The Wait is Over – Here are Your 2013 Top 100 picks!
The wait is over! We are pleased to announce the results of our Top 100 AAR Romance Poll here(and we also have a more printer-friendly version.)
In the past, and quite possibly right this minute, when we’ve posted the results of the Top 100 Polls and the Annual Reader polls a frequent reaction for our readers has been, “I didn’t vote for any of those books!” So we thought it might be fun to see how the AAR staffers’ Top Ten romances matched up with the results of the 2013 Top 100 Poll. We suspect the results are probably similar to how many of your results matched up, meaning some yes, some no, some none at all.
Of the Top Ten books chosen by readers in the 2013 Top 100 Poll, AAR staffers’ combined choices matched up with four books: Romancing Mr. Bridgerton was chosen by three staff members (13%), and Lord of Scoundrels, Slightly Dangerous and Outlander by two staff members (9%).
Of the other Top Ten books, Devil in Winter, Flowers from the Storm, Dreaming of You, and The Viscount Who Loved Me only appeared on one AAR staff member’s Top Ten list, while The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie was not listed on anyone’s Top Ten, though it did show up elsewhere in our Top 100 ballots. Meanwhile, the book that garnered the most votes (5) by AAR Staff members was J.R. Ward’s Lover Awakened which landed in 34th place.
All in all, 46 of the books in the final Top 100 were actually picked by at least one AAR staff member.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on the final Top 100. Did any of the titles on your ballot make the final Top 100? Which authors or titles were you surprised to see or not to see on the list?
And what about the “Best of the Rest,” or the titles in positions 101-200? Check back here over the next month for some additional analyses of the Top 100.
– Lee, Cindy and LinnieGayl
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It’s interesting that how this list is so similar to the lists in the previous year. I wonder if we have basically the same group of people doing the voting. There are only eight books that are published after 2010 that made the top 100! I find it surprising. Does that mean that the quality of the books is very poor in the last 13 years? Or does that mean again that most of the voters are from the “”older”” generations who have started reading romances 20-30 years, therefore making most of the top books coming from that time period?
My list contained 85 books and of them 13 made the big list. I’m okay with that. (I cut and pasted a copy of my list into my email.)
General observations: Historical romance does seem a little over-represented. I also noticed historicals had the newest romances and authors like Sherry Thomas, Courtney Milan, Tessa Dare, etc. while contemporary had mostly older authors. I had several Shannon Staceys far down my list but none made the list.
Of my personal top ten half made the big list. My #1 Persuasion was #58 but it was still nice to see it on the list.
Thank you! This is a terrific list… And I was happy a few of my books made it. I would be curious if the “”most voted for authors”” matches the title list? I wonder if some authors just have so many books that everyone has a different favorite. It would be fun to see “” the top fifty authors”” or something… Agin, though, thanks for this terrific resource.
Can you tell how many lists have been submitted?
I see that the Governess Affair is in the list, and I thought we could only vote for full length books (but I love the Governess Affair). I would have put some other short stories.
Since I don’t read many historical romances, I’m used to being out of step with the top 100 list. A few of my favorites made it into the list, but not one paranormal and so few contemporaries! I look forward to the “”Best of the Rest””. Maybe this list will be more in tune with my reading preferences.
My top 25 made it to the list. great list thanks for publishing, i wish you could publish the next 100 always looking for new books to read.
From the list I submitted, 34 books made the final Top 100.
I am sad to see that the list has no books by Carla Kelly… We talk a lot about her books in the board, and I thought that with the release of some of her older books in digital format over the past couple of years more readers would have a chance to get to know her work. I am curious to see how her books did in the 101-200 list.
Yes, many of my favourite are on the Final Top 100, and even among the first ones, as ‘Lord of Scoundrels’, or ‘Flowers from the Storm’.
I really loved to see two Courtney Milan’s books in the list. And I’m glad to see another one that I haven’t read yet but has intrigued me: ‘A Lady Awakened’ by Cecilia Grant. And I see Georgette Heyer is back!
I’m surprised that there’s no book written by some of the ‘important’ names in romance: Karen Robards, Jayne Ann Krentz (only ‘Ravished’ – Amanda Quick), Sandra Brown or Johanna Lindsey. Surely there must be an explanation, but I’m not sure which one it is.
I’d like to read the “Best of the Rest,” or the titles in positions 101-200. Have you published it yet? I haven’t found it.
That will be coming soon Joane.
I agree completely Joane. I do not understand why there are so few paranormal and completely no erotic romances. My mind is blown because those genres have been growing since 2010. Maybe there should be a limit or a change or something.
Maybe its that there are so many paranormal romances and that splits the vote? Whereas everyone agrees on which are the best historicals?
I think also there’s a lag effect, especially for re-readers. In general the more times I have read a book the higher it goes on my list. So a A grade book I have read four times will tend to be ranked higher than one I have read once. So older books are slightly advantaged because I’ve had more time to re-read them. I still voted for 14 paranormals though!
Also if books have been out longer then there are more opportunities for them to have been recommended and read by more people.
So maybe the paranormal trend will show up in the next Top 100 poll! And we’ll be complaining that that one doesn’t reflect the current trend :-)
I think that’s a really good analysis. It’s also a problem with lengthy series (particularly common in paranormal a). Everyone has their favorite and there’s little commonality.
Good point!
I could see how that works!
I’m gone to say to my little brother, that he should also visit this blog on regular basis to get updated
from most recent information.
I’m still kicking myself for missing the deadline on this. I saw it when you first posted it, started to make my GoogleDocument with a long list, and then forgot to post it… until I remembered it two days after the deadline.
I had 32 of the books on the list on my book of 100.
I was surprised at how many I got, I’m not sure since I didn’t keep a list of what I submitted, but I think I had about 41 on the list! Whoo Hoo! Great list! Looking forward to seeing the 100-200 list too! I’ve found this list invaluable over the past few years and it’s introduced me to so many of my favorite romances! Thank you!
Is there any way to determine what book had the highest average rating? If I understand the points system correctly, a book could be rated 100 on every ballot and beat a book that was rated 51 on half the ballots.
I’ve wondered if the size of the publisher and number of copies in print have heavily influenced the ability of a book to place high (the only series romance I see is at #50, for instance, and I know my library keeps single-titles for years or decades while disposing of series books relatively quickly). This is the only way I can think of to maybe get that info out of the data. I wondered if a top-ten of average ratings would look pretty much the same or wildly different. Obviously there’d have to be a minimum number of votes for a book but I’m curious.
I’d have to think about it and set parameters. But it should be do-able.
Oh, cool! I would love to see it. It’s almost like “”digging for buried treasures.””
Great list. Thanks for compiling. I was surprised so many of my choices made the list–26. I look forward to reading the posts on the best of the rest.
But where’s the list?
Sorry! I swear the link was there before:
http://www.likesbooks.com/top1002013results.html
Thank you!
14 of my titles made the list (but I submitted only 66) and I’m happy of the return of Georgette Heyer with more than a title.
There’s two mistakes in the list, The Grand Sophy is attributed to Mary Balogh and there’s no link to a review for A Hunger Like no Other.
Thanks, Paola. We’ll make the corrections later.
Paola: A Hunger Like No Other was the only book in the Top 100 that was not reviewed by AAR.