TOP 20 authors of 2019

Dear book-lovers,

2019 was a busy year for me and I read more than 180 books written by almost 100 different authors, so I found many new and wonderful authors to add to the list of TOP 20 authors of 2019. However, there are also writers I know well as I reread their books once in a while, and those authors, whose new books will always be a priority for me to read when ever they come out. Therefore, on this list you will find new authors and old as a few from my last year’s list are on this one as well. I chose to make list of 20 authors because I wanted every one of them to be featured here to give you a chance to maybe discover a new author to you to read this year. Let’s not wait any longer, so here are my 20 favourite authors of 2019.

*Note. If you click on an author’s name the link will take you to their author’s page on Goodreads.

20. Ryan Ringbloom

An American contemporary romance author. I read her Whiskey Series, which were  so much fun to read that those romantic comedies actually made me laugh. You can read my spoiler-free review for second book in the series – Whiskey Chick, here.

19. Adrienne Young

An American young adult (YA) fantasy author. I very much enjoyed her viking inspired debut novel Sky in the Deep, so I’m planning to read her next two books in 2020 and maybe do a reread of this one as well.

18. C.A. Worley

An American fantasy, paranormal romance author, who also writes contemporary romance under the name of Cass Alexander. I enjoyed a lot her steamy paranormal romance of Fate of Imperium Series. If I’ll be in the mood for some more paranormal romance this year, probably I should check out her other series.

17. Amber R. Duell

An American young adult (YA) fantasy author. I was enthralled by her dark, mysterious but also beautifully imaginative story of Dream Keeper, so I’ll be continuing this trilogy in 2020. You can read the first chapter and some of my spoiler-free thoughts on this book here.

16. Delia Castel

A steamy paranormal reverse harem fairy tale retellings author. I loved her Curse of the Fae Queen with it’s ACOTAR vibes but at the same time it has its own unique world. You can read my spoiler-free review here.

15. Hettie Ivers

An American  paranormal romance author who writes steamy but not safe romances. I enjoyed her Werelock Evolution Series and can’t wait for the next book in the series to come out.

14. Laura Sebastian

An American young adult (YA) fantasy author. I very much liked the first two books in her Ash Princes trilogy, and I’m planning to read the last one as soon as it arrives at my local library.

13. J. Nathan

An American new adult (NA) contemporary romance author. I loved her For You series (which can be read as standalones) and her other books as well. She has become one of my favourite contemporary romance authors. You can read my spoiler-free review for the last book in this series – For Emery, here.

12. Mimi Matthews

An American historical romance author, who writes very accurate, realistic and atmospheric historical romances set in Victorian England. I have read and enjoyed all of her fiction books, however, I haven’t read yet her two non-fiction works. She is my favourite historical romance author. My favourite book by her was A Holiday by Gaslight. I would also recommend to check out Parish Orphans of Devon Series.

11. Duo of J.L. Beck and Cassandra Hallman

A dark contemporary romance author duo of American and German ladies (they sometimes use pen name – Jenna Reed). This author duo is my go to for dark and twisted adult romances. Their recent books are mostly bully romances but my favourite was their very dark crime romance of The Rossi Crime Family Series. You can read excerpt from second book – Protect Me, here, also my favourite book in the series.

10. Brigit Kemmerer

An American young adult (YA) fantasy and sci-fi romance and also contemporary romance author. I have enjoyed her fantasy/sci-fi romance books a lot so far and last year her new book, A Curse So Dark and Lonely, was not an exception. She is one of my favourite YA fantasy/sci-fi authors.

9. Stephanie Garber

An American young adult (YA) fantasy author. I loved her magically beautiful debut trilogy of Caraval, however, the last installment was not my favourite one but I still liked it very much.

8. Lauren Layen

An American contemporary romance author who writes some funny and steamy books. I read 13 books of hers and was happily surprised by each one of them. I just discovered miss Layne last year and she has already become one of my favourite contemporary romance authors. I loved her Sex, Love & Stiletto series and Oxford series.

7. Olivia Wildenstein

A British young adult (YA) fantasy, paranormal romance author who resides in Switzerland. I just fell in love with the ARC of Feather, a Romeo and Juliet retelling with angels. The book came out at the beginning of 2020, and now I’m waiting for the next year when the second book in this series is set to be released.

6. Shelby Mahurin

An American young adult (YA) fantasy author. I loved her debut novel of Serpent & Dove a lot. So lets hope that the next book is as wonderful as the first one.

5. R.S. Grey

An American romantic comedy indie author who knows how to deliver an entertaining book every single time. She is my favourite RomCom author, who is also on my all time favurite author list. I read almost every single book of hers in 2019. My favourites were Coldhearted Boss, Anything You Can Do, Allure duology, The Foxe & the Hound, Hotshot Doc, His Royal Highness and several others. I guess more than half of the books that she has ever published are my favourites 🙈

4. Penelope Douglas

An American contemporary romance author, who does tend to write steamy but at the same time darker romances. My favourite series from her is Fall Away with the iconic Bully romance. So for the last couple of years I just can’t wait to get my hands on the spin-off series Hellbent, fingers crossed that first two books will see the light of they this year 🤞 She is my favourite NA contemporary romance author and one of my of all time favourites as well.

3. Holly Black

An American children’s (middle grade and YA) fantasy author. I haven’t been a big fan of some of her YA books, but I just loved The Folk of the Air Series, which I read in 2019 and these books earned her the spot on my favourite authors of 2019 list.

2. Tricia Levenseller

An American young adult (YA) fantasy author whom I discovered last year and she instantly became one of my favourite YA fantasy authors with her Daughter of the Pirate King duology and Warrior of the Wild book. She has earned a spot on my all time favourite author list as well.

1. Mary E. Pearson

An American young adult (YA) fiction author who has stolen my heart with her newest books in Dance of Thieves duology, and I also loved the series that started it all The Remnant Chronicles. Mary E. Pearson is not only my favourite author of 2019 but my favourite author of all time as well as Dance of Thieves is my favourite book  and series of all time. I loved everything about these two books and never wanted them to end. Mary E. Pearson takes the crown of the best author of 2019.

So here you go this is my TOP 20 lists of favourite authors read in 2019. I would recommend their books to anyone interested in the genres that each of these wonderful authors write in. I’m going to keep reading books from most of these authors in 2020 as well. This means that they could reclaim a spot on this list next year as well. Let’s see how it will go because the battle for the best author of 2020 has began.

Have you read anything from the authors on this list? Who were your favourite authors of 2019? Are any of my authors on your list as well?

Happy reading,
Lady of Bookland