New to Me Authors: 2021 Edition

Hello! Today, I want to talk about all of the authors that were new to me in 2021! This does not mean that they debuted in 2021 (although some of them did), it just means that 2021 was the first time that I read a book by them! And spoiler alert – there are a lot of new authors.

I went back to look at the 2020 edition of this post and I did not read that many new authors last year! It was still a significant amount, but no where near as many as I did this year. I did not realise how many new books I was reading this year until it came to grabbing the list for this post.

I’m going to list the authors and then talk a little more about them later on, but I am going to separate them into three different lists: new authors, new authors who’s debut book I read but didn’t debut in 2021, and new authors who debuted in 2021.

New Authors:

• Lize Meddings (The Sad Ghost Club)
• Jennier L. Armentrout (From Blood and Ash & A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire)
• Julie Berry (Lovely War)
• Flynn Meaney (Bad Habits)
• Roseanne A. Brown (A Song of Wraiths and Ruin)
• Taylor Jenkins Reid (Malibu Rising & The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo)
• Talia Hibbert (Get a Life, Chloe Brown & Take a Hint, Dani Brown & Act Your Age, Eve Brown & Wrapped Up in You)
• Julia Quinn (The Duke and I & The Viscount Who Loved Me & A Offer From a Gentleman & Romancing Mister Bridgerton & To Sir Phillip, With Love)
• Emily Henry (You and Me on Vacation)
• Olivia Lara (The Meeting Point)
• Dana L. Davis (Roman and Jewel)
• Sophie Jordan (Sixteen Scandals)
• Karen M. McManus (You’ll Be the Death of Me)

New Authors with their Debut Novel:

• Kalynn Bayron (Cinderella is Dead)
• Emma Lord (Tweet Cute)
• Casey McQuiston (Red, White & Royal Blue)
• Tracy Deonn (Legendborn)

New Authors 2021 Debut:

• Lizzy Dent (The Summer Job)
• Erin Sterling (The Ex Hex)
• Maggie Knox (The Holiday Swap)

There are a lot more new authors than I had expected! Some of these I probably won’t be picking up their other books for quite some time, if ever, like Dana L. Davis or Sophie Jordan or Flynn Meaney. Although I enjoyed Roman and Jewel by Dana L. Davis and Sixteen Scandals by Sophie Jordan and Bad Habits by Flynn Meaney, I just didn’t enjoy any of their writing styles enough to gravitate towards their books again. Especially as, at the moment I am definitely steering further away from YA and I believe they all write more YA.

Authors likes Julie Berry, Talia Hibbert and Emma Lord – I cannot wait to read more of their books. I adored The Brown Sisters trilogy by Talia Hibbert and I loved their short story Wrapped Up in You too. There’s something so captivating about their writing style and they have easily become an auto-buy for me.

Julie Berry is one where I have only read one of their books, but I cannot wait to get to more of their work. I am currently on the hunt for The Passion of Dolssa because I want the hardcover so that the edition matches my edition of Lovely War. And, Emma Lora is another one where I have only read one of their books, but I have actually just got You Have a Match and I cannot wait to read it! I also can’t wait for their 2022 release which I believe is being marketed as a Broadway themed Mamma Mia and I am so excited.

I also discovered some new tropes that I really enjoyed, through reading newer authors. I feel like before 2021, I was very much reading the same tropes – either friends to lovers or enemies to lovers, or the chosen one, and so on and so on. But, being introduced to authors like Erin Sterling (The Ex Hex) and Emily Henry (You and Me on Vacation) showed me other tropes like second-chance romances which I think has become a new favourite of mine this year!

I also wanted to mention the new to me authors who’s books I have started, but haven’t yet finished. Some of these I am currently reading, and others I started, but them down but intend to get back to them at some point next year!

• Hafsah Faizal (We Hunt the Flame)
• Heather Walter (Malice)
• Kerri Maniscalco (Kingdom of the Wicked)
• Aidan Thomas (Cemetery Boys)
• Jennifer Saint (Ariadne)
• Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton & Jodi Meadows (My Lady Jane)

And, before I close off this post, I wanted to reflect a little on the 2020 edition of this post. So, last year my list compiled of 9 new authors! And in 2021, I continued reading books from four of them:

• Melissa de la Cruz (Love & War)
• Beth O’Leary (The Switch & The Road Trip)
• Carrie Hope Fletcher (On the Other Side)
• Christina Lauren (In a Holidaze)

I just find it really interesting to look back and see which ones that I continued to read from! I can’t wait to reflect on this post next year and see which of these amazing authors I read more from. All of the ones that I continued to read from last year were all great authors and I love their writing style. I can’t wait to read more of their books in the future!

I still can’t believe how many authors are on this list! I definitely expanded my reading this year, and had a great reading year! How many new authors did you read?

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