The past few years on my former blog, Bookworm Brandee, I enjoyed doing a “look back at the year” and sharing my favorites. So I asked Lexxie if we could continue the tradition here and to join me in listing favorites. We hope you enjoy reading about some of our favorites and we’d be happy to hear about any of yours!
This post is all about New-to-Me Authors! Here are my favorites for this year:
- M. Jane Colette ~ Text Me, Cupid was a surprise in that it was so funny yet serious and hot! I want to read read her backlist now!
- TM Frazier ~ I binged on her King series and I couldn’t get enough of these characters! I’ve been procuring her backlist to binge on in 2019 😉
- Lauren Layne ~ Her 21 Wall Street series has been a treat so far!
- Kennedy Daly ~ Not only was she new-to-me but she’s a debut author! I was extremely impressed with her writing, world building, and character development in Children of the Forgotten Gods.
- Patty Blount ~ Her realistic portrayal of rape and rape culture in the U.S. made a fan of me. Someone I Used to Know should be required reading.
- Kate Quinn ~ The Alice Network was well researched, well written, and a touching story of feminism in an historical setting. Her backlist is on my wishlist 😉
- Genevieve Graham ~ The history of Nova Scotia and their role in WWII was something I was unfamiliar with. Not only was Come From Away enlightening, it was also thought-provoking as it dealt with themes such as prejudice.
- Dianne Duvall ~ In Darkness Dawns, I enjoyed my introduction to the Immortal Guardians and Duvall’s version of vampires. I can’t wait to continue the series.
Here are Lexxie’s favorite New-to-Me Authors for 2018:
Again, there are several of the same authors on my list, partly because we did some buddy reads this year, and partly because those authors were not only new to me, too, but really, really good!
- Kennedy Daly is a debut author, and her Children of the Forgotten Gods was so well done! It’s a YA fantasy, and both the world-building and the character development as well as the overall story were awesome!
- Brandee and I buddy-read T.M. Frazier’s King series, and wow – I love this author. Dark and gritty, but still so beautiful!
- I also finally read my first MJane Collette book – it was also Text Me Cupid, and as Brandee, I want to go back and read her whole backlist!
- Dawn L. Chiletz is a new favorite as well, I met her at Book Bonanza and chatted with her. Now, I have read several of her books and can only recommend them to everyone!
- I finally read my first CD Reiss books this year, and I know her The Edge series is already on a favorite list of mine for 2018, but I need to add her here as well 🙂
- Staci Hart’s The Player was such a beautiful story, and my first by the author as well.
- Last, but not least, Kim Holden. Yeah, she completely broke me with Bright Side.
Did you discover many new authors this year? Mind sharing with us?
About Brandee @ (un)Conventional Bookworms
Brandee is a mom of 3 and a soon-to-be empty nester. She is also an avid reader, a genre omnivore, and a compulsive one-clicker - but she's in recovery. Besides being a reader, she's also a writer and hopes to divide the vast quantities of spare time she'll soon have between reading and finally publishing her first book.
I love trying and then finding a new love with new to me authors. I tried quite a few and found myself binging Ani Gonzalez and Melinda Leigh books this past fall. 🙂
I’ve been bingeing on Carry Ann Ryan lately, and I love it! Do you have lists I can check out?
I kept track of the 2018 new releases on a shelf at GoodReads and here it is: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5063928-sophia?shelf=2018-new-release
I probably won’t keep the GR shelf after the first week of January when I start the 2019 challenge. My Best of list will be going up today, I think, on Delighted Reader.
Melinda Leigh is on my tbr. I’ll have to give Gonzalez a try sometime too. But yes, trying someone new and falling for them is an awesome feeling! 🙂
I like this post so much, I may just have to steal this idea and do one of my own. Thank you for the wonderful idea. Dianne Duval and TM Frazier have long been on my list. I love their books! The others, I’ll need to look up 😊
Thank you Sue 🙂 New-to-us authors are so important, because even if they may be well-known to others, they can bring a new spark to our reading, don’t you think?
I do. It seems sometimes as bloggers we are scared to go out of our comfort zone like reading new authors. I had the chance to review for some new to met authors and I absolutely love the books!
Meeting new authors, then picking up their books are the best! And reading a bit outside of my comfort zone is important to me – even if it might not happen as often as I would like it to.
I’m happy you like the list-theme, Sue. I wanted to do something a little different with Favorites lists when I created these. 🙂
Twitter: Northwomn
Many of these are newer to me but I read more UF and fantasy and scifi. I have had Dianne Duvall on the radar and I see she’s in the Audible Romance package I just signed up to try. Anne – Books of My Heart
Duvall is now a fav author, Anne. I hope you love her too!
These authors are all new to me. Thanks for sharing.
Our pleasure! 😉
Twitter: Mollykatie112
I love Dianne Duvall books as well. Some new to me authors this year include Aleatha Romig, J. Sterling, R.S.Grey, Helen Hunting, and K Bromberg. I think R.S.Grey is my favorite of those, although I enjoyed the books by the others as well.
Oooh! I love your list of favorite new authors, Lorna. I’ve actually read them all! Ha!
Twitter: Mlsimmons
I haven’t tried any of those authors. I’ll have to try some of them. Justina Ireland was the best new-to-me author. She has a great alternate history zombie story narrated by a favorite narrator with Bahni Turpin. Happy New Year.
Melanie @ Hot Listens & Books of My Heart
Twitter: Mlsimmons
I haven’t tried any of those authors. My favorite new-to-me author was Justina Ireland. She has a great series with alternate history and zombies. I really loved it and anxiously waiting the next book in the series. Happy New Year.
Melanie @ Hot Listens & Books of My Heart
I’ve not heard of Ireland…I haven’t been good at visiting blogs lately. :/ I’m glad you like her series though. I’m not always a fan of zombies…
I am not familiar with the authors you mentioned and will have to check them out. I tried a lot of new authors this year, too many to list here. That is one thing I love about blogs, I try new authors and genres all the time now.
That’s one of my favorites things about blogging and the blogging community…sharing books! 🙂
Absolutely!
I had read a Lauren Layne book here and there in the past, but I went hard on her books this year, and no regrets. I am also enjoying the her 21 Wall Street books, though the Stiletto women own me. I fear reading Bright Side. I don’t know if I could handle all that emotion. I remember seeing Kim Holden’s keynote back in 2015 at UtopiaCon, and she is really wonderful, and it made me want to try to read the book.
I’ll have to check out the Stiletto women!