Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite New to Me Authors

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted at Broke and Bookish.

This week theme is:

Top Ten New-To-Me Favorite Authors I Read For The First Time In 2015

I was starting this week's Top Ten Tuesday when I realized that although most of the books I've read so far this year have been by new to me authors, I can't consider all of them my favorites. This may be because I've only read one book by that author, or it could be because what I was just wasn't my favorite. So instead of my top ten, I'm going to be doing my top 5 favorite new to me authors of 2015.

1. Jennifer L. Armentrout - During a time when I wasn't reading at all because school had was just too busy, I spent a lot of time watching booktube (to supplement my reading in a way). A lot of different people were talking about Jennifer L. Armentrout, especially her Lux series so one day I decided to get the ebook of Obsidian to see if it was as good as everyone was talking about. I was immediately sucked in and ended up reading the entire series over the next few weeks.

2. Julie Kagawa - She was one of the authors I kind of stumbled upon on Goodreads. I kept seeing the first cover of Immortal Rules but kept passing over it because the cover looked cheesy. One day I finally decided to read the summary and since it was on sale on Amazon I got the ebook. Like with the Lux series I was hooked. I also went right into the second book. I have also heard some really good things about her other series, so I would like to get to them at some point.

3. Bella Forrest - I think when it came to her series I read, it was what I needed to read at that time. This was the first thing I had read after going back to college after winter break. The series was fast paced and since they were so cheap I just kept reading until I finally wanted to read something a little different. 

4. Lindy Zart - It is hard for me to say that she is one of my favorite authors because I've only read 2 of her books. If we are only looking at new to me authors in 2015, she is definitely one of them. While they weren't the absolute best books I've ever read they were still enjoyable. I will consider reading more of her novels in the future.

5. Neal Shusterman - Although I only read one book by him so far this year, I can definitely say this is one of my favorite new to me authors of 2015. I read Unwind and it was such an interesting novel, I was intrigued to read the rest of the series and check out some of his other books. I'm not sure if I will get to that by the end of this year but I will make sure to do that.

Top Ten Tuesday #3

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted at Broke and Bookish. Each week there is a topic and we list off our top ten items based on that topic.

Books/Series to Read If You Liked the Twilight Series (And If You Didn't!)

I'm pretty sure by now everyone has heard of the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer either by reading the books or watching the movies or both. A lot of people were on one extreme or the other when it came to this series but I was in the middle. It wasn't my favorite series but for the most part I still enjoyed it. As I check out more blogs, I realize that I haven't read that many books compared to some others, at least that I can remember, so I wanted to pick something that I remembered and that I was sure a lot of people were familiar with. If you liked the Twilight Series, and even if you didn't, here are some recommendations to other books or series you may enjoy. Just a precaution, I'm really bad at explaining what a book is about but I will try my best.

*Pictures link to book page on Goodreads

The Host by Stephenie Meyer - I hear a lot of people talking about the Twilight series but I don't hear too much about this one. I read this right after I finished the Twilight series and I loved it. This is basically about aliens who come to take over the earth by inserting themselves inside human bodies. For those who did not like the Twilight series I would still recommend you check this out.

Lux Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout - I have been hearing about this series a lot more lately but I only discovered it within the last year. This series was so fun and action packed I got through each book in about 2 to 3 days. I loved this series so much that I would like to reread it, even though it hasn't been that long since I finished it! 

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead - This is another popular vampire series and was one of my favorite series. I started this series when the first 2 or 3 books were out and the rest as they came out. This series took a different approach than the Twilight series. One group of vampires in this series is similar to Twilight series vampires while still having a more traditional form in the other group of vampires. The Moroi are the vampires that are alive and use dhampirs, like the narrator and our main heroine, for protection from the Strigoi, the undead vampires. This series kept me interested from the beginning to the end, and even when it ended I wanted more.

Blood of Eden by Julie Kagawa - This is a vampire series that I don't hear too many people talk about. Like the Vampire Academy series, there is a strong heroine. She claims to only be looking out for herself but she is always willing to help out others even if puts herself in danger. Her morals are even carried over when she becomes a vampire and has to fight her instincts. I haven't finished this series yet but I definitely recommend this, especially since I flew through the first two.

Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz - This was another series I grew up with but never actually finished. I think I actually have all the books now so I plan to reread and finish this series. This is another series about vampires but this one was different from all the others. One of the most interesting things is that the vampires were not made but came from the recycled bloodlines of fallen angles, the Blue Bloods. This series was full of certain family expectations and forbidden relationships. Honestly, I think I mostly stuck around for one of the main relationships. Although one of my favorite parts was the romance between certain characters the overall story that I read was entertaining.

A Shade of Vampire by Bella Forrest - I wondered if I should even include this series in this list. I wouldn't say this is my favorite series, not even my favorite about vampires. However, this series was fast, entertaining, and kinda addictive. I would finish one and since they were so cheap for the kindle I would just go get the next one and immediately start reading it. For the price I think it would be worth it to at least check at the first book in the series and make your own opinions from there.

These are the books/series that stick in my mind that readers that enjoyed the Twilight series might enjoy. Let me know if you have any recommendations of your own!