We’re rooting for  Return to Mandalay by Rosanna Ley and The Spice Merchant’s Wife by Charlotte Betts –  both titles have had many 5* ratings by our readers.

But you might want to try novels by the three male authors who’ve made the Romantic Novel Awards 2015 shortlists. Stephen Burke has been shortlisted for his novel The Good Italian and David Atkinson’s Love Byte is shortlisted alongside The Best Thing That Never Happened To Me by Jimmy Rice and Laura Tait  in the Romantic Comedy Novel category.

Barbara Taylor Bradford will present the 2015 awards at the Gladstone Library in London on 16th March. The winner of the Romantic Novel of the Year award will receive a cheque for £5,000.

Chairman Pia Fenton commented: “The shortlists show that romantic fiction covers an amazing array of different sub-genres, all equal as far as we are concerned. I love the diversity of the shortlisted books and authors, and I am thrilled that we had such a high number of entries this year, showing the popularity of this type of fiction. We are very grateful to all the publishers who supported these awards by sending us their entries. Huge congratulations to all the authors who are shortlisted this year, it’s a great achievement.”

There were a record number of entries this year and each book was read by a panel of three independent readers drawn from a list of over 100 volunteers.   The full shortlists are below-

  Contemporary Romantic Novel

• Where Love Lies by Julie Cohen
• Christmas at Rosie Hopkins’ Sweet Shop by Jenny Colgan
• A Hundred Pieces of Me by Lucy Dillon
• Now That I’ve Found You by Ciara Geraghty
• The Unpredictable Consequences of Love by Jill Mansell
• The Story of You by Katy Regan

 Epic Romantic Novel

• I Can’t Begin to Tell You by Elizabeth Buchan
• The Darkest Hour by Barbara Erskine
• We Shall Remember by Emma Fraser
• Pieces of You by Ella Harper
• Return to Mandalay by Rosanna Ley
• Under the Jewelled Sky by Alison McQueen

 Historical Romantic Novel

• The Spice Merchant’s Wife by Charlotte Betts
• The Good Italian by Stephen Burke
• Beatrice and Benedick by Marina Fiorato
• The Girl Who Came Home by Hazel Gaynor
• White Feathers by Susan Lanigan
• Ghostwritten by Isabel Wolff

   Romantic Comedy Novel

• Love Byte by David Atkinson
• The Time of Our Lives by Jane Costello
• Just a Girl, Standing in Front of a Boy by Lucy-Anne Holmes
• The Teashop on the Corner by Milly Johnson
• It’s Not Me, It’s You by Mhairi McFarlane
• The Best Thing That Never Happened To Me by Laura Tait and Jimmy Rice

Young Adult Romantic Novel

• A Kiss in the Dark by Cat Clarke
• Salvage by Keren David
• Unravel by Imogen Howson
• The Worst Girlfriend in the World by Sarra Manning
• Misty Falls by Joss Stirling
• Struck by Joss Stirling

 The RoNA Rose Award

• Scandal’s Virgin by Louise Allen
• Risk of a Lifetime by Caroline Anderson – our copy is large print
• Taming Her Italian Boss by Fiona Harper
• The Gentleman Rogue by Margaret McPhee
• Unveiling Lady Clare by Carol Townend
• The Heir of the Castle by Scarlet Wilson