About a half of a year ago or so, my neighbor and I bonded over books. She is a fantasy reader who has been exploring romance, and I am a romance reader dabbling in fantasy, so both of us have broadened our reading horizons in this budding friendship. Our discussions have also gotten me to think more about genre and genre expectations, both as a reader and a writer. In the thick of one book discussion around the Outlander series, in which I was debating about reading Book #2,

Some highlights from my 2015 reading (not necessarily published in 2015): Best contemporary romance: Sugar Daddy by Lisa Kleypas Best paranormal romance (a category I didn’t even know I liked!): Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh Best erotic romance: Willing Victim by Cara McKenna Best historical fiction: The Spymaster’s Lady by Joanna Bourne Best angsty, dark, don’t-want-to-even-admit-I’m-reading-this-stuff romance: Ruin and Rule by Pepper Winters Best literary fiction: Euph