Australian Romance Readers Awards 2011

Oh my, what a wonderful evening celebrating romance. Readers and authors flew in from all around the country to attend the Australian Romance Readers Association’s gala dinner at the Castlereagh Hotel in Sydney.  Apart from having fun – and that’s obligatory – the evening is to announce the ARRA awards for 2011.  Members of ARRA nominate their favourite books and authors for 2011. The top ten in each category are then listed for voting. After that the members have three weeks to vote for their favourite from that list. In some of the categories the voting was incredibly close so being on the short list alone is a huge honour.

The ‘bling off’  – a tradition now firmly established – was won jointly by Tracey O’Hara and Mel Haffner  who both looked sensational. Paula Roe, effervescent as always, delivered the key-note speech which as you’d expect had us all laughing. Seems she read some pretty racy romances when she was twelve! The food was delicious, the company exceptional and the room was full of laughter. Lovers of romance know how to party!

Congratulations to all the winners.

Paranormal Romance – Kiss of Snow by Nalini Singh

Short Category Romance – With This Fling by Kelly Hunter

Sci-fi, Fantasy and Futuristic Romance – Archangel’s Blade by Nalini Singh

Historical Romance – Midnight’s Wild Passion by Anna Campbell

Contemporary Romance – A Lot Like Love by Julie James

Erotic Romance –  The Lone Warrior by Denise Rosetti

Romantic Suspense –Shattered Sky by Helene Young (Yay!)

Continuing Romance Series – Nalini Singh

Favourite Australian Romance Author – Anna Campbell (for the 3rd year in a row!!)

It’s off to the airport for me and an early flight home and a quiet celebration with GW. Thanks to readers who voted for Shattered Sky. It is wonderful to know my characters have connected with so many people 🙂

And here are the photos – not as many as I thought…

ARRA awards dinner

Me, Amanda Knight and Rachael Johns

Fiona Lowe, Sharon Archer and Juliet Madison

Mel Haffner and Susan Child

Paula Roe

Carol George (Penguin Australia) and me

Mel Heffner and Tracey O'Hara - winners of the Bling-off!

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14 thoughts on “Australian Romance Readers Awards 2011

  1. Amanda, I’m running around like the proverbial headless chook today so no basking at all!! Off to Smithfield Library for a meet and greet then up the range to Atherton Library for a 6 pm wine and cheese launch for Year of Reading 2012! Busy working on my speech right now! And Horn Island was stunning this morning 🙂

  2. You’ve got some great pics Helene! I’m planning on stealing them, since I was so slack. HUGE congrats again. It was awesome sitting next to a star all night, even better cos that star was YOU! x

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