We are absolutely delighted that A Cottage Full of Secrets by Jane Lovering is the winner of the Contemporary Romantic Novel Award at the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s annual Romantic Novel Awards.
Published by Boldwood, A Cottage Full of Secrets is set in a cottage on Bracken Ridge Farm which looks out onto the glorious Yorkshire moors. Just a simple two up, two down, the cottage holds the promise of a new start for two very different women, but it is also full of secrets…
The awards celebrate excellence in romantic fiction in all its forms. It is not Jane’s first success at the awards: in 2012 she won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award for her novel Please Don’t Stop The Music. Then, she won the Rose Award for her novella Christmas at the Little Village School in 2018 and the Fantasy Romantic Novel Award for Living in the Past in 2019.
Jane said: “‘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.”
“It was wonderful to have my lovely agent Kate there on the night to help celebrate, and my youngest daughter and her partner also came, so it was even better to win knowing that there were people willing me on! I still can’t really believe it, even though I’ve polished the award every day since it came home with me.”
Since their inception in 1960, the Romantic Novel Awards have recognised outstanding romantic fiction and previous winners include Philippa Gregory, Joanna Trollope and Rosamunde Pilcher.
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 by librarians, booksellers and book bloggers/reviewers). The Outstanding Achievement Award was awarded to Katie Fforde, who has announced she is stepping down as RNA president.
The winners of the awards were announced and presented by actor Peter Davison during the ceremony, which was held in London on Monday 6th March 2023.
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