It’s that time of year when individuals and groups are
looking back over the year and deciding who belongs on their best of 2012
lists. Most of you know by now that I love lists, making my own and reading
those generated by other lists makers. If it’s a list of books, I always check
to see how many I’ve read. With the best of romance lists, I have a particular
interest in seeing how my list matches, or fails to match, the prestigious
lists—the ones authors and their agents and publishers brag about having made.
The Best of the Year Season for romance readers always
begins in September with Booklist, a
century-old American Library Association publication that reviews books for
school and public libraries. Editor and reviewer Donna Seaman notes the “smart
women protagonists” in her list of this year’s top ten romances:
- Bedding Lord Ned, Sally MacKenzie
- Blue Moon Bay, Lisa Wingate
- Can't Buy Me Love, Molly O'Keefe
- Forever and a Day, Deborah Marville
- The Great Escape, Susan Elizabeth Phillip
- A Lady Never Lies, Juliana Gray
- The Lord of Illusion, Kathryne Kennedy
- The Night Is Mine, M. L. Buchman
- Rainshadow Road, Lisa Kleypas
- The Ugly Duchess, Eloisa James
My score on this one? I read five (the titles in bold), and I scored 50 percent.
Publishers Weekly, the most venerable of these sources with
its 140-years of continuous publication, announced its best in early November.
I’m not sure why, but PW limits its choices to five. I found this list
especially interesting this year because it includes the reissue of a romance
originally published in 1994. It’s one of my all-time favorite books, and I
concur with the description of the novel as “tender and endearing.” Still, I
question whether a book published in 1994 really belongs on a list of the best
of 2012.
- The Bridegroom Wore Plaid, Grace Burrowes
- A Week to Be Wicked, Tessa Dare
- Love on the Run, Zuri Day
- Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand, Carla Kelly
- Dog Days, Elsa Watson (Tor)
I did better with this one. I read four of the five, giving
me a score of 80 percent. I think I should get extra points for the number of
times I’ve reread Mrs. Drew Plays Her
Hand.
Amazon made its list public in mid-November. Given the
amount of money I’ve paid the company for filling up my Kindle in 2012, you
would think I’d have a 100 percent score here. Nope. I read five of the site’s
top ten romances and scored another 50 percent.
- Bared to You, Sylvia Day
- The Witness, Nora Roberts
- Darker After Midnight, Lara Adrian
- Gunmetal Magic, Ilona Andrews
- The Recruit, Monica McCartey
- Redwood Bend, Robyn Carr
- Lothaire, Kresley Cole
- When the Duke Found Love, Isabella Bradford
- Forever and a Day, Jill Shalvis
- How to Be a Proper Lady, Katharine Ashe
Library Journal, a trade publication for librarians—founded
by the inveventor of the Dewey Decimal system, no less—also published its list of ten in mid-November. LJ's romance reviewer Kristin Ramsdell always has interesting, insightful things to say about romance. This is my favorite list because I’ve read nine of the
ten books. A score of 90 percent gives me an A on this one. Yay!
- Lady Louisa’s Christmas Knight
- Firelight, Kristen Callihan
- Scandal Wears Satin, Loretta Chase
- A Week to Be Wicked, Tessa Dare
- A Gentleman Undone, Cecilia Grant
- ’Twas the Night After Christmas, Sabrina Jeffries
- The Great Escape, Susan Elizabeth Phillips
- The Witness, Nora Roberts
- Tempting the Bride, Sherry Thomas
- Bride of the High Country, Kaki Warner
Kirkus, a book review magazine that has been offering
readers “unbiased, critical recommendations they can trust” since 1933, doesn’t
have a romance list exactly. Instead, it includes six books that it considers
the “Best Fiction about Love and Sex.” With only four of the six on my have-read
list, my score is a dismal 66.6 percent. Moreover, I never even heard of the
two I haven’t read. I fear my reputation as a remarkable reader is in jeopardy.
- Seven Variations on a Love Story, Joan Wickersham
- Office Girl, Joe Meno
- The Great Escape, Susan Elizabeth Phillips
- Somebody to Love, Kristan Higgins
- Rainshadow Road, Lisa Kleypas
- I’ve Got Your Number, Sophie Kinsella
Most recently, GoodReads, a privately run
"social cataloging" website started in December 2006, announced its
member-voted GoodReads Choice Awards for 2012. I blush to admit that I have
read only one of the ten on this list, and even if I use the full list of
twenty nominated books, I’ve read only three. So, my score here is 10 percent
or 15 percent. Dreadful in either case. I guess my reading tastes must be very
different from those of GoodReads romance readers, at least those who voted.
- Fifty Shades Freed, E. L. James
- Bared to You, Sylvia Day
- Lover Reborn, J. R. Ward
- The Witness, Nora Roberts
- Once Burned, Jeanine Frost
- On Dublin Street, Samantha Young
- Edenbrooke, Julianne Donaldson
- Gabriel’s Rapture, Sylvain Reynard
- Motorcycle Man, Kristen Ashley
- Lothaire, Kresley Cole
Overall, there are forty-three different books on these
lists; I’ve read twenty-two. The oldest book on the list is Carla Kelly’s Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand, first
published nearly twenty years ago; the most recent is The Bridegroom Wore Plaid by Grace Burrowes, a December 4, 2012 release.
Burrowes is the only author with two novels on the lists. Only six titles appear
on more than one list. There are more than twice as many historical romances as
contemporary romances on the lists, but the two that appear most often (The Great Escape and The Witness on three lists)
are contemporaries. Bared to You, Lothaire, Rainshadow Road, and A Week
to Be Wicked each appears on two lists. Six of my top ten are on at least
one of these lists, but that’s getting into next Friday’s post. Until then . .
.
Do you check out
these best of lists? How many of these books have you read?
