Top Ten New-To-Me Authors In 2017

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  Each week there is a new topic and this week’s topic is: Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2017.

Although I did a lot of re-reads in 2017, I also read many new-to-me authors!  I love finding new-to-me authors to love.  I really enjoyed all of the books by the following authors that I read this year and look forward to reading more of their books in the future.

1. Laini Taylor  – I really fell in love with Laini Taylor’s books in 2017.  Her writing is so gorgeous.  Her characters and worlds are so vivid and imaginative.  New favorite author for sure.  Books by Laini Taylor I enjoyed in 2017 – Strange the Dreamer, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Days of Blood and Starlight, Night of Cake and Puppets.
2. Katherine Arden – Another author added to my favorites list.  Her debut novel, The Bear and the Nightingale was so awesome!  Books by Katherine Arden I enjoyed in 2017 – The Bear and the Nightingale, The Girl in the Tower.
3. Lauren Willig – This also happened to be the last book that I read in 2017.  It was an ARC for a mysterious historical fiction novel called The English Wife.  I am looking forward to reading more from this author in the future.
4. Samantha Shannon – I don’t know why I waited so long to start The Bone Season trilogy but at the same time, I’m really glad I was able to read the first three books plus two novellas back to back.  Books by Samantha Shannon I enjoyed in 2017 – The Bone Season, The Mime Order, The Song Rising, On the Merits of Unnaturalness, The Pale Dreamer.
5. VE Schwab – Another one I don’t know why I waited so long to read.  I absolutely fell in love with the Shades of Magic trilogy!  They were so fantastic!  I can’t wait to read all of her other published books as well as any new books she writes in the future.  Books by VE Schwab I enjoyed in 2017 – A Darker Shade of Magic, A Gathering of Shadows, A Conjuring of Light.
6. Tarryn Fisher – Last year I finally discovered Colleen Hoover, and through her found out about Tarryn Fisher.  I finally read some of her books this year and loved them!  Books by Tarryn Fisher I enjoyed in 2017 – F*ck Love, Bad Mommy, Atheists Who Kneel and Pray.
7. Ryan Graudin – I’ve heard great things about her writing and finally read one of her books.  I was lucky enough to get an ARC of Invictus and it was awesome!  Really looking forward to reading more from her.
8. Jason Segel – I had seen his middle grade book series, Nightmares!, but never read them.  I got an ARC of Otherworld and it was really good!  I’m really looking forward to the next book in the series.
9. Andy Weir – I finally read The Martian this past year and it totally lived up to the hype!  I’ve heard his next book isn’t as good but I will still probably read it.
10. Blake Crouch – I’ve been meaning to read the Wayward Pines books for awhile but never got around to them.  Then he published Dark Matter and I heard nothing but good things about it but could never manage to get my hands on a copy.  I finally did when I joined the Book of the Month club and it was so freaking amazing!

What new-to-you authors did you read in 2017?

Top Ten New-To-Me Authors in 2016

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  Each week there is a new topic and this week’s topic is: Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read For The First Time In 2016.

I really love “discovering” new authors and have found some new ones this year that I have really enjoyed.

• Jeff Zentner – I was lucky enough to get to participate in a traveling ARC blog tour for The Serpent King that was put together by Stefani @ Caught Read Handed. I absolutely fell in love with the book and preordered a personalized signed copy from his local bookstore.  I have also preordered his next book, The Goodbye Days, that releases on March 7, 2017.
• Sabaa Tahir – I had purchased her book, An Ember in the Ashes, last year but never got around to reading until this past February. I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading the next book.
• Susan Dennard – Technically I read the Truthwitch sampler last December BUT I didn’t get to read the whole thing until March so I’m going to include her anyways.  I loved Truthwitch so much and can’t wait to read Windwitch.
• Neal Stephenson – The first book I read of his was Seveneves and it totally blew me away.  I’m normally not into heavy SciFi books but this one was just so good! Since then, I started collecting his other books to read.
• Evelyn Skye – The Crown’s Game was such an awesome book.  I really loved the story and setting.  I can’t wait for the sequel to come out this next spring.
• Jojo Moyes – I had seen her books a lot when shopping at Target but never really thought about reading them.  But when the movie of Me Before You was going to come out, I knew I had to read the book first.  It totally broke my heart but I definitely want to read more of her books.
• Mary E. Pearson – I bought The Kiss of Deception on a whim earlier this year and wasn’t expecting it to be anything special but when I read it, I couldn’t put it down. I read the entire trilogy this year because I loved the story and characters so much.
• Barry Lyga – The Jasper Dent series is so good! I haven’t read the 3rd book yet but the first two were both 5 star reads for me.  I definitely look forward to reading other books from him.
• Agatha Christie – I’m amazed that it took me as long as it did to read an Agatha Christie novel.  I grew up reading a lot of mystery thrillers with my mom so this would have been a good author for me to read.  I read And Then There Were None and absolutely loved it.  I will definitely be reading more of her stories in the future.
• Ruta Sepetys – My first read by this author was Salt to the Sea which I bought in California for super cheap because it was slightly damaged.  I finally read it a couple of months ago and it was so good. I want to read her other books that are already published and any future books she writes.

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Who are some authors that were new to you this year?

Top Ten New-To-Me Favorite Authors In 2015

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  Each week there is a new topic and this week’s topic is: Top Ten New-To-Us Favorite Authors We Read For The First Time in 2015.

This has been a really great year for me.  I have discovered so many awesome new-to-me authors that it was hard to choose.  The awesome thing is that my top ten are all awesome women!  Girl power!  🙂  Anyways, here are my top ten plus a few runner ups. (All author links are to their Goodreads page, book links go to Amazon)

1. Rainbow Rowell – I have read 3 of her books now and loved them so much.
2. Sarah J. Maas – I have so much love for her now.  I first read Throne of Glass for book club this year and I fell in love with the world and characters.  ACOTAR was great too!
3. Leigh Bardugo – The Grisha trilogy has easily become one of my favorites!
4. Maggie Stiefvater – I thoroughly enjoyed Shiver but she really grabbed my attention with The Raven Boys.
5. Renee Ahdieh – The Wrath and the Dawn was just beautiful.  I can’t wait to see where the next book takes Shazi.
6. Erin Morgenstern – The Night Circus was beautifully written and I found myself wanting to join this circus even though I’m not a fan of the typical circus.  I can’t wait to read whatever Morgenstern comes up with next.
7. Lauren Bird Horowitz – I just recently read Shattered Blue and it was awesome!  The characters and story really gripped me.  And to top it off, she is one of the nicest people 🙂
8. Erica Crouch – I devoured her Ignite series about Pen, Azael and Michael.  If you’re looking for a thrilling series about the epic struggle between the Fallen and the Divine, check out Ignite (which you can now get free on Kindle)!
9. Dawn Kurtagich – The Dead House opened my eyes to the awesomeness of reading a book formatted with emails, IMs, journal entries, etcc.  I wasn’t really a fan of that before but this book was so awesome I read it twice this year!
10. Deborah Harkness – I’ve always been a lover of witches and vampires so when I finally started reading this book to find them both, I was taken in immediately.  I can’t wait to continue reading the series.

Runner-Ups

• Marie Lu – The Young Elites… totally badass and love that the main character is more of a villain than a hero.
• Jay Kristoff & Amie Kaufman – Illuminae completely blew my mind!  I will now proceed to read anything either of them have written!
• Neil Gaiman – Although I have only just scratched the Gaiman surface with Stardust and The Ocean At the End of the Lane, I am eagerly anticipating my reads of everything else he has ever written.
• Claudia Gray – A Thousand Pieces of You had me wondering if I need to rethink my aversion to time/dimensional travel.  I loved this book.

Top Ten Authors I Am Thankful For

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  Each week there is a new topic and this week’s topic is: Thanksgiving themed Freebie — ten books I’m thankful for, authors I’m thankful for, Ten fictional families I’d like to celebrate Thanksgiving with, a personal non-bookish thankful list, etc. etc.

I started off this post thinking I wanted to do the top ten books I was thankful for but decided to change it to the top ten authors I am thankful for because I couldn’t just choose 10 books.  These ten authors have contributed to my reading life in different ways and I will always be thankful for their writing.

• the authors of the American Girl books and the Dear America books – I decided to join these all together because there are so many and they were instrumental in sparking my love for historical fiction.  I still have all of my books from growing up and continue to add to my collections whenever possible.
• J.K. Rowling – A bit obvious here but how could I not be thankful for the author who created some of my favorite characters, stories and world.  The Harry Potter series will continue to be one of my favorites forever.
• J.R.R. Tolkien – I was first introduced to the words of Tolkien when I was in 5th grade.  I was in a local children’s choir and we sang a choral version of a song from The Fellowship of the Ring (here).  I loved that song so I read the books.  And when the movies came out, I was a goner.  I have Tolkien to thank for my love of fantasy.
• Jane Austen – I discovered her books in high school and have been in love with her books ever since.  They opened up my eyes to want to try other classics including Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.
• Nicholas Sparks – I grew up reading these books with my mom.  We don’t have very similar tastes when it comes to books so his books were a way for us to bond.  They also opened up my interest to romance novels.
• Margaret Mitchell – I am thankful to her for creating two of my favorite characters ever: Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler.  I grew up watching the movie at my grandma’s house.  I didn’t read the book until high school but I have been in love with Mitchell’s story for years and years.
• Robert Jordan – I am extremely thankful to him for creating the world of The Wheel of Time.  They were recommended to me by a good friend in high school and I spent the next decade reading the series.  I love everything about this series and it was a big part of my teenage to early adult years.
• Stephenie Meyer – I know, I know.  You’re probably shocked that she is on my list but I am not.  She was one of the first authors to come to mind when I was creating this list.  As a history major in college, I had to do a TON of reading for my classes.  That meant that I didn’t much feel like reading for fun anymore.  In 2009 during my senior year when my class schedule lightened up, I decided to give her debut novel, Twilight, a shot since so many people were going crazy for it before the movie came out.  I devoured it!  I went back to the store the next day to get the rest of the series.  My 4 year reading slump had come to an end.  The Twilight saga brought back my love of reading and I will forever be grateful to Stephenie Meyer for that.
• Diana Gabaldon – I am so thankful for this epic series that she has created.  Outlander is my new love.  One might even say that I am obsessed.  I love everything about this series – the books and the TV show.  I can’t get enough Jamie Fraser in my life.
• Sarah J. Maas – I am thankful for the creation of the world in the Throne of Glass series.  I love Celaena/Aelin and all of the characters.  This easily became one of my new favorite series.

What authors are you thankful for?

Top Ten Authors I’ve Read The Most

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  Each week there is a new topic and this week’s topic is:  Top Ten Authors I’ve Read The Most Books From

Robert Jordan – 16 books

These books were all a part of The Wheel of Time series which is one of my absolute favorites!

Nicholas Sparks – 16 books

I grew up reading and collecting these with my mom.

Charlaine Harris – 15

All of the books I have read of hers are from the Sookie Stackhouse series.  Although the end of the series was not my favorite, I’ll still love these books forever.

Janette Oke – 14 books

Another group of books I grew up reading with my mom.  I’m not into Christian Fiction anymore but her books were a big part of my childhood so they’ll stay with me forever as well.

Valerie Tripp – 13 books

She is the author of a few of the American Girls series.  I’ve read all of the Molly and Felicity books plus one of the Josephina series.

Laura Ingalls Wilder – 9 books

Another series of books that was a huge part of my childhood.  I’ve been in the mood to reread these lately.

Jane Austen – 8 books

She being my favorite author, I clamor to get my hands on anything and everything Jane Austen.  I’ve read her 6 full novels plus The Watsons, Sanditon, and Lady Susan.

L.M. Montgomery – 8 books

Yet another series that has had an impact on my childhood and my entire life.  Anne Shirley will always be a kindred spirit and bosom friend to me.

J.K. Rowling – 8 books

I first fell in love with Rowling with Harry Potter, as everyone else.  Along with The Casual Vacancy, I just love her writing.

L.J. Smith – 7 books

I have always had an interest in vampires so I finally read The Vampire Diaries books in the last year or two.

So those are the top ten authors I’ve read the most books from.  Were any of these authors on your lists this week?  Who are some of the authors you’ve read the most books from?