Happy New Year, friends!
It turns out that last year I ended up reading quite a few books by authors that I'd never read before. I don't actually keep track of this sort of thing because I tend to just go for books that look and sound interesting to me unless they're by an author that I already love (or i've blacklisted for one reason or another).
Because I don't really read as much as other bloggers do, the authors I'm talking about in this list aren't necessarily all authors whose books I loved. Some of them I did love, some I liked, some were okay, and some I wasn't a fan of. Because balance is important.
Maggie Stiefvater - Am I the last person to hop on the Maggie Stiefvater train? Probably. But I have no shame in that because it doesn't matter when you get into an author's work, all that matters is that you got into it in the first place. Enough of me waxing philosophical, though. Maggie is an author that I didn't know anything about until I saw The Raven Cycle being raved about all over the blogosphere so of course, I had to see what the fuss was about, and I'm so glad that I did.
Gwenda Bond - If I'm being totally honest, whenever I see a media-tie-in book I don't usually care who it's by, as long as they're doing the characters justice. After reading both Leigh Bardugo's Wonder Woman and Gwenda's Lois Lane series, I kind of do care about the author, and that's mainly down to these being the first books of Gwenda's that I've read. She gets Lois so much that I could cry. But I won't because I was born without functioning tear ducts.
Holly Black - Want to know something really terrible? I met Holly Black in 2013 without having read any of her books and didn't read the book I got signed by her until October of last year. Horrific, I know. I had very mixed feelings about The Coldest Girl in Coldtown but I did like her writing style enough to want to check out the rest of her books.
Sandhya Menon - I'm not usually one to keep track of who is a debut author when I read them, so it's always a pleasant surprise when I find out that a book I loved is a debut novel, which is what happened with When Dimple Met Rishi. To say that I'm excited about Sandhya's next books is a wee bit of an understatement.
Angie Thomas - Another debut! The Hate U Give is easily one of the best books I read last year and the fact that it's Angie's debut novel makes me even more impressed. Good first impressions are important, you know.
Gwenda Bond - If I'm being totally honest, whenever I see a media-tie-in book I don't usually care who it's by, as long as they're doing the characters justice. After reading both Leigh Bardugo's Wonder Woman and Gwenda's Lois Lane series, I kind of do care about the author, and that's mainly down to these being the first books of Gwenda's that I've read. She gets Lois so much that I could cry. But I won't because I was born without functioning tear ducts.
Holly Black - Want to know something really terrible? I met Holly Black in 2013 without having read any of her books and didn't read the book I got signed by her until October of last year. Horrific, I know. I had very mixed feelings about The Coldest Girl in Coldtown but I did like her writing style enough to want to check out the rest of her books.
Sandhya Menon - I'm not usually one to keep track of who is a debut author when I read them, so it's always a pleasant surprise when I find out that a book I loved is a debut novel, which is what happened with When Dimple Met Rishi. To say that I'm excited about Sandhya's next books is a wee bit of an understatement.
Angie Thomas - Another debut! The Hate U Give is easily one of the best books I read last year and the fact that it's Angie's debut novel makes me even more impressed. Good first impressions are important, you know.
Jenny Han - I'm cheating a little bit here because I'd read Burn for Burn way back in 2015, but I didn't actually read the Lara Jean series that Jenny wrote as a solo author until 2017. And I'm kind of glad that I unknowingly waited until the final book was about to be released to read them because I got to read all three books this year, and I flew right through them. And I'll probably do it again sometime soon because I love those books 😍
Morgan Matson - Remember how I said that not all of these authors made great first impressions on me? Well, here we have the first author of three of my two-star reads from last year. I'd had a copy of Since You've Been Gone on my shelf for years but never got around to reading it because I had to read it when the time was right. In other words, I'm a seasonal reader so I had to read it during the summer. I did that last year and it just felt like such a slog to get through at times. The chapters felt like War and Peace at times which is so unexpected of a contemporary novel, but that doesn't mean that I've completely written off reading any more of Morgan's books.
Abigail Haas - I don't think I've raved about how good Dangerous Girls is enough since I read it last year, and that may be something I'll have to fix. Dangerous Girls is another book that took me a million years to get around to, but I'm still glad that I eventually read it because holy crap this book is so good. I wish I had a copy of Dangerous Girls right now so I could read more of Abigail's incredible thriller skills.
Hannah Moskovitz - Another two-star book author, unfortunately. Last year I read Teeth, which I'd seen quite a bit of raving about, but unfortunately, I ended up being painfully let down by it and I can't actually pinpoint why. It wasn't awful, but it just didn't strike me as anything special. Maybe I'll read another one of Hannah's books if they strike my interest.
Nicola Yoon - Everything, Everything is one of those books that I've seen a lot of people raving about, but when it came to me reading it, I just wasn't that impressed. The whole instalove thing bugged me so much and while I'm glad that it gets points for diversity by having a mixed race MC, it just fell flat in so many other places. I've seen mixed reactions to The Sun Is Also a Star too, so I'm not sure if I'll give it a go. If I see it in the library I might, but I probably won't buy a copy for myself.
Morgan Matson - Remember how I said that not all of these authors made great first impressions on me? Well, here we have the first author of three of my two-star reads from last year. I'd had a copy of Since You've Been Gone on my shelf for years but never got around to reading it because I had to read it when the time was right. In other words, I'm a seasonal reader so I had to read it during the summer. I did that last year and it just felt like such a slog to get through at times. The chapters felt like War and Peace at times which is so unexpected of a contemporary novel, but that doesn't mean that I've completely written off reading any more of Morgan's books.
Abigail Haas - I don't think I've raved about how good Dangerous Girls is enough since I read it last year, and that may be something I'll have to fix. Dangerous Girls is another book that took me a million years to get around to, but I'm still glad that I eventually read it because holy crap this book is so good. I wish I had a copy of Dangerous Girls right now so I could read more of Abigail's incredible thriller skills.
Hannah Moskovitz - Another two-star book author, unfortunately. Last year I read Teeth, which I'd seen quite a bit of raving about, but unfortunately, I ended up being painfully let down by it and I can't actually pinpoint why. It wasn't awful, but it just didn't strike me as anything special. Maybe I'll read another one of Hannah's books if they strike my interest.
Nicola Yoon - Everything, Everything is one of those books that I've seen a lot of people raving about, but when it came to me reading it, I just wasn't that impressed. The whole instalove thing bugged me so much and while I'm glad that it gets points for diversity by having a mixed race MC, it just fell flat in so many other places. I've seen mixed reactions to The Sun Is Also a Star too, so I'm not sure if I'll give it a go. If I see it in the library I might, but I probably won't buy a copy for myself.
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