INSPY Awards - Judges and the Shortlist

I remember when the INSPY Awards were just a discussion between bloggers. I believe we talked about it during Saturday Christian Fiction Carnival / Faith and Fiction Saturday back in 2007, I'm not 100% positive though.
As bloggers, we thought there should be an award given to authors, from the bloggers who read and review their books, and in 2010 the INSPY Awards were born.
I've applied before, but this is the first year I was selected as a judge and I am so honored to have been chosen.

I will be apart of a three judge panel who will read five historical romance books, and somehow we will choose ONE book to be the winner. I have no idea how we'll do that. I'm already looking at these titles thinking, uh, yeah right, I can pick just one out of this line up. I know it will be challenging, but I know we'll choose the right book to represent Historical Romance.

Today the short list for each category was announced, and it is so exciting to see the books in each category. You can read about each of the books in all the categories here. You can read about each judge here.

The five books that we will be reading in the Historical Romance genre are:

A Lady in Disguise by Sandra Byrd

A Moonbow Night by Laura Frantz

Many Sparrows by Lori Benton

A Note Unsung by Tamera Alexander

The Road to Paradise by Karen Barnett

I have read all but one of these books, but since my "old" brain tends to forget certain things, I will be re-reading all of them.

To all the judges and authors!!