Hey, guess what?
I wrote (part of) a book!
This one right here, Romance Reader’s Journal: A Log for Book Lovers & Lovers in Books!
This is, as the title states, a prompted journal for romance readers, created by Chronicle Books.
They asked me to write portions of the book, and wow, was that fun!
I think the section I’m most proud of are the recommendation lists. I wanted to make sure that current and classic titles were included, and I’m really, really pleased with how it turned out.
Y’all, I think this journal is really nice.
The pages are printed on a luscious paper, and there are coloring pages, games, challenges, and plenty of pages on which to record, rate, and review your romances.
This would make a marvelous gift for a romance reader, especially one who loves a journal. You can find it on Amazon, or at Bookshop.org.
But I have four copies to give away!
If you’d like to win a copy for yourself (or to give to someone else!) just comment below and recommend a romance you’d want to include in this journal if it were yours. Any year, any genre, but one book that you’d want to write down, and write about.
Standard disclaimers apply: We are not being compensated for this giveaway. Please note that I do not receive royalties from this book. Must be over 18 and ready to read, record, and revel in how great your taste is when it comes to romance novels! Open to international residents where permitted by applicable law. Entries will end around noon on Thursday 11 September 2025, and winners will be announced and notified shortly afterward.
It is truly a special thrill to see the finished copies of something you worked on arrive in the mail, and I’m very excited to share copies with some of y’all. Good luck!
Update! Our winners are:
- Diana D.
- Marjorie M.
- Denise H.
- Karen L.
Thank you for entering and celebrating with me!
Congratulations on the reading journal, because that is a fabulous idea! I would recommend CORDELIA’S HONOR by Lois McMaster Bujold, a wonderful love story of two of my favorite people in literature!
Congrats! It looks great!
I would recommend a slightly less traditional romance, that is, This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, because it’s so well written and so magical.
Congratulations! I recommend Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas. I have been rereading older romances to see how they have held up.
I’ve missed a bajillion WAYRs, so I have a huge backlog of books I would talk to this journal about:
• EMPIRE OF SHADOWS by Jacquelyn Benson
Why did I pick this book up? – Saw a recommendation on r/romancebooks for “fans of The Mummy (1999).” Yesssss. Also, I was immediately peeved that SBTB hadn’t rec’d this book into my hands, but then discovered it’s a revised version of Benson’s The Smoke Hunter, which has been referenced here a lot (plus the author was on the podcast!), so…no one to blame but myself for not bringing this awesomeness into my life years ago.
• THE IRRESISTIBLE URGE TO FALL FOR YOUR ENEMY by Brigitte Knightley
Who would love this book? – Dramione shippers. I stopped reading Harry Potter after the third book, so the only thing that clues me into the fanfic origins of this novel are the iconic physical descriptions of the protagonists.
• MAID FOR EACH OTHER by Lynn Painter
Favorite characters – Make that “most distracting” character: Warren Buffet is in this book. Sure, he’s been renamed Warren Hathaway (a disguise only slightly less effective than putting glasses on a hot superhero), but it’s the oracle of Omaha and I couldn’t focus on anything else.
• TELL ME HOW YOU REALLY FEEL by Betty Cayouette
Overall Rating – 2 stars
Favorite quote – “I do not want to hear this man use being an idiot as an excuse one more time.” (Re: the MMC. From your lips to the author’s ears, sister)
I’d be putting Dog Person by Camille Pagán. It has a romance but is about love and found family and grief and love.
It’s not coming out until next year, but I Ioved the ARC.
Cool!! I’d have to include my forever fave, Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase.
This is so cool. Chronicle definitely publishes some amazing, creative things (full disclosure: I know someone who works there – and I am certainly jealous). If I was adding a book right now, it would be Pippa Grant’s “The Spite Date” – so creative!
I’d be putting “Faith & Fidelity” by Tere Michaels (I’m sure this just shocks you, Sarah 😀 ). Matt and Evan are <3 . Love them so much. That book holds such a special place in my heart because I read it during a time when I really just months into discovering the romance genre in my mid-20s and it hit all the right notes for me. I loved it so much that when I finished it, I flipped right back to the front and started reading it again immediately. The only other book I can recall doing that with is "Red, White & Royal Blue" by Casey McQuiston.
I’d include A Curse Carved in Bone by Danielle L. Jensen because I have SO MANY THOUGHTS!
I would definitely include contemporary romances with non cis/straight main characters. I’m thinking The Pairing by Casey Quiston, where the MCs are both bi/pan, even though they’re in an opposite sex relationship.
Congrats on the journal, it looks absolutely adorable! I think I would want to include one of the current ARCs I’m reading, Grim’s Delight, by Abigail Kelly! I would just love to scribble my thoughts (most of which is AAAHSJHSHSSH)
Very cool concept!
I’m going with the most recent book that made me quiver with enthusiasm. *waves hands excitedly* The Pairing by Casey McQuiston was a feast for the senses and the emotions. Kit and Theo’s journey back to each other stayed in my head for days after I finished this book.
I would write about How to Marry a Vampire Billionaire with comments about how well it aged.
Congratulations, Sarah!
I’d include Lyn Gala’s Claimings series. It’s a male/alien male romance and a whole lot more.
Congrats! It looks great. I would pick Writing Mr Wrong by Kelley Armstrong because I enjoyed the banter and would like to chronicle it.
Congratulations, Sarah!
A Perfect Stranger by LouAnn Gaeddert, the first romance I read, although at that time and for years, I simply thought of it as a dear story. (I was very slow to realize that romance novels are an actual thing.) A Perfect Strange got its start in one of my mom’s magazines and was so popular that it was printed in paperback.
Since I’m currently visiting family in Nova Scotia, I’ll go with Tide Over by Eve Holmes, with its strong sense of place.
I would love this journal for my cousin Joanne who is a voracious reader. She often gives me book suggestions. I would write about Ilona Andrews book Inheritance and Jill Shalvis book, He Falls First.
Thank you for chance to win.
What a wonderful project! It is hard to pick, but I have a soft spot for The Hampshire Hoyden by Michelle Martin, one of the first romance novels I read, way back in high school, since my mom left tons around all with some connection to Shakespeare (her area of research). In my memory it is wonderful, and I think it turned me into a lifelong romance reader
I like the idea of a journal to help me reflect on what I’m currently reading as well as keep track of things I’ve read. The last book I finished was Kulti by Mariana Zapata, so I’d start with that.
Congrats!
I would recommend Twilight to be in there. Love it or hate it, it was very influential and sparked the creative flame for many contemporary romance authors.
Even thought it’s been a few years, The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang still sticks with me. It was so good and I was sad when it ended.
I know it’s already been said, but Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase.
Ari Baran’s m/m hockey romances: Game Misconduct, Delay of Game, Home Ice Advantage, and Goaltender Interference. The writing and characterizations are top notch and incredibly memorable.
That’s a cool idea. Realistically, my book to include would evolve as I work my way through my tbr and new books by favorite authors and books I find in thrift shops. Currently, maybe Dr. Mistake by Julie Saman. Because she gets the medical part right. And I love the characters. Or Hotshot Doc by R S Grey for similar reasons.
I think I’d want to write about Tam Lin by Pamela Dean. I know its not a traditional romance but it also kind of is, also this is the kind of year that I want to reread it.
I would go with Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory. Loved the older main characters, so many romances seem to stop with people in their thirties! Also, I passed it along to my 70+ year old mother, and she enjoyed it, too.
Current read Gracie Harris Is Under Construction by Kate Hash
I have my grandmother’s hand-written list of all the books she read in the 1980s, mostly romances, and it is so fun to see her one-word comments on them. I’d include OUTLANDER, a book she recorded as “too long” and was my introduction to romance.
I’d like to include “Brides of the Devil”, Jacqueline Yorke, 1946 – because it’s a Gothic romance with absolutely everything in it, witchcraft, spies, two love interests – will she choose the nice one or the one she keeps rowing with? – and I’d love to write about it.
I’d like to write about Alexandra Vasti’s Belvoir’s Library series! I am partway through it, but I’ve loved everything of hers so far, and it would be really neat to log more specific thoughts in this.
I just got the illustrated edition of RJ Scott and VL Locey’s CHANGING LINES, so I’d enter that!
This is a surprisingly easy pick for me… it would The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen. I have recommended it to my sister-in-law who reads mostly thrillers and booktok fare, and to my mom who reads historical fiction but wanted to dip a toe in fantasy. And also to most of the members of my book club because of the epistolary, “you’ve got mail/shop around the corner” vibes.
It’s a brilliant series as a whole that fits a lot of readers.
THE GREEN DARKNESS by Anya Seton. One of my gateway books found in a bagful my Grandma passed on to my Mom back in the early 70s. That same copy is tucked safely away in the keeper vault. It caught my imagination and never let go, as proved by my addiction to books with paranormal elements.
A Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant – it’s a historical but it flips the whole “hero pursues heroine” trope by having her proposition the hero with a month of paid sex.
Another Loretta Chase: Mr. Impossible (voiced by Kate Reading). They‘re all great, to varying degrees, but this and Lord Perfect are my most reread (and relistened) books. Oh, and anything by Sarah Mayberry and Lucy Parker, and Sherry Thomas, and … (it‘s soooo hard to choose…)