Romance Writers of America · award year
RITA Awards 2013
The 2013 RITA Awards went to The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James (Best First Book), The Way Back Home by Barbara Freethy (Contemporary Single Title Romance) and A Rogue by Any Other Name by Sarah MacLean (Historical Romance), with winners in 8 more categories. 78 books were finalists across 11 categories.
Winners
Best First Book
- The Haunting of Maddy Claresource (opens in a new tab)
Contemporary Single Title Romance
- The Way Back Homesource (opens in a new tab)
Historical Romance
- A Rogue by Any Other Namesource (opens in a new tab)
Inspirational Romance
- Against the Tidesource (opens in a new tab)
Long Contemporary Series Romance
- A Gift for All Seasonssource (opens in a new tab)
Novel with Strong Romantic Elements
- The Haunting of Maddy Claresource (opens in a new tab)
Paranormal Romance
- Shadow’s Claimsource (opens in a new tab)
Romance Novella
- Seduced by a Piratesource (opens in a new tab)
Romantic Suspense
- Scorchedsource (opens in a new tab)
Short Contemporary Series Romance
- A Night of No Returnsource (opens in a new tab)
Young Adult Romance
- The Farmsource (opens in a new tab)
Finalists
Best First Book
- Crazy Little Thingsource (opens in a new tab)
- Firelightsource (opens in a new tab)
- Forged in Firesource (opens in a new tab)
- Ghost Planetsource (opens in a new tab)
- My Life Next Doorsource (opens in a new tab)
- Pushing the Limitssource (opens in a new tab)
- The Anatomist’s Wifesource (opens in a new tab)
Contemporary Single Title Romance
- About Last Nightsource (opens in a new tab)
- Barefoot in the Sandsource (opens in a new tab)
- Forever and a Daysource (opens in a new tab)
- Lucky in Lovesource (opens in a new tab)
- Melt into Yousource (opens in a new tab)
- Sugar Springssource (opens in a new tab)
- Zoe’s Mustersource (opens in a new tab)
Historical Romance
- A Lady Never Surrenderssource (opens in a new tab)
- Beauty and the Bounty Huntersource (opens in a new tab)
- Bride by Mistakesource (opens in a new tab)
- Defiantsource (opens in a new tab)
- The Recruitsource (opens in a new tab)
- Too Dangerous to Desiresource (opens in a new tab)
- Wedded in Sinsource (opens in a new tab)
Inspirational Romance
- A House Full of Hopesource (opens in a new tab)
- An Heiress at Heartsource (opens in a new tab)
- Betrayalsource (opens in a new tab)
- My Stubborn Heartsource (opens in a new tab)
- Naomi’s Christmassource (opens in a new tab)
- The Soldier’s Wifesource (opens in a new tab)
- The Wedding Dresssource (opens in a new tab)
Long Contemporary Series Romance
- A Cold Creek Noelsource (opens in a new tab)
- A Life Rebuiltsource (opens in a new tab)
- A Texas Chancesource (opens in a new tab)
- From Father to Sonsource (opens in a new tab)
- Making Her Way Homesource (opens in a new tab)
- No Ordinary Joesource (opens in a new tab)
- Out of the Depthssource (opens in a new tab)
Novel with Strong Romantic Elements
- A Girl Like Yousource (opens in a new tab)
- Before and Ever Sincesource (opens in a new tab)
- Bridge of Scarlet Leavessource (opens in a new tab)
- The Anatomist’s Wifesource (opens in a new tab)
- The Welcome Committee of Butternut Creeksource (opens in a new tab)
- Time’s Echosource (opens in a new tab)
Paranormal Romance
- Angel in Chainssource (opens in a new tab)
- Edge of Oblivionsource (opens in a new tab)
- Immortally Yourssource (opens in a new tab)
- Lothairesource (opens in a new tab)
- Mark of the Witchsource (opens in a new tab)
- Moonglowsource (opens in a new tab)
- Rogue Ridersource (opens in a new tab)
Romance Novella
- Breathlesssource (opens in a new tab)
- The Duchess of Lovesource (opens in a new tab)
Romantic Suspense
- Celebrity in Deathsource (opens in a new tab)
- Dead Heatsource (opens in a new tab)
- Don’t Cry for Mesource (opens in a new tab)
- Forged in Firesource (opens in a new tab)
- Last Man Standingsource (opens in a new tab)
- Twistedsource (opens in a new tab)
- Vortexsource (opens in a new tab)
Short Contemporary Series Romance
- A Marriage Worth Fighting Forsource (opens in a new tab)
- Becoming Dantesource (opens in a new tab)
- Cowboy in the Crossfiresource (opens in a new tab)
- Surgeon Sheik’s Rescuesource (opens in a new tab)
- The Last Single Mavericksource (opens in a new tab)
- The Tycoon’s Secret Daughtersource (opens in a new tab)
- We’ll Always Have Parissource (opens in a new tab)
Young Adult Romance
- Boundsource (opens in a new tab)
- Grave Mercysource (opens in a new tab)
- Pushing the Limitssource (opens in a new tab)
About the RITA Awards
Year is the year awarded (winners named at the RWA national conference each July; finalists announced that spring, for books published the year before). The RITA ended after 2019; none was given in 2020, and RWA replaced it with the Vivian. Finalists come from RWA's own finalist pages for every year 2006-2019, read from archive.org snapshots (rwanational.org for 2006-2010, rwa.org for 2011-2019) because rwa.org no longer hosts them. Winners come from RWA's live Past RITA Winners page (rwa.org/past-rita-winners); each winner is marked on its finalist row. Repair: that page leaves out the 2009 Contemporary Single Title winner, Not Another Bad Date by Rachel Gibson, so that row cites RWA's archived 2009 winners page. All book categories are kept under the names on each year's finalist page, so names shift as RWA re-cut categories (e.g. Contemporary Single Title, Contemporary Series, Contemporary Romance: Long/Mid-Length/Short, Regency, Traditional, Novel with Strong Romantic Elements, Mainstream Fiction with a Central Romance, Inspirational, Romance with Religious or Spiritual Elements, Young Adult, Erotic, Romance Novella); 2008 'Best Paranormal' and 'Best Young Adult' are written as Paranormal Romance and Young Adult Romance. Golden Heart (unpublished manuscripts) is left out. Novellas published on their own stay in; novellas listed as one story inside a larger book ("Story" in Anthology) are left out, 44 rows across 2006-2019, including the novella winners of 2006-2011. A book that was a finalist in two categories appears once per category. Pen names are given as published (w/a or 'writing as' forms keep the pen name). Expected counts are the book rows on each year's finalist page after those novella exclusions.
Organization: Romance Writers of America. Years are award years, which can differ from publication years. Official site (opens in a new tab)
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