I have a heap of books, and I was interested to see who was going to win the RITAs. I’ll leave the Golden Heart out of it, since I’ve had no opportunity to read any of them.
Once I bought all the RITA winners and read them, but I only did that a couple of times, because I found the books a strange mix, and none of them led me to a new favourite. I either knew the author’s work already, or the book didn’t interest me. So I wondered why, as a reader, I felt so apathetic about the winners.
I know winning a RITA can mean great things for an author, because industry does, or used to, take note. In these troubled times I don’t know if it will mean the same thing.
My doubts about the contest itself doesn’t mean that I don’t respect and congratulate those authors who do win the contest. (If you were wondering, I think that it no longer reflects the reading habits of the romance reading public, that it cynically excludes swathes of the market—e-published authors, even with the new revisions, don’t get a fair shot, for instance, and erotic romance doesn’t get a decent shot either).
I entered the Golden Heart once, but my book went past the limit, so I didn’t get to go through. Neither did I get any money back, which seemed a bit unfair. Recently I’ve decided not to enter contests in the immediate future. I’ve always felt uncomfortable competing against authors I respect and admire, and while I’m thrilled with the awards I have won, I’m tending towards believing that the only ones that truly mean anything are the ones where authors are nominated and elected by the reader. Even then, the emergence of the fangirl universe means that certain authors have an advantage. Or is that fair? Stephanie Meyer’s fangirls are notorious for turning up at discussions and waylaying them, but then again, not many authors can say they’ve featured constantly in bestselling lists the way she has. The only honest way to approach it, it seems, is the purely personal, so this is definitely showing my reading preferences.
FWIW, here’s my take.
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Best Contemporary Series Romance – Karen Templeton for A Mother’s Wish. It’s from a line I don’t often read, because the stories often involve children, and I’m not really interested in them. But I might pick this one up. |
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Best Contemporary Series Romance: Suspense/Adventure – Danger Signals by Kathleen Creighton. I’ve not read one of hers, but I enjoy romantic suspense, so I might get this one, if I can. I’ve never read her books, but she’s now won the award three times, so that piques my interest. |
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Best Young Adult Romance – Hell Week by Rosemary Clement-Moore. Is this a romance or is it urban fantasy? Anyway, it’s not my thing, so I won’t be looking into this one. I’ll leave it to the young adults. |
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Best Historical Romance – The Edge of Impropriety by Pam Rosenthal. Very good. I’ll be adding this one to my TBR, but I probably would have added it anyway. |
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Best Regency Historical Romance – My Lord and Spymaster by Joanna Bourne. This has been on my TBR for a while. I enjoyed the first book.So no, it won’t alter my reading habits. |
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Best Inspirational Romance – Finding Stefanie by Susan May Warren – Definitely not my thing. I need the sexing. Did winning a RITA make me want to try the book? No. But best wishes to Susan May Warren. |
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Best Romance Novella – “The Fall of Rogue Gerard” by Stephanie Laurens in It Happened One Night. I stopped reading Laurens years ago, because I found all her stories the same, so I might as well reread Devil’s Bride, which I do. I might look this one up, though, for old times’ sake and see if her appeal has increased with absence. |
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Best Paranormal Romance – Seducing Mr. Darcy by Gwyn Cready. This was a wtf, especially with Nalini Singh in the running. Will I read it? No. I don’t like books that take Jane Austen’s books and traduce them. They just don’t appeal to me. So the Darcy in the title actually puts me off. And while it’s deeply unfair for me to think so, a book that beats Singh has a strike against it. The reviews I’ve read of this book aren’t good, I think two DNF’s, and a C or something like that. I won’t buy it, but I’ll read it without prejudice if I get it for review. |
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Best Novel with Strong Romantic Elements – Tribute by Nora Roberts. Congratulations, Nora. Will I read it? Probably not, because – here’s my big, big confession – I don’t like her books. Brickbats coming my way, I know, but it’s nothing I can put my finger on. I’ve bought and tried some of her most highly recommended books and they just don’t do it for me. Highly personal, which is why I’ve never commented on it. She’s a great writer, I can see that, and I admire her skill, but something, somewhere, doesn’t do it. |
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Best Romantic Suspense – Take No Prisoners by Cindy Gerard. I think I have this one in my TBR pile. I enjoy Gerard’s books, so while I’m happy for her, it wouldn’t have made any difference to my buying choice. |
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Best First Book – Oh. My. Gods. by Tera Lynn Childs. This one actually made me go and look it up. No. actually, omg no. Interesting concept, but long distance running and Greek gods? No. |
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Best Contemporary Single Title Romance – Not Another Bad Date by Rachel Gibson. I like Gibson’s books, so I’ll probably pick this one up, but it doesn’t make me want to rush it up the TBR pile. |
So there we are. Over for another year. But looking down this list, it hardly scratches the surface of my reading preferences. Where are the erotics? Where are the best sellers of last year, the ones that took the lists by storm?
It doesn’t reflect my reading choices, and it makes me wonder how many other readers feel the same. There have been revisions to the RITA entry guidelines, but in effect, they don’t mean a great deal. The big publishers have a three-week head start on the smaller pubs, so it’s still a tiered thing, and since the number of entries is limited, that means in effect that the big publishers and authors published by the smaller houses have to scramble for what’s left. And if you enter and you either get your entry wrong, or you go over the numbers, you don’t get your money back. Every entrant also has to enter six printed copies of their book, perfect bound, and all that stuff. I write ebooks, and even when my books come out in print, it’s some time after the ebook, so I doubt many publishers will want that expense. So we’re unlikely to see much difference to entrants in future years, unless they go for complete parity.
As a reader, not a writer, I give a big “meh” to this. I don’t care. A book that has “RITA winner” on the cover isn’t necessarily going to attract me rather than a book that doesn’t. I go on the genre, the author, the blurb and an extract, and yes, the cover, sometimes. I put off reading Flowers From The Storm for ages because of the naff Fabio cover [Gwen Ed.: mouse over the cover to the right for some Fabio-ness]! Now it’s one of my all time favourite romances.
So what gems did they miss? And don’t you want to know who didn’t enter, so who wasn’t in the running?
The RITAs don’t affect (or reflect) my reading choices at all. I bought the Karen Templeton book a couple of months ago, but I bought it because Karen is a sweetheart on Twitter and because Holly from BookBinge loves her books so much. I didn’t even realize the book had been nominated until KT popped on Twitter to thank everyone for congratulating her.
I like Rachel Gibson’s writing, but no more or less than any other good contemporary author.
And I really wish the greek god one had been left in the YA category.
The Mr. Darcy thing kind of annoys me. Pseudo-paranormal fanfic? No, thanks. I don’t understand the appeal of Austen sequels in the first place, and I’m shocked that it won. Must’ve been lots of P&P fans judging this year.
I did read Tribute, but I thought it was mediocre. Maybe a 3.5-star read for me. Lukewarm at best.
So, yeah, totally meh for me. I’m happy for the authors who won, but I think the RITA means way more for the authors and their colleagues than for us readers.
I’m still boggled that Singh didn’t win. I’ve never heard of this book, and I don’t see how it’s paranormal. Paranormal Lite, maybe, in the vein of those old “paranormals” about characters with ESP that didn’t read much different than contemporaries. Then again, I didn’t like Jane Austen’s work anyway, so something dealing with that is also a turn-off for me.
These awards mean absolutely nothing to me as a reader. I have actually read two of the winners listed (The Edge of Impropriety which I did NOT like at all and Laurens’ novella – which I liked fine). None of the others appeal to me – neither did most of the books that were nominated. These awards will not influence me to purchase any of these books.
I’m kind of glad to have read your take on Nora Roberts. I do not read her works either. I don’t hate them, but they do nothing for me at all. I used to enjoy her category romances, but never could get into her full-length stuff. I enjoy her J.D. Robb stuff better than her Nora Roberts works, but not enough to spend money on them. Anyway, it is nice to hear someone else has the same thoughts about Robert’s books. This seems to be considered sacrilege in the romance world.
Lynne, I agree with you that the RITA has no effect on my reading choices. i look for recommendations from reviews on blogs such as GoodBadandUnread, SmartBitches and Dear Author.
I too am shocked at Nalini Singh did not win for her Psy book.
i enjoy Nora’s books, including Tribute.
Won’t make a bit of difference for me. None of the books that won are even remotely close to something I’d like, which is sad. I’m also left WTFing at Singh’s loss…how the heck did that happen?
I have read some of the authors, but like Gibson’s case I stopped reading her books after I met her in person at a local bookstore. And I did love Gerard’s first few books.
But overall…the awards didn’t do a damn thing for me.
I think it’s the discussion that surrounds the RITAs, rather than the win itself, that has sent me after winning or nominated books. A couple of years ago I was really irritated that Julia Quinn’s “On the Way to the Wedding” was a winner because it was a DNF for me and nowhere near as good as her earlier books in the Bridgerton series.
Over the years I have found myself far more influenced by reader opinions. I appreciate the various lists at AAR because they are reader-generated. I would love to see RWA (or some organization) sponsor a series of awards that are also reader-generated. I think those would have far more meaning for me.
Like you, Lynne, I’m happy for the winners who decided to put their work out there and their peers voted for it. I just wonder if the judges, who are writers, look at books quite differently than we do as readers. If so, perhaps there’s the disconnect.
The Ritas don’t affect my buying choices either, especially not often agreeing with the winning books when I’ve read several in a category.. I don’t get the Cready win either against all the others nominated (including Singh, a very favorite series). Phyl, I agree with you about On the Way to the Wedding, I was disappointed with that end to the Bridgertons; while I love many of her books, that wasn’t one of them. I liked the Laurens short well enough, but was hoping to see Meljean Brook’s win, my favorite along with one by Candice Hern for shorts of the year.
Well this is the first year that I have paid any attention to the Ritas.. and it will probably be the last.. lol
And it has had no impact upon my buying/reading.
But was a bit confused about the YA winning best book and the odd paranormal winner.. but *shrug*
I did a double-take at Seducing Mr. Darcy winning the paranormal category. I’ve read the book, it was a decent read and I enjoyed the ending, but I had to stop and think for a minute on how it even fit into the category. My favorite out of that group was Gena Showalter. I use the RITAs as a recommendation, so I’ll read the blurbs and see if they have my favorite tropes. But they’re not auto-buy for me, because I usually prefer one of the books that didn’t win.
I’m happy for those who win, but as others have said – they don’t affect my book buying at all. I’m constantly scratching my head at the books that win and confused by why some don’t. But it’s a writer’s award and an author has to pay to enter so maybe they judge by a different kind of criteria.
Here’s what I want to know – how do you know how to correctly use words that you don’t know the meaning of?
Like you, none of the books on the list look like they’re gonna turn my crank. And I am bored to death with the overabundance of baby books in category romances. Sometimes a person needs a nice, like, quick read without all the 8lbs of squalling.
I’ve also never been especially turned on by Nora Roberts’ work, but I have found myself enjoying her In Death series enough to be on the seventh one now. But like a poster above, I don’t buy them, I get ’em from the library.