The Best New-To-Me Authors I Read in 2015

I'm really excited about this week's topic for Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by the Broke and the Bookish blog: the 10 best new-to-me authors I read this year. I excluded 2015 debuts since I did that last week (see that post here), so these are all established authors I've just recently had the pleasure of discovering -- and I recommend every single one!

Pierce Brown // Ernest Cline

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Pierce Brown is my very most favorite author! His writing is superb, as are his world-building, his characters, his edge-of-your-seat plot twists. Pleeeeease read "Red Rising" and "Golden Son" if you haven't already, even if science fiction isn't your usual thing. I'm anxiously awaiting the conclusion to the trilogy in a few months, and I was thrilled to see Pierce already has plans for his next series.

I also really loved "Ready Player One" and "Armada," both by Ernest Cline. I'd classify Cline's work as sci-fi-lite, accessible to all readers, and both his novels were just so much fun to read. I can't wait until "Ready Player One" gets turned into a movie; I think it'll be awesome on the big screen! (Again, if you haven't read "RPO," you must! I don't know anyone who didn't like it.)

Tana French // Jandy Nelson

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"In the Woods" is the first installment in French's Dublin Murder Squad series and I found it to be a gripping psychological thriller and an up-all-night page-turner. I'm hoping to get caught up on the series in 2016.

"I'll Give You the Sun" was a sleeper hit for me as I'm not the biggest fan of YA. But this book. It transcends genre and age. I still need to read Nelson's first book, "The Sky is Everywhere."

Diane Setterfield // Deanna Raybourn

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"The Thirteenth Tale" is captivating gothic mystery at its best and it was one of my 5-star reads this year. I'm sad to say, though, that it doesn't seem like Setterfield's second book, "Bellman & Black," was nearly as well-received. Fellow bookworms, is it worth reading?

Deanna Raybourn's Lady Julia historical mysteries and a couple of her standalones have been on my to-read list forever, but the first book in her new Veronica Speedwell series is the first one I actually picked up. I loved it -- particularly the spunky and intrepid protagonist -- and I plan to read much more Raybourn!

Belinda Bauer // V.E. Schwab

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Welsh author Belinda Bauer penned the most unique mystery I read this year, with an unwitting amateur sleuth whose Asperger's gives him a different perspective on the world and alerts him to a crime no one else has noticed. I definitely want to check out Bauer's other stuff!

I enjoyed "A Darker Shade of Magic," the first in a fun new fantasy series, and I'm hoping to soon get to the author's popular novel "Vicious." (And of course I'll continue the Darker Shade of Magic series.)

Lily King // Erik Larson

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Lily King's novel of three flawed anthropologists caught in a love triangle in 1930s New Guinea had been on my to-read list for ages, so when I was lucky enough to win it in a Goodreads giveaway I figured it was finally time to read it! It was a gripping story and I enjoyed learning about the dawn of the anthropology field.

Erik Larson is one of those special non-fiction authors whose work read like a novel. I was glued to the dual story of a doctor-turned-serial-killer and an architect at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. I learned a lot about the era, about architecture, about Chicago history, and about the massive amount of effort that went in to putting on the World's Fair -- all while being enthralled by a chilling series of murders. I'm hoping to read  Larson's latest book, "Dead Wake," about the sinking of the Lusitania, next year.