The holidays are upon us, and we know what you're doing — shopping for everyone else! But we've got you covered, and we know what you really want — books! The BEST books. So we at RT are happy to be celebrating with you our third annual Bookmas, starring the 2015 Seal of Excellence winners. For the next two weeks, we'll celebrate our Seal of Excellence winners, and hear from those authors about their personal favorite read of the year. And because we appreciate you so, dear readers, we're also giving away a set of all of our Seal of Excellence winners to one lucky reader! Check below for details on entering, and be sure to visit this post each day for a new entry.

• not paying writers
• attacking (via sockpuppets) and filing malicious lawsuits against industry bloggers who merely report on the fact that EC is not paying writers. You can follow the latest developments on the Twitter hashtag #notchilled.
• Racist. Huge string of incidents... latest (antiblack) atrocity is defending Thomas Jefferson’s “love” for Sally Hemings in a Facebook rant.
• Transmisogynist

FEBRUARY 2015 SEAL OF EXCELLENCE — RT Book Reviews Each month the RT editors select one book that is not only compelling, but pushes the boundaries of genre fiction. This book stands out from all the others reviewed that month, in the magazine issue and on the website. February 2015's RT Seal of Excellence — the editors' pick for best book of the month — is awarded to Solace Ames's erotic romance, The Companion Contract. "I'm a strong advocate for romances where everyone has (or has had) a sexual relationship with everyone else. It just makes things more fun and the drama more intense. Solace Ames crafts a complicated web of relationships in The Companion Contract, making the secondary characters just as intriguing as the hero and heroine. Amy's friendships with Miles and Xiomara add depth, and while her romance with Emanuel is a bit slow to develop due to the nature of her contract, it makes it all the more satisfying when they finally get together. Also, I need Xiomara's book yesterday." — Elisa Verna "The Companion Contract is such a gem — while Amy may (sometimes) enjoy playing the submissive, there's never a question that she's a capable and strong woman, in total control of her life. Watching her act as a friend to Miles, as he grapples with addiction and rebuilding his life, is just as satisfying as seeing her fall for Emanuel. And brava to Solace Ames for writing Xiomara, a spirited heroine who deserves her own story. As a trans woman of color, Xiomara isn't the kind of character readers see all that often in romance, and Ames brings her to life with both vibrancy and humanity. More, please." — Regina Small "Ames unapologetically takes us into her dark world, where her characters own their problems and their troubled pasts. It is this that sells the book for me, how Amy may not like where her life is right now, but she's working toward a solution and not feeling too badly about it along the way. Ames's writing is exquisite, evocative and descriptive without being overly so. Reading, you'll feel as if she lovingly selected just the right word, over and over again, until she completed the entire book. Impressive!" — Elissa Petruzzi - See more at: http://www.rtbookreviews.com/blog/82366/february-2015-seal-excellence#sthash.Yl4Le41B.dpuf

• Courtney Milan hired a model shoot and model for the cover of her new book starring an Asian hero! She's a very popular author and savvy self-publisher, so the cover shoot will pay off. This expense is beyond the means of most writers, however.
• having heroes/heroines faces partially obscured by a lamp post or something, or facing away, so that even if the bodies on the covers are white, it's ambiguous.
• asking for abstract covers that don't have any human beings. I specifically asked my publisher for an abstract cover, because I knew the alternative would have come off badly.  

This Month in Multi-Cultural Romance By Alyssa Cole  | February 20, 2015       When people say “multicultural romance” they often mean “romance featuring one or more non-white protagonists,” and non-white often equates to African-American, Hispanic, or mixed race. Asian/Asian-American heroes and heroines, on the other hand, have not had a very strong presence in romance novels — not even as the sassy best friends or spicy seductresses trying to lure the hero away. Thankfully, that seems to be changing. In just the last few months, the industry has been gifted with several awesome releases featuring characters that were generally given short shrift before. Here are a few of them: A GENTLEMAN IN THE STREET by Alisha Rai      Billionaire business mogul Akira Mori got played a crap hand in the parental unit department, with a mother who despised her and father who sees her as a vehicle for more fame, but despite this she’s made a name for herself. Although her father wants to pull her into the spotlight of his reality shows and the tabloids revel in gossip about her sensual hobbies, Akira maintains the privacy that keeps her sane. She doesn’t care what anyone thinks of her, with the exception of standoffish author Jacob Campbell. Jacob has always been and distant with Akira, even during the brief period when they were step-siblings. She always thought he hated her, and although that was nothing new to Akira, for some reason she couldn’t tolerate from him. When Akira’s mother dies, a family heirloom brings Jacob and Akira together and she soon learns that perhaps Jacob is more than the reserved prude she always assumed him to be. The back story is emotionally rich, and Jacob and Akira’s journey toward finding out what they could be together, if they let go of years of pain, is captivating. Akira is a fantastic heroine, the perfect blend of intelligence, toughness, and vulnerability. The way she and Jacob come together is wonderful. If you’re one of those “I page past the sex scenes” people, I recommend against that. Not only because the scenes are amazingly hot; Rai has an exceptional ability to infuse scenes with deep emotional resonance that ties everything in the book together. A Gentleman is, overall, pretty perfect. TRADE ME by Courtney Milan      This is Milan’s first foray into contemporary, and as per usual , she lives by the “go big or go home” motto and produces a wonderfully unique New Adult romance. Blake Reynolds is a sexy tech billionaire, but he’s more than that: Blake has a problem. Tina Chen would be your average college student, if she wasn’t so poor and if she didn’t have an activist mother who seemed to care more about helping others than her own family’s needs. When Tina calls Blake on his privilege, he proposes that they trade lives and…you know how that works. Actually, you don’t. Milan is a master at taking what could be simple subversion of romance tropes and spinning it into wonderful, thought-provoking, and emotional prose. Also, the characters also display their actual knowledge in a way I haven’t seen in contemporary before. Through their actions and dialogue, you understand exactly why Blake and his father are billionaires and the work that entails beyond allowing you the means to seduce naive college students; you see how Tina’s mom navigates a flawed system and understand why she spends all her time advocating for other people. I don’t want to give away too much of the story, but I’ll just say I enjoyed this book on so many levels. Tina and Blake’s struggles resonated with me in various ways, but I loved the freshness of this story for the genre. I’ve often said that I want to see not only my story reflected in romances but also the stories of the rainbow coalition of (first generation American) friends I’d grown up with. With this book in particular, Milan has achieved that goal and set a high bar that, hopefully, many other authors will strive to reach. THE COMPANION CONTRACT by Solace Ames      This book is, in a word, intense. It’s a dark, delicious slow build to a happy ending with so many moving parts that it could have all imploded if not for Ames’s masterful writing. Amy Mendoza, or Serena Sakamoto as she’s known to fans of her porn, is coasting along. When Amy was thirteen, her Japanese Filipino family was deported and she was left behind with a family to take advantage the opportunity America held. During her dark teenage years, the music of the band Avert got her through. Years later, an encounter with Emmanuel, the band’s compelling lead guitarist, gives her an opportunity to give her a break from porn and closer to the musicians she idolized. All she has to do is use her mind, and her body, to keep the lead singer Miles from relapsing into drug addiction. While Amy’s body is more than happy to help, her heart yearns for Emmanuel. There is no good way to summarize this book without it sounding manic: BDSM, albinism, Afro-Colombian politics, addiction, the music biz. All of these things come together to form a riveting, moving, and truly different erotic romance that I couldn’t put down and, after, couldn’t stop thinking about. This is a great read, as are the first two books in the series (which can all be read as standalones). THE OBSESSION (Princess Shanyin Book #1) by Liliana Lee      The Obsession is the first of three erotic historical novellas that make up Lee’s Princess Shanyin: The Complete Obsession Saga. After finishing book one, I immediately craved the rest, so I’m gonna go ahead and suggest you buy the complete saga and save yourself the trouble. The books are set in imperial China and anyone who has read Lee’s books before (Lee is a pseudonym for author Jeannie Lin) knows they’re in for a sumptuously detailed story filled with longing and sweet, sweet angst. The titular Princess Shanyin is known for her insatiable lust and the harem of thirty men provided to her by her brother, the newest Emperor. In addition to being an impetuous teenager, her brother takes an unnatural interest in Shanyin’s sex life. Tired after a lifetime of court intrigue, and the physical and mental anguish that came with it, Shanyin passes her time by indulging in the pleasures of the flesh. When she sees haughty aristocrat Chu Yuan in a crowd, the princess becomes obsessed. Her brother grants her wish to have Yuan at her service for ten days. Shanyin delights in the idea of breaking the proud man, but little does she know that her obsession is leading her down a path toward obsession, despair, and possibly her own destruction. I loved that Shanyin was self-possessed and not entirely likable, and also that Lee didn’t turn this first book into a fallen woman learns the error of her ways morality tale. The book is super sexy, delicately imbued with desire and despair, and wonderfully written—I can’t wait to read more!                                 Alyssa Cole is a science editor, pop culture nerd, and romance junkie who splits her time between fast-paced NYC and island-paced life in the Caribbean. Radio Silence, the first book in her post-apocalyptic New Adult series from Carina Press, will be released in February 2015.  She is one of the contributing authors in the multicultural Revolutionary War romance anthology For Love & Liberty: Untold Love Stories of the American Revolution. Visit her website at www.alyssacole.com, on twitter at @alyssacolelit, or on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AlyssaColeLit.

“Perfect vision,” he said, low voice rumbling. “Perfect girl.” He traced the line of my jaw with the backs of his fingers, a gesture of achingly pure approval that made my throat thicken. I swallowed down a whimper. Was it time for our first kiss? Kisses were a mystery, their meanings encoded in a language I’d never been taught. Teach me. Maybe I was a romantic after all. He didn’t kiss me, not yet. We stayed there in the car for a long time, breathing each other’s breath. The touch of his hand was sweeter than any kiss I’d ever had. He touched my chin with his fingertips, swept his hand slowly upward to cover my cheek with the warmth of his palm. I leaned into his hand. I was on the verge of crying out of happiness. All the intense emotions that warred with each other and ripped up my mind were just as intense in his presence, but he absorbed them, channeled them, gave me ease. When he spoke, he whispered. I was tuned in to him like a radio station, so I heard him loud and clear. “What do you want me to do to you, Amy?” “I don’t know. Whatever you want. As long as…” As long as you do it with love, I wanted to say, but that was a step too far and I was suddenly frightened again. “Take your time. Consider.” My heartbeat raced faster. He still had his hand touching my face, easing me. When I spoke, my lips moved against him. “I’ve said my limits so many times. Gone through checklists and everything. But I feel like I don’t know them anymore, with you. I’m sorry.” “Then we’ll find them together,” he said, and gathered the hair from my face, and touched his forehead down to mine. “I want to please you.” “You will.”

     Every compliment he gave me was worse than the last, and this one hit me like a punch. I must have flinched. He raised an eyebrow.      “I’m still not quite right,” I told him by way of apology. “If I ever was. You’re very good to me. I’m not upset.”    “I had an idea that you and Miles could achieve a kind of permanency.” His eyes were mercifully shaded, so I didn’t have to see the pity.    “You wanted to turn me into a rock wife? Like, as a project?” I’d just about reached my limit. The pain was highly specific, piercing, like someone had just stabbed me through the chest with a knitting needle. My jaw trembled and I couldn’t hold back what came next. “Are you being cruel to me on purpose?”    “Yes. It’s unavoidable. Better than lying. I was wrong. You’re not for him.” You’re for me, I wanted him to say.    “You are your own,” he said.    Fuck that hollow truth.    “I already know that. Thanks for the life coach advice. I appreciate it. I don’t really feel like a walk now, so I’m going back up. I’ll keep you in the loop if I get another email.” I turned around and walked quickly up the stairs. I was all ragged edges inside, bent and broken and torn. He knew. He knew what I felt for him, and he was pushing me away with such relentless kindness...

I wondered what he was about to call me. Firecracker again? Hard-ass bitch? But he never finished, just pulled on a T-shirt and kept his expressive face perfectly neutral. “Yeah, I have questions. What are the rules for this thing?” “Sober companion plus sex. It’s pretty simple. I follow you around, keep you away from bad habits, try to encourage better ones. When it comes to sex, well, the limit is your imagination. Even if I’m not in the mood you can fuck me, as long as you use lube.” “That sounds clinical,” he said, grinning. “But also kind of hot.” “I can do naughty nurse if you’d like. I can do just about anything.” I put the book down and stared right into his eyes, those complicated hazel eyes that were sharpening up to piercing level even as I spoke. “We’ll talk about rules as they come up. The main one is, when I’m in the bathroom, that’s my alone time. You do not fuck with my skincare regimen.” He laughed. I didn’t get the sense that he was laughing at me, so I smiled and basked in his light for a while. Yes, we’d get along fine. We were broken in some of the same places.