My Year in Books – So Far…
I am one of those people who’s always playing catch-up in my reading. Every year, I frantically use the DIK Power Search and cram as many books in as I can before choosing my top reads at the end of it.
This year, I’m trying to do better, and one of the most helpful resources for me is various “best of the year (so far)” lists I find online. I thought I’d make one myself to open a conversation about what everybody feels we absolutely MUST read before the end of 2018. I’ve taken the categories are from the old AAR annual polls.
Best Contemporary Romance:
Pas de Deux by Lynn Turner. A multicultural romance about a ballerina and a choreographer which transported me into a richly-portrayed (and extremely sexy) world of dance and dancers.
Best Romance Couple:
Michael (Phan) Larsen and Stella Lane, The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang. A woman with autism hires a male escort to help her with her sex and relationship challenges. It may be odd to call this relationship “sweet,” but what else would you call two people who work so hard to fit each other’s unusual edges?
Best LGBTQ+ Romance:
My “best” was When Katie Met Cassidy by Camille Perri, but it’s more of a B read. I’m still looking for the book that blows me away.
2018’s Best Debuting Romance Author:
Helen Hoang, for The Kiss Quotient.
Best Young Adult Romance:
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland. This paranormal re-imagining of post-Civil War America with a zombie slaying heroine is the YA fantasy novel I didn’t even know I needed. Is this a romance? Not yet (this is the first in a series). Do I care? Not a whit.
Favorite Funny Romance:
My Lady’s Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris. This Choose-Your-Own-Adventure affectionately embraces every romance trope out there, with endings ranging from becoming a noblewoman to becoming undead. I don’t know if I’ve ever laughed harder at a romance.
Most Tortured Romance Hero:
Liam Devaliant, Earl of Lockwood, from The Sins of Lord Lockwood by Meredith Duran, the brutalized survivor of an Australian penal colony working to reclaim his mind and body now that he has his freedom.
Best Kick-Ass Heroine:
Kate Snyder, Love Game by Maggie Wells. A women’s basketball coach with back-to-back national titles and an Olympic gold medal who negotiates her salary with the flair of a Beyonce gif: Kate proves you don’t need to fight to kick ass.
Best UK Historical:
The Prince by Katharine Ashe. An exiled prince turned painter helps his unconventional muse deceive the Edinburgh medical community into believing she’s a young man so she can qualify as a surgeon. Chock full of sexual tension and meticulous research.
Best Fantasy Romance:
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. The interlocking stories of a duke’s daughter and a Jewish moneylender, whose marriages to a cursed tsar and a frost king are the only things that stand between their country and eternal winter.
Best PNR Romance:
Technically, this would be Ocean Light by Nalini Singh, but I actually found it a bit of a letdown. I hope someone here has a good recommendation!
I’m going to save best hero, best heroine, steamiest read, and best overall romance until the end of the year. After all, I haven’t even managed to get to these categories:
Best Sci-fi romance Best Non-UK Historical; Best New Adult Romance; Best Novel (non-romance) with strong romantic elements; Favorite Tear-Jerker Romance; Best Erotica / Romantica Romance; Best Romance Novella or Short Story; Best Category Romance Book; Best Romantic Suspense.
Here are some 2018 books still on my TBR:
A Duke in the Night – Kelly Bowen
A Scandalous Deal – Joanna Shupe
Emergency Contact – Mary Choi
It Takes Two – Jenny Holiday
The Proposal – Jasmine Guillory
The Warrior’s Bride Prize – Jenni Fletcher
Fool Me Forever – Ainslie Paton
Phoenix Unbound – Grace Draven
So what do you think? Do you agree or disagree with me on any categories? What books do I HAVE to read by the end of the year so I can vote on them? Can somebody please hook me up with some SF or PNR that I will love?
~ Caroline Russomanno
I’ve got my top ten of the year all set and ready to go – biggest problem I have is that nothing’s leaped out at me HR-wise. Lots of amazing contemps and YA this year tho!
I’ve read more non-fiction this year but the romance I’ve read has tended to be contemporary authors new to me, like JT Geissinger’s Melt for You, Mariana Zapata’s The Wall of Winnipeg and Me, Kate Clayborn, Jenny Holiday and Lucy Parker. I’m also really looking forward to Sally Thorne’s new January release 99 Percent Mine. I still haven’t decided about The Kiss Quotient, though; so many folks have loved it, but I’ve been holding back for some reason. Does anyone know anything about a new Julie James book coming out? I haven’t seen anything.
Jenny Holiday was my top contemp until a week before this post, when I read Pas de Deux. She’s a great read and I’m glad you mentioned her. I don’t know anything about Julie James but she’s an auto-read for me.
Re: Julie James. I think she’s starting to write it in early summer. Therefore, I’m guessing her next one will only be ready in 2019.
Melt for You was really good and one of ,my favorites this year. I truly loved though Kate Clayborn’s Best of Luck and think it will end up as my favorite romance of the year. I had an arc of it and it is not out until the end of November, but it is worth the wait.
I’m loving Sherry Thomas’s The Hollow of Fear but am not yet finished. I really liked The Kiss Quotient as well.
Still to be read before year’s end includes, Mariana Zapata’s From Lukov with Love, Hester Fox’s The Witch of Willow Hall, Samantha Young’s Fight or Flight, and Sara Rider’s Make Me Fall — all of these books have generated some really great reviews and feedback from readers.
I’m review Best of Luck! It’s excellent.
*reviewing
Oh, I’m glad you think so too. Clayborn is an up and coming romance author and I do hope she starts generating more attention. She is one of the best writing today, I think. Her entire Chance of a Lifetime series is wonderful.
This exchange is so weird!
I turned in my November ‘looking forward to’ picks and I think I said that IMHO Kate Clayborn is writing some of the best contemporary romance these days!
Isn’t that funny? Great minds think alike!
Twinsies! :)
For me, this is the year in which I discoveres Geissinger (MELT FOR YOU) and Hibbert (A GIRL LIKE HER, WANNA BET?). I know that THE KISS QUOTIENT is the book of this year, but although I enjoyed it, I had a couple of problems with the story.
I have a couple of suggestions that might fulfill more than one category for you!
Queer/PNR/HR:
Salt Magic Skin Magic by Lee Welch (might be my favorite book of the year) – and it’s her debut published novel!
Queer/Romantic Suspense/Tortured Hero:
Object of Desire by Dal Maclean (and Bitter Legacy, from last year, is also fabulous)
Funniest & funnest:
Melt for You by JT Geissinger
Erotic/HR/Debut:
The Duke I Tempted by Scarlet Peckham
KJ Charles has had a truly wonderful year as well & quite a few of her books are on my 2018 ‘best’ shortlist. I just finished Band Sinister and holy s–t is it good.
I enjoyed all of these books very much! I also loved many of your picks, and like you, I’m fond of ‘best’ lists. They’re possibly why I have one bazillion books on my TBR list? #sorrynotsorry
Thanks! I want to try Salt Magic Skin Magic and Melt For You especially, and the Peckham.
Best contemporary ever is Julie Anne Long’s First Time at Firelight Falls. Very character driven. When I finished it i flipped to the beginning and read it again. Never done that before.
I agree! It is definitely one of my favorite books this year!
I have loved other books in this series but this one was just ok for me. I don’t know why I didn’t love it like other people did.
The Sins of Lord Lockwood and The Prince are MUST Reads in my opinion too. The Kiss Quotient ist still on my tbr pile… For Best Contemporary Romance I would also recommend Tougher in Texas!
2018 PNR possibilities:
Hot and Badgered by Laurenston, Shelly
My One and Only by Alder, Alanea
Alpha’s Mate by Langlais, Eve
Mark, I wondered where you have been and am so glad to see you post. Thanks for your recs!
The big reworking of the message boards (last year now?) made them extremely hard to post to, so I pretty much got out of the habit. I still check the site every day.
I’m also sorry that the boards seem to have fallen out of favour and have become a bit awkward to use. I always enjoyed reading them and putting in my tuppence worth! Glad you are still here, Mark. I always enjoyed looking at your posts.