
But…of all the ones I really loved, after all this time, there could be only one choice for me, I think the one I chose is timeless, unforgettable, will last for all eternity as one of the best, I’m sure.
I wish P&P wasn’t on the list. I view Austen as in her own special universe. Once I eliminated her, I was down to 2 favorites. Tough choice – glad that’s over!
Yes, I feel like classics such as anything by Austen or Bronte, should be excluded. Perhaps they should just be in some “emeritus” type of category? It’s impossible to seriously exclude them, yet it’s also impossible to judge them with the same criteria as contemporary (late 20th century / 21st century) romances.
We hoped we would lessen their impact by limiting the choice to one. They tend to be on everyone’s list but not everyone’s FAVORITE romance.
Blackjack and Frances, you’re welcome for the list. 🙂
I’ve read 23 of the Top 50, two of them are in the new-to-the-list part and I would not have included them at all as being especially memorable.
I really need to read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I voted for them before to be included just because they have stood the test of time. But when the vote was down to Just One, I went with a sentimental favorite that still gives me happy memories.
–Janie
Pride and Prejudice is not a romance, though it does have romantic elements and ends in an HEA for Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. Austen was a contemporary writer, writing about the trials and tribulations of her era, not romanticising it, unlike the Bronte sisters who, imo, did fantasise and romanticise about changing their dire circumstances. Timeless classics they are (and are studied inside and out) but, imho, I do not define these authors/and their books as romance.
We hear you. But many many readers say it’s their favorite romance so go figure.
I always find this quite an interesting argument; because contemporary romance writers of today are also writing about their own society and social mores and the way in which relationships affect people’s lives, just as Jane Austen was in her day. And like modern contemporary romances, Pride and Prejudice is primarily the story of a young woman and a young man, and the conflict between them and from the people around them, that, yes, ultimately ends in a happy-ever-after. So, I would personally argue that Pride & Prejudice *is* a romance, by my definition of the word. 🙂
Just, with total respect for different opinions (and in *no way* taking away from Jane Austen’s books as literary classics, which I think they deservedly are), I kind of feel like setting them apart from romance novels backs up the persisting idea that romance novels are not Real Literature, that they’re by definition Less Than. Less important, less impactful, less well-written. And from what I’ve always understood, Austen’s novels in her own time were also considered as Not Real Literature, but romantic diversion primarily for women, so it seems like she too would have had that struggle to have her work recognised as legitimate art.
Not suggesting, by the way, that modern contemporary romance has to be only between a young man and a young woman!