the ask@AAR: What are your favorite non-traditional historical romances?

In last week’s the ask@AAR, many of you longed for historicals featuring untraditional stories. So we want your recs. What historical romances with non-wealthy, non-aristocrat, non-white, non-heteronormative leads–or any other nontraditional aspects–do you love?

Dabney AAR | the ask @AAR

the ask@AAR: Wanna read a book together?
ByDabney Grinnan April 10, 2020

We’ve talked about having an AAR book club for what feels like forever and, you know what, it’s time. I made a few executive decisions so we could get started. The book had to be fun, a DIK at AAR, and cheap. So, using those criteria, I came up with three choices.

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Authors | Dabney AAR | Interviews | RWA

Talking with Kristan Higgins at #RWA16
ByDabney Grinnan July 20, 2016

The best part of RWA for me is talking with authors. This year, I was able to chat with quite a few of them and I’ll be sharing those interviews over the next few weeks. (I asked them all the same set of questions–I thought it would be fun to compare the answers!) First up: The…

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the ask @AAR

the ask@AAR: What’s your favorite love story on film?
ByDabney Grinnan March 10, 2023

The Academy Awards–yawn–are this Sunday. I have seen just one of the films nominated for Best Picture and hardly any of the other films whose sets, actors, songs, and special effects have led to their nominations. (I do love, the next day, looking at the outfits!) It will shock absolutely no one that not a…

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Best of 2020 | Best of List | Best of Romance | Romance reading

AAR Readers Pick the Best Book of 2020
ByDabney Grinnan January 27, 2021

Over 1100 votes later, AAR readers have picked eleven books to compete for the Best Book of 2020. (I’d hoped for ten, but two garnered the same number of votes.) It’s a great list. All but one of the nominated romances received a DIK at AAR and the one that didn’t got a B+. This…

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the ask @AAR

the ask@AAR: What’s the most important characteristic a lover can have?
ByDabney Grinnan July 16, 2021

When my husband and I were first dating, we’d have this satisfying conversation about relational deal breakers. (We’d proverbially pat ourselves on the back because we, of course, did not have each other’s “I simply couldn’t be with someone who had/was _______________.” That’s how humans work–we find it easy to enumerate flaws. We don’t tend…

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Dabney AAR | Relationships

Thank You, My Friend
ByDabney Grinnan July 1, 2015

I was born in 1961. I grew up in a time and place where sex, drugs, and rock and roll were things all the cool kids did. So was psychoanalysis. When I was in junior high, the adults in my town were divorcing, doing est, and using an alarming amount of slang. My church youth group performed Jesus…

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