As a child, I loved fantasy–The Chronicles of Prydain, The Dark is Rising Sequence, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, The Wrinkle in Time Quintet–these were books I read repeatedly, happily losing myself in a world of someone else’s extraordinary imagination. In high school, I began to read science fiction as well but, in college, I…
Almost exactly a year ago, I asked whether or not AAR should, as it typically does every five years, do a new Top 100 poll. As is the case with most questions, readers were split. They also made interesting suggestions. People love top 100 lists. Put in Top 100 Romances in Google search (AAR comes…
It’s fair to say I’m obsessed with ChatGPT. What’s that, you ask? Hmmm… let me try and explain. ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence bot that answers questions in fairly fluent language. It can answer almost any query in a way that sounds, depending on your standards, human and coherent. Its verbiage is authoritative, clear and,…
Now that 2022, is in the books, what did you notice about it in romance? From my perspective, there definitely were some trends. Here, in no particular order, are some things I think happened. Was it just me or were there a lot more cooking/reality TV based shows? Lead that struggled with mental illness seemed…
In 2022–including this one!–AAR has published 52 the ask@AAR columns. Many of these generated lots of comments. Readers had the most to say about their pet peeves in romance, trigger warnings in reviews, the election issues they felt the most passionately about, and romances that most love but that readers emphatically did not. Other topics…
Another year has flown by and–I can barely believe this–2023 is almost upon us. I’m super pumped for this coming year–my husband is going to retire and I can’t wait. But that’s not the only thing I’m looking forward to. Here, in no particular order, are 2023 events I’m excited for: The final season of…
Currently we have over two hundred reviews tagged as holiday romances. One, One Christmas Knight by Kathleen Creighton garnered one of our rare (55) A+reviews. There’s also an snarky F–our reviewer had nothing good to say about Johanna Linsey’s 2000 release, Home for the Holidays. We’ve Hanukkah love stories–I couldn’t find a Kwanza one which…
‘Tis the season to be jolly, right? 2022 was a reasonable year. It wasn’t the sh*tshow that 2020 was or filled with 2020 PTSD like 2021. Billions of vaccines were administered world wide, Michigan beat Ohio State for the second year in a row, all 50 states have now–finally–sent a woman to Washington, Wordle entered…
Hi there AAR readers! Happy December! The staff has begun submitting their Best of 2022 Lists. (I adore these–every year I discover great reads I missed!) I confess I’m having a hard time with mine. For whatever reasons, in the past year, I didn’t love many of the love stories I read. So, I’m asking…
It’s the Friday after Thanksgiving here in the US, a holiday famed for its abundant food, contested history, and familial arguments. I confess my family doesn’t fight at Thanksgiving–we leave most of our giant arguments for our annual summer vacation where we’re together for a week and have time to resolve most disputes. Thus I…
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