Top Ten Tuesday: New-To-Me Authors I Read For The First Time In 2016

Hosted by The Broke and The Bookish

Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read For The  First Time In 2016

*I'll be starting from 10 here.
**Some of these authors aren't really new to me. I've heard/seen them around but I never given the chance to check out their works until this year.

10. M. Hollis - This recently debuted author published her book The Melody of You and Me and it was one of the cutest reads for me this year. Hollis delivered a good F/F story not just on the romantic side but also making you admire her characters as they talk about the things they're passionate about and how they're so in love that it makes you go awww nonstop.

09. Alwyn Hamilton - First of all, congratulations to Alwyn Hamilton for winning Goodreads' Debut Goodreads Author! Rebel of the Sands was a great start for a series...? I still have no clue of this is going to be a duology or trilogy or saga or something. But all I know is that her debut novel kicked off to a start that had me wanting more of it. We're talking about magic here. Jinnis to be exact.

08. Melissa Landers - Starflight was recommended by a friend and I needed a good sci-fi book to read after The Lunar Chronicles so I went for it. After I read the book, I visited her profile and landed on her works. Alienated was one of them. I've heard the book so many times in Booktube that it actually surprised me that these two books are by the same author. I've been wanting to read Alienated but never got the chance...or time, I don't really know why.

07. Heidi Heilig - If not for The Book Voyagers' #amazingbookrace and Keep It Diverse's book of the month on Twitter, I would've never picked up The Girl From Everywhere this year. It was my first pirate book and another thing to add in my time-travel shelf. There's also going to be a sequel so you can definitely say I'll be reading it once it's out.

06. Mariana Zapata - I gotta hand it to her for the ever so slow-burn romance in her books. I've read Kulti and The Wall of Winnipeg and Me this year and sports sports sports!! (I love sports though and bonus points if the female protagonist actually plays) and if the tension between the two characters...and that WHEN ARE THEY GONNA KISS feeling. Yes, the author makes you feel that until who-knows-when while you're reading.

05. Melissa de la Cruz - I've seen her around: across the internet, the bookstores, even on TV (eye emoji at Disney's Descendants). This year, I've picked up my first book of hers: Something in Between. I'll be honest, the story was honestly realistic and it's actually based also on the author's experience but I wasn't into her writing. It felt flat to me but I really, REALLY, appreciate her for sharing what she went through by writing this book. I've had family members who are immigrants and their stories aren't as different as the protagonist's so this book is an eye-opener. Just that...the writing wasn't my cup of tea, sadly.

04. Nicola Yoon - I just read Everything Everything last month and I am impressed. I've discovered her through the numerous tweets about The Sun is Also a Star so I checked her GR profile and immediately went for EE first. I fell in love with the book and THERE PAGES WITH DOODLES! It really made the book so cute and so worthwhile reading. Now I'm all here for her other works.

03. Con Template - Many thanks to The Book Voyagers for creating a thread of diverse books and Con Template's work caught my attention: Welcome to the Underworld (have yet to make a series review for this). Now this series has made its home in my heart and I gotta give it to the author because this was a "fanfic series turned to published book series". Talk about achievement. I read fanfics and it's rare to find fics with a very interesting plot. That series belonged to the rarity, I had to give it to Con Template for putting me on the edge of my seat many times.

02. Mina V. Esguerra - As a Filipina, I was looking for Filipinx authors because I wanted to give my support to the local authors. So I searched for lists and I found a bunch of Esguerra's works (especially her Interim Goddess of Love - which was cute and have a pinch of Filipino mythology bits in it) her in the list so why not? I needed a good book with a Filipinx rep in it and her books are it. Plus, she recommends other Filipinx authors with their works too.

01. Melina Marchetta - I devoured her books this year. I've seen Finnikin of the Rock around in Goodreads, it was even recommended to me THRICE. But I never really had this...pull, to read it. I've known her for On the Jellicoe Road but it was when my Twitter timeline (or let's say my mutuals) were tweeting about a good fantasy series and kept bringing up Lumatere. I had no idea what Lumatere was so I searched it on GR and it's the name of the series and the first book is Finnikin of the Rock. So I finally picked it up, thanks to Twitter, and I got hooked. I've read her other books and I recently reviewed Saving Francesca. I've read majority of her books and I can say that this author has not yet disappointed me.


(I wanted to provide pictures of their works but I remembered about today's TTT while I was already in bed and ready to sleep)