RIO Award of Excellence Winner - 2001 - Mainstream Fiction
Discover the 2001 RIO Award of Excellence winners in mainstream fiction. Explore the acclaimed books that earned this prestigious honor for outstanding literary achievement.


Book
Midnight Honor
by Marsha Canham
As war sweeps through Scotland during the Jacobite rebellion, conflicting loyalties, seductive enemies, honor, and patriotism threaten to separate Angus Moy, leader of the Clan Chattan, and his beautiful wife, Lady Anne. Original.

Book
The Fiery Cross
by Diana Gabaldon
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The fifth book in Diana Gabaldon’s acclaimed Outlander saga, the basis for the Starz original series. “A grand adventure written on a canvas that probes the heart, weighs the soul and measures the human spirit across [centuries].”—CNN The year is 1771, and war is coming. Jamie Fraser’s wife tells him so. Little as he wishes to, he must believe it, for hers is a gift of dreadful prophecy—a time-traveler’s certain knowledge. Born in the year of Our Lord 1918, Claire Randall served England as a nurse on the battlefields of World War II, and in the aftermath of peace found fresh conflicts when she walked through a cleftstone on the Scottish Highlands and found herself an outlander, an English lady in a place where no lady should be, in a time—1743—when the only English in Scotland were the officers and men of King George’s army. Now wife, mother, and surgeon, Claire is still an outlander, out of place, and out of time, but now, by choice, linked by love to her only anchor—Jamie Fraser. Her unique view of the future has brought him both danger and deliverance in the past; her knowledge of the oncoming revolution is a flickering torch that may light his way through the perilous years ahead—or ignite a conflagration that will leave their lives in ashes.

Book
East of the Sun, West of the Moon
by Carole Bellacera
Can you ever justify cheating on your husband? This is the question that Leigh Fallon is faced with when she learns that her marriage to Congressman Bob Fallon is not as honest as she's always assumed. It feels like Bob has been all but ignoring her, except to criticize, and Leigh finds herself helplessly drawn to Erik, the twenty-something Norwegian exchange student who's staying in their home. When she finds proof that Bob has been spending his free time in the arms of his beautiful, young Capitol Hill secretary, Leigh decides that "enough is enough" and allows herself to begin a relationship with Erik. Little does she know that her affair with the young Norwegian will change her life forever, setting in motion a series of events that bring tragedy, anguish, and ultimately a discovery of hidden strength and courage.