Welcome to the new All About Romance! We’ve changed our Home page, added a way for you to keep track of the books you love–Bookmarks–and improved our backend coding. We hope you like it!
Please let us know any feedback as well as any other changes you’d like to see!
I’ve just finished reading Pachinko which I loved. It’s a multigenerational tale of Koreans living in Japan during the 20th and 21st centuries. One of the themes the novel explores is whether or not your nationality/race/ancestors define who you are. Lee, the author, makes a strong case that in places of great prejudice, it does….
It’s that time of year where everyone–NO, Spotify, I am not 72!–makes, shares, and reads endless Best of Lists. Over the next few weeks, you’ll see more of our Best of Lists, serving up our choices for best books published in 20205. Today, though, I thought I’d share a rather random lists of Best. These…
Last night, as I was tried to fall asleep, I was distracted. I was, I realized, irate. I’d just stayed up past my bedtime reading a book by an author whose books I have loved. This one, well, I wouldn’t say I hated it but I just about did. Now reading books I don’t like…
I’ve spent the past two weeks first moving and then unpacking and unpacking and unpacking. I have the bandwidth of a plinth and the patience of a nap-deprived toddler. I’d could us a good, easy laugh. What have you got? What’s the funniest romance you’ve ever read?
Right now, Dennis Lehane’s incredible Small Mercies is on sale. Set in Boston in the summer of 1974 and focused on the city’s violent response to the forced integration of the city’s schools, it’s not for the sensitive reader. The main character, Mary Pat, is a bitter, alcoholic, racist who, when her daughter vanishes, takes…
We listen to you, we really do. And we’ve noticed that you, along with several of our reviewers, aren’t all that happy with most – not all, but most – of the historical romance that’s been published in the past year or so. Using our Power Search feature, we looked at all the Historical Romance…
It always feels a bit strange to navigate a site after format changes, but it will get familair very quickly, I’m sure. I toured around a bit and it looks great. I like the Bookmark idea. It means I won’t have to power search for older reviews of books I’m interested in. Thanks for all the work.
The ‘Back’ button in Powersearch is missing. Previously, if I searched by a author, it will bring all the book reviews on that author. I could read each review by clicking on the Backbutton. Now, I can read only single review by the author. The Back button does not take me to the entire listing pulled up Search. It just takes me to the Home page and I have to search by author’s name again.
Ok. I tried the Power Search under the Reviews option. It lists all the book reviews on the author and when I click on a review, it opens on a new window. Which is good. However, using the Search option on the Home page, lists all the reviews on the author, but if you click on a review to read and then try to go back to the Search list, it takes you to theHome page.
The sexiness ratings page looks like it’s not finished. It looks very strange, I don’t know if it’s my cell phone or the page.
It’s the page (I recognise the “old” coding!) I think there’s still some fine-tuning going on behind the scenes.
I have fixed that! Thanks for letting us know.
I will add I went into my profile page (following the “bookmark” link in your post) and saw I could change the background color scheme. I opted for “light” because I think the default is too dark, but there seem to be lots of choices, which is nice.
And is there a way to keep it from opening a new tab every time you chose something? Like if I go to the top of the home page and click ” new reviews” it opens a new tab, and if you click a title there, it opens another new tab. It’s not a big deal, but I’d prefer not to have a bunch of new tabs open up whlie browsing things on the site.
It will only open a new tab for New Reviews, New Blogs, and Steals and Deals.
So far almost everything I’ve clicked on opens a new tab: my profile, About AAR, blogs, searches, etc. The one excepion I’ve found is when your looking at a review, if you click, say, the author, it doesn’t open a new page,
We are working on all that–stay tuned!
I am not loving how the homepage is scrolling on my iPad. 🙁 The page is divided into 4 long columns basically and they all seem to scroll at different times. I prefer to see larger groups of things at once.
The issue we are trying to solve is that our readers are evenly split between those who read the blogs and those who read the columns and those who read both.
I do think the scrolling issue needs to be solved.
Thanks for your feedback!
I see the scrolling issue has been fixed. Is there any way to move the search banner from covering the book covers to just below it? I think that would make it easier for tablet/web viewers to see the covers of the books currently reviewed without the site being so choppy.
I’ll think about it. I worry that wouldn’t work as well on devices.
There are some positives and negatives for me here. The three column design feels a little clunky and heavier in Chrome and scroll a little slower; the images for Steals and Deals aren’t showing up on the main page at the moment. It’s clean and attractive, but IMO not as eye catching as the previous design. But that’s just my opinion!
Thanks.
Also the fact that there is less room for reviews on a whole and everything is mashed together doesn’t give the eye a lot of breathing room, but that’s just me.
Thanks.
What I definitely like is the new color work; it’s very pleasing to the eye.
Update; It looks like these are working correctly now. Thank you!
I see my post on the Enola Review in the Recent Comments section but don’t see it when I click on the Enola Review. (It says 0 comments.)
It would be nice to have a “See More” link for Recent Comments. I can only see the last 6 comments.
I tried to edit my last post and got the error message: “You are posting comments too quickly.”
I love the new Bookmark feature. I like the new layout. I can read reviews easier on my iphone now.
I hadn’t noticed it was gone, but I used the “see more” link on comments quite a bit before. I use it to catch up on things, especially if I haven’t made in on the site for a day.
We are working on the comments issue. Stay tuned!
For me, the new website is now easier to look at on my phone than my laptop. Unfortunately, I typically view it from my laptop in the evenings.
On my laptop, it has the views, blog, and steals/deals in 3 side by side columns. I don’t mind that but it bothers me that the steals/deals column doesn’t scroll together with the other two.
On my phone I have a “view more comments” button but there is no such button on my laptop view.
On both phone and laptop, I can’t see a full picture of the book cover in the reviews. The top and bottom is cut off. This means sometimes the top of a character’s head is missing or part of the title and/or author’s name on the bottom. I preferred to see the entire cover.
That’s because, on the Home page, the blogs and the book reviews have the same size images. On the actual review pages, you can see the full book cover.
Thank you for fixing the scrolling issue with the columns and the view more comments button!
I still wish I could see a thumbnail of the entire book cover on the home page but I do like being able to see the tags and reviewer.
I didn’t expect such big changes and I think I just need time to get used to them. I’m sure I will like everything just fine pretty soon. Thanks to you and your team for working so hard on this site. I really appreciate it!
yeah, I like the scrolling better now too, thanks Dabney!
Is it just me? I am not seeing comments on individual reviews. For example, Enola Holmes review is shown as having two comments. But when I clicked on the review, there is just the review followed by other new reviews.
We are working on that. Thanks!
I can see comments on individual reviews, but they’re all the way down at the very bottom of the page, underneath the Recent Comments and the various links.
Just started clicking through the new site but I am puzzled by one change: the typefaces. Everything seems to be in boldface type. The increased space between characters (leding?) is much harder to read. And there is little differentiation between headers and text in the “latest comments” column. Everything seems to be running together visually.
Perhaps these changes were made to make the site easier for people to read on their phones but it’s kind of visually muddled/overwhelming on my larger screen. Everything seems to want to draw the eye.
The largeness of the font in the latest comment column doesn’t help delineate the user from the link to the article to the text of the comment, IMO.
So far so good – updates always take a bit of getting used to. I like the previous version just fine. The addition of the bookmark option hits it way out of the park, though. Now I don’t have to maintain a separate list anymore. Hallelujah.
Thank you for all you do for us readers behind the scenes.
Thanks. We try!
Questions: How do I access my profile from the Home Screen? Once I’ve logged in on my iPad, I can see my name in the upper right hand corner, but nothing happens when I click on it. I somehow found my profile when clicking around elsewhere, but can’t recall what I did.
Also, I would like to change my screen name. When I initially created a login a few years ago, I picked the username of Becky, but have been using BeckyK for quite awhile, so I need to fix that. How do I do that?
WordPress–I don’t know why–won’t let you change a user name. BUT, I can go in and change how your name is shown which I have done.
Thank you so much, Dabney! That was very kind of you!
<3
I don’t want to be a nag, the problem with Comments still persists. This is what I see now: I clicked on Enola Holmes review. The review opens in a new window. At the end of the review, there is a section called Related Reviews; beneath that, there is Recent Comments that has all recent comments on any topic and then finally I see the specific comments on the review itself.
To me, comments on the review is as important and engaging as the review itself. I like reading what other readers have to say about the book/author and a lot of interesting conversations happen around comments. I do not want to scroll through a lot of distracting texts, before getting to what I am interested in.
My general feeling about the revamp is “If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it”. But according to Japanese thinking, “if it ain’t broken, improve it”. I am assuming that’s the guiding principle behind the revamp. I am sure, a lot resources and time have gone into it and I am grateful for all that you do for the readers of AAR.
This is what I’m seeing as well, except that the comments themselves are no longer displaying. It will tell me that a review has e.g. six comments, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to actually read them. Yesterday morning, the layout was the same, but the comments displayed.
The comments are there, but at present they’re right at the bottom of the page and you have to scroll through other stuff to get to them. Or are they not showing up for you at all?
Yesterday they weren’t showing up at all (I could see where they were supposed to be, but they weren’t), but today they are there.
Hmm. I’m on my phone and am seeing the “recent comments” first after the review, then the related reads and THEN the comments on the review. Perhaps it’s a glitch that will be ironed out, but I agree that the comments on a review should appear directly after it.
Also odd – my review of Disrupted Engagement shows 4 comments on the homepage and there are, indeed 4 comments. But the indicator on the review page says there are 5. The homepage shows 2 comments on Enola Holmes – there are 2, but the page says there are 0.
It is better now with the Recent Comments gone. It is a little bothersome to have Related Reviews placed ahead of comments on the review. This type of placement is a bit like Etsy or even Amazon. But one can learn to ignore it.
We are working on removing it.
For the Reviews, I like that you have placed the tags on the home page.
I also like that the reviewer’s name is also displayed on the homepage
I’ve waited a few days to get used to the new site before commenting, and I really like the look of the home screen on my iPad, which is where I usually view AAR. I like seeing the blog and the newest review side by side. I love being able to bookmark titles that interest me.
I, too, think the comments should appear directly after the review, and it sounds like that is being addressed. I agree with others that too many tabs open when I am clicking around, searching for a new book. I prefer using my back button to return to my search screen.
Overall, I think I will enjoy the new design more than the old once I get used to it. The look is more modern and fresh. Thank you for all you do to keep this site up to date, attractive, interesting and engaging, Dabney. You and the amazing AAR team do a great job, and I appreciate your efforts.
Thank you. It’s always hard to make changes and we are so appreciative of feedback!
The biggest problem for me is that AAR is about REVIEWS, but the main page is like 1/4 column that’s empty after the first two inches (Amazon link), 1/4 reviews, 1/4 blogs, and 1/4 steals and deals. It doesn’t seem like the right use of space.
The blog one bugs me because some of the blogs are great (I really like Coming Soon posts, they are very useful). But a lot of them, honestly probably half, I don’t care about at all. Like right now, I see “Have you seen Barbie and what do you think?” and “Are the movies better than the books?” That’s not what I’m here for.
Also I don’t come everyday. So it’s frutrating that the reviews will rotate off the front page before I can see them, while blogs I don’t want are taking up huge amounts of front page space.
And the Amazon link, there’s just nothing beneath it at all. So I’m sorry to say the space isn’t being used well, I don’t think.
I do like having the steals and deals down the side. That’s conveinient to see at a glance.
Thanks for your feedback.It’s true that AAR’s reviews are our reason d’etre. But in terms of what we get the most readers for, it’s actually blogs. So we are trying to balance the two.
You can always find our reviews under New Reviews.
What do you mean about the Amazon link? Which link? The one that asks people to begin their shopping at Amazon here?
Yes, that’s what I meant. It’s on the left, but it’s not a long scrolly column like the reviews, blogs, and steals, so once you go down a little bit, there’s just blank space on the left hand side of my page. So I have four columns when it first loads, but once I go down even a little bit, I have a blank followed by three columns.
Maybe it would be possible to do two columns of reviews and move the amazon block to the top of the “steals and deals” column?
I’ll look at our options. Thanks!
I’m an occasional visitor to the site. One thing that popped out at me right away is that it’s very hard to quickly spot the letter grade for your reviews. I feel like it used to be very obvious so you could see right away, oh, this is a B- or an A or whatever. Now when I look at your home page, the letter grades for the new reviews are TINY. When I click on the review, the grade feels buried in a text block on the side. It really should be a large font at the top of that text box and it should be much more present on the home page. That may be only my preference but there it is.
I agree! I’ll work on that.
Nice work, Dabney (and team?)!
Here are a couple of things I’m really liking:
Yay for the power search bar being front and center on the homepage.
I think I like the bookmark but haven’t used it much yet. I expect it to be a popular feature as time goes on.
I like that the reviewer’s name and various tags for each book have been brought forward for reviews – on both the home page *and* the reviews page.
I like the landing page for reviews (and blogs). Great way to see many options quickly.
Again, thank you for all the hard work!
Thank you!!!!
Hi, this might be just my problem but I can’t see the covers of the books for Coming Soon blog now and in the past months or so right now. They appear as just tiny little 1 cm squares. Now, with the changes in the website, I can’t see the covers of the steals and deals books. They just appear as empty boxes. It makes it really hard for me to go through the text without any covers. I wonder what is going on.
As for the rest of the changes, I want to thank you and the staff for being motivated enough to want to improve things. I just need to tinker a bit more to learn to give relevant feedback.
Unfortunately, the new layout we’re using has messed with the formatting for Coming Soon – I hope we can find a way to make it work in time for the next one.
As many others, I need time to get used to the new site and can only say something useful in a bit.
I wonder whether is is just me: 8 find the new font a bi5 harder to read, especially on the light grey background (comments below). It looks elegant, but legibility would be more important, for my often tired eyes.
Thank you fo4 asking, and thank you for all your work!
Thank you for the site update. It works well on my smartphone.
Enhancement requests:
When viewing the full book review record if I click on a tag link, the results display does not show the letter grade for each book. The book grade would be handy to know for a quick browse. Currently, you must go into each title and scroll down to find the grade.
This is more minor, but continuing with results from a click on a tag, it would be nice to know how many books are in the results list. Did I just land in a list of 25, 50, 250 titles?
I’m still learning where certain things I use a lot are now on my display when using my iPad. I haven’t lost anything just discovering where it is..
The desktop layout is easier to see at a glance and I’m thrilled to report that with the “Coming Soon” blog I now get the cover displays on my desktop – I never did before they were just blobs.
Thanks for all the hard work that went into this upgrade it is most appreciated!
Thanks, Pat!!
Unfortunately, this month’s Coming Soon was a temporary fix that took me about 4 times as long to do as it used to. I’m hoping we can find a less labour-intensive way to do it that will work for everyone.
You could see the covers because lots of sites block Amazon affiliate links. I’m working on finding a way to improve this for readers but not have it take so long.
I have waited a while to see how I managed in this new site. I know myself and I tend to abhorr changes at first so I prefer to wait and see how I really manage in this new environment. So, I like it, generally speaking. I love the way it looks, softer I think, and I have no problem navigating the different parts of it. So great change!
The only problem I’ve had so far are the AAR’s Top 100 Romances Lists (http://allaboutromance.com/aars-top-100-romances/) I cannot see the lists. I don’t know if it’s may problem or yours.
It’s fixed now!
I tried to use the Amazon “shop” button at the top left of the page today and it didn’t work. I then clicked on one of the Steals and Deals titles and that took me to Amazon, so I did get the shopping done while on the AAR link. Just FYI.
On it! Thanks!
I don’t know if it’s me, but when I go to search, all I get is a box that’s non-specifc. The old power search function had fields to search, which was helpful to me when I was tyring to remember something specific or was stumped on how to search. Is there a way to search by rating? I used to go to the latest DIK reviews if I needed to find something to read.
The Power Search was down last night–a software glitch. It’s fixed now. Thanks!