M

I am Lover of romance, who indulges in the romantic adventures of literature

My name is Renee, and I am the host of this site. I am a 34 year old woman, on the prowl for her mate, searching out the best of books, exploring the wilds of the imagination and delving into the heart of a beautiful love story.

 

Elite New To Me Authors of 2017

by | Dec 26, 2017 | End of Year Survey | 7 comments

Alisha Rai

This author I recently discovered with her newest series and I just fell in love instantly with her writing. She writes authentically real diverse romance. I love the diverse characters from chinese to hawaiian to mixed races and its so wonderful because you rarely see those in romance even less so than african american’s. So it’s very refreshing and seriously she writes forbidden romance like it is a part of her!!! And we are the same age and have the same single women problems hehe

About Alisha Rai

Alisha Rai has been enthralled with romances since she smuggled her first tattered novel home from the library as a teenager. She writes hot and emotionally complex contemporary romance novels and is frequently sought as a speaker on topics such as love in the digital age, sex positivity, and inclusive representation in romance and media.

She is the first author to have an indie-published book appear on Washington Post’s annual Best Books list. Her books have also won the RT Reviewers Choice Award and have received critical attention and rave reviews from sources such as Library Journal, USA Today, BookRiot, Washington Post, Bitter Empire, NPR, and Smart Bitches Trashy Books. Alisha spends most of her time traveling, reading, dreaming up sexy heroes and heroines, and tweeting.

Kristen Proby

I picked up this author a few weeks ago when I signed up for the audible romance package and oh my word…her Boudreaux series set in New Orleans is sexy and romantic and beyond full of swoons and I am so glad that I decided to take a chance on her.

About Kristen Proby

Kristen was born and raised in a small resort town in her beloved Montana. In her mid-twenties, she decided to stretch her wings and move to the Pacific Northwest, where she made her home for more than a dozen years.

During that time, Kristen wrote many romance novels and joined organizations such as RWA and other small writing groups. She spent countless hours in workshops, and more mornings than she can count up before the dawn so she could write before going to work. She submitted many manuscripts to agents and editors alike, but was always told no. In the summer of 2012, the self-publishing scene was new and thriving, and Kristen had one goal: to publish just one book. It was something she longed to cross off of her bucket list.

Not only did she publish one book, she’s since published close to thirty titles, many of which have hit the USA Today, New York Times and Wall Street Journal Bestsellers lists. She continues to self publish, best known for her With Me In Seattle and Boudreaux series, and is also proud to work with William Morrow, a division of HarperCollins, with the Fusion Series.

Kristen and her husband, John, make their home in her hometown of Whitefish, Montana with their two pugs and two cats.

Nikki Sloane

I read her latest book, which is a NA and deals with some crazy fun in American Football rivalries and as someone that grew up in the Holy War rivalry, so many things I could relate with. And I couldn’t put it down. I can’t wait to pick more of her up.

About Nikki Sloane

Nikki Sloane landed in graphic design after her careers as a waitress, a screenwriter, and a ballroom dance instructor fell through. For eight years she worked for a design firm in that extremely tall, black, and tiered building in Chicago that went through an unfortunate name change during her time there.

Now she lives in Kentucky, is married and has two sons. She is a two-time Romance Writers of America RITA© Finalist, also writes romantic suspense under the name Karyn Lawrence, and couldn't be any happier that people enjoy reading her sexy words.

Harper Sloan

This author I discovered early in the year, and she writes the most real contemporary westerns I have ever read other than Joan Johnston. Her writing style is what I love in romance. There is so much feels in her books, and not much drama, just characters accepting their relationship and enjoying being together. Not a ton of conflict, just books you can easily relax into with a few laughs along the way.

About Harper Sloan

Harper is a NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL and USA TODAY bestselling author residing in Georgia with her husband and three daughters. She has a borderline unhealthy obsession with books, hibachi, tattoos and Game of Thrones. When she isn't writing you can almost always find her with a book in hand.

Alyson McLayne

I picked up this author and what a writer. I love the style that she writes historical romances, because they aren’t modern hardly at all and I just respect an author that keep pace with the “time of the era” but also doesn’t feel outdated or anything. And boy can she make me burst out in laughter so badly. So very witty and charming and some yummy highlander lovin’.

About Alyson McLayne

Alyson McLayne is a mom of twins and an award-winning writer of contemporary, historical and paranormal romance. She’s also a dog lover and cat servant with a serious stash of dark chocolate. After getting her degree in theater at the University of Alberta, she promptly moved to the West Coast of Canada where she worked in film for several years and met her prop master husband.

Alyson has been nominated for several Romance Writers of America contests, including The Golden Heart, The Golden Pen, The Orange Rose, Great Expectations, The Molly’s and The Winter Rose.

Her debut historical romance, Highland Promise, will be published by Sourcebooks in October, 2017. Highland Promise is the first of five books in The Sons of Gregor MacLeod series. Highland Conquest will come out in February, 2018.

Alyson and her family reside in Vancouver with their sweet but troublesome chocolate lab puppy named Jasper.

Tillie Cole

This is an author that writes my style of dark romances, because they totally make sense in the way that the heroes are so rough around the edges but once they find love, they just treat their women so well and I LOVE her writing style. I am always on the edge of my seat when I pick up her books.

About Tillie Cole

Amazon & USA Today Best Selling Author, Tillie Cole, is a Northern girl through and through. She originates from a place called Teesside on that little but awesomely sunny (okay I exaggerate) Isle called Great Britain. She was brought up surrounded by her English rose mother -- a farmer's daughter, her crazy Scottish father, a savagely sarcastic sister and a multitude of rescue animals and horses.
Being a scary blend of Scottish and English, Tillie embraces both cultures; her English heritage through her love of HP sauce and freshly made Yorkshire Puddings, and her Scottish which is mostly demonstrated by her frighteningly foul-mouthed episodes of pure rage and her much loved dirty jokes.

Having been born and raised as a Teesside Smoggie, Tillie, at age nineteen, moved forty miles north to the 'Toon', Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, where she attended Newcastle University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts honours degree in Religious Studies. She returned two years later to complete a Post-Graduate Certificate in Teaching High School Social Studies. Tillie, regards Newcastle to be a home from home and enjoyed the Newcastle Geordie way of life for seven 'proper mint' and 'lush' years.

One summers day, after finishing reading her thousandth book on her much loved and treasured Kindle, Tillie turned to her husband and declared, "D'you know, I have a great idea for a story. I could write a book." Several months later, after repeating the same tired line at the close of another completed story, she was scolded by her husband to shut up talking about writing a novel and "just bloody do it!" For the first time in eleven years, Tillie actually took his advice (he is still trying to get over the shock) and immediately set off on a crazy journey, delving deep into her fertile imagination.

Tillie, ever since, has written from the heart. She combines her passion for anything camp and glittery with her love of humour and dark brooding men (most often muscled and tattooed – they’re her weakness!). She also has a serious side (believe it or not!) and loves to immerse herself in the complex study of World Religions, History and Cultural Studies and creates fantasy stories that enable her to thread serious issues and topics into her writing -- yep, there's more to this girl than profanity and sparkles!

After six years of teaching high school Social Studies and following her Professional Rugby Player husband around Europe, they have finally given up their nomadic way of life and settled in Calgary, Alberta where Tillie spends most of her days (and many a late night) lost in a writing euphoria or pursuing a dazzling career as a barrel-racing, tasselled-chap wearing, Stetson-sporting cowgirl... Ye-haw!

J. Kenner

I have really struggled with erotic romance over the years, most of the time it just doesn’t always work for me because it tends to lack emotional intimacy that I crave in a romance. However this author just delivers in every way and I can’t wait to read more from her. Because she has made me fall in love with this sub genre in romance.

About J. Kenner

J. Kenner (aka Julie Kenner) is the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal and International bestselling author of over seventy novels, novellas and short stories in a variety of genres.

Though known primarily for her award-winning and international bestselling erotic romances (including the Stark and Most Wanted series) that have reached as high as #2 on the New York Times bestseller list, JK has been writing full time for over a decade in a variety of genres including paranormal and contemporary romance, “chicklit” suspense, urban fantasy, Victorian-era thrillers (coming soon), and paranormal mommy lit.

Her foray into the latter, Carpe Demon: Adventures of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom by Julie Kenner, has been consistently in development in Hollywood since prior to publication. Most recently, it has been optioned by Warner Brothers Television for development as series on the CW Network with Alloy Entertainment producing.

JK has been praised by Publishers Weekly as an author with a “flair for dialogue and eccentric characterizations” and by RT Bookclub for having “cornered the market on sinfully attractive, dominant antiheroes and the women who swopn for him.” A three time finalist for Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA award, JK took home the first RITA trophy awarded in the category of erotic romance in 2014 for her novel, Claim Me (book 2 of her Stark Trilogy).

Her books have sold well over a million copies and are published in over over twenty countries.

Hope Ramsay

If you are ever looking for those quaint small town romances that are beyond charming,  this is an author to go to. I just started reading her and LOVE her work so much. They just work for me and if I need a book to relax with on a rainy day or a snowy night, this author is my go to from now on!!!

About Hope Ramsay

Hope Ramsay was born in New York and grew up on the North Shore of Long Island, but every summer Momma would pack her off under the care of Aunt Annie to go visiting with relatives in the midlands of South Carolina. Her extended family includes its share of colorful aunts and uncles, as well as cousins by the dozens, who provide the fodder for the characters you’ll find in Last Chance, South Carolina. Hope earned a BA in Political Science from the University of Buffalo, and has had various jobs working as a Congressional aide, a lobbyist, a public relations consultant, and a meeting planner. She’s a two-time finalist in the Golden Heart, and is married to a good ol’ Georgia boy who resembles every single one of her heroes. She has two grown children and a couple of demanding lap cats. She lives in Fairfax, Virginia where you can often find her on the back deck, picking on her thirty-five-year-old Martin guitar.

Katy Evans

Now if you hadn’t been paying attention to my site for the past year, than I can’t tell you enough how much I love Katy Evans. She writes the dreamiest of heroes, beyond swoon worthy and honorable. And her books always are easy to get into, so you are guaranteed an entertaining story.

About Katy Evans

Katy Evans grew up with books and book-boyfriends until she found a real sexy boyfriend to love. They married and are now hard at work on their own happily ever after. Katy loves her family and friends, and she also loves reading, walking, baking, and being consumed by her characters until she reaches “The End.” Which is, hopefully, only the beginning…

 

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7 Comments

  1. Christy LoveOfBooks

    I don’t think I’ve read any of these authors, but I’m familiar with a few of them. I actually thought I had read one of Kenner’s books but don’t see any marked as ‘read’ on GR.

    Reply
  2. Geybie's Book Blog

    Katy Evans and Tilly Cole are two of my favorites. Mine is Devney Perry this year. Needs to check out the rest in your list. I love discovering new authors. ?❤️??

    Reply
  3. Blodeuedd

    Wohoo for new authors 🙂

    Reply
  4. Sophia Rose

    Finding new authors to love is a highlight each year. I discovered Tillie Cole last year and Hope Ramsay is a long-time love. This year I ventured into women’s fiction more and added Abbi Waxman and Patricia Sands to the list. But in romance, I think Linda Broday was my standout new to me author.

    Reply
  5. The Book Disciple

    Great list!!!! Some of these I am familiar with, but some I’m not so I will have to check them out!

    Reply
  6. Michele H

    Some good finds for you this year! I have Alisha Rai on my TBR and can’t wait to dig in. SO happy you ended up loving Katy Evans and J. Kenner!! Aren’t they both great? Stellar heroes, kickass heroines, complicated situations, lotsa heat. Yep… 😉

    Reply

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