Five Years of Feminist Romance on RNFF

This Saturday, at the Boston Book Festival, author Aya de León and I are going to be on a panel together, speaking about "The Hows and Whys of Feminist Romance." Knowing that people in the audience might ask for book recommendations, I began browsing through the reviews I've written here on RNFF, only to realize that I totally missed the fifth anniversary of the blog! In celebration of that anniversary, I've put together a list of the more than 225 books that have been reviewed on RNFF over the past five years, either in stand-alone or group reviews, or in the RNFF "Best of 2012-2016" lists. You can either download this complete list as a handy pdf file here; or you can browse the list below, which includes links back to the reviews of each book if you want more information before you decide whether or not a book might be for you.

Happy reading!

Adams,Noelle. Late Fall (Contemporary)

Adler, Dahlia. Under the Lights (YA)

Alexander, Kianna; Alyssa Cole; Lena Hart; Piper Huguley. The Brightest Day: A Juneteenth Historical Romance Anthology (Historical)

Ames, Lynn. All That Lies Within (Contemporary; Queer)
Ames, Solace. The Submission Gift (Contemporary; BDSM)

Anders, Adriana et al. Rogue Desire: A Romance Anthology (Contemporary)
Andrews, Ilona. Hidden Legacy series (Fantasy)

_____. Magic Bites and other titles in the Kate Daniels series (Fantasy)

_____. Steel’s Edge and other books in the Edge Chronicles (Fantasy)

Austin, Lori. Beauty and the Bounty Hunter (Historical)

Balogh, Mary. Longing (Historical)

_____. A Summer to Remember (Historical)

Barry, Emma. Party Lines (Contemporary)

_____. Private Politics (Contemporary)

Barry, Emma and Genevieve Turner. Earth Bound (Historical)

Beecroft, Alex. Blessed Isle (Historical)

_____. Blue-Eyed Stranger (Contemporary)

_____. Lioness of Cygnus Five (Science Fiction)

Bell, Serena. Getting Inside (Contemporary)

Belleau, Heloise and Solace Ames, The Dom Project (Contemporary; BDSM)

Belldene, Amber. Not a Mistake (Contemporary)

_____. Not Another Rock Star (Contemporary)

Bennett, Jenn. Grim Shadows (Fantasy)

Berry, Julie. All the Truth That’s in Me (Fantasy)

Bowen, Sarina. Keepsake (Contemporary)

_____. Rookie Move (Contemporary)

_____. The Shameless Hour (New Adult)

_____. The Understatement of the Year (New Adult)

Bramhall, Andrea. CleanSlate (Romantic Suspense; Queer)

Brockmann, Suzanne. Do or Die (Romantic Suspense)

Brook, Meljean. The Kraken King (Fantasy)

_____. Riveted (Fantasy)

Brooks, Rebecca. Above All (Contemporary)

Brown, Lorelie. Far from Home (Contemporary; Queer)

Buchman, M. L. I Own the Dawn and other books in the Nightstalkers series (Contemporary; Military)

_____. Full Blaze and other novels in the Firehawks series (Contemporary; Action)

Bujold, Lois McMaster. Shards of Honor (Fantasy)

Burgis, Stephanie. Snowspelled (Historical Fantasy)

Burkhart, Joely Sue. The Billionaire Submissive (Erotica; BDSM)
Burrowes, Grace. The Captive (Historical)

Calhoun, Anne. Jaded (Contemporary)
_____. The Muse (Erotic)

_____. Uncommon Passion (Erotic)

_____. Unforgiven (Contemporary)

Callihan, Kristen. Shadowdance (Fantasy)

Carey, Jacqueline. Kushiel’sDart (Fantasy; BDSM)

Carriger, Gail. Parasol Protectorate series (Fantasy)

Cashore, Kristen. Bitterblue (Fantasy)

Chase, Loretta. Dukes Prefer Blondes (Historical)

Charles, K. J. A Gentleman’s Position (Historical; Queer)

_____. A Seditious Affair 

_____. Think of England 

Chris, Tanya. My Guys (Contemporary)

Clark, Shelley Ann. Have Mercy (Contemporary) 
Clark, Sonya. Good Time Bad Boy (Contemporary)

Cosway, L. H. Painted Faces (Contemporary; Queer)

Cousins, Amy Jo. Off Campus series (Contemporary; Queer)

Cole, Alyssa. An Extraordinary Union (Historcal)

_____. Let Us Dream (Historical)

Cowan, Anna. Untamed (Historical)

Cullinan, Heidi. Carry the Ocean (Contemporary; Queer)

_____. Love Lessons series (Contemporary; Queer)

_____. Santa Baby (Contemporary; Queer)

Crane, Carolyn. Off the Edge (Contemporary; Romantic Suspense)

Dahl, Victoria. Flirting with Disaster (Contemporary)

_____. So Tough to Tame (Contemporary)

_____. Start Me Up (Contemporary)

_____. Taking the Heat (Contemporary)

Danforth, Edie. Uncovering Ray (Contemporary; Queer)

Dee, Bonnie. New Life (Contemporary)

de León, Aya. The Boss (Contemporary)

Dev, Sonal. The Bollywood Bride (Contemporary)

Dixon, Mason. Date with Destiny (Romantic Suspense; Queer)
Dryden, Delphine. The Principle of Desire (Erotic; Contemporary)

Duran, Meredith. At Your Pleasure (Historical)

_____. Fool Me Twice (Historical)

Edwards, Louisa. Too Hot to Touch (Contemporary)

Elliott, Kate. Court of Fives (YA/Fantasy)

Essex, Elizabeth. Almost a Scandal (Historical)

Everett, Alyssa. The Marriage Act (Historical)

Farizan, Sara. If You Could Be Mine (YA)

_____. Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel (YA)

Fitzpatrick, Huntley. The Boy Most Likely To… (YA)

_____. What I Thought WasTrue (YA)

Flake, Sharon K. Pinned (YA)

Florand, Laura. The Chocolate Kiss (Contemporary)

_____. Shadowed Heart

_____. Snow-Kissed

_____. Turning Up the Heat

Forman, Gayle. Just One Day (YA)

_____. Where She Went

Frantz, Sara (ed). Summer Rain anthology (Contemporary)

Foster, Emily. How Not to Fall (New Adult)

Gallagher, Lauren. Razor Wire (Contemporary; Queer)

Garden, Nancy. Annie on my Mind (Contemporary; Queer)

Gibney, Shannon. See No Color (YA)

Glass, Seressia. Sugar (Contemporary)

Goodman, Jo. In Want of a Wife (Historical)

Grant, Cecilia. A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong (Historical)

_____. A Gentleman Undone

_____. A Woman Entangled

Grey, Juliana. A Lady Never Lies (Historical)

Hall, Alexis. For Real (Contemporary Queer)

_____. Glitterland

_____. How to Bang a Billionaire

_____. Looking for Group (New Adult)

_____. Pansies

Hamilton, Laurell K. A Kiss of Shadows (Fantasy)

Hart, Megan. Flying (Contemporary)

Hart, Regina. Fast Break (Contemporary)

Hassell, Santino. Sutphin Boulevard and other books in the Five Boroughs series (Contemporary; Queer)

Henry, Lisa. Adulting 101 (YA; Queer)

Herendeen, Ann. Phyllida andthe Brotherhood of Philander (Historical; Queer)

Hewitt, Kate. Marry Me atWilloughby Close (Contemporary)

Heyer, Georgette. Venetia (Historical)

Higgins, Kristan. If You Only Knew (Contemporary)

_____. My One and Only

Hubbard, Jennifer R. Try Not to Breathe (YA)

Huguley, Piper. Virtuous Ruby (Historical)

Hunter, Faith. Blood of the Earth (Fantasy)

Hunter, Kelly. Pursued by the Rogue (Contemporary)

James, Eloisa. Your Wicked Ways (Historical)

James, Julie. Practice Makes Perfect (Contemporary)

_____. Love Irresistibly

Jenkins, Beverly. Forbidden (Historical)

Johnson, Alaya Dawn. Moonshine (Historical; Fantasy)

_____. The Summer Prince (Fantasy/YA)

Jones, Diana Wynne. Howl’s Moving Castle (YA; Fantasy)

Jones, Heather Rose. Daughter of Mystery (Historical; Queer)

Kallmaker, Karin. Love by the Numbers (Historical; Queer)

Keyes, Julianna. In Her Defense (Contemporary)

Kothari, Falguni. It’s Your Move, Wordfreak! (Contemporary)

Kennealy, Miranda. Catching Jordan (YA)

Kennedy, Elle. The Deal (New Adult)

_____. The Score

Kennedy, Sean. Tigers and Devils (Contemporary; Queer)

Kinsale, Laura. Flowers from the Storm (Historical)

Konigsberg, Bill. Openly Straight (YA)

Knox, Ruthie. About Last Night (Contemporary)

_____. Madly

_____. Making It Last

_____. Truly

Lang, Ruby. Hard Knocks (Contemporary)
Latham, Kat. Tempting the Player (Contemporary)

Lauren, Christina. Beautiful Secret (Contemporary)

_____. Dating You/Hating You

_____. Sweet Filthy Boy

Lennox, Cass. Toronto Connections series (Contemporary; Queer)

Lerner, Rose. Sweet Disorder (Historical)

_____. True Pretentions (Historical)

Leveen, Tom. Manicpixiedreamgirl (YA)

Levithan, David. Two Boys Kissing (YA; Queer)

Lin, Amber and Shari Slade. One Kiss with a Rock Star (Contemporary; Queer)

Lockhart, E. Ruby Oliver series (YA)

Lord, Emery. The Start of Me and You (YA)

McGarry, Katie. Crash Into You (New Adult)

_____. Dare You To

McKenna, Cara. After Hours (Contemporary; Erotica)

_____. Give it All

_____. Hard Time

_____. Sins in the City series

_____. Unbound

McMan, Anne and Salem West. HoosierDaddy (Contemporary; Queer)

McMaster, Bec. Of Silk and Steam (Fantasy)

Maher, Rebecca Rodgers. Fault Lines (Contemporary)
_____. Just Give Me a Reason

_____. Rolling in the Deep
_____. Tanya

Maley, Siera. Dating Sarah Cooper (YA; Queer)

March, Lucy. That Touch of Magic (Fantasy)

Marchetta, Melina. Quintana of Charyn (YA; Fantasy)

Mayberry, Sarah. Her Kind of Trouble (Contemporary)

Merrow, J. L. Shamwell Tales series (Contemporary; Queer)

Milan, Courtney. The Heiress Effect (Historical, with two exceptions)

_____. Her Every Wish

_____. The Governess Affair

_____. Hold Me (Contemporary)

_____. The Suffragette Scandal

_____. Trade Me (Contemporary)

_____. Unclaimed

_____. What Happened at Midnight

Morgan, Tamara. Confidence Tricks (Contemporary)

Morsi, Pamela. The Lovesick Cure (Contemporary)

Moskowitz, Hannah. Not Otherwise Specified (YA; Queer)

Murphy, Julie. Dumplin’ (YA)

Nelson, Jandy. I’ll Give You the Sun (YA)

Neville, Miranda. The Importance of Being Wicked (Historical)

Nix, Susannah. Remedial Rocket Science (Contemporary)

Newman, Stella. Pear-Shaped (Contemporary)
North, Beau. Modern Love (Contemporary)

O’Keefe, M. Everything I Left Unsaid (Contemporary; Erotic)

O’Keefe, Molly. Can’t Buy MeLove (Contemporary, with one exception)

_____. Can’t Hurry Love

_____. Indecent Proposal

_____. Tempted (Historical)

_____. Wild Child

O’Neal, Barbara. The All You Can Dream Buffet (Contemporary)

_____. The Garden of Happy Endings

O’Reilly, Jane. Indecent trilogy (Contemporary; Erotic)

Pace, Lilah. Asking for It (Contemporary; Erotic)

Parker, Madison. Play Me, I’m Yours (YA; Queer)

Parker, Tamsen. Due South (Contemporary; BDSM)

_____. In Her Court (Contemporary; Queer)

Parrish, Roan. Small Change (Contemporary)

Paton, Ainslie. Sold Short (Contemporary)

Perez, Nina. Sharing Space (Contemporary)

Rai, Alisha. A Gentleman in the Street (Contemporary)

Raybourne, Deanna. A Curious Beginning (Historical; Mystery)

Reid, Penny. Dating-ish (Contemporary)

_____. Elements of Chemistry (New Adult)

Reiss, CD. King of Code (Contemporary)

Rich, Juliann. Caught in the Crossfire (YA; Queer)

Rivers, Francine. Redeeming Love (Historical; Inspirational)

Rivers, Mary Ann. Laugh (Contemporary)

_____. Live

_____. My Only Sunshine

_____. Snowfall

_____. The Story Guy

Robb, J. D. Naked in Death (Science Fiction; Romantic Suspense)

Roberts, Teresa Noelle. Drive (Contemporary BDSM)

_____. Knowing the Ropes

Rocha, Kit. The Beyond series (Fantasy; Erotic)

Salcedo, Nicki. All Beautiful Things (Contemporary)

Samuels, Barbara. Lucien’s Fall (Historical)

Satie, Erin. The Young Blood (Historical)

Sayers, Dorothy. Gaudy Night (Mystery)

Scheidt, Erica Lorraine. Uses for Boys (YA/New Adult)

Schone, Robin. The Lover (Historical/Erotic)

Scott, Jessica. All for You (Contemporary/Military)

Singer, P. D. A New Man (Contemporary; Queer)

Snyder, Suleikha. Bollywood and the Beast (Contemporary)

Sorensen, Jill. Backwoods (Romantic Suspense)

Spencer-Fleming, Julia. Inthe Bleak Midwinter and other books in the Clare Ferguson/Russ van Alstyne series (Mystery)

Stark, Nell. The Princess Affair (Contemporary; Queer)

_____. The Princess and the Prix

Stein, Charlotte. Intrusion (Contemporary; Erotic)

_____. Never Sweeter

Stivali, Karen. Tonight (Contemporary; Queer)

Thomas, Sherry. The Luckiest Lady in London (Historical)

_____. The One in my Heart (Contemporary)

Trout, Jenny. Choosing You (YA/New Adult)

Waller, Sharon Biggs. A Mad, Wicked Folly (Historical; YA)

Willner-Pardo, Gina. Prettiest Doll (YA)

Wilson, Kai Ashante. A Taste of Honey (Fantasy; Queer)

Wind, Ruth. In the Midnight Rain (Contemporary)

Woods, Sara Taylor. Hold Me Down (New Adult; BDSM)

York, Robin. Deeper (New Adult)

Thoughts on #metoo

If all women who have been sexually harassed/assaulted wrote "Me too" we might get a sense of the magnitude of the problem.

#MeToo

I write that hashtag with very mixed feelings. Because I know acquaintances, friends, and family members who have been sexually assaulted, and I'm wary of diminishing their pain by lumping their trauma together with the far lesser one of being verbally harassed that I've experienced. And because, perhaps because I've worked most of my adult life in female-dominated professions (publishing; teaching; romance writing), I've not experienced the micro and macro aggressions of daily sexual harassment that many of the people using the #MeToo hashtag write about. I want to support other women in speaking out about their experiences with rape culture, but I don't want to co-opt their struggles or their pain, or claim that I've been its victim except on a small scale.

Yet, I do have memories of being sexually harassed. The one that resonates the most for me is from my early teen years, when I went over to the house of my friend and neighbor on Christmas to check out his holiday haul. Ralph was part of a large Italian family, and many of his relatives had gathered at his family's house for their traditional holiday dinner. As he and I headed upstairs, away from the holiday hubbub, I heard one of his older uncles call out, "Hey, way to go, Ralphie!" The implication being that Ralph was taking me upstairs to make out, or score with me sexually, reducing me to an object of his nephew's desire. This memory stands out for me because it was the first time that I was aware that what I was experiencing was the result of sexism, rather than some out of the blue aggression, someone talking about me as a sexual object, right in front of my face. The incident was upsetting and demeaning, but I felt like I gained some control over it by being able to name it, to label it, to understand that it was not (or not just) about me in particular, but about this larger malignant belief in our culture, this belief that male experiences were of more value than female ones.

So, I'm wondering—when do you first remember not just being the victim of sexual harassment or abuse, but when you were able to understand that you were on the receiving end of a specifically sexist act?


I've also been thinking about being sexually harassed indirectly, through the pages of romance novels. Twentieth-century romance novels have a long history of romanticizing rape, holding up as heroes men who commit violent acts, and women who equate so-called alpha male behavior with caring. Men who beat up the purely evil villains who rape their beloved heroines are the ones that really get on my nerves here; I'm sure you have your own pet peeves. Many proponents of the romance genre argue that it is inherently feminist, because it is a genre for women, by women, and about women, a genre that centers female experiences and concerns. But it is also a genre that has many, many examples, not only in the Old Skool past but also in the present, of idealizing behaviors for which many using the #MeToo hashtag are taking others to task.

In her piece on the #MeToo movement in The Guardian earlier today, Jessica Valenti argues that it's time for women to start making and sharing lists of the perpetrators of sexual harassment and assault, rather than speaking out yet again about their experiences of being on the receiving end of such harassment and assault.

I've always tried to emphasize the positive on this blog, but perhaps it's time to start making a list of romance novels that do the same.

What books would you put on such a list?