
The Best of 2021
Note: This was meant to be written the last week of 2021, but Covid made the rounds, and all plans were laid waste. So we’re saying goodbye to 2021 and starting 2022 a little later than we expected.
Sweet Savage Flame has posted over 300 book reviews in 2021. Ok, we confess we didn’t read that many! Quite a few of those reviews are reblogs. But others are for romances we enjoyed in 2021.
We’re making a list of our “best” reviews of the year.
As this was our first year in existence, we’re throwing rules out the window. Besides, we read old-school and vintage romances. So even though this is a “best-of-list,” there are no hard and fast rules other than we think they’re great books and have critiqued them!
Let’s take a look at 9 fantastic romances–written up to 25, 35, or even 45 years ago–which we wrote about in 2021 and gave 5-star ratings.
Best Contemporary/Category Romance




- Lovers & Strangers by Candace Schuler
- Meant to Be Married by Ruth Wind
- Out of the Shadows by Stella March
- Yesterday’s Love by Marsha Manning
Best Historical Romance





- Kathleen’s Surrender by Nan Ryan
- Midnight Captive by Penelope Neri
- Secret Fire by Johanna Lindsey
- Highland Velvet by Jude Deveraux
- Stranger In My Arms by Louisa Rawlings
Your Opinion
What do you think of our selections for best picks of 2021? Have you read any or all the books we’ve listed? Sometimes just because a book is vintage read doesn’t mean that it’s an old read. These are a mix of “new” reads and rereads we’ve spent a wonderful time with.
On to reading in 2022!
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