I want to start by wishing everyone a happy and healthy New Year! 2019 was a wild ride for me: I had two new books come out, spent time exploring my new city, taught writing classes, and did a lot of writing! I was also lucky enough to enjoy some wonderful books, and while I didn’t hit my Goodreads goal of 150 stories for the year, I’m still excited to look over all the great books I did read and see what I learned from them. Here’s my list for 2019.
How the Dukes Stole Christmas, Dare, MacLean, Jordan, Shupe
Seduce Me at Sunrise, Lisa Kleypas
The Tattooed Duke, Maya Rodale
Tempt Me at Twilight, Lisa Kleypas
Three Schemes and a Scandal, Maya Rodale
A Late Summer Night’s Dream, Curzon and Harkstead
American Dreamer, Adriana Herrera
Secrets of a Summer Night, Lisa Kleypas
Seducing Mr. Knightly, Maya Rodale
Claiming the Highlander’s Heart, Lily Maxton
An Earl Like You, Caroline Linden
Married By Morning, Lisa Kleypas
The Earl Takes All, Lorraine Heath
Love in the Afternoon, Lisa Kleypas
When a Duke Loves a Woman, Lorraine Heath
A Duke Changes Everything, Christy Carlyle
The Viscount and the Vixen, Lorrain Health
Jillie and Sam, Lina Rehal
Christmas With Her Secret Prince, Nina Singh
Devil’s Daughter, Lisa Kleypas
Rough Terrain, Annabeth Albert
Lost and Found Sisters, Jill Shalvis
It Happened One Autumn, Lisa Kleypas
Someone to Watch Over Me, Lisa Kleypas
The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller
Once Ghosted, Twice Shy, Alyssa Cole
The Ghost Garden, Curzon and Harkstead
Cherish Hard, Nalini Singh
American Fairytale, Adriana Herrera
Rebel Hard, Nalini Singh
Rock Addiction, Nalini Singh
All Out: The No Longer Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages, Saundra Mitchell
Rafe: A Buff Male Nanny, Rebekah Weatherspoon
Can’t Escape Love, Alyssa Cole
Rock Hard, Nalini Singh
Hate to Want You, Alisha Rai
Devil in Winter, Lisa Kleypas
The Ruin of a Rake, Cat Sebastian
Rock Redemption, Nalini Singh
It Takes Two to Tumble, Cat Sebastian
Scandal in Spring, Lisa Kleypas
Again the Magic, Lisa Kleypas
Rock Wedding, Nalini Singh
The Rogue of Fifth Avenue, Joanna Shupe
A Wallflower Christmas, Lisa Kleypas
A Prince on Paper, Alyssa Cole
Royally Screwed, Emma Chase
A Gentleman Never Keeps Score, Cat Sebastian
Unmasked by the Marquess, Cat Sebastian
Forbidden, Beverly Jenkins
When Katie Met Cassidy, Camille Perri
Arctic Sun, Annabeth Albert
The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics, Oliva Waite
Red, White, and Royal Blue, Casey McQuiston
Dominate Me, Stacey Lynn
Say No to the Duke, Eloisa James
Some Like it Scandalous, Maya Rodale
A Little Light Mischief, Cat Sebastian
Arctic Wild, Annabeth Albert
The Matchmaker’s List, Sonya Lalli
American Love Story, Adriana Herrera
My So-Called Bollywood Life, Nisha Sharma
Sir Loin of Beef, Vanessa Vale
Tri-Tip, Vanessa Vale
Porterhouse, Vanessa Vale
The Captain and the Theatrical, Curzon and Harkstead
T-Bone, Vanessa Vale
Skirt Steak, Vanessa Vale
Breathless, Beverly Jenkins
Tempest, Beverly Jenkins
Arctic Heat, Annabeth Albert
The Low Road, Curzon and Harkstead
Practically Persuaded in Pittsburgh, J.B. Schroeder
The Captain’s Flirty Fireworks, Curzon and Harkstead
The Rogue Not Taken, Sarah MacLean
Overture, Skye Warren
Being Hospitable, Meka James
A Scot in the Dark, Sarah MacLean
Fighting for What’s His, Laura Kaye
Worth Fighting For, Laura Kaye
That Night in Nashville, Savannah Kade
The Day of the Duchess, Sarah MacLean
The Captain and the Best Man, Curzon and Harkstead
Small Change, Roan Parrish
A Duke in Disguise, Cat Sebastian
Mangos and Mistletoe, Adriana Herrera
Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
It’s exciting to go back over all the great, good and not-quite books of the last year. The vast majority of these titles are romance novels and I’m perfectly happy with that. The reason I went into writing romance was because I absolutely love it. Reading romance novels now both allows me to enjoy my favorite stories and allows me to learn from the best authors writing today and then.
That said, there’s a decent amount of variation between the stories, genres, and pairings! I’m pleased, looking back, to see more diversity in authors of color and queer authors and storylines, though I know that it’s important to keep adding more and more to the list. I’ve fallen totally in love with some new authors this year (and some greats I’d never read before) and I’ve learned a ton from some books that didn’t hit the mark for me. Many of the books on this list were audiobooks, which made it possible to enjoy so many more stories than I would otherwise be able to do in a year with so many other things going on.
It’s also interesting to look at the kind of books I gravitate toward when I’m stressed or overwhelmed. Maya Rodale, Lisa Kleypas, Joanna Shupe, Eloisa James, and Lorraine Heath are all historical romance novelists with stories set between the Regency era and the Gilded Age. Eloisa James’s Desperate Duchess series was the series that first inspired me to start writing romance novels and I find that when things around me are a little too much all at once, historical romance is a great escape from the big bad world outside.
I’ve gone ahead and set my 2020 goals for 200 books, though I know there’s little chance of meeting that goal. I go a little into why I love book challenges here. It stands to be reiterated, however, that reading books, trying new authors, exploring new storylines and everything in between, is what helps us to be better writers and more discerning people living our lives in the world. I can’t wait to see what great new stories are waiting in 2020!
Happy New Year and very happy reading!