The Best of 2020 – Em’s List
Reading (and reviewing) romance is wonderful. The genre provides so many great kinds of storytelling, but this year my heart (again) belonged to Romantic Suspense – and more specifically, to Gregory Ashe. Honestly, reader, my Best of 2020 could be wholly limited to titles he’s released this year! Clever, funny, sexy, romantic, awkward, heartwarming, gut wrenching…Mr. Ashe’s books – EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM – take you through the gamut of emotions; they’re brilliant. Each time I pick up an Ashe title I doubt he can top himself, and LITERALLY every time, he does.
Hazard and Somerset: A Union of Swords; The First Quarto; The Lamb and the Lion series by Gregory Ashe. All of these are marvelous. If you aren’t quite sure where to begin, I think The Lamb and the Lion (so far only two books – book three is coming in January 2021), is a good jump-off point. It showcases all the best parts of the author’s writing – the humor, the odd opposites-attract pairings, the pining, the intricate storytelling. His latest release, Yet a Stranger is brilliant but TOUGH. The highs are high, but the lows are – well, they’re awful. I love and hate this series in equal measure, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a starting point for anyone new to Ashe. And if you want to know why Caz and I started shouting out our love for Ashe in the first place, pick up Pretty Pretty Boys and catch up with Hazard and Somerset. THE BEST ODD COUPLE PAIRING in fiction. IMHO.
Ashe wins my 2020, but here’s are some of my other favorites (in no specific order), too.
Ten Things I Hate About the Duke by Loretta Chase
Ten things I loved about this book: Our prickly, brainy heroine, Cassandra Pomfret; her handsome, dissolute childhood love and current nemesis, His Grace with the Angel Face the Duke of Ashmont; the kind and generous friends and family; the flirting; the humor; the steam; the sexual tension; the subtle, powerful commentary on women’s’ agency in Regency England; the redemptive story; the promise of one more book in this MARVELOUS series. So, so, so good.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent bookstore
Bench Player by Julianna Keyes
Another home run from this talented writer. Sexy, smart and not quite what you expect. Impossible to put down. Can she make it a grand slam? I hope we get at least one more book from this DIK series.
Buy it at: Amazon
Blue on Blue by Dal Maclean
Friends, if you’re looking for a cozy mystery, Blue on Blue isn’t it. But if you’re looking for smart storytelling, a clever and gritty crime thriller, and a sexy romance featuring men who are fallible but trying to be and do better, that puts you through the wringer, then you should be reading Blue on Blue (and the Bitter Legacy series).
On my wish list for 2021: a crossover collaboration between Ms. Maclean and Mr. Ashe.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible or shop at your local independent bookstore
Fair as a Star by Mimi Matthews
I stopped reading Ms. Matthews in 2018 – not because I didn’t like her style of writing, but because I like a significant amount of steam in my romance reading, and Ms. Matthews doesn’t venture beyond kisses in her novels. I decided to read Fair as a Star on a lark; I was in the mood for something radically different from the angsty/steamy contemporary romances I had been reading, and FaaS seemed to fit the bill. And that beautiful cover! Fair as a Star is a gentle, tender, poignant and deeply romantic love story that I savored long after I finished reading.
Buy it at: Amazon or shop at your local independent bookstore
Common Goal by Rachel Reid
Friends, I’m always on the hunt for a great sports romance, and if the featured sport is hockey? Well, let’s just say I’ve one-clicked quite a few. Common Goal, much like Heated Rivalry, the other AMAZE-BALLS book in the Game Changers series, is one-click worthy. I straight up loved it. Sexy and smart, it features a May-December, opposites attract pairing that kept me glued to the pages the first, second, and third time I read it (okay, the last one was the audio version). I have no regrets, and neither will you. The Game Changer series is a game changer in sports romance (wink!), and firmly ensconced in my top five sports series of all time.
Buy it at: Amazon or Audible
A Gathering of Dragons series by Milla Vane
Barbarian. Fantasy. Romance. Before I started reading this tremendously entertaining series, I avoided books with barbarian and fantasy in their description. Oops. But with Milla Vane’s name attached, I decided to pick up A Heart of Blood and Ashes, and now I can’t stop telling friends how great this series is. In Vane’s brilliantly imagined world, a tenuous alliance of former adversaries – the Gathering of Dragons – has formed to stand against the return of the Destroyer, an evil warlord who laid waste to their lands a generation ago. Explicit, bloody, and super engrossing, the Gathering of Dragons series is romantic escapism at its best. I’d give a slight nod to the first book, but they’re both excellent and worth you time!
Buy A Heart of Blood and Ashes at: Amazon, Audible or your local independent bookstore
Buy A Touch of Stone and Snow at: Amazon, Audible or your local independent bookstore
Heiress for Hire by Madeline Hunter
I read quite a few Hunter novels in my early romance reading days. I’m not quite sure why or when I quit this author, but that beautiful cover of Heiress for Hire reeled me right back into her Regency world. Minerva Hepplewhite survived a brutal marriage and barely escaped with her life, but when a mysterious benefactor bequeaths her a small fortune, her hand-to-mouth existence takes a decidedly improved turn. Unfortunately, Chase Radnor, a gentleman detective and the grandson of her mysterious benefactor, isn’t so sure Minerva didn’t have something to do with his grandfather’s suspicious death. They flirt and fight, and trick and tease each other all the way to the end of this story and I couldn’t get enough of them or their love story. Heiress for Hire is a lovely return to form for the talented Madeline Hunter, and I’m eagerly anticipating the next book in the series.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or shop at your local independent bookstore
The Roommate by Rosie Danan
With all the pre-release social media hype attached to The Roommate, I was worried my expectations were too high. They weren’t, and the hype is well-deserved. Clara Wheaton is the consummate socialite: over-achieving, well-mannered, predictable. But after a bait-and-switch, she finds herself sharing an apartment with a stranger in LA, determined to Make It Work. Josh Darling lucked into a great deal on a summer sublet, and isn’t bothered by all the rules his new roommate expects him to follow. But their comfortable, friendly relationship takes an abrupt turn when Clara finds out Josh’s day job. The Roommate is an often surprising, charming, sex positive, modern twist on the rom-com; it’s also the best contemporary début of the year.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent bookstore
Spring Strings by Lily Morton
Lily Morton had a great 2020. Any of her 2020 releases (Charlie Sunhine; After Felix; Short Stack, The Stopping Place; Merry Measure) could have made this list, but Spring Strings is my favorite. Malachi Booth is a cynical, sharp-tongued supermodel with a low tolerance for people who underestimate him. He meets his match in Cadan Landry, a grumpy (lonely) rare breeds farmer who begrudgingly rents out his Cornish farm for a photo shoot. After Malachi is laid low by a bad bout of bronchitis, he finds himself being nursed back to health by the exhausted (and handsome) farm owner. This opposites-attract pairing shouldn’t work, but in Ms. Morton’s talented hands IT DOES. Brilliantly. Great chemistry, compelling and believable character backstories, a lovingly rendered setting, and well rounded secondary characters kept me up late at night to finish this one. A new favorite from one of my most favorite authors.
IF I could add one more book to this list, I would include You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle (https://allaboutromance.com/book-review/you-deserve-each-other-by-sarah-hogle/). Unlike our reviewer, I LOVED IT. So many laugh out loud moments and total batshit craziness. I finished it a moment ago and wish I discovered it sooner.
Ooooooo…. Now I want an Em review!
Let’s see what I can come up with!
<3
OKAY. I have a feeling I’m in the minority here on the site, but I agree with you about The Roommate! I thought it was odd yet delightful. I’m going to give Ashe a go over Xmas. I ADORED Bench Player. Good to know that our tastes still align sometimes!
The Hunter, the Roomate and the Chase are all excellent books, IMO.
(And good work, Em!)
Wow, this list makes me realize how much Em has influenced my reading! AAR is the only romance novel website I read (been following since the 1990s) and I rarely take a chance on a new author without a positive review here. I have read or bought almost all of the books on this list:
Ashe – I read my first Ashe about a month ago. It was Stray Fears. I picked it because it seemed like a standalone, I was in the mood for something “Halloween”-y and I thought the book would get me a taste of his style. I liked it but didn’t love it. I did buy They Told Me I Was Everything because the Kindle price was good but it sounds like it may leave me hanging so I’m nervous to start it.
Chase – have been reading her for a while. Have bought Ten Things but haven’t read it yet. Loved A Duke in Shining Armor and suspect I will love this book too.
Keyes – my first Keyes was her NA book Undecided and I loved it. I have been enjoying the Charleston Thrashers series and Bench Player was really good. I think I bought the Time Served series based on DiscoDollyDeb’s recommendation! But, alas, too many books and too little time so I haven’t read the series yet.
MacLean – haven’t read her but she sounds good
Matthews – have read all of her books but Fair as a Star wasn’t my favorite. I liked Gentleman Jim (also from this year) better.
Reid – discovered Reid earlier this year due to AAR reviews and love her books! I liked both main characters in Common Goal but the book just missed DIK status for me because I wanted more portrayal of their relationship after they committed to having a real relationship. I know there was an epilogue but it didn’t feel enough to me.
Vane – read the first 2 books in the series based on the good reviews but the setting overall doesn’t appeal to me so I don’t think I will continue
Hunter – haven’t read her but have been more into comtemporary romance recently so not sure if I will start
Danan – I’m one of the readers that just didn’t love The Roommate. I liked the writing well enough that I will read the next in the series (The Intimacy Experiment, coming out in April) but from the library, not committing to buying it. I’m fortunate that my library is really good about purchasing romance e-books, which is where I got The Roommate.
Morton – discovered her also this year due to AAR. LOVE HER and have read her entire backlist. I didn’t realize that Charlie Sunshine came out in 2020 and I love it but After Felix was my favorite of hers this year and Rule Breaker my all time favorite.
Thanks for the list, Em!
I will toss in that the Intimacy Experiment is excellent!
I just ready my first Lily Morton book, Merry Measure and really enjoyed the snarky dialog and laugh out loud humor. I’m glad there are more that you recommend. I’ve got Rachel Reid’s books on my TBR list, along with the Loretta Chase. I’m going to add the Keyes books.
You’re just trying Morton??!! You lucky duck! My most favorite Morton novel is Deal Maker, from the Mixed Messages series. I wish I was just discovering her. Although, I do love to reread her books when I need a comfort read, too!
Great list! I need to read Gregory Ashe – just bought Pretty Pretty Boys. I could not get into The Roommate – Clara just didn’t work for me. Thanks for the recs!
I think that book really divided people. I liked it; I get why people didn’t, too.
I haven’t yet finished compiling my best of 2020 (still reading!) but thanks for the rec for The Roommate – sounds like one I might enjoy.
Must confess: based on recs here, I read the three North & Shaw books by Ashe and … was disappointed. For me they didn’t *individually* work as romance and the trilogy didn’t work as mystery (the Ultimate Villain Reveal made me say a rude word out loud). The trilogy taken together does work as romance but getting there is hard work and the HFN seems shaky based on the MCs’ profound mental/emotional difficulties. The level of pain/victimization/trauma/violence was extreme. I did read all three, so obviously I got invested, but was left wishing for a follow-on story (preferably featuring the One Good Cop and his sweet academic boyfriend) in which nothing bad happens to anyone and they all have time to heal.
I’ve come to the conclusion Gregory Ashe doesn’t work for me. I think all the hype is deserved, in that he’s a brilliant writer and story teller, but this “The level of pain/victimization/trauma/violence was extreme” as you said, did me in. The reader has to be prepared for a lot of very real angst and since he doesn’t end it in one book, you have to be willing to read three or more to get to the resolution. I find I can’t sustain that level of anxiety.
On the other hand, I feel like I’m missing out on something really special and wish I could enjoy them. It’s like watching my entire family eating sushi while I eat my pb&j. I hate sushi, but wish I could join in the fun and community pleasure. ;-)
Which Ashe have you read? I don’t think I would have stuck with him if I started with the Borealis series (it just didn’t resonate with me) & I haven’t read the Hollow Folk series so I can’t comment on them. I liked, but didn’t love, his collaboration with C. S. Poe this year (Friend in the Dark). The three series I mention are my favorites.
I read Orientation, and enjoyed it, but found I just couldn’t make myself go on to the next book. It was sort of brutal. I tried Pretty Pretty Boys and I liked that the best, but I couldn’t get past the whole white supremacy story line, at least not this year with the political climate in the US–too real. But the characters and the writing felt less frenetic than Orientation, or The Same Breath, which I tried recently. I made it about 35-40% in and felt like I kept being dropped into the middle of events and conversations. I may give Pretty Pretty Boys another try if my overall anxiety level ever goes down. :-)
I really liked the ultimate reveal there because it was so not the way I expected it to go – in the sense of the motivations rather than the identity of the killer. There are more books on the way, hence the HFN. If you want to give him another try, maybe read The Same Breath and The Same Place – I’d say the angst quotient is a bit lower although GA still doesn’t pull any punches.
Heads up! Fair as a Star is a Kindle Daily Deal and is currently free right now – you know how that goes though … never know for how long.
My list will also include Ten Things I Hate About The Duke, Bench Player, A Gathering of Stone and Snow, and Heiress for Hire.
There’s one book on this list I DNF’d. (Not telling!) I’ll be interested to see what our readers think about it!
I worked it out ;)
You were able to pick between the two…. ;)
One woman’s Desert Island Keeper is another woman’s DNF—and vice-versa.
Absolutely. We all have our own reasons for things and they are so specific to us.
Five of these authors are on my list, also.
Not surprising, as it was the reviews that you and Caz had written that led me to the books of Gregory Ashe, Dal Maclean and Lily Morton. (Lily Morton also released the super-sweet Charlie Sunshine in 2020 – lucky for us she is so prolific!)
I loved Ten Things I Hate About the Duke and Common Goal too.
I haven’t read any of the others on your list, but may give Bench Player a try.
I love Bench Player–it will definitely be on my best of the year list too!
How did I forget Charlie Sunshine?! I loved it, too. Could be a Morton & Ashe love fest in this top 10! OMG!
Have you read any Keyes before? If you’re tempted to try Bench Player, I think you should read Team Player first. I also gave it a DIK last year. And it is a good intro to the series! Which is excellent, obv.
I just reread both–rereads have been my comfort this year–and enjoyed them both again. I’d give Bench Player slightly higher marks. I can’t wait for another story in this series!
I’ve enjoyed Keyes’s baseball books, it’s obvious she knows and loves the game, but my very favorite Keyes is TIME SERVED, which some feel is “problematic” (the hero confesses to a never-acted-upon revenge-rape fantasy, there’s some slut-shaming of one of the heroine’s coworkers), but I love it and it’s one of my favorite re-reads. Keyes also published a mystery this year, ALL THE MISSING PIECES (under the name J. Keyes), which I haven’t read yet. And she recently announced that she’ll be publishing thrillers under the name Elaine Murphy. I hope this doesn’t mean she’s completely abandoning writing romance—baseball-themed or otherwise.
Time Served is an interesting book. I enjoyed it but it’s not a reread for me–too dark.
When it comes to romance reading, my motto is, “I like dark & angsty—well, it doesn’t always have to be dark, but it almost always has to be angsty.”
This has been such a hard year–I’m just not feeling angst. I’ve never gravitated to so much light stuff in my life!
Same here, although I’ve never gravitated towards angsty reads. I like emotional reads, but books that use manipulative families and friends or mean exes have never been my cup of tea. Unfortunately so many contemporary novels include these tropes as a matter of course,even in the romantic comedies.
I also love the Time Served books; In Her Defense is my favorite in that series & I marveled how Ms. Keyes redeemed Caitlin from the first book. I didn’t think it was possible! Allison (in this book) shares a few qualities w/Caitlin – and her redemption story is equally good. Anyone who follows my reviews knows I’m a Keyes fan – I love the Burnham books, the standalone My Roommates Girl (it’s so random! and fun! and wrong!), and the Time Served series, too. I didn’t like her princess story and I was kind of meh on All the Missing Pieces. I think contemporary romance is her sweet spot…but I like that she keeps trying new things. I auto-buy them all!
The princess story was… not good.
No, I haven’t read any Julianna Keyes before, so will start with Team Player, thanks. I’m not sure when I’ll get to it though…………….
It will come as NO surprise whatsoever that my first paragraph says pretty much the same as yours! ;)
Great minds…