My round-up of the titles reviewed in January for the Australian Women Writers Challenge is up on the AWW blog:

One of the difficulties I’ve had in managing the romance list is the grey area between romance genre books and mainstream contemporary novels that feature female protagonists with a romantic subplot.

Here are some quick stats:

• Total romance titles reviewed in January: 29
• Titles published by digital imprints: 12 (~41%)
• Titles published by Harlequin (all imprints): 15 (~52%)
• Titles with a contemporary setting: 23 (~79%)
• Titles with a rural setting: 15 (~52%)

Personally, I read and/or reviewed 9 AWW books last month:

In Safe Hands by Lee Christine (Escape, ebook) — Romantic suspense
Chaos Born by Rebekah Turner (Escape, ebook) — Urban fantasy
Wish by Kelly Hunter (Destiny Romance, ebook) — Outback romance
Man Drought by Rachael Johns (Harlequin Mira, print) — Outback romance (featured in Booktopia’s Romance Buzz)
The One That Got Away by Kelly Hunter (Harlequin Kiss, print) — Contemporary romance (category)
The Autumn Bride by Anne Gracie (Berkley, print) — Historical romance (Regency)
The Goblin King by Shona Husk (Sourcebooks, print) — Paranormal romance (review pending)
The Man Plan by Elise K. Ackers (Destiny Romance), ebook — Contemporary romance
The Girl in the Hard Hat by Loretta Hill (Bantam, print) — Contemporary romance

I ended my round-up by urging reviewers to consider erotica and erotica romance. If you have any recommendations for me to try, please let me know. Bring on the dirty luuurve!

(To give you an idea, I loved Emma Holly’s Menage, I liked Broken by Megan Hart but wished it had a better romance, and here are a few more titles. On the other hand, Lisa Valdez’s Passion and Elizabeth Amber’s Nicholas take pride of place in my so-bad-I-have-to-keep-them-to-remind-me-how-bad-they-are shelf.)