This year’s RITA winners are….
Romance Novella Winner
Her Every Wish by Courtney Milan
Self-published
Lindsey Faber, editor
Contemporary Romance: Long Winner
Contemporary Romance: Long Winner
Miracle on 5th Avenue by Sarah Morgan
Harlequin, HQN
Flo Nicoll, editor
Young Adult Romance Winner
The Problem with Forever by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Harlequin, HQN Teen
Margo Lipschultz, editor
Historical Romance: Long Winner
No Mistress of Mine by Laura Lee Guhrke
Avon Books
Erika Tsang, editor
Romantic Suspense Winner
Repressed by Elisabeth Naughton
Montlake Publishing
Charlotte Herscher and Christopher Werner, editors
Buy Now: A/BN/iB/K
Paranormal Romance Winner
The Pages of the Mind by Jeffe Kennedy
Kensington Publishing Corp.
Peter Senftleben, editor
Erotic Romance Winner
Off the Clock by Roni Loren
Penguin Random House, Berkley
Kate Seaver, editor
Historical Romance: Short Winner
A Duke to Remember by Kelly Bowen
Grand Central Publishing, Forever
Alex Logan, editor
Romance with Religious or Spiritual Elements
My Hope Next Door by Tammy L. Gray
Amazon, Waterfall Press
Amy Hosford, editor
Buy Now: A/BN/iB/K
Contemporary Romance: Short Winner
Christmas on Crimson Mountain by Michelle Major
Harlequin, Special Edition
Gail Chasan, editor
Contemporary Romance: Mid-Length Winner
Carolina Dreaming by Virginia Kantra
Berkley Publishing Group
Cindy Hwang, editor
Mainstream Fiction with a Central Romance
The Moon in the Palace by Weina Dai Randel
Sourcebooks, Landmark
Shana Drehs and Anna Michels, editors
Best First Book Winner
Once and For All: An American Valor Novel by Cheryl Etchison
Avon, Impulse
The Kelly Bowen was well deserved, but I agree re: the Laura Lee Guhrke. I read everything she writes, but this was not a great book and there were certainly better historicals by other authors.
I’m a bit disappointed too. I read some really fabulous books this past year and none are listed here, whereas some that I did read that are listed were fairly mediocre books for me.
Caz, I was just about to make a comment about Guhrke’s book. I didn’t like it much. I thought the hero was better as a secondary character in the other books and I didn’t care about the romance.
On the whole, disappointed in this year’s nominees and winners, from the ones I’ve read. Which aren’t many. Even the books I liked didn’t necessarily ‘deserve’ to win the categories, although some of them had very weak competition. A few exceptions, but this is typical of the RITA Awards from my experience.
What on earth is the difference between “historical romance – long” and “historical romance – short”?
According to Amazon, the Bowen is 368 pages and the Guhrke is 384. What a ridiculous distinction!
Anyway – I’m glad the Bowen won, because that was my favourite of what was a very strong trilogy. As for the Gurhke… well, I’m surprised, because IMO it was one of her weakest recent books. (Mind, you, I can’t remember what it was up against in that category, so maybe it was the best of a poor lot!)
I really liked Courtney Milan’s Her Every Wish and so I’m happy to see it listed here.
I haven’t read any of these. I really liked Between the Devil and the Duke by Kelly Bowen so I am interested in trying A Duke to Remember.
This whole series is terrific! You won’t be disappointed.
Em’s right – and actually, A Duke to Remember is my favourite of the series.