AAR Poll - My Take On the Winners

Looking over the winners - I am quite baffled and it clearly shows that I stand alone. I didn’t read much romance last year but I plan to make for that this year. I still think originality is missing in romance today. There’s too much focus on sex,sex,sex,sex and character development needs improvement. Where are the original plots? Who are the true storytellers out there? Let me cherry pick the winners that gave me fits and starts and which ones I actually agree with, too.

Best Romance: Mr. Impossible by Loretta Chase (Give me a break here)

I am not a fan of Ms. Chase’s work. I find her rather dry. I prefer Judith Ivory, honestly. Her characters have some bite to them. And of course, Laura Kinsale - who writes better. Period. I don’t know. I read her #1 book by all the romance fans of the world - Lord of Scoundrels and it was meh. Utterly forgettable. I actually put The Smoke Thief by Shana Abe’ as best romance. But then it’s not labeled romance and I don’t want to upset and confuse romance readers.

Best Debut Author: Lisa Valdez

Completely agree here. Passion may have had some problems but Ms. Valdez can only get better.
What baffles me is that Passion is voted worst book and has the purple-est prose. Huh? If one were to say anything about Ms. Valdez prose it would be: explicit. She doesn’t use stupid descriptions. Her love scenes I did not skip because they were different than all the crap out there that I’ve read.

Best Couple: Rupert and Daphne ***laughing**** Who? I don’t think so.

Authors Other Love/You Don’t: Nora Roberts

They can really dispense with this category. Really. I mean who cares that you or I don’t read NR. Besides, Nora seems to win that category almost every year in row.

Authors You Gave Up On: Julie Garwood

Now why is that not a surprise? Let me tell you something. I would rather read her contemporaries than those fantastical historical romances she is so beloved for and I hated The Bride and Honour’s Splendor and The Gift. I was duped into thinking that her books were good. They are not despite praise from all over the country. I prefer Judith McNaught.

This year’s poll held no surprises. Much of the discussions on these boards gave a hint of things to come. I voted at the last hour and I can clearly see that none of my titles made it. Which was The Smoke Thief by Shana Abe’ for almost every category that I could put it into but oh well.

Believe it or not I still read romance and enjoy it very much but the pickings are slim and are getting slimmer with the exit of Connie Brockway (another favorite). All I have left is really Judith Ivory and Laura Kinsale. And a few others that I read upon occasion. Anyway - that’s my take on this poll.

Be good ~