Top 10 Funny Romances
As Determined by AAR's Readers in August 1999
Shelley Dodge, AAR's pollster, polled for readers' favorite funny Romances this time around. Below you'll find the winning ten, and some analysis by Shelley, along with reader comments.
For a more complete listing of funny romances, we encourage you to check out our Special Title Listings page entitled Favorite Funnies.
Top Ten Funny Romances | Breakdown | Analysis
Top Ten Funny Romances
| Nobody's Baby but Mine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips, 1997 (Contemp.)
How to Marry a Marquis by Julia Quinn, 1999 (Eur. Hist.)
Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase, 1995 (Eur. Hist.)
Castles by Julie Garwood, 1993 (Eur. Hist.)
Lady be Good by Susan Elizabeth Phillips, 1999 (Contemp)
The Lion's Lady by Julie Garwood, 1990 (Eur. Hist.)
Anyone But You by Jennifer Crusie, 1996 (Series Romance)
Bewitching by Jill Barnett, 1993 (Paranormal/Eur. Hist.)
Knight of a Trillion Stars by Dara Joy, 1995 (Futuristic)
Ravished by Amanda Quick, 1992 (Eur. Hist.)
This list was filled with surprises. Perhaps many who voted were newer to romance than I'd expected, because earlier Garwood titles were not on the list, and neither were there more Amanda Quick or any Jayne Ann Krentz titles. I'd also expected to see some Regency Romance titles included.
The remainder of this page is in Shelley's voice.
Breakdown of the authors most voted for in this special readers' poll:
# of Votes
Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Over all, historical romances predominate the list. Six of the titles in the top 10 list are historicals, three are contemporary and one is a futuristic.
Readers sent in many titles but historical titles and regencies dominated the votes by about 67%. Regency Romance authors (Jo Beverly, Barbara Metzger and Kasey Michaels were each mentioned several times) were very popular. Almost too popular - it split the votes!
And of course - the famous scene in Jayne Ann Krentz's Perfect Partners was mentioned by several different readers.
Of the voters, what tickled our funny bones varied. Some liked witty conversation, some screwball comedy, others liked descriptions of what in a movie would be "sight gags."
We also like to laugh with our hero and heroine. Of all the examples given the only situations where the humor was directed at character in a negative way were when the joke was on the villian. We are very involved in the experiences of our h/h and while we may be rolling on the floor we tend to also feel a sneaking sympathy for a befuddled lord, nervous dater, or heroine who has just had her microwave destroyed by a startled off worlder.
We like a variety of different types of humor and share one universal complaint - our favorite writers just can not write fast enough.
What ever type of humor was prefered, we all read romances with humorous plots for one reason - we love to laugh.
||Check our 2007 poll on Top Ten Funnies
||Post your comments on these poll results
||Read about Shelley