It’s that time of year when I get to shout about my favourites!
In this case, my NEW favourites 😌👌🏻 I do love discovering authors I hadn’t tried before, and realising I need to read absolutely everything they’ve ever written. I mean, some are debuters and have written but one mere book (slackers 😪) but when you find a new author with an incredible backlist? [chef’s kiss] Life gets infinitely better.
So for 2020, I did try a ton of new authors! I also…..reread a lot of old comfort favourites. But the year called for it, alright. I’m going to highlight 10 of my new favourites (all authors I haven’t tried till this year).
You might also like…
💬 Did I Love The New 2019 Books From My OLD Favourite Authors?
💬 Did My Highly Anticipated 2019 Books Meet My Expectations?
💬 10 New Authors I Discovered That I Loved in 2019
1) Jenn Lyons
Right so first order of business is: MY NEW FAVOURITE SERIES OBSESSION. I read The Ruin of Kings in January and followed up with the sequel The Name of All Things, and I’m currently reading The Memory of Souls and dyinggggg with complete and utter adoration. It’s epic fantasy but deliciously complex (reincarnation, complex magic systems, soul-swapping, and rich and lush history) but it also has….okay fine 😂 it basically tumblr style humour at times. Kihrin is our favourite disaster queer himbo and cannot be stopped. This is the kind of series that’s ranking right up with The Raven Cycle and All For The Game for me okay 🥺
2) Ryan La Sala
I actually read his books out of order! I read Be Dazzled (out January 2021!) early and then I read his 2019 debut Reverie and um!!! I love these!! They’re so glamorous and absolutely and utterly wild. Reverie was bizarre in beautiful ways?! Be Dazzled was like an ode to crafting and cosplay, and I am like an ex-crafter (though not this level 😂) so this made me really happy!! I just thoroughly enjoyed myself.
3) Erin Morgernstern
No I haven’t read Night Circus yet so The Starless Sea was my first read by her, and 😭I just lost my heart to it. It’s beautiful, but it just fit my whole soul’s aesthetic with reluctant antisocial queer bookworms and underground secret society libraries and gorgeous ethereal fairytales and stories within stories within stories. I think of this book and just SIGH. I loved it so deeply.
4) Jordan Ifueko
Just when I was worried I was falling out of love with YA epic fantasy….Raybearer appeared to light up my WORLD (sorry the puns will stay 😪). It’s such a complex world, full of lore and magic systems and history, and it’s utterly compelling as well as so much fun. (Also there’s a side-character who’s ace!) The whole book is about friendship before romance too. And Tarisai is the kind of heroine you can’t help but adore. I’m obsessed okay and keenly waiting on the sequel.
5) Sophie Gonzales
Only Mostly Devastated was my first read of 2020 and I LOVED it!! So funny with the best quips, but also dealt with grief and family illness, so it packed a punch 🥺Then I also read Sophie Gonzales’ second book (which is out January 2021) Perfect On Paper which I adored too! Both are queer and romcoms and delightful. Also she’s an Australian author, so we are winning here.
6) Maggie Tokuda-Hall
Okay The Mermaid, The Witch, and the Sea was DARK and I freaking adored it. It’s fantasy that doesn’t hold back with brutal pirates and trauma and blood soaked decks. Lady Evelyn Hasegawa is queer and sailing to her arranged despised marriage, while Flora is living as Florian aboard The Dove (a masked pirate ship) and fated to be Evelyn’s enemy. But before that happens 😩💛LOVE HAPPENS. Also it is so unapologetically queer with several nonbinary characters (including Flora!) and the writing is just absolutely dark and whimsical.
7) Andrew Eliopulos
The Fascinators read like a contemporary with complex friendship dynamics, panicked gay feels, and highschool angst…but also magic is a part of everyone’s everyday life. I LOVED THIS. I adore “this is our world, but different” stories, and the magic system was so fantastic (dare I say…fascinating 😌) and the messy friendship group was one of my favourites.
8) Kay Kerr
Please Don’t Hug Me was SO special to me, not just because it’s an Australian book by an Australian author — but it’s also #ownvoices autistic and actually gets what autism even is. It really captures the isolating and lonely part, the feeling that you’re behind a glass wall hoping someone notices…and care. It also dealt with grief and YEAH okay I teared up. How dare it.
9) Adiba Jaigirdar
The Henna Wars was SO good, I am still thinking about it months later! It had a sister relationship that honestly made my heart squish into shapes that defy my persona of being tough 😭😪 Thanks for that. And it took a good firm look at cultural appropriation and how it can be both overt and subtle. Nishat is a Bangladeshi living in Ireland, Muslim, and lesbian, and the story has some seriously hard moments but also the softest romance and captivating writing.
10) Rebecca Coffindaffer
Sci-fi is one of my least read genres and we must ask ourselves WHY right now, because Crownchasers was absolutely brilliant! It has the classic dysfunctional team dynamics of shenanigans and sass and using humour to deflect FEELING things, plus a paperchase style plot (but with rocket ships and death) and Alyssa’s sidekick is literally named Hell Monkey. I mean. It was perfect. Plus the ending managed to puncture a hole in my lung and leave me to suffer for a year until the sequel? So 10/10 for that kindness.
I’m currently buddy reading Ruin of Kings! We saw how much you liked the series and are rly enjoying it so far!! <3
We don’t share any, but you’ve definitely made me want to check out Ruin of Kings. I read a lot of new authors this year, about the same as last year, 20, which is my equal highest rate of new authors since I started doing the Goodreads Challenge, and as I’ve read 44 books this year (so far, I’m hoping to reach 45 by the end of the year), almost half of my books this year were by authors I hadn’t read before. My new favourites, the ones whose books I definitely want to read more of were: Roshani Chokshi (so excited to read The Silvered Serpents), Holly Jackson (ditto for Good Girl, Bad Blood), S.A. Chakraborty (absolutely devoured the Daevabad books and looking forward to what she does next), Addie Thorley, Roseanne A.Brown, Kalynn Bayron, Rebecca Schaeffer and Madeline Miller.
Neither of these authors are new, haha, but somehow I didn’t get around to reading anything by Marissa Meyers or Katharine McGee until this year. Now I’m obsessed with them both!
I discovered many new great authors this year, but not one of mine is the same as yours. That’s why I love the book community – we can make great new discoveries by interacting with other book-loving people! Thanks for sharing your list!
I HAVEN’T HEARD OF ANY OF THESE AUTHORS? WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING WITH MY LIFE BECAUSE THESE ALL SOUND AMAZING. GAHHH.
I did read a lot of good books this year, though. Somehow I didn’t read any Kerri Maniscalco books until this year, but I’m glad I tried some of her books. For whatever reason I’m kind of blanking on what my other favorite books of the year were, but there were lots of them.
Crownchasers is the only one I have read, I think! I too really enjoyed it and cannot wait for the sequel- Rebecca’s voice feels very fresh and unique to me! I do have Raybearer on my shelf right now (on my READ SOON shelf which is an important shelf!) and I also added Please Don’t Hug Me to my TBR after your glowing review!
YES to raybearer!! it’s one of my favorite books of the year, and it’s truly one of the best ya fantasies i’ve read in a while. i really need to read the starless sea, after i started it early last year but never finished it haha! and crown chasers looks so good, i’m also terrible at keeping up with sci-fi too 😭 a definite new favorite author i found this year is rf kuang!
I read my first books by Alice Oseman and Hannah Capin this year, and enjoyed them both. 🙂 I also read The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, and loved it, although it is sadly her only novel.
Starless Sea was one of my first reads of 2020 and I ADORED it. It’s definitely a love it or hate it kind of book I’ve noticed, but I LOVED it. I’ve got Only Mostly Devastated on Pre-order (for the paperback) and can’t wait to get into it. You’ve convinced me to add The Henna Wars and Please Don’t Hug Me to my list!
It’s so great to discover new authors, truly one of the best things about each year! I have yet to read Raybearer, but I really want to because it looks amazing!! The cover alone is so vibrant 💛 One of my fave new authors is Aiden Thomas (Cemetery Boys was amazing!), Martha Wells (Murderbot Diaries forever!), and William Ritter (I fell in love with the Jackaby series) 🥰
I also discovered Raybarer and Crownchasers in 2020! Both were amazing.