Writer & Writing Teacher. @BookRiot Senior Contributor. New School Writing for Children MFA. she/her 📚📚📚📚📚
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Articles by Alison Doherty
5 New Novels This Fall That Prove Historical Romance Isn’t Dead
There’s definitely a vibe among romance readers that historical romance is in a downturn. Some might even say historical romance is dead. I will admit, it seems like there are fewer and fewer historical romance novels coming out over the last few years. And some of my favorite historical authors are migrating to other subgenres. But I fully reject the notion that historical romance is dead. There are still wonderful historical romance novels coming out every month.
New Picture Books Featuring Grandparents in Honor of Grandparents Day
In the United States, it is Grandparents Day this weekend. The relationship between grandparents and grandchildren is so special and definitely something to celebrate! I got to experience the magic of it with my grandparents when I was growing up, with summer visits, special celebrations, and a big chunk of time where one set of my grandparents lived just one block away.
Move Over, Eric Carle: Newer Picture Books with Beautiful Collage Illustrations
From The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats to Frederick by Leo Lionni to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom illustrated by Lois Ehlert, there are lots of beloved classic picture books that use collage to create beautiful illustrations. And with The Very Hungry Caterpillar and the more than 70 other books he created using a distinct collage style, Eric Carle is in a category all his own! But there are also newer picture books that contain gorgeous collage illustrations.
Hot for Teacher: Romance Novels with Teacher Leads
When teachers and romance novels appear in the same sentence, I bet nine out of ten romance readers think of student/teacher tropes. Theoretically, I understand the appeal of this popular pairing. Student/teacher romances promise forbidden love, sneaking around, and shared intellectual passion. But along with these come an imbalance of power, age gaps, and, often, behavior that can feel like grooming.
Baby's First Metafiction
Metafiction is a fancy-sounding word for something pretty simple. It’s a literary technique where a writer in a book or story directly references the fictionality of the work. Sometimes, this is referred to as breaking the fourth wall. To be honest, I think metafiction actually works much better in children’s books than it does in adult books. Picture books, especially, are often a collaborative reading experience, with an older reader and younger listeners.
Picture Books Set at the Beach
Going to the beach every year was one of my favorite parts of summer when I was growing up. And it still is. Now that summer has officially begun, it’s time to go to the beach. But if you can’t go to the beach, reading about the beach might just be the next best thing. These three picture books will hype up young book lovers (and the adults reading with them) for long days playing in the waves, building sand castles, spying on seagulls, and smelling the salt air.
New Children’s Books About Unlikely Friendships
Friendship is such an important part of children’s lives. And that’s precisely why it’s such an important part of children’s books. Friendship is truly where so much of the drama, as well as the triumph and love, happens between children’s book characters. This is especially true in stories about unlikely friendships.
Picture Books Introducing Literary Legends to Young Readers
Picture books are the best way to get kids excited about reading. But these picture books go one step further and will get them excited about important authors. These five, relatively recently published picture books feature the true stories of literary legends. Some of the biographical picture books describe authors of children’s books, like Judy Blume, A.A. Milne, and the lesser-known—but equally legendary—Virginia Hamilton.
Picture Books Introducing Literary Legends to Young Readers
17 hours ago If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. In Beloved, Toni Morrison writes of a kind of loneliness that is "wrapped tight like skin." I don't think Morrison's taut simile has been topped, but two new novels attest to …
5 Laugh-Out-Loud Funny Early Readers and Beginner Chapter Books
This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. There’s nothing better than silliness to get a new or reluctant reader to pick up a book. I know this from years of being a teacher, and because I was a late reader, who didn’t learn to read until around age ten. Some early readers or beginning chapter books are a slog. They focus on the words more than the experience of the story.
Literary Romance Books and Romantic Fiction
This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. There has been a lot of discussion online over the last few months about literary romance books. A lot of articles and opinions I’ve seen are complaining that there aren’t more of this type of book.
5 Romance Books That Subvert Common Tropes
This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Since the heyday of Mills & Boon, tropes have been incredibly important to the romance genre. But tropes have become even more prominent in the discussion of romance novels in the past decade, as internet marketing and algorithms influence which books people pick up. Some naysayers complain that tropes make all romance novels the same.
A Suspenseful, Science Fiction Tale of Motherhood
This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. In books and movies, the experience of motherhood is currently getting some much-deserved cultural attention. Nightbitch. The Push. The School for Good Mothers. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. Die My Love. These are not cozy, sweet images of being a mother told through rose-colored glasses.
5 of the Best Debut Romance Books You May Have Missed in 2025
This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Alison Doherty Senior Contributor Alison Doherty is a writing teacher and part time assistant professor living in Brooklyn, New York. She has an MFA from The New School in writing for children and teenagers. She loves writing about books on the Internet, listening to audiobooks on the subway, and reading anything with a twisty plot or a happily ever after.
A Bittersweet, Musical Novel
This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. David Levithan has a deep backlist of books (most of which I’ve read) and is especially known for his epic authorial collaborations. He’s cowritten YA novels with many different authors, including John Green, Jennifer Niven, Nina LaCour, and Rachel Cohn (to name a few). His latest collaboration is a novel about adults for a change.
A Beautiful Picture Book that Exudes Coziness and Warmth
This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Phoebe Wahl is one of my favorite artists and children’s book creators. And, since I first read this book in 2021, it has become one of my all-time favorite picture books. I’ve given it to so many friends when little ones come into their lives. One of my proudest moments as a book giver and recommender came last year, when a friend gave me a copy after I had my first child.
The Best Romance Books of 2025
Woman Gets Petty Revenge On Her Husband’s Coworker Who Tried To Seduce Him We all know how it feels to have a crush on a coworker. They make every shift more exciting, and they give you an additional boost of motivation to …
The Best Romance Books of 2025
Now that we’re creeping to the end of 2025, publications everywhere will start publishing their best books of the year lists. This year was a hard one for me, personally and politically. And it seemed extra hard for just about every person I know. For almost two decades, when times get really difficult, I turn to romance novels. Some criticize romance as a genre, but I wish those people would try some of the nuanced, thoughtful, subversive, beautiful romance novels that came out this year.
Yearn, Baby! Yearn: Five Romances Full of Pining
Longing. Thirst. Yearning. It doesn’t matter what you call it. One of the most fun elements of a romance novel is when one of the characters has been pining for the other – preferably for a long time and even better if both characters have been full of longing. Yes, the smooching and the sex and the main characters actually getting together is one of the most satisfying parts of reading romance. But you know what they say: hunger makes the best sauce.
New 2025 Picture Books About Animals
This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. From Peter Rabbit to the Hungry Caterpillar, animals have made excellent subjects for picture books for generations. Children love animals, and they love reading picture books about animals. And as a former teacher and current toddler parent, I love reading picture books about animals too. There are so many iconic animal characters from classic picture books.
The Best Debut Romance Books Ever Written
There’s something thrilling about reading an amazing debut book and thinking about all the incredible books an author will write in the future. Debut books are special because they are often the books of an author’s heart. Most of the time, debut books aren’t written on a deadline or because of a contract. They are a story the author has to tell. In romance, especially in the past, lots of writers really honed their storytelling skills by churning out mass market paperbacks.
A Second Chance YA Romance with a Science Fiction Twist
This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. I love Kristina Forest’s romances for teenagers and adults. Forest writes beautiful love stories that somehow manage to feel like fantasies and deeply relatable at the same time. But when I first read the description of her newest YA novel, Heartsick, I was surprised.
A Fantasy Author’s Memoir Turns from Fairy Tale to Nightmare
I know Betsy Cornwell’s writing from her six young adult novels. From Mechanica, where a Steampunk inventor Cinderella wants to go to a technological convention more than a ball, to her gender-flipped, patriarchy-fighting Robinhood story The Forest Queen, I loved reading her fresh takes on well-known stories. Cornwell’s books took fairy tales but twisted them so the magic wasn’t in chosen one characters, enchanted objects, or ridiculously good luck.
Do We Have a Trope Problem?
When stories rely too much on tropes, they can become superficial and predictable. And if books being published become too focused on tropes, to the detriment of other narrative elements like character development, setting, and plot, it would be a big problem. Not only would individual stories suffer, but the entire literary landscape would lose originality, variety, and diversity. Or, to put it more plainly, books would be worse.
5 Overrated Romance Classics (and What to Read Instead)
Many books—most books, really—have some element of romance in them. It’s baked into the form of the novel. No matter how far back you go, whether it’s to the development of the English language novel with Pamela in the 18th century or all the way back to the 11th century with The Tale of Genji, novels are often centered around love, romance, and marriage. But not all books with romance are romance novels.
Romantic Beach Reads that Are Actually Set at the Beach
Scarlett Bordeaux Wastes No Time Booking First Appearance After WWE Exit Scarlett Bordeaux isn’t letting any grass grow under her feet following her WWE departure. Less than an hour after confirming she was leaving the …
Romantic Beach Reads that Are Actually Set at the Beach
This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. As someone who grew up in California, I firmly believe beach reads should be a year round occurrence. But I don’t live in the land of year-round sunshine anymore. So, I fully understand that it’s midway through August, so it’s time to soak up the last few beach reads of summer while we can. A beach read can mean all kinds of different things to different people.
YA Matchmaker Romances
Tundra Books Self-declared matchmaking GENIUS Emiko Kimori has already found success by helping her aunt find true love, so when the new girl in town becomes her new BFF, it's only natural for Emiko to help set her up for success with a suitable love match. As for her own romantic life though . . . who has time for that? Emiko is far too busy with her matchmaking schemes, her brunch recipes, eating said brunch recipes and making plans for after graduation.
Cozy Middle Grade Books
The beginning of summer is the perfect time to dive into some cozy middle grade books. These books are warm, welcoming, and inviting. They have humor, friendship, and occasionally a crush or two. But while they have enough conflict and stakes to be entertaining, they won’t stress readers out or break their hearts. The five books on this list range from realistic stories to fantasy romps to one book in between.
This Witty & Deeply Emotional YA Novel Follows Up with Characters from an Acclaimed Adult Romance Novel
I don’t read as much young adult fiction as I used to, but I knew I would read this book the minute I saw it was written by Tia Williams. Ever since reading Seven Days in June, I’ve vowed to read anything and everything she writes—from her backlist books to her grocery lists (if I could get my hands on them). So there was no doubt I would read this one. But then I found out it starred Audre, the daughter from Seven Days in June and one of my favorite characters.
Historical Fiction About Motherhood
This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Historical fiction about motherhood takes readers into physically dangerous, socially risky, and emotionally rich territory. The bond between a mother and child is so strong and complicated that there is much to explore through novels. But the patriarchy that most mothers lived under in the past creates tension with the sensibilities of the contemporary reader.
Rhyming Picture Books to Read Aloud
This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Rhyming picture books sometimes get a bad rap. And it’s fair, because so many are kind of…well…bad. The meter and the rhythm can get off. The rhyming words can be forced or not really sound the same without doing a weird accent. The story can seem like it’s playing second fiddle to the rhyme scheme instead of being natural and organic. These books are no fun to read.
A Cozy Middle-Aged Cooking Romance
I discovered the romance novels of Cathy Yardley this winter. And then I proceeded to make my way through most of her backlist in just a few weeks. Her contemporary romances have an ideal ratio of fun to emotion. Her characters have deep, interesting, and often twisty backstories. But they also have passions and a sense of humor that come alive on the page. And her banter—don’t get me started on how good Cathy Yardley writes banter. Her love stories are diverse, often geeky, and always passionate.
Informing a culture shift in high performance sport in Canada: athletes’ unsafe and safe sport experiences
Advanced search Sport Management Review Latest Articles Submit an article Journal homepage Full Article Figures & data References Citations Metrics Reprints & Permissions Read this article /doi/full/10.1080/14413523.2025.2493430?needAccess=true ABSTRACT The sport system in Canada has been over-run with allegations from athletes that expose the issues of safe sport for participants.
Picture Books About Fashion
From biographies of designers to stories of kids finding clothing to fit their identities, there are so many amazing and informative picture books about fashion. Because fashion is so visual, it’s a wonderful topic to learn about through a medium that uses both pictures and words. We all wear clothes. At least, most of us do! But sometimes we don’t think much about where those clothes come from. Wearing clothing is a utility. But fashion is an art.
Where to Start Reading Rebecca Yarros's Contemporary Romances
Just like literally millions of other readers, I am completely hooked on The Empyrean Series by Rebecca Yarros. When I first heard about Fourth Wing, the first book in the Romantasy series about dragon-riding school, I wasn’t reading a lot of fantasy. But as friend after friend recommended it to me, I became intrigued. Then I saw my favorite Romance bookstore, The Ripped Bodice, had a midnight book party for the second book in the series, Iron Flame.
Picture Books About Artists
Picture books are the perfect medium to celebrate artists and art, because picture books are art and the illustrators who help make them are artists. Picture books about artists can expose readers to the lives, styles, and significant contributions of real-life artists, and the illustrations can bring their works of art to life on the page. Fictional picture books can tell stories about the importance of art and help children (and adults!) tap into their own imaginations and creativity. Ursula K.
The Radicalness of Innovation in Nonprofit Community Sport Organizations
1. Introduction Community sport organizations (CSOs), also referred to as voluntary sport clubs, are grassroots membership associations that represent a unique subset of nonprofit organizations (Doherty et al., 2014). They tend to have a heavy reliance on member volunteers, a community focus, relatively informal structure, and modest budgets drawn primarily from membership fees (cf. Smith, 2000; Tschirhart, 2006, 2020).
Where to Start Reading the Books of Gail Carson Levine
This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Gail Carson Levine is a favorite author of many, including myself. Not only did I love reading her books in middle school, but as a teacher, I’ve seen lots of young readers still falling in love with her books 20 years later. Furthermore, all the Gail Carson Levine books I’ve read or returned to as an adult really hold up. She is known for fantasy writing and fairytale retellings.
Cottagecore Picture Books to Read this Winter
We are deep into the middle of winter now. And as I write this, I see snow on the ground outside through my window. Which, for me, means one thing: staying inside and reading. And what could be better to read than a cozy, cottagecore picture book on a freezing, cold day? I think we all know the meaning of cozy, but cottagecore is a more recent term that was coined in 2018 and popularized in 2020. It basically describes an aesthetic that idealizes a European countryside aesthetic and lifestyle.
A Multigenerational Story of Family Secrets and Supernatural Nuns
This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. As a new parent, not a lot of books are holding my attention these days. But reading Luis Jaramillo’s novel, I became completely engrossed. I wanted to speed through the mysteries (yes, more than one mystery) within the plot.
The Most Unrealistic Part of Romance Novels
All romance readers know that many non-romance readers love to complain and devalue our favorite genre. Something I’ve heard from mainstream media sources to people (mostly men) in my life is a lot of bellyaching about romance novels giving women unrealistic expectations about relationships. Setting aside that people of all genders read romance, and the proliferation of queer romance novels, it’s true that male/female romance novels can paint an idealized version of love, sex, and, well…men.
Thanksgiving Cooking Romances
It’s almost Thanksgiving in the United States. And while some people might say the holiday is about togetherness or arguing with your family about politics or being thankful (which to be fair is right there in the name), when I think of Thanksgiving, I think of primarily one thing: food! Every family has different tastes and traditions when it comes to the holiday.
A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams
Romance readers know that Tia Williams delivers on a good love story. But in her most recent novel, she weaves in threads from magical realism, literary fiction, time travel, and the history of Harlem. The result is a book that is truly hard to put down. And even harder to stop thinking about once you finish. Ricki Wilde doesn’t fit in to her snooty, high-society Atlanta family or their plans for her.
10 Cozy Romances to Snuggle Up with this Fall
As we enter into the cozy season, it’s time to read some cozy romances. The minute the air gets crisp, and the leaves start to yellow, I’m ready to read some love stories under a snuggly blanket with a warm blanket. I don’t know about you, but as we transition into the autumn season, these kinds of romance novels are pretty much all I want to be reading. The romance novels on this list are basically the book equivalent of tuning into the Hallmark channel or ordering a pumpkin spice latte.
Riot Roundup: The Best Books We Read July-September 2024
It’s somehow already time for another edition of Riot Roundup, where we ask Book Riot staff and contributors to tell us about the best books they read over the last quarter then share those with our readers. We’re not just talking new books here: Riot Roundup includes frontlist, backlist, upcoming releases, and spans many genres and age ranges. We just want to know what books our people read and loved, period. As always, we read some pretty great books.
‘I just want to keep playing:’ Why youth athletes under-report concussion symptoms
This article was originally published on The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site.
'I just want to keep playing:' Why youth athletes under-report concussion symptoms
Despite ongoing advocacy and education about the risks of concussions from organizations like the Sport Information Resource Center, Hockey Canada, and legislation like Rowan's Law, many young athletes still hesitate, or even neglect, to disclose symptoms when they are hurt. Between one-third to over one-half of youth sport participants have indicated they did not tell someone in charge that they had concussion symptoms during play. That means they are at risk of further harm and longer recovery.
‘I just want to keep playing:’ Why youth athletes under-report concussion symptoms Original
Despite ongoing advocacy and education about the risks of concussions from organizations like the Sport Information Resource Centre, Hockey Canada, and legislation like Rowan’s Law, many young athletes still hesitate, or even neglect, to disclose symptoms when they are hurt. Between one-third to over one-half of youth sport participants have indicated they did not tell someone in charge that they had concussion symptoms during play. That means they are at risk of further harm and longer recovery.
Student to Coach: Shane Butler Transforms LBCC Diving
In his two seasons at Long Beach City College, humble and passionate dive coach and alumnus Shane Butler has impressively transformed the Viking dive program with state-qualifying athletes and his detail-oriented coaching method. This season at LBCC, three divers qualified for state championships with one female diver taking 4th place, while a male diver placed 10th.
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