When I see an old favourite author has a new book coming out…let me just say, my heart LEAPS.
And when I say “old favourite author”, I just mean an author who isn’t new to me this year. And oh, I love debuters and discovering new authors, but I can be so so loyal to the authors who publish year after year and win my heart every time. The veterans. The icons. Big names authors, midlist consistent authors. I just love recognising a name and feeling my heart blossoming into excited satisfaction because here, oh here, is a book coming that I’m most definitely going to love.
I can be very very loyal too and just want to support my faves as well as be super excited for new content from them! (Hush, no Hufflepuff accusations will be taken at this time.)
So let me tell you about 10 new books that came out in 2019 from authors I’d read before!!
did I love them?? What did I think of their new works?? 👀 did my fragile little heart handle the excitement??? all extremely good questions. 😌
1. Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater | I mean I HOPE YOU KNEW this would be coming first because my soul belongs to the peculiar whimsy and incredible cleverness that are all the Stiefvater novels. And this is the start of the Ronan series I’ve been dying for since she hinted she was writing (was it back in 2017?!) Like my heart is still exploding with how intricate and brilliant this was. And RONAN, arguably one of my favourite characters of all time, IS BACK. 😭I will sob on u and have no regrets.
2. Sick Kids In Love by Hannah Mokowitz | I read my first book from her back in 2017 (Teeth!) and then read Salt in 2018 and then just about happy cried at her newest contemporary, which is an #ownvoices book about chronic illnesses. It was both painful and empowering, and beautiful and encouraging. It’s just wildly surreal to sit here and read a book where disabilities are written with love. Again, shall cry on you. Can you just get an umbrella??? That will work for us all. Basically I put this on my “best of the year” shelf so fast.
3. The Wicked King and The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black | The most obvious thing in the world is how obsessed I am with this series but HELLOOOOOO we got both sequels this year and I can still feel my heart BEATING LOUDLY with the exact incredibleness of QoN!! It was just stressful and superb and magical and vicious and satisfying. I cannot articulate!!! Cardan’s character arc and Jude’s empowerment…this is the content I crave. I also read TWK twice this year😂Unapologetic trash for this series. I think my first Holly Black book was back in 2014 with White Cat (this series is SO FREAKING GOOD) and then The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, The Darkest Part of the Forest, and Tithe. Basically if you haven’t read her backlist yet…gooooo.
4. The Red Scrolls of Magic by Cassandra Clare | Another author my life is pledged to with no regrets. 😌I will forever love everything Shadowhunters. And Queen of Air and Darkness was so so stressful, so it was nice to get Red Scrolls?! Which was a bit of a Shadowhuntery romp, but with Magnus (THE BEST) and Alec (LOVE HIM) starring and so so many cameos from old faves. I also liked Ghosts of the Shadow Market but confess I got massively lost with so many of the names of Will/Tess & Co’s kids. I need to reread TID apparently. 😂The last story with Jem making Kit feel at home broke me though.
5. There’s Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon | Okay so Dimple & Rishi came out in 2017 and I loooved it, and this is set in the same universe! It’s about Rishi’s younger brother. And it’s just this epic, loveable, affable romcom with so much #ownvoices Indian rep and cultural love…I just forgot how much I adore Menon’s writing! I’m kind of dying for her fairy tale retelling series starting next year ahhhh!!!
6. We Are Lost And Found by Helene Dunbar | omg one of my top ever contemporary authors!!! I can’t even say !!!! How much I adore her books. And this latest one was just 😫💛💛incredible. You know when a book speaks to your whole soul?! THIS IS IT. I remember reading Boomerang on a total whim in 2018 and — BOOM — there launched the discovery of an author I am dying for every book release. I also loved These Gentle Wounds by her in 2018 (it’s an older release!).
7. Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo | I mean YOU KNOW I had to put a Bardugo book here!!! I freaking adore her, not just for her books (incredible as they are!) but also for being a disabled author totally ruling out there at the moment. TV shows. Critically acclaimed book releases. Exploding into adult fic and absolutely nailing it. Gahhh. And of course I loved King of Scars this year too!! But Ninth House was the viciously delicious paranormal dark academia that I’ve been craving so, I have to keep telling you about my love for it!! I just do!!! And I read my very first Bardugo book (Shadow & Bone) back in 2014!!! I WAS A BABY!!!
8. Call It What You Want by Brigid Kemmerer | Not that I should neglect A Curse So Dark and Lonely which is maybe Kemmerer’s most famous book of all time and also out this year…buuuut this was my FAVE. I love her contemporaries and how they hit on such important issues while never being preachy. And this one was part love story, part tragedy, part broken people finding ways to be whole again. I caught FEELINGS.
9. The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh | LOOK VAMPIRES ARE BACK. Between Baz in Wayward Son and the crew here I am just 👌🏻enjoying this immensely. Although there wasn’t a ton of vampire action happening in the Beautiful but I know it’s comign in the sequel become o m g that ending. That TWIST. THAT CLIFFHANGER. Anyway this is pure gothic angst and I very much enjoyed myself. I also hadn’t read an Ahdieh book since The Wrath and the Dawn in 2015…I feel bad because I have a lot to catch up on from her!
10. Romanov by Nadine Brandes | Aka the Anastasia retelling I have been WAITING FOR. It also left me in an absolute mess of feels…because you know the Anastasia history okay. But this had twists, aka: magic. I really love how Brandes is doing historical retellings but with magic. I read Fawkes last year and am still heart-eyes over it! And then here is Romanov and just yesssss. Pretty sure I just need to take a moment of strong appreciation here for all things magical and Russian and powerful gentle girls and powerful disabled boys. 😍
| what do you think? |
hiiiii come tell me what old-favourite-authors put out 2019 releases that you ADORED?! did you read any on my list? any favourite authors you’re hoping publish something in 2020!? 👀
I am SO READY to binge the Cruel Prince series. I was not here to be destroyed by cliffhangers ha. But also binging is the superior way to read series.
Also, I’m BEHIND on Shadowhunter books this year, it’s bad luck I KNOW but I shall catch up SOON. At least before Chain of Gold next year *hyperventilates*
You talking about Sick Kids makes me REALLY want to get to it so that needs to happen asap!
Love this post Cait < 3
I haven’t read any of these but I love Cassandra and I’m planning to reread mortal instruments and all next series until I reach latest one. I still need to read books by Leigh Bardugo, Maggie Stiefvater and Holly Black.
Call Down the Hawk was SO good. I’m really excited to see where it goes. Should we trust Bryde? Will Ronan find a way to let dreams live even when their dreamers die? Will Declan and Jordan get together? Just. SO. Excited!!
I was on the fence about reading Romanov, but I’ve seen so many good reviews that I should probably just add it to my TBR list. I love historical fiction, and magic seems like it could only improve things.
SO MANY OF THESE ARE SO GOOD AND I AM HONESTLY IN AWE OF ALL THESE AUTHORS. As always you have taste in your picks and I’m still swooning over so many of these. AND YOU’VE GOT ME HYPED TO FINISH CALL DOWN THE HAWK. I’m going to commit to finishing it this coming week. I just keep picking it up and reading it and then I’m like BUT I DON’T WANT YOU TO END and I quickly shut it and walk away. Self control,you’ve served me well. Alas! *throws it out the window* I AM GOING TO PICK IT UP AND PROBABLY CONSUME IT. (Just kidding!!!! WE ALL KNOW MAGGIE’S BOOKS CONSUMES US, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!)
Your love for the Wicked King series is so contagious! Ninth House is definitely a stand out. I had no idea Brigid Kemmerer was the same author as a curse so dark and lonely lol,.
I’ve bought quite a few of my old favourites new releases but haven’t read them all yet! I really enjoyed the Steel Prince comics from VE Schwab, the latest Skulduggery Pleasant book and King of Fools. I enjoyed Romanov and Ninth House but not as much as I was expecting. I was so excited for Finale by Stephanie Garber but it kind of disappointed me. Ooh and I also really enjoyed Priory, I was a bit nervous of the size but I read the audiobook and both Samantha Shannon and the narrator did a really good job. I still have Crossfire, King of Scars, The Tyrant’s Tomb, Call Down The Hawk and Tunnel of Bones to read, so yeah a lot of favourite authors books released this year, I haven’t read yet. I’m already looking forward to new books next year from VE Schwab, Derek Landy, Sarah J Maas, Alwyn Hamilton, Leigh Bardugo, Tara Sim, Amanda Foody, Gita Trelease, Rick Riordan and Suzanne Collins. Next year should be amazing!
Not a 2019 release but I read Impostors by Scott Westerfeld earlier this month and holy crap I haven’t loved a book so much in such a long time 😍 I was 11 when I read Uglies for the first time so all of the feelings came back and now I’m itching to read the second book so badly.
YESS NINTH HOUSE WAS SO GOOOD!! I was so excited to hear that Leigh Bardugo was writing an adult book and I jumped on it as soon as it came out.
I’m so glad you’re loving his spin-off series!! Spin-offs can be like hit or miss, right?! So it’s good when they work out 🤗 Ninth House was BADASS and EXCELLENT.
Call It What You Want was underrated as heck! And ahh Call Down The Hawk I want youuuuuu xx
I loved A Curse So Dark, but yeah!! I wish Call It What You Want got the same attention!?
Curse was definitely good but it had hype that the other one did not sadly. 100% agree!!
I’ve had so much fun with the Folk of the Air series this year and I wasn’t expecting to because I sadly haven’t enjoyed Holly Black’s backlist – I’d love to see her write more set in this world, though. I’m going to get to Ninth House really soon! I have been absolute Bardugo trash since I finally read Six of Crows last year and I have no regrets.
I’m glad you like TCP!! I’m a huge fan of hers haha, but I always get worried about finales. Just like GAH. I need it to be high stakes, but also not too depressing. 🤗 I hope you like Ninth House! It’s very different to her YA, but excellent.
I can’t wait to read Queen of Nothing! I’ve read Holly Black’s books for a long time and I always look forward to her newer releases.
Yesss I love her backlist so much 😍 Curseworkers are some of my all-time favourite books!!
I just finished Sick Kids in Love yesterday, and it made my heart sing! Loved so much about that book. I am behind on every other author you’ve mentioned here. Lately I’ve been reading a lot more middle grade (since that’s what I’m writing), and I’ve fallen behind on ALL the YA! Oh, but an author I love that I DID read this year is Neal Shusterman with The Toll — I’m listening to it right now, and I LOVE it!!!
That is so amazing you’re writing Middle Grade 😍 I hope the writing is going well!! And YES super psyched for The Toll. I just want to finish NaNo so I can go back to reading. 😂
I just finished Queen of Nothing last night, and I don’t know how to survive now? Like, why did it have to come so close to the release of Call Down the Hawk? I am shell? of my former self?
I knooooooow 😭😭 I’m still hungover from it and it’s been WEEKS. Gah. I just want book 2.
I know I am going to have to read Wicked King even though Cruel Prince wasn’t my fave because everyone RAVES about it. And I need to get to The Beautiful soon- especially if you liked it! I wholly agree about Sick Kids and Romanov, two of my FAVES, hands down! Which reminds me, I need to read Fawkes apparently. Also really enjoyed The Lost and the Found. These authors really nailed it, didn’t they!? OH you know who else would make this list for me this year? YOU. ‘Nuff said.
Sick Kids was just SO GOOD?!? Like I wish more contemporaries were like that. 😭 Over here just being obsessed forever. ahhhh. And We Are Lost & Found was so sad but not like depressing? Which I like. 😍
I love The Wrath and the Dawn and Renee Ahdieh’s writing, so I want to check out the Beautiful…but then again I’m not really into vampire stories? Based on your comments it looks good, though, so I might check it out!
Yes!! That is what I love about Brigid Kemmerer’S contemporaries, too. The unpreachy look at important topics. She is the only contemporary author my fantasy-loving heart trusts unconditionally! 💛
Also, I’m soooo glad you loved Queen of Nothing, Ninth House and Call Down the Hawk! I’m sooo incredibly excited for those three. I’m still waiting for my Queen of Nothing copies to arrive … very impatiently may I add! 😅
I loved both the Folk of the Air books and Ninth House! Jay Kristoff also released the last Nevernight book and I can’t wait to read it!
Also, this is super unrelated but what program do you use for writing your books? Are there any you recommend?
The fact that I haven’t gotten around to any of these yet and they’re also on my highly anticipated release list… I’m ashamed 🙈🙈 I’m just waiting for this semester to be over so I can go home and get to CALL DOWN THE HAWK!!!