AAR Picks the Best of 2014

(This column will not be the only piece we run on the best books of 2014. We will still run a separate Buried Treasures piece and several staff members will be sharing their lists of the best books they read this year.)

Each year, we ask the AAR staff to pick one book as the best romance published this year. Here are our picks for 2014:

Maggie: Mambo in Chinatown by Jean Kwok was my number one read of 2014. I loved the Cinderella nature of the tale, the unique look into Chinese-American culture, the heroine Charlie and her irrepressible spirit and generosity and the gentle, hopeful nature of the love story. So few books do a good job of capturing what it’s like to be a first generation American but this novel, reviewed here,  captured it perfectly.

Lea: What I Love About You by Rachel Gibson. These days I tend to listen much more than read and therefore that’s usually where I discover my favorite romances for the year. However, I’m a Rachel Gibson fan from way back when and when I saw that the narrator of her 2014 release was not to my liking, I devoured What I Love About You in print format, recalling all the reasons I love her writing – mainly her heroes!

LinnieGayl: My favorite romance of 2014 is It Happened One Wedding by Julie James. When I reviewed the audio version of the book several months ago I said that it was going to top my ballot in AAR’s Annual Poll (coming on January 12) in numerous categories, and that opinion hasn’t changed. This is a wonderful contemporary romance with witty dialog and a marvelous hero and heroine. How much do I like it? I’ve listened to the audio version multiple times and will probably do so again in a few weeks.

Anne Marble: I actually had a favorite book published in 2014, although it was middle grade/YA fantasy novel. The Iron Trial (Book One of Magisterium) by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare. This one snuck up on me. I was enjoying it well enough, but then, really interesting things happened partway through that made me really eager to see what happened next. Then there’s what the hero learns about himself at the end, and now he responds. Now I can’t wait for the next book.

The closest I got to romance was the Audible edition of Fallen Too Far by Abbi Glines, the first book in a popular new adult series. However, while I liked the narration, I could have done without some of the NA cliches, such as the the badboy hero, the hot and cold relationship, the cliffhanger, etc.

Caz: Reading-wise, I’ve had a pretty good year.  Doing a Power Search for DIKs, I see that I’ve managed quite a few, which is a good sign in terms of the quality of the books out there – especially given the recently heralded death of the historical romance – but it does make it difficult to pick ONE book from all of those I’ve read as my favourite of the year.  I stick almost exclusively to one sub-genre, but even within that, there are romantic thrillers (Rogue Spy—review here), romantic adventure yarns (Night of a Thousand Stars—review here) romantic historical fiction (The King’s Falcon), romantic mysteries (A Grave Matter—review here) as well as books in which the romance is the central focus (Only Enchanting—review here).

Bearing in mind that my answer to the question “what was your favourite romance of 2014?” is likely to get a different answer depending on what day it is, today I’m going to plump for Courtney Milan’s The Suffragette Scandal.  It was a difficult book to encapsulate in a 1500 word review, so it’s next to impossible to do it in a few sentences, but here goes…  It’s a truly extraordinary story that contains a tender, sensual and beautifully developed romance at the same time as it explores social injustice and the terrible consequences endured by those women who were brave enough to stand up and be counted in the fight for women’s rights.  The two protagonists are incredibly well-written and their mutual attraction just burns up the pages; and as one would expect of Ms Milan, the book is intelligently written, incorporating a lot of humour and the historical background is well-researched and integrated into the story.

Melanie: I’m picking Beautiful Wreck by Larissa Brown as my favorite romance published in 2014. I wrote a whole review about how much I loved it and why, but the short version is that it is lovely. The whole things reads like a poem, dream-like and realistic at the same time. It’s obvious a lot of research and effort went into it to make it as accurate as possible, and the story just shines on the Viking-era Iceland backdrop.

Haley: There were a lot of books this year that I really enjoyed but for my favorite book of 2014 I chose All Broke Down (review here) by Cora Carmack. The reason i think this won out over some of the other books I read, which were great as well, is that I think it deserves some recognition for being a stand-out options among the many New Adult novels. Carmack infuses her writing with tons of sexual tension, humor, and believable characters. If you’re kind of over the normal rote New Adult books that are nearly indistinguishable from one another, any of Carmack’s works will be a huge relief. All Broke Down, in particular, has the super sexy Silas Moore, who you will totally swoon for.

Rike: My favorite romance this year was Miranda Neville’s Lady Windermere’s Lover. I am a great Miranda Neville fan anyway, and I hugely enjoyed this book (review here). It’s a marriage of convenience story. The characters are neither unblemished angels nor unrepentant villains, but folks who are stuck in a situation and try to deal with it with a plausible mixture of kindness and common sense on the one hand, and stubbornness on the other – not the kind that makes me want to shake them, but the kind that makes them engagingly human.

Lee: I tend to read mostly contemporary, historical, chick lit and women’s fiction so my choices reflect those genres.

Lynn: Mr. (Not Quite) Perfect by Jessica Hart. This book was just a delightful little gem of a story (review here). It’s lighthearted fun, but with enough angst to make readers feel emotionally invested in the romance. I have a weakness for good “friends to lovers” stories, and this one’s fantastic.

Heather: My favorite book of 2014 was Into the Shadows by Carolyn Crane. For me, it all came down to the hero Thorne. I had anticipated this one since reading the preceding novel Off the Edge (review here). Suspense in the perfect combination with romance with a hero who made my heart skip put Into the Shadows at the top of my list. I can’t get enough of this series.

Shannon: It’s so hard to pick just one book as my absolute favorite. I’ve read quite a few that I loved. However, the prize must go to J. A. Redmerski’s Song of the Fireflies. I loved the way the author depicted love. It’s not sugary sweet. The characters are incredibly flawed. I give Ms. Redmerski a lot of credit for painting such a stark, realistic portrait of what it really means to love another person more than yourself. Not only was this incredibly well-written, but the narration was phenomenal. So, whether you read it in print, or listen to the audiobook like I did, I can’t recommend this book highly enough.