Words on Love… for Valentine’s Day
Ever since the start of 2020, I’ve been–more or less–posting a poem a day on Facebook. It’s been a wondrous gift. A poem, short and searing, takes just a few moments of your time to read….
How’s everyone doing?
Incredibly, we are well into 2021. We, more or less, survived 2020. So that’s good. So, now that that dumpster fire is done, how are you doing? What’s bringing you joy? What’s still hard? What…
the ask@AAR: Who would you cast in Lord of Scoundrels and other favorite romances?
In our lively discussion about Bridgerton, several readers have shared how much they lust for love Regé-Jean Page, the absurdly sexy British-Zimbabwean actor who plays Simon Basset aka the Duke of Hastings.
The Best of 2020 – Dabney’s list
Here, in no particular order, are the books I enjoyed the most this year. The Searcher by Tana French I’ve been stanning Tana French since reading her first book, In the Woods, although her last, The…
Winsome or Loathsome: Daphne Bridgerton
Given the phenomenal interest in Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series, we thought it would be fun to republish this! originally published on March 2, 2015 Welcome to our new column, Winsome or Loathsome. (I was rooting for…
the ask@AAR: Do you have a reading resolution you’d like to share?
It’s the first day of 2021 and, really, it’s not a moment too soon. Worst year ever? No. That goes to 1348 when the Black Death wiped out half of Europe. It’s not even the worst…
the ask@AAR: What’s the greatest sex scene in romance?
Every year, for almost 20 years, the Literary Review has awarded a Bad Sex in Fiction Award. Here’s the criteria (we will not discuss that this award doesn’t consider romance novels): Since 1993, the Bad Sex…
the ask@AAR: Could you forgive this hero?
It’s always an experience to read Vintage AAR. This article by Paula Detmer Riggs on writing taboo subjects is especially thought-provoking. She wrote about the hero of her book, Her Secret, His Child, a book she…
The ask@AAR: Scruffy or Suited?
A friend of mine just sent me this article. (Men are shaving less during the pandemic. Women are not.) My instant–and very personal–response, was “Great, just what we need, more unkempt men.” For me, there’s nothing…
the ask@AAR: What are your favorite holiday books?
We’re coming up on the holiday stretch: Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, the Solstice, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and the New Year. (Let me know if I’ve missed one you celebrate, please.) This constraints of this year–which I think of as…