YOU MUST ADD YOUR CHOICES TO THE SURVEY. WE WILL NOT BE ADDING THEM FROM THE COMMENTS.
We are slowly creating a list of books that will be on the final AAR Top 100 poll. The 2024 will be made up from four sources. We will take the top 50 from the results from our current poll asking which books from our 2018 list should stay. We will add all the books AAR reviewers have picked as THE BEST of from the past six years. We will also be soliciting our reviewers for any reads they are adamant should be on the list and will add books readers nominate in high numbers.
Here is your chance to do the latter. Please add up to TEN books you, as a romance reader, feel should be included in the 2024 poll. Enter them like this: TITLE by AUTHOR. Separate your entries by commas or returns. We will keep track of the books you nominate and the top 50 books that readers nominate the most will be included on the poll.
I suggest nominating books that are NOT on the 2018 AAR Top 100 List. But, if there’s a book you feel strongly about that is not on the current top 50 from that list, you are welcome to nominate it. (Here are the top 50 books that readers have picked to stay.)
Here is the link to the Reader Nominated Survey. Or you may use the form below.
And, if you’re up for it, share what you added. You may inspire others!
Create your own user feedback survey
Here were the ones I entered:
Black Ice by Anne Stuart
Forever Your Rogue by Erin Langston
Sleepover by Serena Bell
Ten Things I Hate About the Duke by Loretta Chase
Dukes Are Forever by Bec McMasters
Uncommon Passion by Anne Calhoun
Love and Other Scandals by Caroline Linden
Beautiful Wreck by Larissa Brown
“will add books readers nominate in high numbers.”
There is no perfect system and I’m not trying to be critical of anyone, honestly, but it’s a little discouraging for those of us who read very little m/f historical romance. I realize that’s a minority of us, but not a huge minority. The problem those of us who read other than HR (and other than m/f) read a LOT of different types of books, making coming up with a consensus much more difficult. For example I might nominate one book by Jay Hogan, and other people will nominate different books by that author, because she’s had at least nine winners in a row in the past three or four years, something few authors can boast. Since fewer people read m/m, we’d all probably need to nominate the SAME book by Jay Hogan to have any hope of getting one on the final voting list. I’d be happy to vote for any of the last 9 books that author has written, but probably won’t get the chance. I can say the same for C.S. Poe, KJ Charles and Nicky James.
M/m readers have years of outstanding books that probably won’t get any representation in part because, with so many outstanding books, we dilute our own nominations.
And Dabney, I get that this is “a reader’s poll and we just take what is nominated.” I know that. I’m saying while it might represent the “majority” of AAR readers, I think there’s a significant minority that doesn’t end up getting any (or a token) representation. Honestly, I’m discouraged enough about it wonder if I should even try to nominate books.
FWIW, I won’t be nominating anything. There is no point. Without a conversation about, say, “best romantic suspense”, everyone will nominate a different book.
The best hope for representation in a Top 100 list for any other subgenre or “new” author is to vote for titles that will be included from the Best Of lists – those are the books likely to have been read by enough AAR readers to generate enough votes to make the final ballot. (Although, even that may become totally diluted. 10 books per reviewer per year – that is 50 or 60 books per reviewer that will make the ballot. Imagine how many Gregory Ashe titles will be on the ballot based on Caz’s lists alone. (And this is not a slight of Caz’s choices or Ashe as an author. It’s just how this is going to work.)
I don’t think Dabney’s using individual Best Of lists. I think she’s using the the ONE BEST List: the one book each reviewer has picked as the best of the year from the past 6 years, so 6 books per reviewer. At least that’s how I read it.
“We will add all the books AAR reviewers have picked as THE BEST of from the past six years.”
So yeah. Those of us who want to hopefully see a few MM titles on the list may need to go to the Agora Forum and have a pow-wow! 🙂 (We could have Caz list those 6 books and also nominate the ones from the list that we like!)
Can everyone post to the Agora Forums these days? I know I can but I’m a WordPress subscriber, and have no problem logging in.
If everyone has access, I’m up for having the conversations there. Even if nothing ends up on the Top 100 list from it, it would be a way for readers to kind of create some Best Of lists within some specific subgenres.
I’m not sure how it works now as I don’t often go over there, but I think that if you can log in at the site, you should be able to comment at the forums.
Yes, that’s the way it is for me.
The books will be chosen from the “Best of the Best” lists where each reviewer gets to choose ONE book. My six are:
2023 – Until You by Briar Prescott
2022 – Subway Slayings by CS Poe
2021 – King’s Man by Sally Malcolm
2020 – The Same Breath by Gregory Ashe
2019 – The Rational Faculty by Gregory Ashe
2018 – One Eyed Royals by Cordelia Kingsbridge
So no Jay Hogan, no Nicky James, no KJC, no Alexis Hall etc. who all had outstanding books but just didn’t happen to be my book of the year that year.
Got it. That will make the number of ballot entries more manageable for sure. But interesting side effects as well. Each of your authors are generally excellent, although I only know about the one series by Kingsbridge. But not having KJC or Alexis Hall on the list of possibilities seems like a particularly egregious oversight. Surely there is a KJC title that deserves any one of Chase’ or Kleypas’ many slots . . .
That was exactly the point I was making at another thread when I wrote about so many of the old favourites meaning there’s no space for new, excellent books. Starting a list from scratch is not feasible given the way the market is so fragmented these days, so we need to do it differently. But having so many books by the same authors doesn’t make for a particularly exciting list.
Exciting is in the eye of the reader.
I was going to post something on the Agora Forums but wasn’t sure which bucket to start the conversation in. There is a bucket for “Five Favorites” that seems to be the logical place to me, even if we expand the specific thread there to be top 10 or top 20. What do you all think?
You could just start a new topic? Then it’ll be easy to find and won’t get mixed up with other threads.
You’re both right. With such a large number of outstanding m/m books published in the last 5 years, voting individually is just going to fragment the choices so none make the final ballot. The same goes for books by AoC, which are similarly absent from the initial list of 50, and which probably don’t feature heavily in the Best of the Best lists either (although maybe more than m/m as most of the books by AoC we review are m/f).
I’ve been saying for years that and been called a troll for it, but the way the polls to determine the top 100 are run is a ludicrous game. It’s just going to be another repetition of what happened before that got this website in so much trouble in the first place, another list of white, homogenized, straight HR that doesn’t reflect how much the scene has changed over the years and the same 10 books making the top ten. And no, I won’t be nominating anything either.
Not nominating makes us all poorer for not having your views. So, I wish you would. I wish many would, I will, though I find it hard to do, for my own reasons.
I get the frustration, on the other hand, the list reflects – warts and all – what the voting persons here, us hopefully among them, love. Making it into something else would also be wrong.
I am a very long standing romance reader, so some old old loves are on the “oldies” list. On my nominations, Cat Sebastian also will be there, We Could be So Good, and KJ Charles, still uncertain which.
The problem is my ten votes won’t do anything to push any of the smaller works I’d be interested in seeing on the list into eligibility.
I agree.
It is a labor that may be wasted.
Two effects:
1. Many readers, like me, actively look and compare and sample books that others recommend here. So you DO something for visibility of your best books.
2. I am waiting a bit with my nominations so I can make my vote count best. For a few authors, I do not have one favorite, so if I see many people posting their lists here, I can decide which book I choose for stronger impact. Or remember an outstanding book that I simply forgot, or even read a book now and have a new best.
I am aware that this is just a little bit, and probably will not change the overall picture, but doing my bit, I make clarity possible on what we each want.
Not doing it means my best books go totally unheard.
For now, my one fixed decision is:
Cat Sebastian’s – We Could be so Good
Very probable
R. Cooper – Taji from beyond the Rings (mm SF romance)
Strong contenders:
Lilah Pace – His Royal Favorite
Deal Maker – Lily Morton
Alyssa Cole – Princess in Theory
Thea Harrison – Dragon Bound
Everina Maxwell – Winter’s Orbit
Alexandra Rowland – A Taste of Gold and Iron
But I am still waiting, to see if something comes up.
I understand the sentiment, in fact I said it in this very thread ear;lier. But I decided I was wrong, and participation in this kind of process is never a waste, even if the outcomes don’t align with my own. Not participating just silences my voice. Just having the discussion here furthers the visibility of LGBTQ and POC romance books.
If any of the book Dabney just listed as getting most nominations so far are on your list, then it won’t be a waste of your nomination to add them, too. The more people who nominate them, the better.
For me it’s about using my “voice” even if it isn’t the loudest one in the room, if for no other reason than to let others know they’re not alone. Since 2018, LGBTQ romances, and POC authors and characters, have gained more visability and popularity. The discussion here proves that even if it’s a minority, a lot more people now read those books. So discussing it, recommending books, etc., not only helps us connect with other like-minded readers, but might tempt others to give some of our most loved books a try.
I don’t think you’re a troll 🙂 I, too, worry that we’ll find ourselves in the same boat as last time. But on the other hand, we can’t tell our readers how to vote. It’s a gnarly problem.
Again, I am willing to respect our readers.
Thank you!
There are lots of lists in the world. Some of them will reflect mainstream views. Others will reflect different values.
I suspect you are right–this list will not reflect what you love or what Caz loves or what some others love.
And that should be OK. It’s just one list.
As I’ve said, I think it’s high time AAR made a Reviewers Top 100 List.
We have the Oscars today and, overall, the movies that win there are never the ones that bazillions of people love. Those movies are picked by critics not audiences. We also have the People’s Choice awards and box office totals. All are valid–entertainment is multi-faceted.
The AAR Top 100 List is a democratic list and, just like most democratic voting, legions of people will not see their choices validated.
But submitting your choices is important. It informs the site and you can be damn sure, when I write about the survey, I’ll devote lines to the more diverse books that while not picked by the majority, had impassioned fans.
It may be “just one list” Dabney. But it is the list that represents AAR’s brand out in the world.
I LOVE the idea of a Top 100 reviewers list. I take note of all your DIKAs, and the annual ‘BEST of’ lists but anyway, I want to see which books among those you like most. Next year, perhaps?
For those interested, I just started a topic under the Let’s Talk Romance folder in Angora. The topic is Favorite M/M and/or POC books. If nothing else it will be nice to share our book lists! 🙂
Great! Thanks!
And I just put a bunch under “Five Favorites” since that bucket is sort of about lists of favorites . . . . (doh!)
Dabney, can you combine these into one of your Agora “buckets”?
I have read through all the commentary and concerns about this poll but I’m just going to nominate some books anyway. I’ll list them below in case anyone else decides to support them too. As the current top 50 is historical heavy, I picked all contemporaries:
Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid
Rule Breaker by Lily Morton
Until You by Briar Prescott
Perfect by Sally Malcolm
Him by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy
Beautiful Hearts by Jax Calder
Something Wild & Wonderful by Anita Kelly
Managed by Kristen Callihan
Reckless by Elsie Silver
Thank you, dear Manjari, for Rule Breaker!
I am still searching for my list, and this is definitely a candidate.
Manjari, did you mean Perfect Day by Sally Malcolm? You might want to have Dabney note the change. That is one of my favorites as well.
I am not going to pull entries from here. If you want your entry to be included, put it in the survey!
Yikes! I did mean Perfect Day and now I’m not sure if I entered it correctly on the form! I will enter that one title again and hopefully Dabney can make the correction.
I can never login to Agora forum; I always get the message I am not allowed to view the content or something like that.
Actually, I cannot even login to the site.
I will send you a new password to the email here.
These books are the ten I chose. They are some of my favourite books and also diverse in genre, length and style.
A HEART OF BLOOD AND ASHES by Milla Vane
A SEDITIOUS AFFAIR by KJ Charles
BLOCK SHOT by Kennedy Ryan
FOR MY LADY’S HEART by Laura Kinsale
HEADLINERS by Lucy Parker
HEATED RIVALRY by Rachel Reid
SEE JANE SCORE by Rachel Gibson
SLOW HEAT IN HEAVEN by Sandra Brown
THE IRON DUKE by Meljean Brook
WHISPER by Tal Bauer
I admit that it wad hard to chose among my five-star romance novels. I tried to be diverse. I think these are the books that I would recommend to someone who starts reading romance and wants something good and special. Depending of their base tastes I would recommend one or the other. If you are into historical novels, I’d suggest Kinsale, if you love thrillers, Tal Bauer, if you like rom-com with an enemies vibe, Lucy Parker, and so on.
For those of you looking at the survey, I’m not sure if I’ve sent them one or twice, I tell you because perhaps you find this list duplicated.
As a reader & lover of AAR since, let’s say decades ago, this list has helped me so much through the years that I can only say – thank you for trying to make a workable list, again.
I don’t expect it to reflect all the books I like. Surely, O’ll see some books that I dislike, but I respect and accept that many readers love those books. I’d like to see more thrillers or romantic suspense, but I understand that it’s more difficult to find consensus about titles in these genres. Tolerance is that, accepting that other people’s tastes are different than yours.
Moreover, it’s just A list, not THE list.
So, yes, I understand concerns about diversity. But I consider myself quite the average reader of AAR in my tastes and, if you see three out of the ten romances I chose are MM romances, and I think each book is of a different genre or at least, different style or tone in the same genre. The only thing in me different from the majority of AAR readers is that I’m not from the US, but from Spain (Europe), but I don’t know if that changes anything. So thank you for your effort. The list will be helpful for many readers, while others will be disappointed, that’s life and can’t be avoided. What I hope is that, at least, everybody will respect your work. I do.
I think you are doing an awesome –and hard– work.
Well said!
Thank you
Completely agree!
Okay, I’m not nominating any of my Best of the Best books as they will already be on the list and I’m assuming I can’t vote for the same books twice. (Those titles include King’s Man by Sally Malcolm, Subway Slayings by CS Poe and Until You by Briar Prescott.)
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
A Seditious Affair and An Unnatural Vice by KJ Charles
In Step by Jay Hogan
Where Death Meets the Devil by LJ Hayward
Defying Logic by Nicky James (I hate picking just one book of a same-couple series!)
Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid
Proper Scoundrels by Allie Therin
We Should Be So Good by Cat Sebastian
The Same Breath by Gregory Ashe (ditto picking one book our of a series)
Right now I’m leaning toward:
In Step
A Seditious Affair
Defying Logic
Heated Rivalry
Proper Scoundrels
We Should Be So Good
Rule Breaker
I’m thinking about American Love Story by Adriana Herrera. I love that book, but don’t know how popular it is. Maybe also Best Supporting Actor by Joanna Chambers and Sally Malcolm. It’s the best of that series, so emotional.
My favorite m/f’s will probably be covered, but I might add
A Dangerous Kind of Lady by Mia Vincy
Dabney, I’m curious. Have you decided how many books will be on the official poll? And how many we can vote for? Once again, thank you for doing this. I realize that the results will reflect the larger group of AAR readers, as well as others who drop in simply to do the poll and put in their two cents. I don’t expect the results to necessarily reflect my interests, but I really hope that folks come through with a diversity of titles that will speak to younger generations of romance readers.
I am thinking I’ll add all the main Best of Lists since the last poll. That will be around 50-75 books. Then I’ll add the top 50 picked from the last list. Then I’ll add the top 50-100 from reader nominated books. I’d like the poll to have around 250 books give or take.
That’s a good number, and the Best of lists will provide some diversity as well as the reader-nominated books. Good luck!
Thank you.
I’m hoping we get more than 10 votes! At least 20 or 30?
These were my picks for Top 10 since 2018 or so:
Ali Hazelwood, The Love Hypothesis
Tia Williams, Seven Days in June
Megan Bannen, The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy
Helen Huang, The Kiss Quotient
Abby Jimenez, Part of Your World
Kate Clayborn, Love Lettering
Sherry Thomas, A Study in Scarlet Women
Mia Vincy, A Wicked Kind of Husband
Beth O’Leary, The Flatshare
Talia Hibbert, A Girl Like Her
I guess it could be argued that A Study in Scarlet Women isn’t a romance, but I had to include it.
Make sure you add them to the survey. We will not be pulling from the comments.
I did! I just wanted to put some ideas out there. 🙂
(Just realized I spelled Helen Hoang’s name wrong. My apologies!)
That’s great. I just want to be sure I’m clear on how the process works.
When I started reading romance novels four years ago, I used AAR and the 2018 list as the navigational tools to guide me to the ‘best’ in the genre. So I read many books by Lisa Kleypas, Loretta Chase, Penny Reid, Mary Balogh and other favored authors. Needless to say, the romances are all almost white (even m/m), mostly heterosexual, mostly historical and with a heavy traditional ‘love and marriage and a baby in a carriage’ vibe. Book review sections everywhere are increasingly more diverse especially regarding AOCs. It seems to me that romancelandia is still stuck in the last century.
Question: Why are there no f/f reviews?
Having said my 2cw, here is my slim pickings:
1. Courtney Milan: Talk Sweetly to Me
2. Uzma Jalaluddin: Hana Khan Carries on
3. Brendan Slocum: Symphony of Secrets
4. Stella Riley: Black Madonna
5. KJ Charles: A Seditious Affair
Answered the survey too
Thanks!
We have 66 f/f reviews tagged as such. I suspect there are more just tagged as queer romance.
Our first tagged one is from 2016. The first by a trad publisher is from 2018.
Search by tags for f/f.
Rough crowd here.
Poor Dabney–no way to win here.
Let all have a voice and AAR is racist, anti-gay, yada yada yada.
Let the SJWs win and what most of AAR is ignored.
Dumb.
Not at all. Dabney is planning to have a 250 books list. I am sure she is listening to everything we are saying and I think it will be great.
Just to clarify–there will be up to 250 book on the poll. The list will still just be 100.
I get it.
Cool. Just want to be as transparent as possible!
I am confident in my path. No worries.
Wow. We have a very polite discussion and get this response? Interesting.
> Uses their sole comment about this poll to barge into an otherwise civilized discussion to complain about the ~mean SJWs forcing horrible diversity into things, while not offering up your own votes.
The Heiress Effect by Courtney Milan
A Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
Along Came Trouble by Ruthie Knox
Phoenix Unbound by Grace Draven
Forget Me Not by Julie Soto
Float Plan by Trish Doller
A Hope Divided by Alyssa Cole
A Girl Like Her by Talia Hibbert
The Black Hawk by Joanna Bourne
Dabney, when does this phase of the poll close?
I plan to close both poll by the end of the month.
I then hope to have the final survey put together by the end of May.
Thank you to all the readers posting their nominations! I will nominate the following and hope a few make it to the final poll. Yay!
A Seditious Affair by KJ Charles (2016)
Deal Maker by Lily Morton (2018)
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang (2018)
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall (2020)
Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid (2019)
The Trouble With Hating You by Sajni Patel (2020)
Defying Logic by Nicky James (2023)
Proper Scoundrels by Allie Therin (2021)
You Made a Fool of Death with your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi (2022)
Great list, thank you! I can get behind a lot of those. 🙂
So, thus far for the first 24 hours of this survey, only two books have been mentioned more than twice and there are 100 books suggested.
Dabney says somewhere (I can’t find it, sorry!) they’ll be doing a Reviewers favorites list, and that should be a really fun list to look over. I look forward to it!
At some point in the future!
Oh, yes! Yes! What a great idea!
Here are the titles I submitted,FWIW:
The Marriage Season by Jane Dunn
A Marriage is Arranged by G L Robinson
The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser
Celia by Sophie Holloway
The Chaperone by Sophie Holloway
Unorthodox Love by Heidi Shertok
The Translator by Harriet Crawley
Highland Games by Evie Alexander
A Complicated Matter by Anne Youngson
Dark Highland Skies by Lizzie Lamb
Bookshop of Second Chances is so good!
These are what I submitted:
A Rake’s Reform by Cindy Holbrook
Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer
The Secret by Julie Garwood
The Mad Miss Mathley by Michelle Martin
Christmas Wishes by Barbara Metzger
Restoree by Anne McCaffrey
Elyza by Clare Darcy
The Duke’s Downfall by Jane Lynson
Laugh With Me, Love With Me by Lee Damon
The League of Gentlewomen Witches by India Holton
All but the last are from a list of my most-reread books that I worked up a few years ago ( http://www.ccrsdodona.org/markmuse/reading/mostread.html ), cut down to one book per author. I also looked at my highest ratings for books read since I worked up that list, but chose not to use recent single reads to replace multiple rereads if just looking at the title & author didn’t immediately bring the specific book to mind. Between bland titles and books in long series, very few recent reads passed that test.
Yes, Mark, you phrased it well:
Memorable is the minimum which a book has to pass for me, too.
I have a similar experience with more recent books, so newer types of books – which are not yet as generic /tropey – such as m/m, or some kinds of urban PN, SF or fantasy, make up a lot of my newer “best books”.
The suggestions thus far are varied. Here are the top 12 with the most votes thus far:
And remember, we will add the top 50 to the poll.
I’ve been excited to see what people are nominating in the posts below and glad to see at least a handful of newer titles and authors with more than 2 nominations. I’m also wondering how you are going to get to 50, if everything else has only 1 or 2 votes. You let us pick 50 from the last Top 100. How hard was that list to compile? Would it be possible for us to vote on a list of these nominations as well if there are not 50 clear favorites?
I’m going to take the top 50 picks. If there are three at the end that all have the same number, I’ll add them all.
Right now, there are only 30 books with more than one vote. If that didn’t change, I’d just add the 30.
Update:
Readers have suggested more than 500 books. Here are the ones with THREE or more nominations:
There are a lot of great books on there that I’d vote for. I know it could change, but it’s heartening. (FYI, the book by Sally Malcom, #57 is Perfect Day.) I’m so glad to see The Iron Duke, Venetia, The Black Madonna, and Headliners. I’m a little amazed that The Sunny Side would be prefered over Rule Breaker or a couple other Lily Morton books, but there you are. I didn’t have room on my list to add Something Wild and Wonderful, or a couple of the KJ Charles books, but it’s a nice to see them there.
I am sorry to see In Step by Jay Hogan drop off the list, because it’s a fantastic book, and she’s an author who just keeps turning out excellent stories.
Lily Morton has yet to top Rule Breaker IMO, and I agree about Jay Hogan – she’s one of the best CR authors of the last 5-10 years. Fingers crossed for a few more votes going her way.
I voted Rule Breaker but I think Almost Felix is a very close runner up and I’m not mad about The Sunny Side, which I really liked too.
After Felix might be my second favorite Lily Morton book. I also really enjoy Deal Maker and Risk Taker. The Sunny Side was enjoyable, especially on audio, but didn’t have the emotional impact of some of her others.
I loved The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren, but I also loved their Josh and Hazel book, so it was a toss up. I’d be happy with either.
It’s fascinating to see which books by authors are chosen as favorites since they often aren’t mine. For example, my favorite Heyer is THE QUIET GENTLEMAN, which no one ever seems to mention.
This is one reason books have to be out for a long time to make it to the top of Best lists. AAR readers may love Heyer or Charles or Hall but it takes a large group a long time to agree what book of theirs may be the best.
I have so many “favorites” by Heyer it’s difficult to mention them all, but I really love A Quiet Gentleman!
Dabney, does the spreadsheet that you posted a few months ago where people could list books for the poll play any role in developing the poll?
This is the one I’m referring to: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1633JTlk2Dg1smuuA2ECt9KTRJay83O9C70X3CvPxdmU/edit?usp=sharing
Most of the books on that list that have more than three votes are already on one of our lists.
Here are the 10 books I submitted. I tried to emphasize books in the last 6 years although I did include a few that are older and probably won’t go anywhere but I couldn’t help myself:
IT HAPPENED ONE WEDDING by JULIE JAMES
MATCH ME IF YOU CAN by SUSAN ELIZABETH PHILLIPS
HOW TO TAME A WILD ROGUE by JULIE ANNE LONG
THE BARGAIN by MARY JO PUTNEY
RED, WHITE, AND ROYAL BLUE by CASEY MCQUISTON
A WICKED KIND OF HUSBAND by MIA VINCY
BOOK LOVERS by EMILY HENRY
LADY DERRING TAKES A LOVER by JULIE ANNE LONG
THE BEAST OF BESWICK by AMALIE HOWARD
THE DUKE’S RULES OF ENGAGEMENT by JENNIFER HAYMORE
OMG, I can’t believe I forgot Red White and Royal Blue,
Hopefully it will get onto the poll. I’m 100% sure there’s some obvious book that I forgot about.
The following were the ten I submitted. I left off one that I really love but I’ve never seen mentioned by others: Happily Letter After by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward.
(Also *something* from Abby Jimenez should be included since she’s so darn popular, but I’ve only read her first two, so I’ve included the one I liked the best of those two. I suppose something from Ali Hazelwood should also be included but I’ve never read her.)
1.Beach Read by Emily Henry
2.Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez
3.Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren
4.A Matter of Class by Mary Balogh
5.Paradise by Judith McNaught
6.Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center
7.The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
8.What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon
9.Mariana by Susanna Kearsley
10.Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella
I adored Judith McNaught back in the day and agree that Paradise is a classic!
I loved paradise so much and I cannot read it anymore!
The manipulative father and how she keeps appeasing and forgiving him —- just breaks my heart and totally ruins the book for me.
I am really sad to have lost this book – in the sense of being unable to read it today with pleasure.
This on-going discussion is very interesting and seems to show very wide tastes and, seemingly, few overlaps submitted. When I entered my list for the purposes of Dabney’s enquiry, I focused on books that were “new to me”, books I really enjoyed and confined my list to books read in the last 12 months. However, if I were asked to submit my Top 10 for the proverbial desert island, none of them would be on it. I wonder if anyone else felt that way when submitting their list?
Yes, the lists would be different for me. Since we are (theoretically) talking about only having access to 10 books, I’d pick long involved stories. Plus they probably wouldn’t all be romances.
But perhaps more importantly, I picked my ten for this based on what I already knew would most likely be on the list. In other words, I didn’t nominate books I knew were already a shoe-in, so that skews my list right from the start. I suspect that true for most people. I didn’t pick any m/f books because I know many of my favorites are already on the list (from things Dabney has posted), and the few that aren’t weren’t going to make it. (It seems my favorite books by popular authors like Loretta Chase differs from the majority of readers here at AAR, which is fine.)
So I wasn’t really trying to nominate my personal Top 10 list of all romance books (which I would find very stressful if not impossible). Instead I posted books I felt to be A to A+ romances that deserved to be considered in the Top 100.
Well, you get ten, but I’ll take the top 50 from the reader nominations.
I’m not sure what it is I said that you’re respondng to here. You’ve posted a list of what books were already on the list that were voted to stay, and that the Best of the Best for the past 6 years from reviewers would be on the final list, so those lists have influenced which books I nominated. I didn’t nominate any books I already knew, or was pretty sure, was already going to make the list through one of these channels. I then looked at the books other people whose tastes closely match mine said they were going to nominate, and when I agreed with them, I also tried to nominate the same books. (For example, I might have several favorites by an author, but when I saw multiple people pick one of those books, I also nominated the same title.)
I’m just hoping some of my ten end up in the top 50.
Yes, each person gets ten, but we will have 50 from this process. I just want to make sure that’s clear.
Do not mean to offend but to be honest, I only have a confused understanding of the nomination and selection process. I only know that of the five books I had nominated, only two have a slim chance of making to the 250 list and probably none at all to the top 100. Whichever way the final list is made, it will be an interesting reveal.
OK:
We will take the top 50 chosen from the last Top 100 poll done in 2018.
http://allaboutromance.com/the-askaar-which-books-currently-on-the-top-100-list-should-we-include-in-the-new-survey-which-should-we-not/
We will add in the top 50 chosen from the reader nominated list.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ReaderNominations
We will take all the books chosen by reviewers in our BEST of lists from 2018 on. This will just be from the list where each reviewer picks one, not their individual lists.
If there are others from the top 50 choices from the spreadsheet not on any of these lists, they will be added in.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1633JTlk2Dg1smuuA2ECt9KTRJay83O9C70X3CvPxdmU/edit?usp=sharing
Does that help?
How do the above add upto 250 from which top 100 will come out?
I’m not stuck on a number for the poll. If these numbers don’t get us to 250, I’ll add more from the lists.
Will the full list of nominated books be released? I know it will be long, but I would still want to see it!
Also, if you need help organizing the list in order to release it, I volunteer.
I have a Master’s in IT, and have far too much free time since I graduated in Dec. So I have the time and the skills!
Sarah,
That might work! Please email me at my name at allaboutromance.com.
It’s a really long list but I can probably do that!
Thanks!
I threw my hat in the ring for these. I don’t expect any of them to make the final list, but it’s still kind of a fun exercise to nominate titles I think are deserving.
For My Lady’s Heart by Laura Kinsale
A Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant
The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite (I will be shocked if any f/f titles are on the final list, which I have feelings about as a queer woman, but it is what it is. This has been an issue I’ve seen in romance since my fanfiction days as a teen.)
Nightfire by Valerie Vayle (this book has 3 reviews on Goodreads so lol at me for nominating it, but it was the biggest revelation I read in the last year. I had to name it.)
The Portrait by Megan Chance
Ravishing the Heiress by Sherry Thomas
The Secret Pearl by Mary Balogh
To Have and to Hold by Patricia Gaffney
Topaz by Beverly Jenkins
Great choices Angela!
Thanks! They’re a mishmash of beautifully written historicals that make me feel deeply, which is my personal sweet spot in romance.
The Secret Pearl is my DIK Balogh.
Same here!
Valerie Valle does not seem to exist in Kindle, otherwise I would have tried her.
I don’t think any books under that name are available in ebook format, unfortunately. One of my favorite hobbies is collecting vintage paperbacks (I know I’m a little weird!), which is how I discovered that one in a used bookstore. I was only familiar with it because an internet friend who also collects old romances posted about it a couple of years back. It is available to borrow on archive.org, but I think that’s the only way to access it in electronic format.
The Valerie Vayle pen name has sort of an interesting backstory; there are five titles in total, and the first three were a collaboration between Jill Churchill aka Janice Young Brooks and Jean Brooks-Janowiak. The last two, including Nightfire, were written by Brooks-Janowiak alone — then she apparently decided to retire the name, and it quickly faded into obscurity. The last mention I can find of her is a Tudor historical she wrote in 1989 under the name Anne Merton Abbey. One reason Nightfire was such a memorable read for me is because of its relative strangeness as a romance, which may have negatively impacted its sales back in 1986 (I can’t say for sure because I don’t know how to discover that information, and the book was published before I was born). Read today, it’s strikingly emotional, humanist, and imho, has aged beautifully compared to a few other better remembered historical romances published around the same time.
Please forgive the nerdiness!
I love nerdiness! Do not apologize for that!
I fell down another rabbit hole myself trying to find whether anyone was selling the book used – had fun with that.
Thank you for your answers.
I posted a long comment about Nightfire and the Valerie Vayle pen name that got marked as spam (I should take that as a sign not to be such a nerd!), but in sum, I don’t believe there are any ebook editions, unfortunately. Nightfire is available to borrow digitally on the Internet Archive, but apart from that, I lucked out in finding a paperback copy at a used bookstore. I would love to see it reissued since I really think it’s special, but probably no chance of that happening.
I have rescued it!
I wonder if that should be another poll: Top 50 favorite romances no one has heard of? (Trying to find a legal copy of Nightfire ….)
This was really hard! I ended up not including any Sherry Thomas because she’s writing the Lady Sherlock series now, but now I wonder if I regret my choice…(The Hollow of Fear would be my choice)
I also would love to see POC MCs/authors represented in the final list, but looking at my Storygraph ratings, I need to keep experimenting myself.
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
I’m Only Wicked with You by Julie Anne Long
Sweep of the Blade by Ilona Andrews
A Wicked Kind of Husband by Mia Vincy
Team Player by Julianna Keyes
The Austen Playbook by Lucy Parker
Love and Other Scandals by Caroline Linden
Unmasking Miss Appleby by Emily Larkin
Lovely list. I’m assuming you put them on the survey!
Ok, here goes my list:
I finally did a bit of everything, listed my best of the best, listed a couple of utterly beloved books that I suspect will not get more than my nomination (Katherine Kingsley?? I think), listed a lot of impressive to me new titles, did not list a couple that will be on the list anyway (Lord of Scoundrels, Lucy Parker, Alexis Hall), accepted that I will regret or remember a book just when I press send – and there we go:
We Could be so Good, Cat Sebastian
Taji from Beyond the Rings, R. Cooper
Rule Breaker, Lily Morton
Think of England, KJ Charles
Miss Chartley’s Guided Tour, Carla Kelly
Princess in Theory, Alyssa Cole
Rope Dancer, Roberta Ellis
A Taste of Gold and Iron, Alexandra Rowland
Dragon Bound, Thea Harrison
A Natural Attachment, Katherine Kingsley
Thank you everyone, the debate and the thought we all put into this was already so interesting, the journey to get here has already been so much fun, and we are not done yet :-))