We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl.
This week’s topic is: Books I Want to Read by New to Me Authors (Share books from your to-read list that are written by authors you’ve never read before.)
If, like me, you’re as much of a book collector as you are a reader, there is no shortage of new-to-me authors that are sat on your TBR waiting patiently to be read. So, the hardship in coming up with today’s list wasn’t in finding authors to feature, it’s narrowing down names to a ‘top 10’ that I want to read. There’s absolutely no order to today’s list—I just looked through my shelves and picked whoever’s name jumped out at me first, lol. 😂 Let’s see who makes the cut!
John Wiswell
S. A. Cosby
Elise Kova
Grady Hendrix
Jordan Ifueko
Bell Hooks
Lily King
Emily Henry
Amy Lea
Rachel Lynn Solomon
Are any of these authors also new-to-you or are some your favourites? I know they’re all of different genres, but if you had to suggest, whose books do you think I should read first? 🤭
dinipandareads 
I also have John Wiswell on my tbr! I enjoyed Raybearer a lot, one of the few YA books I actually really rate still!
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I’m so glad to hear that, especially as I’m not reading tons of YA anymore these days! 🙂 Hope we both enjoy Wiswell’s books when we give ’em a go!
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Someone You Can Build a Nest In is such an intriguing title to me.
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I do love the title a lot! It definitely is one to pique interest 🤭
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Lol that is how I picked my list as well. I just have so many on my TBR!
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Soo many too choose from 🤭
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Grady Hendrix is one of my favorites, so I hope you enjoy!
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I’ve heard good things about his books and I can’t wait to give it a go as well 🙂 Thank you!
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Weather Girl has such a cute cover. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by earlier.
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I like it as well! Thanks for stopping by as well 🙂
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I love Arcana Academy!! I want to read her others too. I can’t believe you still haven’t read Emily Henry!! haha Razor Blade Tears is so good but a very intense read! Heart the Lover is one that I keep going back and forth with. I have seen it around a lot more lately. I hope you get to all or most of these books!! ❤
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Lmao, honestly, I think I remember back in the day when Beach Read was about to come out and I was talking about how excited I was about its release cos it was coming out on my birthday. THIS MANY YEARS LATER…. Still unread 🫣 Oop!
What’s been making you go back and forth on it? Have you read King before? I’ve just seen someone mention in another comment how it’s better to read her debut Lovers & Writers before this cos apparently they’re loosely connected.
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You’ve got some awesome books on this list!
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Thank you!
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I have bell hooks on my list too, and I really want to read Someone You Can Build A Nest In. I love Emily Henry books. I hope you enjoy all of these!
Haze
https://thebookhaze.com/
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I hope we both love bell hooks’ and Wiswell’s books whenever we get to them! 💜
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Emily Henry books are great! I still need to read Arcana Academy and Someone You Can Build a Nest In, too. Hopefully we’ll both get to them one day. 🙂
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EH is so popular but I think that’s also part of why I haven’t read her yet. The hype is intimidating 🤣 Ooh, I thought you had read Arcana already! Well, I hope you enjoy these books whenever you get to them. Happy reading!
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Someone You Can Build a Nest In looks and sounds awesome! I hope you enjoy these books and authors when you can!
My Post:
https://thegentlechapter.blog/2026/07/14/top-ten-tuesday-new-to-me-authors/
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I know, I love the title and cover so much (and yet I’m putting off reading it still, lol).
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Set on me is also on my list, But I loved weather girl!
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Yay for loving Weather Girl! I hope you love Set On You whenever you get to it 🙂
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On past week’s lists, I have seen Amy’s book and it does look cute! Hope you enjoy these all! Happy new-author-discoveries and thanks for visiting my list this week. 🙂
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Thank you! It’s always fun to finally read new-to-me authors 🙂
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I love Lily King, and I’m also a big fan of Emily Henry. I’ve read one book by Rachel Lynn Solomon and it was really cute.
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I have heard so many great things about all three authors and I’m excited to give them a go 🙂
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I’m a big Emily Henry fan so I’d definitely recommend her books 😉 Elise Kova is one of those authors I’ve been wanting to try for ages. Hope you’ll end up loving all of these!
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So many people love EH and it makes me want to read her even more but it also intimidates me like mad, lol. The expectations have been built up sky high! 🤭 Elise Kova has also been on my TBR for ages. I’ve always loved all her book covers! I hope you enjoy her books whenever you get to them!
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Read Lily King’s Writers and Lovers before the book you’ve identified. It is a loosely related series.
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Oh, really!? I had no idea that they were connected… I thought they were standalones! Thanks for the heads up 🙂
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I’ve found John Wiswell always has interesting concepts and unique angles.
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Fully agree! His concepts and especially titles are always so interesting!
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I’ve seen Beach Read everywhere so I’m also hoping one day to give this author a chance, but judging by my evergrowing TBR, it’s gonna happen in 25 years 😅
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Emily Henry is such a popular author and everyone keeps telling me that there is a good chance I will enjoy her writing, but I think the hype around her books makes me put off reading them even more. 😂 Maybe one day… I will finally get to her books, lol.
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Weather Girl was such a great read! I keep meaning to read more by Solomon.
Here’s my TTT this week: https://readbakecreate.com/most-anticipated-holiday-releases-of-2026/
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Please read Beach Read! I also have Arcana Academy on my TBR but I’m pretty sure I read something self-published by that author a few years ago now.
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I know! Everyone has been screaming at me to read EH and I want to but also, the greater the hype around her books, the more my brain tells me to push it off… Make her make sense! 😂 Elise Kova is an author I heard about long before she became mainstream popular because she has self-published/indie for a long time and her covers are always so eye-catching, lol. I hope you enjoy Arcana Academy whenever you get to it!
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[…] up that I simply could not put down (sorry for racing ahead at one point with our buddy read, Dini). It introduced some wonderful new characters and gave some majorly unsettling revelations about […]
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I really love Emily Henry’s books — and in a very different genre, Grady Hendrix is excellent! I didn’t enjoy Someone You Can Build a Nest In, although I know so many people who did. You’ve got great options here!
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I know, everyone has been telling me I will love EH too, but for some reason the hype intimidates me too much. One day, I will definitely get to her books (at this point I also own them all thanks to 99p deals, lol)! 😅 I’m excited to give Hendrix a try—this book in particular sounds like something I’d really enjoy! Sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy Wiswell’s book. I haven’t seen a lot of people talk about it but the premise sounds like something I’d love, so I hope I have better luck with it! 🤞🏽
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[…] still not over the ending to The Hunger of the Gods. Dini and I are so thankful we don’t have to wait a year to pick up the next book (we only have to […]
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I’ve been meaning to try something by Wiswell for aaages, too. I’ll probably read The Dragon Has Some Complaints first though, ’cause I got an ARC! Fingers crossed the hype is fair, haha.
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I will truly celebrate the day this Wiswell book goes off my TBR because I feel like I’ve had it almost all of my possibility piles starting from last year? 😅 And ooh, exciting about the ARC! That title is so good and the premise sounds great as well. I hope you love it!! 🥰
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Aha yeah most authors in this world are indeed new-to-me author so that’s why I found this week’s topic hard too lol. I really liked Someone You Can Build A Nest In, it’s so wildly different from anything I was expecting/anything I’ve ever read. YAY we both have Elise Kova on our lists this week! And Raybearer is also one I want to read. I hope you love all of these 🖤!
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There are just too many new-to-me authors to choose from! 😂 I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed Wiswell’s book. It does sound very different to my usual too, but in a very good/unique way! I hope you love Elise Kova’s boks and Raybearer as well, whenever you get to them, Veros 💜
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Yeah and the fun thing is that there will always be! Yes I do think it was unique in a good way. It was weird in a way that I loved. Thank you so much I hope you do too, Dini! :D🖤!
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I haven’t read most of these authors yet. I enjoyed Beach Read, and I’d like to give Elise Kova a try. John Wiswell has a charming short story out on Reactor, “The Three O’Clock Dragon,” but I haven’t read any of his novels. I hope you enjoy all of these when you get around to them!
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Emily Henry is a much beloved author and I know I will get to her books one day. Glad to hear you enjoyed Beach Read! Ooh, I will have to give that short story on Reactor a read. 😍 I hope you enjoy his full length novels if you get to them!
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I was surprised to see I read an author from your fantasy list – Kova. I think it was The Air Awakens or something like that. It was good. I have read 4 of the 5 on your second list. Heart the Love and Beach Reads both scored high for me. Hope they are all great for you!
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Ooh, that’s exciting! I know which one you’re talking about—her indie covers are really eye-catching, lol.
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That’s a great list, Dini! I’ve read books by quite a few of those authors and loved them so I hope you do too 🙂
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Thanks, Becky! I hope so too 😍
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i loved raybearer! i also definitely have john wiswell on my list of authors to read from soon… and it’s nice to see i’m not the only one yet to read an emily henry ahahhaha
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Ooh, another fellow non-EH reader! We’re rare ones out here 😂 I would like to give her books a try but something in brain keeps stopping me from doing so, haha. I hope you enjoy Wiswell’s books if/when you give them a go!
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I have read books by Elise Kova before, but I still need to read Arcana Academy, as I have a feeling I’ll have a good time with it 😊 I also love Emily Henry and Rachel Lynn Solomon, their Romances always work for me!
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Did you enjoy the Elise Kova books you read? I have a feeling I would have a good time with Arcana Academy as well! I’m glad to hear that you love EH and RLS. I’m keen to give their books a go (one day, lol) 🙂
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Omg you haven’t read Raybearer yet either? I told myself I’d definitely get to it this year…then forgot that plan somehow until seeing this post 🙈 Im surprised to hear that you havent tried anything by Emily Henry or Rachel Lynn Solomon yet. I haven’t either but you’re generally miles ahead of me when it comes to contemporary novels 😂 I also really want to try something by a few of the others listed here too. Although I’ll probably start with John Wiswell’s Hercules tale and Grady Hendrick’s vampire one. Hope you love all of these whenever you get to them 🥰
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Ooh! I feel like it’s rare to find someone who hasn’t read Raybearer yet cos it was so popular when it came out. If you want to do a buddy read of it some point this year, let me know (no pressure, haha). 🤭 Yeah, I don’t know why I haven’t read anything by EH or RLS. Well, actually, the hype around EH is kinda intimidating and now I have sky-high expectations, and I don’t want to be disappointed so… I keep putting off reading her books, lol. One day? 😅 Ooh, what’s the Wiswell Hercules tale?! Is that his latest book? 🤔 I hope you love the ones on your TBR whenever you get to them as well, Charlotte!
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So true. We seem to have a few popular ones in common still on our TBR though. Isn’t Percy Jackson one you haven’t got to yet either? I’d love to 😊 I’ll add it to our list 😂 Thats true about the hype, it can be pretty intimidating and her books are incredibly hyper. No its his 2025 release, Wearing The Lion. His latest sounds fun too though, it has a multi headed dragon that argues with itself 😂 thank you 🥰
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I want to read that bell hooks book, too. It’s been sitting on my shelf for a while, but I just haven’t picked it up yet. I hope you like the John Wiswell, too! I’ve loved his short stories, though I haven’t read a full novel of his yet.
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Same here about bell hooks’ book! It’s a little intimidating but I’m looking forward to giving it a go 🙂 Maybe in November for NFN. 🤞🏽 Someone else in the comments just mentioned his short stories, one of which is on Reactor, and I’m excited to check it out!
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NFN sounds like a good plan!
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[…] #TopTenTuesday: Reading New-to-Me Authors […]
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I’ve only read the last three on your list, but did enjoy them. I hope you get to read all this authors and they are good reads for you, Dini.
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