The Best Book of 2020: AAR Staff Picks
While the AAR staff each shares a list of books published last year they love, every year they are asked to come up with their FAVORITE read. This year, after being informed that “No, you cannot pick an author or a series,” most of our reviewers did indeed pick just one. Here are their choices. Enjoy!
Caroline:
Queen Move by Kennedy Ryan
This book not only took on more than any other book I read this year – religion! step-parenting! race! politics! infertility! – but it stuck the landing on every single one of them. Kimba and Ezra’s story is realistic, powerful, and unforgettable.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible or your local independent bookstore
Caz:
I am rubbish at picking “the best” of anything, and my answer to such a question usually varies on a daily basis. So choosing my favourite romance of the year is hard. Loretta Chase’s Ten Things I Hate About the Duke is unquestionably the best historical romance of the year, and Alexis Hall’s Boyfriend Material is without doubt the best contemporary/rom-com. But right now, I’m finding so much to love in m/m romantic suspense, so it’ll be no surprise when I go for The Same Breath by Gregory Ashe, a superb blend of clever mystery and slow-burn romance featuring two flawed but intensely loveable characters who couldn’t be more different – or more perfect for each other.
Buy it at: Amazon or your local independent bookstore
Charlotte:
The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez
In this year of things going terribly awry, I recommend to you as my Best of 2020 a book about everything going right: the right woman (painter Sloan) meets the right guy (musician Jason) and they get a HEA that goes 4/4 on both of them getting everything they wanted re: career, house, marriage, babies. It topped my heart right up to the edge of its capacity.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent bookstore
Dabney:
What is my favorite romance read of the year?
Well, that’s tough. Loretta Chase’s long awaited historical romance, Ten Things I Hate About the Duke, is a delight. Maria Vale’s The Legend of All Wolves series rocks as does Milla Vane’s A Gathering of Dragons books. But I think the book I enjoyed the most – I’ve reread it twice! – is Julianna Keyes’ Bench Player. This is a story that pulled me out of my (mostly crap) year and made me remember all that’s good in the world. And, given that I don’t like baseball – So. Dull. – and find a lot of contemporary romance facile, the sheer pleasure this book gives me is a glorious surprise. I’m a sucker for older protagonists, redemptive storylines, and powerful women. This book has all this and more.
Buy it at: Amazon
Evelyn:
It’s tough to pick just one, but I’m going for TJ Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea. I loved many books this year but this is the one that I’ve recommended the most (and bought as a gift the most!). It was a wonderful book – I was entertained and moved and inspired – just what I want when I pick up a story. The romance was low key but the love was rich. It’s a book that will be revisited many times!
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible or your local independent bookstore
Jessica:
How to Start a Scandal by Madeline Martin
I discovered a love of Harlequin Historical romances this year and this title was my favorite of them all. I adore the Beauty and the Beast trope, especially when it’s something like PTSD, which the hero suffers from. The heroine was also fabulous, trying to make a life for herself without resorting to marriage. This title is on my read-again shelf because it was just too good to only read once!
Buy it at: Amazon or shop at your local independent bookstore
Lisa:
Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert
What a romance, what a novel, and what a piece of work! No one encourages a reader to fall heedlessly in love with her characters like Hibbert, and no one makes the process quite the dance that she makes it. A delight from start to finish.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent bookstore
Maggie:
Party of Two by Jasmine Guilory
I absolutely adored the relationship between Olivia and Max, which was honest, poignant, funny, flirty, sexy and involved deserts. I also deeply appreciated the balanced look at politics this author took and how well she detailed what the life of a senator would actually look like. Easily my my favorite romance of the year.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent bookstore
Maria Rose:
A Heart of Blood and Ashes by Milla Vane
Picking one book out of all the books I read in a year is always a difficult challenge, but I’ve settled on A Heart of Stone and Ashes by Milla Vane. It’s complex worldbuilding, fascinating characters and fast paced action combined with an enemies to lovers romance makes for a page turning read from start to finish.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible or your local independent bookstore
Rachel:
The Duke Who Didn’t by Courtney Milan
This book was a sweet, fluffy read with a really amazing leading lady. Both of the main characters are such fun people to read about, and the central conflict is high stakes without being anxiety-inducing. I would recommend this book to any reader who is looking for a swoon-worthy, gentle book.
Buy it at: Amazon or Audible
Shannon:
My favorite romance of 2020 has to be The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon. Not only is it a spectacular love story featuring mature characters who know what they want in life, but it’s also a love letter to female friendship. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect story. It’s a book I enjoyed from start to finish, and although I’m not someone who does a ton of rereading, I’m pretty sure I’ll be revisiting this one in the not-too-distant future.
I thought I sent mine in – sorry, guys! Mine was “Boyfriend Material”, so I add a m/m to the stack.
Evelyn, Cerculean Sea just came in from the library – I can’t wait to read!
Oooohhh! Tell me what you think when you finish!
Great list – thank you so much! It was nice to see I’ve managed to read four of these, and yet there are still several left I’m looking forward to reading. I’d also somehow totally missed Madeline Martin’s book which sounds delightful.
Also, sorry to bother you, but when I click Find all our Best of 2020 books at Amazon and Visit our Amazon Storefront links it goes to an error page. Same happens when I click the All the Steals and Deals! link on the homepage/first page that opens when you enter the website’s url. I wonder if this is just me or if other people are having the same problem? I tried the links with both my table computer and tablet with the same results.
I suspect it’s just you. Sorry!
Damn. :( I’ve never had any problems before and I’ve been using the steals and deals link from the frontpage almost daily. I wish I understood more about this stuff so I could try to figure out what’s wrong. Thank you for letting me know!
Have you rebooted your devices and cleared cookies?
Yes. Those were the only things I could think to do. I’ll try to get someone to see to the problem. Many thanks for trying to help – it was very kind of you! :)
My TBR list just grew based on this list. I found “The Boyfriend Project” in a Little Free Library in my neighborhood, so it now sits on my desk, and I’ve put several of the others on hold at the library. I’d already read “Party of Two” and didn’t like it quite as much as Maggie did, but then I liked but didn’t loved the two other Guillory books I read so wasn’t surprised to have the same reaction here. Still have to decide if I want to buy the Kennedy Ryan. It sounds so intriguing with racial and religious diversity mixed with politics, and I do love HR so may also buy the Madeline Martin. May also buy the Keyes, as, unlike Dabney, I don’t find baseball boring. Went to an Orioles game with my son when he was 8, and his first comment was that he didn’t realize that baseball was so uneventful. I told him he was looking at it all wrong. Each pitch is a drama: ball or strike, hit or miss? Each hit was a drama: foul, safe, out? And so on. You just need to break it down to its component parts and all the possible outcomes for each. Of course, YMMV, and clearly does for some.
It is NOT for me. I’m not much for watching sports anyway. I can do basketball and tennis but only if I’m doing something else at the smae time!
Great picks everyone! Thank you for this list, and all the individual lists. I always find so many wonderful things to read that I somehow managed to miss during the year. Happy reading everyone!
All solid picks – I liked a lot of these as well, besides my own pick.
Waving to Evelyn – I adored The House in the Cerulean Sea, also. Chauncey was my favorite character but all the children were wonderful. In a very difficult year, it left me with such hope and joy.
I completely agree – it made me feel happy and somehow more confident in the goodness of the world!
I don’t know about “best” romance of 2020, but my favorite romance novel published that year by far was Cat Sebastian’s Two Rogues Make a Right. There was no shoehorned-in plot, no unnecessary villain, just a bunch of m/m hurt/comfort sweetness that felt like the perfect way to spend a rainy afternoon.
If we’re allowed to present a runner-up, I also want to give a shoutout to the FF HR The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite.
This was the first FF capital-R Romance I read, so I don’t have much to compare it to. Maybe that’s a good thing, because I was amazed how well Waite portrayed a believable relationship between two middle-aged characters- one a widow, the other married to a gay man to protect both of their reputations- circa 1820. On the other hand, maybe now I’m spoiled with high expectations for historical FF. :-)
Someone on Goodreads praised how the heroines are friends for about a year before pursuing a romantic relationship. If you don’t like slow burns, you might feel annoyed that there are no sexy times before around the 60% mark. Personally, I appreciated the slower pacing. It felt gentle, realistic, period-appropriate, and in-character.
Seven set in contemporary times. Two fantasy. Two historical. Two m/m. One romantic suspense. Six by authors of color.
This is a diverse list with not a single big mainstream historical romance release on it.
I’m not sure what any of that signifies but it’s interesting.
Like you, I thought the Chase was easily the best historical of the year. And I know you had a lot of HR on your best of list, so yes, there was some good HR out there. But I think I’d have been hard pressed to think of any others to add to your list – (I’m just writing up my 2020 round up for my blog and only have one I’d add (by Virginia Heath)). But eight good historicals out of all the books released last year… and okay, so perhaps we could round it up to ten to account for the one or two we maybe missed/haven’t read. Ten out of however many books published last year isn’t a great showing; that’s been my point when we’ve spoken about this over the last couple of years. Not that there is NO good HR, just that there’s very little of it, AND that the big-name authors aren’t delivering the really good reads that they used to.
I suppose the list could be said to indicate the fracturing of a large market, and an increasing search for “different” rather than “more of the same”?
I finally got to read the Chase and while I liked it, I wouldn’t have added it to my top 10. I think the best historical was Mia Vincy’s, but I haven’t read the Madeline Martin and now I’m curious.
I think Jessica’s Harlequin pick might count as a big mainstream historical romance release.
It signifies that the times are changing, in a positive way, and HR needs to start digging deeper and getting some more memorable signees aboard.