This individual posted about the blog and the anger quickly spread like wildfire on social media. Readers argued with one another and name checked authors they thought did the genre well and those they felt, at times, did not.Īt some point, almost a week after it went up, the column and its responses caught the eye of someone on Twitter who was offended by both the question and the comments. Many bemoaned the plethora of dukes and earls. Others decried the lack of accuracy from titles to terminology, and that HR had become too message-y. The stated reason for this outpouring of loathing for AAR was the column we ran on Friday, October 18 th, which asked “Does historical romance have a quality problem?” In response, readers/commenters suggested that historical romance is suffering from the use of tired tropes and stale prose. By the day’s end, many on Twitter-romance authors among them-had tweeted and retweeted accusations that AAR and its readers are racist, sexist, and ablest. Last Thursday, October 26 th, was not a good day for AAR.