Auto-buy Authors definition: You don’t have to know anything about their latest book, you just buy. As soon as the release hits the shelves.
My auto-buy authors have changed a lot over the years, partly as my genre preferences have changed, but also because the internet has opened my eyes to numerous new-to-me authors out there. You can probably guess at my list from either my monthly new releases posts (they’re always on there!) or my sidebar with authors I’ve blogged about, but I thought it would be interesting to pull both past and present together in a single post. And then I decided to break it down by genre, else it would be a bit of an epic post.
So first up, romance.
Historical romance
There was a time when historicals made up the majority of my reading, now it is very rare that I run out to buy one on the day of release. So the authors I still buy: Eloisa James (true fangirl here), Jo Beverley (primarily for her Georgian settings), Julia Quinn, possibly Lisa Kleypas (if she ever returns to historicals).
Old favourites who I’ve stopped buying: Amanda Quick, Judith McNaught, Julie Garwood , Mary Jo Putney, Stephanie Laurens. Their recent releases (recent being relative here) feel as though they’ve lost the magic that their early books had.
Authors who have sadly passed away: Georgette Heyer – I’ve all her books, both romances and mysteries; Elizabeth Mansfield – I’ve a lot of her books and her backlist is being released in e-format (yay!); Eva Ibbotson, though I don’t think of her as “traditional” historical romance
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Contemporary romance
It’s not a genre that I read a lot, but if you include category romances in this subgenre, Kelly Hunter was my 2011 discovery. And I used to read Lynne Graham as my guilty pleasure, but either my tastes have changed or her writing has. Oh, Suzanne Brockmann – though does it count as an auto-buy if you only like certain series? Her new paranormal/suspense series is not working for me.
I used to love Jayne Ann Krentz and Linda Howard. Past tense being the operative word – I liked JAK’s straight contemps, but her recent releases with paranormal themes just leave me cold. And it’s been years since I’ve loved a new Howard. Who else? I follow Erin McCarthy’s stockcar racing series, but don’t read all her books, so I wouldn’t really count her as an autobuy author.
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M/M romance
Josh Lanyon. I’ve only started reading m/m romance in the past few years, but he is one of my all-time favourite authors regardless of genre. Other auto-buy authors? KA Mitchell. Harper Fox. Jordan Castillo Price.
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Paranormal romance
Ummm… it’s a lot more series-specific here. Nalini Singh‘s Psy-Changeling books. Meljean Brook‘s Iron Seas series – I abandoned her Guardians series a couple of books in (okay, one and a half books in) and have yet to go back. Though seeing I’ve really liked her steampunk romance book, I should give it another go. Ilona Andrews for their Edge series (I classify the Kate Daniels books as UF).
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Fantasy romance
Drawing a blank here. I think I lean more towards romantic fantasy, which I’ll save for the fantasy post (which I suspect will be longer). There is Elizabeth Vaughan, but I wouldn’t call her an auto-buy author.
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YA romance
I’ve loved both of Stephanie Perkins‘ books, so I’m guessing she probably counts as an auto-buy now. I enjoy Sarah Dessen’s books though they do come across as a bit same-y after a while, and the one Jennifer Echols book I’ve read, but I don’t think that qualifies them as auto-buys for me. This is probably the subgenre I read least.
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I think that’s it for romance – how do your auto-buys compare to mine?