Link to list

"We've decided to celebrate the last decade of Booklist’s annual Spotlight on Romance by combining the 10 most recent Top 10 Romance Fiction lists, from 2006 through 2015, to create a roll call of the best recent romance novels as we see them—a grouping that could also be titled, “The Big Happily-Ever-After Reading List.”

So why are there 101 titles? Well, we broke with tradition and came up with a Top 11 in 2011. These books represent the many subgenres within romance, from historical romances reaching back to medieval, Regency, Victorian, and Edwardian times, to paranormal tales about vampires, werewolves, and lovers on other planets and in faraway galaxies. The 101-best list includes western romances, romantic suspense, inspirational romances, military romances, and contemporary romances serious and comedic. You will recognize the names of many of these “top” writers—indeed, there are multiple appearances by Jayne Ann Krentz, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Lisa Wingate, and Lisa Kleypas. But you will also, we hope, discover many more romance authors who will be new to you and to the readers who come to you for recommendations."

Surprising list for sure.  I might have read 25 books on this list...maybe.

I think I've read one book on the list.  It sounds vaguely familiar but certainly was not outstanding in my mind so I can't remember if I actually read it.

I've heard of, and read things by, several authors on the list but most I've never even heard of.

Yes Sarah that was what surprised me, many of these books wouldn't have cracked my top 1,000.

I think I've read about 10 of them.  Of those, I would only say 2 really stood out for me.  Most of them, I'd neither heard of the title nor author.

I've also read about 10 of the books and not heard of a large number of the authors.  I'm thinking this isn't so much "101 Best Romances..." but "101 Best Romances that are NOT on those other lists."

LOL, yes that must be it. I mean some of them would have made my top 100, but many of them I wouldn't have placed at all.

This list surprises me.  I either don't recognize or don't read most of the authors. The ones I did read would not have made my personal list.   I am amazed that Nora Roberts is not on there especially since I thought The Witness was the best thing she's done in a while.  And Kristen Ashley.  Her books are very hit or miss with me but the four Dream Man books were wonderful and certainly had an impact on romancelandia and the publishing world.  (And don't forget Knight!)  I think Penny Reid is going to do the same thing.  Love her independently published books, especially Love Hacked.  And Sharon Sala's I'll Stand By You is easily one of my best reads for 2015 and the list does seem to claim to cover 2015 even though it is not over.  And where is Nalini Singh?

I agree. I also agree about that surprising gem of a book by Sharon Sala, man that one blew me away with how good that was.

Keri - It was a reference you made to the Sala book that caused me to buy it.  Otherwise it would not have even been on my radar.  So a major "Thank You" to you from me.

Here's a third vote for I'll Stand by You.  Don't forget that it's the second book in Sharon Sala's "Blessings, GA" trilogy.  The first book, The Curl Up and Dye, was also good.  The third book of the trilogy, A Gentle Kind of Love, comes out in 2016.

I finally  got around to checking out this list.  I gotta say...."What?" I read historicals with only the very occasional (La Nora, SEP(none of those mentioned for Phillips were memorable at all for me) thrown in, so many of the contemporaries I've never heard of.  The one that stands out for me as being different and very well done is Eileen Dryer's "Barely a Lady".  A beloved author IS on the list-with what I thought was one of her worst stories ever.  So, that just goes to show that my taste is apparently very different than those over on that site.  

Jan

To each her own....