Opening five Special Titles Listings for submissions!

After a long, relaxing summer break we are very happy to be back and full of renewed energy. You can see that from the fact that we are opening no less than five of the Special Titles list, and hoping for many fascinating submissions from you. Remember, that you should only nominate the best of the best romances. We will be accepting submissions starting today, Monday, October 13, and ending at midnight on Sunday, October 26. Here are the five lists:

Held Captive. The relationship between hero and heroine in this category is rather more complicated than in many other romances, and it culminates with either the hero or heroine holding their (future?) love interest captive. They may lock them in a basement or hold them in an isolated cottage. Now that seems about as far from love as it can get, and a good Held Captive romance must include a path from this ultimate disparity in power to a believable happy ending.

Imprisoned! The hero or heroine in this category do not imprison each other, instead they are held in prison or sent to exile. They have been convicted of a crime, and take their punishment, or have taken it in the past. It does not matter for inclusion in this list whether they are guilty of what they are accused of, or if they are innocent. Because we describe the character’s particular situation in a short sentence for this list, we’d like to ask you to quickly note down who gets imprisoned, which form the imprisonment takes, and what it is for.

Adventure Romances. The charm of these romances lies in the fact that they tell a gripping yarn with exotic locales, hair-raising exploits and narrow escapes with a love story. Many of them are humorous on top, but there are also true tear-jerkers among the adventure romances.

Secondary Romances. Sometimes, as readers, we are less moved by the primary couple in a novel than by the secondary couple. They may be older, or siblings or friends to the lead characters. Their romance does not hold center stage, but we wait with baited breath for their next appearence while we are reading, and will even pick up the novel again just to reread the passages that describe their road to happiness. Because in some books there are several secondary romances, we would like to ask you to name which characters you nominate the book for (even though their names will not appear on the list).

Point of View. These stories use point-of-view as a special effect, and thus give a far more intimate insight into one main protagonist’s mind than many other romances. The first half of this list contains romances in which the heroine’s first-person perspective is employed – with the inclusion of diaries –, and the second consists of novels that mostly use the hero’s perspective. When submitting, please indicate which sublist the book belongs to.

Ready to nominate some titles? Head to the ballot here. We are looking forward very much to the great titles you nominate!

Rike Horstmann, LinnieGayl Kimmel and Cindy Smith