New Special Title Lists Open!
We’re pleased to announce that we’re opening four more Special Title Listings for your suggestions. Even though it’s summer we hope you’ll be able to help us once again and offer some great suggestions for the following lists: (1) Suspense & Mystery; (2) Sports Romances; (3) Heroes in Pursuit; and (4) Heroines in Pursuit.
We look forward to seeing your submissions for these lists starting today Monday June 10 and going for the next two weeks ending Sunday June 23 at midnight. As a reminder, any additions to the list have to be: (1) the best of the best, (2) stand the test of time, and (3) actually fit the list for which they were submitted.
Suspense & Mystery: While AAR is a romance site, we also recognize that many AAR readers – and staff – love romantic suspense as well as traditional mysteries with strong romantic elements. In this list we feature romances filled with intrigue, mystery, and mayhem. Traditional “gothic” romances are included, and suspense or mystery novels with a strong romantic sub-plot may be listed as well. It’s been over four years since this was last updated and based on the active thread on mystery and suspense on the Let’s Talk Romance Novels forum, we’re hoping to see a lot of great submissions from you to add to the list.
Sports Romances: These romances feature characters heavily invested in the sports world. They may be players or retired players, amateur enthusiasts, or those with careers revolving around sports. For example, we have a number of books featuring sports agents in the list, including Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ Match Me If you Can. The list is divided by sport, so we would appreciate it if when submitting a title for this list, you would indicate which sport the character is involved with.
Heroes in Pursuit: This list features romances with heroes who pursue the heroine with everything they have. These heroes have more than lust in mind, however. They have noble intentions, or, at least, intentions that turn noble very quickly. They want (and need!) to be with the heroine forever. When you submit titles for this list, please include the name of the hero who is doing the pursuing.
Heroines in Pursuit: This list is new (if you follow the link, you will discover it’s only a skeleton list so far), and we want to start it, because as romantic as a man who does everything in his power to win the woman of his dreams is, sometimes you want to read about a woman who does everything in her power to win the man of her dreams, and is successful with it. Our criteria for this list are: The heroine must wish for a long-term relationship (not the one-night-stand-so-that-I-discover-what-good-sex-is variant, which is quite common), and she must either be fixed on winning over the hero for the greater part of the novel and be actively engaged in achieving this end, or do something really dramatic at one point to win him. Heroines who go to bed with the hero and then refuse to marry him or enter a serious relationship with him for noble reasons are automatically disqualified. It is also crucial that the heroine does end up with the man she pursues.
Types of behavior that are typical of a Heroine in Pursuit are these: The heroine might become more fashionable and flirtatious to attract the hero; she proposes dates; she instigates sex; she arranges matters so that they work on a project together or moves so that she is in the same country as the hero. In historicals she may put herself into a compromising situation with the hero, constantly place herself in his way or she may propose marriage outright. She knows that this is the perfect man for her, and she does her very best to make him see her in the same light. When you submit titles for this list, please include the name of the heroine who is doing the pursuing.
We hope you have read some wonderful books that fit these categories and we look forward to your submissions. You will find the criteria and submission ballot here.
– Rike Horstmann, LinnieGayl Kimmel and Cindy Smith
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Several people have commented in their submissions today that the contemporary portion of the Mystery and Suspense list is very long, and have asked that we group books in a series together (such as the Vicky Bliss mysteries are already grouped). I think this is a good idea, but the contemporary portion is still really long. I was thinking about splitting contemporaries into Romantic Suspense and Mysteries with a romantic element (the Vicky Bliss mysteries), but would love some other thoughts. Any ideas?
I think the RS and Mysteries with strong romantic element is a good choice.
My suggestion was to separate category romantic suspense (e.g. Harlequin Intrigue, Harlequin RS) from single title books. This would be in addition to listing book series rather than the specific books within each series. Your suggestion to create a category for mysteries with a romantic element is also good.
Are the experienced heroines and limelight lists on the agenda for future updates?
Thanks, Yulie & Lee. I’m going to have to look at the list seriously over the next two weeks as recommendations come in. That’s not a bad idea separating category romantic suspense. In most of the lists the category romance listings aren’t huge, but they do seem to be quite large for this list.
Yulie, all of the other lists are on the agenda. We’re basically updating them in the order that readers requested based on their comments in a few blog posts and in PMs to us. We’ve made a few exceptions for new lists as well as times when they seemed particularly seasonal or seemed to fit with the other lists being updated.
There are a few lists that no one has asked to have updated. At the point we get close to finishing up with the more popular lists we’ll probably do another post asking for preferences about the remaining lists.