2017 Rita Awards
The 2017 RITA awards have been announced! What is the RITA award? It is the BIGGEST award that romance writers can earn in every romance category. Until recently I was more familiar with the Hugo Award for science fiction and fantasy novels and the Pulitzer prize. One of my (many) literary interests is collecting and reading Pulitzer prize winning fiction.
I knew about the Pulitzer and Hugo awards for most of my life but only heard about the RITA award in recent years when I realized that I wanted to write romance novels myself. Questions about who gets to decide what is award worthy and who is considered worthy of being nominated for an award are important to address. However exploring the RITA awards is a great way to discover quality books in a very saturated market.
The downloaded a few books right away on my Amazon Kindle! Christmas on Crimson Mountain by Michelle Major because its a Harlequin Romance Special Edition that won for best short contemporary romance. This one had the appeal that it is a Christmas themed Harlequin romance which I am a sucker for, it is a short read and I get Harlequin Rewards points for the purchase. I also purchased Off the Clock by Roni Loren which won best erotic romance because I recently read Roni Loren's books Wanderlust and Nice Girls Don't Ride. I love the kind of characters she writes about and the fact that she does not shy away from the sexy stuff.
Unfortunately RITA awards are not as well known as the other kinds of awards that I follow. This stems from a lot of stigmas associated with the romance novel. There is also the assumption that romance novels do not have very good writing. But frankly there are books in every genre that are not very good and books that are excellent. I know that I am excited to read my new books. I am not joking when I say that I read them for research purposes! The fact that they are fun is just an added bonus!
I knew about the Pulitzer and Hugo awards for most of my life but only heard about the RITA award in recent years when I realized that I wanted to write romance novels myself. Questions about who gets to decide what is award worthy and who is considered worthy of being nominated for an award are important to address. However exploring the RITA awards is a great way to discover quality books in a very saturated market.
The downloaded a few books right away on my Amazon Kindle! Christmas on Crimson Mountain by Michelle Major because its a Harlequin Romance Special Edition that won for best short contemporary romance. This one had the appeal that it is a Christmas themed Harlequin romance which I am a sucker for, it is a short read and I get Harlequin Rewards points for the purchase. I also purchased Off the Clock by Roni Loren which won best erotic romance because I recently read Roni Loren's books Wanderlust and Nice Girls Don't Ride. I love the kind of characters she writes about and the fact that she does not shy away from the sexy stuff.
Unfortunately RITA awards are not as well known as the other kinds of awards that I follow. This stems from a lot of stigmas associated with the romance novel. There is also the assumption that romance novels do not have very good writing. But frankly there are books in every genre that are not very good and books that are excellent. I know that I am excited to read my new books. I am not joking when I say that I read them for research purposes! The fact that they are fun is just an added bonus!
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