I was surprisingly at a loss for how to best tackle this topic, even though I have many new-to-me books and authors that I’m interested in trying. I very recently did a post of 10 New-to-Me Authors that I haven’t tried yet, as well as my monthly Stacking the Shelves which included the most recent books that I added to my list. Between those two angles on the topic, it seemed like it was already pretty well-covered! I’d originally thought about focusing on books that I’d bought recently by authors who were new-to-me, but soon realized that many of those authors were already on my priority list for this year, so I’ve likely covered them in detail already! I was also struggling a bit with the idea of who to count as “new-to-me” because sometimes I have an authors books on my list for years before finally deciding to pick them up, and it seems a bit strange to call them new when I’d already heard of them. The authors that I ended up choosing are all authors whose names I’d heard for a while already, but only recently decided that I was interested in trying. Since I haven’t read any of their books yet, I think it’s still safe to call them “new-to-me” and if I don’t get to some of these this year, they might make my priority list for next year!
Top 5 Wednesday is a meme created by Gingerreadslainey on Youtube, and is now hosted by Sam at ThoughtsOnTomes. The official GoodReads group with the weekly topics can be found here.
1) Beatriz Williams – This is definitely an author I’ve heard of before, but it’s only very recently that I finally decided to give her books a try. There seems to have been a trend for a while where a lot of historical fiction books had very similar covers of women facing away, and I kept mixing them all up. I’ve had at least one of this author’s books on my list since 2019, and finally decided to grab a couple of her books from Book Outlet. I bought The Summer Wives and The Golden Hour so far, and there were one or two more I was considering although it might be better to wait until I’ve read at least one first. I really want to start getting back into historical fiction, and I think her books might be a good place to start.
2) Emily Lloyd-Jones – I’m kicking myself a bit for not adding this author to my priority list to read this year, because she was very high on my list! I think I’d forgotten about her books when I sat down to actually compile the list. I chose Erica Waters instead whose books are along that fairly similar line of fantasy/horror. Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, I may have intentionally chosen Erica Waters instead because I already owned one of her books, and I didn’t have any of Emily Lloyd-Jones’s books yet. If I don’t end up reading any of hers within the year, I’ll have to make a note to myself to put her at the top of my list to try next year instead. I’m especially interested in trying her upcoming book The Drowned Woods, which is due out in August.
3) Tricia Levenseller – I’ve definitely heard this author’s name around quite a bit, but my interest at the time wasn’t quite strong enough for me to pick up any of her books. I’d mostly heard about the Daughter of Pirate King duology, which I was on the fence about at the time since I’ve never been that into boat or pirate books, but I picked up a copy of The Shadows Between Us from Book Outlet after seeing it mentioned on Youtube. I’m not even sure I realized these were by the same author at first! I’m definitely planning to try The Shadows Between Us before the end of the year. I’ve also heard a bit about the Blade of Secrets series that started just last year, but don’t know much about it yet. Just looking at the synopsis now, and it mentions that it’s about a blacksmith with social anxiety, which seems very interesting!
4) Axie Oh – I bought The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea completely on a whim with one of my recent Book Outlet orders, so I’m hoping to enjoy it as much as I’m expecting! I’d also very strongly considered buying XOXO when it last was in stock, so I may end up grabbing that next time too. I’m not even sure what it was that drew me to this author since neither of her books were particularly high on my list. She also has the Rebel Seoul series from 2017 which doesn’t interest me that much. I think this author first caught my attention for a very silly reason — because I remember liking the fact that her name sounded so much like her title XOXO. I’m not sure yet whether I’ll be prioritizing her books for next year, but it’s likely I’ll end up trying at least one anyway.
5) Tessa Bailey – This is definitely an author I’ve been hearing about for years, but wasn’t sure if I’d like. I’ve been getting a lot more into adult contemporary romances in the past few years, so I think it’s about time I give Tessa Bailey a chance. To be fair, I may have mixed her up with Tessa Dare in my head for a while just because they have the same first name and both write romances. I’ve actually had Fix Her Up on my TBR since 2019 with relatively low motivation to try the series, but now that I’ve read more in the genre in general, it seems like something I’d actually enjoy. I’m interested in that series and potentially the Bellinger sisters, but none of her other books really appeal to me right now. At least these two series give me a good place to start.
Abyssal Librarian 