Special Title Listings: Summer Update
As summer heads into its final months we’ve decided to take a bit of a break and are doing a light update for the Special Title Listings by opening just two lists for your suggestions. Even though we’re entering the Dog Days of summer we hope you’ll be able to help us once again and offer some great suggestions for the following lists: (1) Older Couples, and (2) Big City Contemporary Romances.
We look forward to seeing your submissions for these lists starting today Monday August 5 and going for the next two weeks ending Sunday August 18 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.
Older Couples: The Older Couples list is separated by age and features 30-, 40-, 50-, and 60-something heroes and heroines. Some of the titles – such as Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ Heaven, Texas and This Heart of Mine – are on the list because they feature an older secondary romance. When the list was last updated in September of 2009 the definition was straightforward: “This list features romance heroes and heroines who are somewhat older than the norm.” We’ve thought a lot about that definition and have made one slight adjustment by adding the following text: “While heroes and heroines in their 30s were once unusual in contemporary romances, that is no longer the case. Contemporary romances will only appear on the list if both the hero and heroine are at least 40.” This new specification only applies to contemporary romances; we’d still love to see historical romances featuring 30-something couples. Please include the age of the hero and heroine when you submit titles for this list.
Big City Contemporary Romances: This is a new list that appears for the first time on the Special Titles page today. We began this list through suggestions you made to two posts here on May 9 and May 31. After suggestions from several of you, we’re going to limit this list to contemporary romances set in big cities. We’re not interested in romances in which the hero and heroine stay in a hotel room — or an apartment — for the entire book. We want titles where our hero and heroine get out and about and give readers a feel for the city. We also need real cities that are named in the story. An unnamed city that readers have to guess about won’t fit here. When you submit titles for this list please include the name of the city.
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, LinnieGayl, and Cindy
I’m afraid I’m too late to add to this list (due to your stated cut off) but I wanted to say that I’ve written two books that qualify for the over forty (mature romance as I call it) category. Both are contemporary romances.
One for the Road (a road trip book) features a 46 y/o heroine and a 42 y/o hero. It will be a free download September 1-2 at Amazon.
Too Close for Comfort is a second chance at romance love story between a divorced couple. She’s 45 and he’s 47.
Both of these books are solid romances.
I have always liked Georgette Heyer’s False Colors with it’s older secondary heroine, the mother of the hero.
Does Joanna Bourne’s The Black Hawk count as a book with older characters? Justine and Adrian are both in their thirties in the “”present day”” scenes, but half of it or more is extended flashbacks. The other title I came up with is Susanna Fraser’s An Infamous Marriage (B at AAR); the h/h marry when she’s in her twenties, but then live apart for several years so that the bulk of the story takes place when both are in their thirties.
Gabaldon’s Outlander books appear in the list, but An Echo in the Bone came out after the last update, so it can be added now (by now Claire is in about 60 and Jamie is in his 50s).
I pointed this out in an earlier submission but I’ll repeat it here – Pamela Clare’s I-Team books are all set in Denver except for the first half of Breaking Point, which is set in Mexico. The whole series revolves around a group of journalists for the fictitious Denver Independent.
Yulie, that’s a really interesting question about An Infamous marriage. Since the bulk of the story takes place when they’re in their thirties it would seem to fit. What do you think?
I remember your commenting on Pamela Clare’s I-Team books all being set in Denver. And i remember looking for descriptions of all of them (and even searching through partial ebooks available online). But what I can’t remember is why I didn’t list them all. It might be that the parts of the books I could preview didn’t mention Denver. Will definitely look for them again.
“”The Spy’s Reward”” (Napoleonic Romance) by Nita Abrams features a heroine in her late 30s with a daughter of marriageable age and a hero in his 40s who has grown children.
Regarding the big city romance list, should we assume that all the suggestions you received after the two columns that were written in May are already submitted? I just don’t know if I should repeat what I already said or assume that they are already under consideration for inclusion.
Sandylynn, if you don’t see something you submitted before please feel free to submit it again.
Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t see that you already had a list started. Since it’s totally new, I thought we didn’t have anything up yet. Great! I’ll check it out.
:) Not a problem.
For historicals, both the heroine and the hero have to be at least 30 or an older hero is enough?
They should both be over 30. The problem is there are a lot of older historicals (sorry, I don’t read many now) with young heroines married to an “”older”” hero.