Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
Oh this is a fun topic! And it’s going to be hard to narrow it down to ten – I feel like I am usually reading books by new-to-me authors, so I definitely have plenty to choose from.
Top Ten New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2022
Georgette Heyer
Yes, 2022 was the year I started getting into Regency, and I started with Heyer’s classic Regency Buck. The book came out in 1935, and contains many of the tropes still recognisable in the subgenre today, but I hadn’t picked up her work until I got the opportunity to do so via NetGalley.
Regency Buck Review / False Colours Review
D. N. Bryn
Our Bloody Pearl was a really great, enjoyable novel with an interesting premise. It’s well written and felt really different, and I loved it. I’ll definitely be trying to check out more of Bryn’s work this year.
J. K. Pendragon
Pendragon is a great writer, focusing on diverse characters and stories. I’ve read two of their books now, and both were really good. We even discussed one on Esbat – To Summon Nightmares. Both this and Witch, Cat and Cobb are short books – Nightmares is Horror whereas Witch is light-hearted Fantasy, and I definitely suggest checking out their work.
Witch, Cat, and Cobb Review / To Summon Nightmares Review
T. Kingfisher
I’ve been aware of T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon) for a while now, but it was in 2022 I picked up her book Nettle & Bone, and I absolutely loved it. I’m really keen to read What Moves the Dead at some point, as I’ve heard excellent things about it.
Josie Jaffrey
Similar to Kingfisher, Jaffrey is a name I was familiar with prior to 2022, but it was last year, thanks to BBNYA, that I read May Day, and found myself falling in love with another excellent writer. Definitely check it out if you like vampires and Urban Fantasy.
Bonnie Quinn
If you like creepy urban legends, folklore, and a dash of urban fantasy in a rural camping location, you need to check out The Man With No Shadow. It’s another one we discussed on the podcast, and was also adapted by The NoSleep Podcast. It’s great, Quinn has a really great voice for her MC, and the different elements combine so, so well.
Olivia Atwater
Half a Soul shows an excellent grasp of various genres – Regency Romance, Historical Fantasy, and everything that comes with them, as well as a great take on fae. This was such a great book to read, and I’m really hoping to get a chance to check out The Lord Sorcier, The Latch Key, and the next book in the series, Ten Thousand Stitches.
Alexis Hall
You know when you read those books and they just stay with you, gaining a permanent place in your heart and mind, making you often think of it or the characters? Yeah, Hall manages to do that with A Lady for a Duke, a wonderful Regency Romance with a trans woman as the MC. I don’t think I’ve ever read something that quite hits “sweeping” in the way this book does.
Juno Dawson
Her Majesty’s Royal Coven really hit a particular itch for me, and I enjoyed it immensely. It’s a wonderful novel about witches, friendships, and finding yourself, and it shows the reality of many real-life friendships, in which people drift apart and find their values no longer align. I can’t wait to return to these characters with The Shadow Cabinet.
Her Majesty’s Royal Coven Review
Zoe Ashwood
This was another BBNYA book, read for last year’s competition. And I bloody loved it. It’s a fun, adventurous novel with plenty of heat and spice. I absolutely loved it, and I’m hoping I can try and read the next in the series sometime this year.
So there we have it, ten new to me authors I fell in love with last year, and really hope I get to read more of in the near future. Let me know if you have any new-to-you authors now at the top of your favourites list.
Unwrapping Words 