Image by Camilo Queipo Photography

WEDNESDAY 8TH MARCH 2023 North Yorkshire author, Jane Lovering, has WON the Contemporary Romantic Novel Award category with her novel, A Cottage Full of Secrets, for the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s (RNA) annual Romantic Novel Awards for 2023. The awards celebrate excellence in romantic fiction in all its forms.

Jane, who lives near Kirkbymoorside, has written 25 published novels in various genres and has been published since 2008. Her hobbies are biscuits and trying to remember where she left the car.

She commented, ‘I am delighted, grateful and somewhat over-awed to have won the Contemporary Romantic Novel Award. My huge thanks go out to everyone – the RNA, friends, my publishers and agent – for supporting me and who will now have to put up with my general levels of over-excitement.’

Jean Fullerton, the RNA Chair, commented, ‘Once again the judges have had the almost impossible task of choosing winners for each of our romantic awards categories. Huge congratulations to our worthy winners.’

Sharon Ibbotson, the RNA Awards Coordinator, said, ‘Our Romantic Novel Awards in 2023 had nearly five hundred entries, which were whittled down to nine very worthy winners by our amazing reader-judges. Along with the winner of the Popular Romantic Fiction Award, their stories made people laugh, smile, weep and above all, fall in love. I am delighted to congratulate them for their success in our awards.’

The awards, which have been held since their inception in 1960, are highly respected in the UK publishing industry. Previous winners include Santa Montefiore, Joe Heap, Julie Cohen and Milly Johnson. The awards are unique in that they are judged entirely by readers, without input from any industry professionals.   

The award categories for this year were as follows: The Fantasy Romantic Novel Award, the Jackie Collins Award for Romantic Thrillers, the Katie Fforde Debut Romantic Novel Award, the Christmas/Festive Holiday Romantic Novel Award, the Shorter Romantic Novel Award, the Romantic Saga Award, the Jane Wenham-Jones Award for Romantic Comedy, the Historical Romantic Novel Award, the Contemporary Romantic Novel Award, and the Popular Romantic Fiction Award (voted for by librarians, booksellers and book bloggers/reviewers).

The winners of the awards were announced during the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s Romantic Novel Awards ceremony, which was held at the Leonardo Royal Hotel London City on Monday 6th March 2023.

A COTTAGE FULL OF SECRETS BOOK BLURB (Publisher: Boldwood Books)

In 1973, Stella made a home in a little cottage in Yorkshire. In 2022, Tamzin moves into the cottage and begins to investigate Stella’s past, little suspecting that they share a background of abuse. With help from new friends, Tamzin frees herself from her past and makes a new future.

JANE LOVERING’S MEDIA DETAILS

Website: JaneLovering.co.uk
Facebook: Jane Lovering Author
Twitter: twitter.com/JaneLovering