It’s that time of year again and we’re pleased to announce the books featured in seven out of our eight categories!
Our categories this year are Contemporary, Historical, Novella, Series/Category, Paranormal/Fantasy/SciFi, YA/NA, and Novel with Strong Romantic Elements.
The eighth category will be filled with the top eight books as nominated by you. Yup. You nominate the books you think should be included that aren’t listed right now.
If you’re looking to nominate a book, fill out the form to enter your nominations.
The book nominated can be digital or print, but please, wherever possible, use the ASIN or ISBN number for the PRINT edition to minimize duplicate entries.
PLEASE NOTE! The book MUST have a publication date of 2014. No exceptions, no reprints. No paperback version of 2013 hardcovers.
For those who are new to the DABWAHA madness, here’s an intro to this year’s competition!
Contemporary
It Happened One Wedding by Julie James
Vanished by Carter Quinn
Waiting on You by Kristan Higgins
Maybe This Christmas by Sarah Morgan
A Bollywood Affair by Sonali Dev
Into the Shadows by Carolyn Crane
Between the Sheets by Molly O’Keefe
Bad Behavior by KA Mitchell
Paranormal/Science Fiction/Fantasy
Half-Off Ragnarok by Seanan McGuire
Champion of the Scarlet Wolf by Ginn Hale
Bitter Spirits by Jenn Bennett
Forged by Desire by Bec McMaster
Up From the Grave by Jeaniene Frost
Magic Breaks by Ilona Andrews
Highfell Grimoires by Langley Hyde
Assimilation, Love and Other Human Oddities by Lyn Gala
Novella
His Road Home by Anna Richland
Archer’s Sin by Amy Raby
Misbehaving by Tiffany Reisz
Apples Should be Red by Penny Watson
Just a Little Taste by Farrah Rochon
Indecent Exposure by Jane O’Reilly
His Fair Lady by Kimberly Gardner
Unwrapping Her Perfect Match by Kat Latham
Category/Series
All I Have by Nicole Helm
Coming In from the Cold by Sarina Bowen
Worth the Fall by Claudia Connor
Never Trust a Cowboy by Kathleen Eagle
As Hot as it Gets by Elle Kennedy
Satisfaction by Sarah Mayberry
Salvation by Noelle Adams
Rodeo Dreams by Sarah M. Anderson
Historical
The Jade Temptress by Jeannie Lin
Never Judge a Lady By Her Cover by Sarah MacLean
My Beautiful Enemy by Sherry Thomas
The Suffragette Scandal by Courtney Milan
Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare
Think of England by KJ Charles
Destiny’s Captive by Beverly Jenkins
The Lover’s Knot by Erin Satie
Young Adult/New Adult
Evil Librarian by Michelle Knudsen
Sweet Filthy Boy by Christina Laurens
Fever Pitch by Heidi Cullinan
The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine
The Year We Hid Away by Sarina Bowen
The Hook Up by Kristen Callihan
Illusions of Fate by Kiersten White
Live For Me by Erin McCarthy
Novel with Strong Romantic Elements
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel by Sara Farizan
Valour and Vanity by Mary Robinette Kowal
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen
Burn For Me by Ilona Andrews
A Forbidden Rumspringa by Keira Andrews
Murder of Crows by Anne Bishop
UPDATE:
Reader Nomination
Beauty and the Mustache by Penny Reid
Beverly Hills Demon Slayer by Angie Fox
The Kraken King by Meljean Brook
Rogue Spy by Joanna Bourne
A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong by Cecilia Grant
Ten Below Zero by Whitney Barbetti
Triple Threat by Regina Kyle
Fair Play by Josh Lanyon
Start planning your brackets and brushing up on your trash talk!
I think you have the title and author reversed here: Ilona Andrews by Burn For Me 🙂
I haven’t read a single one of these. I feel no shame.
A couple of them are in my TBR but I’m not in any rush.
It’s entirely possible that I didn’t read anything in 2014 that was actually printed or published in 2014.
Is that uncommon?
I know I read at least a hundred other books.
I am a little surprised that Sarina Bowen’s The Year We Hid Away got nominated instead of her The Year We Fell Down but then the whole series was awesome.
I think I’ve read three of them. Possibly more, but if so, they weren’t memorable. I get all my books from the library, so I don’t tend to stay current. But you’re not supposed to vote your heart in these things, so it can be an advantage. Right?
Having the vote in books seperated into their own bracket is gonna change everything. Except the fact that I’m still terrible at this…
@Katie: Whoops! Thanks for the catch!
aack! I have 6 favourites in the contemporary/series cagegory! How am I supposed to choose?! I need one of those 6 sided dungeons and dragons die…
No GLBT category?
Also, is this correct, re: schedule?
Second Round (32 books): March 19-20, 2015
Get ready for the 2nd Chance Bracket. Second Chance Tourney Begins: 20 March 2015
I would have thought the 2nd chance tourney would begin March 21.
Is there an FAQ for the Second Chance Tourney. I suspect I don’t understand 🙂
I’ve read one.
I own another, have one out from the library, and intended to read one of them at some point anyway.
@Christine Maria Rose: Six sided dice are pretty easy to find.
OMG SPRING FORWARD ARGH.
Ahem.
@Sandra:
The GLBT category was eliminated in favor of a category entirely made up of reader nominations. But we didn’t eliminate those books at all — there are GLBT titles in the other categories.
As for the second chance tournament – yes, my mistake. That should be the 21st of March for the Second Chance Tourney.
@Coco: A lot of the books I read in 2014 weren’t published in 2014, either. But I did read 5 of the books on the list–2 of which I read in 2015!–and all of those were very good. I’ve nominated one of the other excellent 2014 books that I read in 2014…but yeah. A lot of the stuff I read is not new.
I nominated Darling Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt and Between the Devil and Ian Eversea by Julie Anne Long. Thanks for the opportunity to participate!
I nominated one that was surprised not on list already Three Weeks with Lady X by Eloisa James and the Raider by Monica McCarty
“But you’re not supposed to vote your heart in these things” – wait…am I misunderstanding the point of this? Isn’t DABWAHA exactly for that? To vote for your favorites, to give as much love as you can to the books and authors you love? (and confession time here, for categories I’m not well versed in, I look them up and choose my favorite cover…is that wrong?)
Oh please oh please put some Penny Reid on there (the Knitting in the City series) – they’re fabulous books! Indie author, smart-yet-flawed heroines and wonderfully real (and hot) guys, wonderful friendships – these books have it all. They’re catnip. I don’t even knit and these books make me want to take it up!
I’ve tried a few times to leave a comment…..
@Mel:
Are you trying to leave a comment here, or on the DABWAHA site?
New Adult is NOT YA. Those two should not be combined. Anything after the summer between high school and college is adult. Period.
I’m so glad you mainstreamed LGBTQ romance. Out of curiousity, are there any f/f books nominated? I see a trans m/f and several m/m but I’m not familiar enough with f/f to tell. I hope there will be some f/f nominated by readers.
I read a whopping 10 in this list and I am amazed. I read a lot last year, but I consciously cut back on buying new books, including new releases.
@Kim MacCarron
Serious question, is that fact or opinion? I just finished a book that I absolutely felt was New Adult leaning strongly towards Young Adult that’s why I’m asking.
@Laura Jardine and others,
I’m glad to know I’m not completely alone in my sad, sad neglect of new titles.
As for this DABWAHA stuff, I’m going to have to read all of this again because I don’t have a clue what’s happening here.
So I’ve read everything you’ve posted here and everything you’ve linked to and I’m still not sure what this is all about.
Should I be seeing something where I can pick and enter my bracket, or whatever this thing is, or does that happen later? Is social media required? Can I just vote? Am I expected to think? Is cheerleading from the sidelines a thing?
I think I may be experiencing FOMO for the first time ever!
@melonie I am told when you pick your brackets you’re supposed to go with what research tells you is most likely to win, not simply who you want to win. I am, however, physically incapable of following this advice.
kkw: me too…I vote for the books I want to win, not for those I think will win (that’s what the 2nd chance bracket is for, eh?)
@Coco: I’m sorry you’re confused! The site to pick your bracket will open next weekend after the reader nomination slate is complete. Then you’ll be able to enter by picking which books you think will win each match up in voting, all the way to the champion.
There is no social media requirement, and it’s free to enter. There are a heaping ton of prizes, too. You can just vote in each poll, though many people try to get people to vote on their phones or tablets for the books they want to win each round. Cheerleading and creative begging and complimenting are absolutely a thing.
I hope you enjoy it! It’s our own version of madness.
Someone mentioned the YA-slash-New Adult category already, and I have the same reaction. I think New Adult either needs its own category or maybe added in w/ contemporary romance. Most of the titles listed appear to be New Adult & many have more mature themes. I support the age category, just not mixing YA and NA together!
(I realize it may be too late to change categories but thought it noteworthy to add)
The only one of these that I’ve read is It Happened One Wedding by Julie James. I must say it was my favorite contemporary of 2014.
@Coco According to this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New-adult_fiction , New Adult is from the age of 18-30. To me, 30 is way too old, but that’s what some believe. From what I’ve heard in multiple panels and workshops, a book can still be considered YA if the main character is eighteen, but he/she is either still in high school or if it’s the summer after high school graduation. That’s a pretty standard description.
@Stephanie Scott–I completely agree that some of these titles are very mature to be lumped in with YA. There’s a couple set in college, but even that’s not YA. I also agree that it’s probably too late to change the category. I just wanted to point out my thoughts in case that will make a difference next year. There are enough very good YA and NA books to fill both categories, but if NA needs to be included in another category, it definitely shouldn’t be with YA. It should be adult contemporary.
Throwing my 2 cents into the YA/NA category and it may not even be worth the full amount. I believe I haven’t read any New Adult books. They seem to angsty. My preferred reading category is contemporary and I already feel there are too many excellent contemporary authors publishing that I’d rather not have New Adult books in the same category. I understand why you’re arguing it should be combined in there and if I was younger, I’d probably agree. I guess I’d rather it have its own category or be spread out like the LGBTQ stuff.
BTW, like normal, I’ve read exactly 1 of the books on the list so far. And I’ll likely take it to win the prize going with what I love over trying to figure out who will win. Oh, if you’re trying to win, be certain to check out the authors’ social media follower counts and if possible see if they intend to play to win. You put someone with a 50,000 facebook fan base up against a person with a 365 twitter followers and it isn’t hard to predict which will win. I share this tidbit since I don’t expect to ever win this contest.
I nominated a book and filled out the form. On Amazon this book had 2 ISBN #’s, ISBN-10 & ISBN-13. I submitted #10. I hope that was okay.
@Shannon Brown I was about to ask the same thing re: ISBN numbers. I used to work at a library a very long time ago, way, way before digital books, or DVDs for that matter, and we always had to refer to the ISBN. But the swanky young kids today with their multiple formats. Get off my lawn!
But I digress, I want to nominate Truly by Ruthie Knox and Frozen by Meljean Brook.
This past year was the first year I’ve focused on reading romance as “a romance reader.” So much of what I read this year was not published this year. Although I did read:
– It Happened One Wedding
– Apples Should be Red
– Sweet Filthy Boy
– Murder of Crows
Now, of course, I want to put all the ones I didn’t read on my TBR list. Oh dear.
Apples Should Be Red is by Penny Watson instead of Penny Reid. Would love to see some Penny Reid nominations, though!!
Would love to see some Penny Reid nomination.
Beauty and the Mustache
ISBN 0989281094
Love Hacked
ISBN 0989281043
Neanderthal Marries Human
ISBN 0989281078
Her books are smart, funny romantic stories with wonderful colorful characters.
I, also, think of NA as a subset of contemporary whereas YA is really something different.