Tuesday, March 07, 2006

My votes at AAR - Warning - very long

I must confess I’ve been itching to spill ever since I voted in the Annual AAR Reader’s Poll. The results came out yesterday and now I finally get to scratch that itch. I’ve been reading with great interest everyone else’s vote Rosario, Keishon, Renee, Amanda Karen S, Alyssa & JMC (to come)and comparing. So here’s mine to add to the list.

Best Romance – Ride the Fire – Pamela Clare
This one was an easy one
Winner – Mr. Impossible – Loretta Chase (read it)

Favourite Funny – To Die For – Linda Howard
Another easy one to pick
Winner – Match Me If You Can – SEP (haven’t read it)

Most Hanky Read – His Second Hand Wife – Cheryl St. John
Yet another easy one to pick
Winner – A Breath of Snow and Ashes – Diana Gabaldon (haven’t read it)

Most Luscious Love Story – Passion – Lisa Valdez
These first ones gave me no problems
Winner – Passion – Lisa Valdez (read it)

Best Cabin/Road Romance – Ride the Fire – Pamela Clare
Yet again no hesitation
Winner – Mr. Impossible – Loretta Chase (read it)

Best New Author – Lydia Joyce
This is where I started having trouble choosing. It was either Joyce or Valdez. I eventually chose Joyce because she had two good books out. But I wasn’t disappointed to see Valdez win
Winner – Lisa Valdez (have read)

Best Buried Treasure – Almost Perfect – Julie Ortolon
I knew this wouldn’t win since it wasn’t even reviewed – which would describe a buried treasure
Winner – The Music of the Night – Lydia Joyce (read it)

Guiltiest Pleasure – The Cobra and the Concubine – Bonnie Vannak
This wasn’t really a guilty pleasure – but I wanted to put this book on the ballot somewhere since I thought it was great
Winner – Passion – Lisa Valdez (have read)

Author Most Glommed – Laura London (Tom & Sharon Curtis)
Knew this wouldn’t win either
Winner – Anne Stuart

Best Medieval – left blank
It killed me to do this, but this is a dying genre. One can only hope it experiences a rebirth sometime in the near future
Winner - Return of the Warrior – Kinley MacGregor (haven’t read it)


Best European Historical – A Season to be Sinful – Jo Goodman
This was a tough category, but I eventually picked this one
Winner – Mr. Impossible (read it)

Best Traditional Regency – A Singular Lady – Megan Frampton
To be honest, this was the only Traditional I read this year – but I liked it a lot
Winner – Dedication – Janet Mullany (haven’t read it)

Best American Frontier – Lips That Touch Mine – Wendy Lindstrom
This one was the hardest category without question for me to choose. My two favourite books of the year were both in this category; Ride the Fire and Lips That Touch Mine. It took me 3 days to choose. What finally decided it was I had already voted for Ride the Fire as both Best Romance and Best Road/Cabin and I wanted to reflect how much I loved Lips That Touch Mine too.
Winner - A Breath of Snow & Ashes – Diana Gabaldon (haven’t read it)

Best Contemporary – To Die For – Linda Howard
Again a fairly easy choice
Winner – Match Me If You Can – SEP (haven’t read it)

Best Series – Free Fall – Jill Shalvis
I haven’t read very many series – I dislike what direction they are taking, but I really enjoyed this one. In the future I’m sure I will be voting from the Harlequin Historical line (although I agree with whoever it was that said it almost doesn’t seem right to include them)
Winner – The Mysterious Miss M – Diane Gaston (have read)

Best Romantic Suspense (Rosario can tell you which one I voted for in this category * grin *) In case though you didn’t catch where I gave it away
Crazy Hot – Tara Janzen
Up until the last week, my vote was going to be Black Ice, but I just enjoyed the ride of Crazy Hot so much, I had to vote for it.
Winner – Black Ice – Anne Stuart (read it)

Best Alt Reality/Paranormal – Unmasked – C.J. Barry
I knew this one didn’t have a shot either and it was a harder choice. Dark Lover was certainly in the running. But in the end I wanted to reward what I thought was a great futuristic
Winner – Dark Lover – J.R. Ward (have read)

Best Chick Lit – left blank
I don’t read this genre
Winner – The Givenchy Code – Julie Kenner (haven’t read it)

Short Story – left blank
I don’t read very many anthologies at all and I drew a blank here
Honourable Mention - Falling for Anthony – Hot Spell - Meljean Brook (have it TBR)

Most Tortured Hero – Nicholas Kenleigh –Ride the Fire Pamela Clare
An easy choice!!
Winner – Bastien Toussaint – Black Ice - Anne Stuart (read it)

Strongest Heroine – Tori Masters – Unmasked – CJ Barry
It seems year after year I pick Eve Dallas. This time round I wanted to give another heroine a choice and hey Tori was the captain of a ship
Winner – Eve Dallas – Survivor in Death (read it)

Best Hero – Boyd Grayson – Lips That Touch Mine – Wendy Lindstrom
I just adored Boyd
Winner - Best Hero – Rupert Carsington – Mr. Impossible – Loretta Chase (read it)

Best Heroine – Blair Mallory – To Die For – Linda Howard
I know many don’t like her, but I thought Blair was a hoot
Winner - Best Heroine – Blair Mallory – To Die For – Linda Howard (read it)

Best Couple – Blair & Wyatt – To Die For – Linda Howard
Usually one or the other stands out – but I thought these two matched each other very well and were very funny together
Winner - Rupert & Daphne – Mr. Impossible – Loretta Chase (read it)

Best Villian - Sebastian, Lord St. Vincent - It Happened One Autumn - Lisa Kleypas

I'm never sure how to vote in this category. Are we supposed to vote for a villian we like or a villian we hate. I decided to take the easy way and vote for the one I knew would win - after all Nick did a few years ago for another Kleypas book

Winner - Sebastian, Lord St. Vincent - It Happened One Autumn - Lisa Kleypas (at least I'm guessing that it's Sebastian.


Most Annoying Lead – (forget her name and can’t be bother to look it up) What Do You Say to a Naked Elf – Cheryl Sterling
Loser - Best Heroine – Blair Mallory – To Die For – Linda Howard (read it)

Author you gave up on – Kinely MacGregor/Sherilyn Kenyon
I probably cancelled this one out since I named both of them
Loser – Julie Garwood

Author You don’t Love – left blank
Loser – Nora Roberts

Most Disappointing Read – He Loves Lucy – Susan Donovan
Loser – It Happened One Autumn – Lisa Kleypas (read it and I really don’t get this one)

Worst Read – What Do You Say to a Naked Elf – Cheryl Sterling
Loser (tie) What Do You Say to a Naked Elf & Passion (read them)

Purple-est Prose – left blank
Loser/Winer (?) – Passion – Lisa Valdez

It wasn't until I did this that I realized how many categories Mr. Impossible won in. I read and enjoyed the book - but not as much as so many other people did obviously as I didn't vote for it in anything.

'til later

9 comments:

CindyS said...

Now, see, you're ballot is filled with a whole bunch of different titles. Mine, not so much.

I'm going to have to take some notes because I didn't know that you loved Windstrom so much that it fought Ride the Fire for a place on the ballot!

CindyS

Tara Marie said...

I'm bad, I don't vote, but I plan on commenting. I have to agree as much as I liked Mr. Impossible, I don't think it was wonderful enough to win in so many categories.

Kristie (J) said...

Cindy: Took me a while to figure out who/what book you meant. I didn't remember reading a book by that name or an author by that name. Then I realize ahhhh Wendy Lindstrom. And yes, I really enjoyed it (read it 3X already). It was totally different feel from RTF, but they both took place in early America. LTTM took place later.

Tara: it really swept a lot didn't it? And while I quite liked it, it wasn't one of the books I HAD to reread as soon as I closed the cover.

Rosario said...

Crazy Hot? You voted for Crazy Hot? Who would have thunk? ;-)

I think I have the Jo Goodman book in the TBR. I've been meaning to try her for a while. She's an author quite a few different people have recommended. And I think I have the CJ Barry book, too. I didn't like the first one I read by her very much (Unearthed), but I did think she has potential

Anonymous said...

I've finally posted my ballot in comparison to the winners. My ballot pretty much matched up with an entry I wrote back in January about the best of 2005. I didn't really match up much at all with the winners. Had a few honorable mentions in common, but that was about it. The grand success of Mr. Impossible was a bit of a surprise, since I thought it was fairly forgettable. But it has been awhile since I've added a historical to my list of keepers, so maybe I'm prejudiced against historicals.

Now that I've read your list, I'm going to have to check out Ride the Fire and Windstrom, and give C.J. Barry another chance.

Kristie (J) said...

Rosario: Yep, I know it comes as a surprise - but I voted for Crazy Hot :). I've read a couple of CJ Barry books after Unmasked and to be honest wasn't terribly impressed myself. But she really nailed it (as they say in figure skating) with Unmasked. And I know you started one of the Compass Club books by Jo Goodman and got turned off by the peach scene (see - memory like a steel trap for some things) but she really is good! Sybil thinks so too *grin*

JMC: I really recommend Ride the Fire and Lips that Touch Mine by WENDY LINDSTROM *LOL* I found both of them such a wonderful breath of fresh air in the somewhat stale at times historical genre. And Cindy liked Ride the Fire. And see what I said above about about CJ Barry.

Rosario said...

Man, Kristie, your memory IS good! I'd actuallty forgotten about that one (didn't log it in my spreadsheet, and what's not in my spreadsheet, disappears from my mind, apparently!)

ReneeW said...

I'm going to have to track down LTTM. I think Cindy was the only one I know who picked the big winner (Mr. Impossible). Oh, and I pick Nicholas Kenleigh too!

Kristie (J) said...

Renee: He was a tortured hero wasn't he *sigh*. And I think you'll really enjoy Lips That Touch Mine - which reminds me MUST FIND COPY FOR MEGAN!