This is the first time one of her books has made the list since then and what a great showing Ms. Tessa Dare won Best Debut Author in our 2009 poll. Tessa Dare’s A Week to Be Wicked won in several categories, including Best Historical Romance Set in the UK, Funniest Romance, Best Romance Heroine (Minerva Highwood) and Best Romance Couple (Minerva Highwood & Lord Colin Payne). Long’s What I Did for a Duke won Best Historical Romance Set in the UK and Best Love Scenes in a Mainstream Romance, as well as an Honorable Mention for Best Romance. Long’s first appearance in the AAR Poll was in 2009 when she received an Honorable Mention for Favorite Funny for Like No Other Lover.

She is proving to be an AAR reader favorite. Long won Best Historical Romance Set in the UK and Best Love Scenes (in a Mainstream Romance) with an Honorable Mention for Best Romance. Long’s book also is honored with an Honorable Mention for Best Historical Romance Set in the UK. The winner for Best Romance Book of 2012 was Julie Anne Long’s A Notorious Countess Confesses, which also won for Best Hero, Adam Sylvaine. (Note: Honorable Mentions are awarded when a second (or third) place title receives within 20% of the votes cast for the winner.)

So without further ado, here are some favorite authors and a newbie who received wins and an Honorable Mention. Many authors have had this obstacle in their path and still found their way into the winner’s circle, for example, this year, Sarah Mayberry had two books vying for attention, nevertheless, she won a category while Sherry Thomas was able to pull off an outright win even with a three title handicap. This is where an author has more than one book published in the year and each title garners its own set of votes thus splitting the author’s chances of winning in a specific category by up to 50%. And finally, there is a phenomenon that we pollsters are familiar with called ‘vote splitting’.

Another interesting outcome is that only two categories yielded honorable mentions meaning almost every category had a standalone winner showing that this year our readers were very decisive about the books they loved. As a result, we took extra precautions to make sure books were published for the first time in 2012 and were not previously published in a digital format. Publication dates also caused some confusion for readers and for us. With the proliferation of so many ebooks being published, the votes for authors, titles and characters were incredibly wide-ranging.

This year’s AAR Annual Poll for Best 2012 Romance Books had some pretty interesting new obstacles. We would also like to thank all the authors, publishers and readers who publicized the poll, whether online or just by word of mouth. Thanks yet again for your continued support of the Annual Poll.

A notorious countess confesses