the ask@AAR

A recent article in the Washington Post was titled Reading will supposedly make you a better person. That’s not the real reason to pick up a book. In it, the author wrote:

Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman. Claire Randall and Jamie Fraser. Stella Lane and Michael Phan. Naledi Smith and Thabiso Moshoeshoe. Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. Dominic Frey and Silas Mason. Just to name a few. Romance is rife with swoon-worthy couples,…

It’s damn difficult to get numbers on what percentage of romance novels are self-published or traditionally published. One site, looking at Kindle sales only, posits these numbers:

In 2006 we also did a minipoll on favorite heroines in romance. Then, readers picked, in order, Jessica Trent from The Lord of Scoundrels, Eve Dallas from the In Death series, Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and…

Yesterday, in the States, many of us joined friends and family for Thanksgiving. I host my large family every year and am usually too frenetic to be thankful for much until the meal is done, the…

AAR readers routinely tell us they disagree with our takes on books. Over the years we’ve been told: I don’t agree with how critical and one sided you were of this book in this review, after…

What should we call books with no sex in them? AAR has a sensuality ratings system but that’s not helpful when you want a single descriptor. (It has five levels from Kisses to Burning and probably…

Here at AAR, the staff is beginning to make our favorite Best of 2019 lists. Earlier this week, we asked what your favorite non-romances of the year are. Now we’d like to know: What’s your favorite…