Top Ten Tuesday: Dec 11

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a fun weekly meme created by the folks over at The Broke and the Bookish. Every week they have a different theme for bloggers to post their top tens about, and this week’s theme is…

Top Ten Favorite New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2012

This one was tough – I read so many new and wonderful authors in 2012 (along with several old favorites). I had to go back and look at their ratings and see how many of their other books made it to my TBR before compiling this list, lol! So, here they are, and in no particular order:

1. Colleen Hoover
   » I received Slammed as a galley for review, and fell in love with the characters and the writing. I’ve got Point of Retreat already waiting to be read, I’m anxious for Hopeless (her new stand-alone novel), and her 3rd book in the Slammed series is coming out sometime in 2013.
2. Ruta Sepetys
   » I grabbed her debut book Between Shades of Gray on a whim – I was stuck in an airport for 16 hours due to bad weather and needed something to read to pass the hours. I devoured it, and am looking forward to her next book, Out of the Easy.
3. Paolo Bacigalupi
   » Originally I was introduced to this author through a book group on Goodreads, Ship Breaker was one of the book selections one month, so I thought I’d give it a go…I was thoroughly impressed and read The Windup Girl a few months later. I’m hoping to read The Drowned Cities, the sequel to Ship Breaker, soon!
4. Jamie McGuire
   » Beautiful Disaster was another book I received for review (and then won on Goodreads First Reads at the same time). At first I was scared to give it a try because of the comparisons to the Fifty Shades trilogy, but I’m SO glad that I did (it’s so much better than that, it shouldn’t be mentioned in the same sentence)! The second book in the series, Walking Disaster, comes out in a few months!
5. William Landay
   » I didn’t read too many suspense/mystery/legal thrillers this year, but Defending Jacob was definitely a favorite. According to the ratings on Goodreads, it’s his best work to-date, I’m hoping that he comes up with something in 2013 to knock my socks off again!
6. Patrick Ness
   » Everyone seems to be talking about his Chaos Walking series, and I discovered the first book in the series by accident at my library. The Knife of Never Letting Go messed with my head so much, I’m desperate to finish reading the series!
7. Michelle Hodkin
   » It feels like so long ago that I read The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, but it was actually pretty recently. It was one of those books that made me NEED to read the next book RIGHT NOW, but I had to wait of course, until it was released. The Evolution of Mara Dyer is sitting on my nightstand right now, waiting to be read!
8. Erin Morgenstern
   » I think Morgenstern’s The Night Circus is one of my favorite books of all time – with all of the imagery in it, I felt like I was physically there at this mysterious circus. I’ve recommended it to many friends, who all thank me after reading it. I can’t wait to read whatever she comes up with next.
9. Jay Asher
   » I read Thirteen Reasons Why and it broke my heart – it deals with a very important issue for teens (as well as adults) and I think it is a book every person needs to read. I’ve already picked up The Future of Us, co-written with Carolyn Mackler.
10. Alan Brennert
    » Moloka’i was another bookclub read, but not the first time I’d heard of the author – I had a couple other books on my TBR shelf (like Honolulu). I will definitely be reading them since reading that one, it was amazing!

Here are the books that I read by the authors above that has put them on my list of authors to watch:

These are only a few of the authors I’d never read or heard of before this year…that list could have easily been double the size. But many of the authors above I know I’ll be reading again in 2013 and probably for years to come! Who are your favorite new-to-you authors from this year?