These days I don’t too much do pre-orders, but I definitely used to show up to Barnes and Noble on a Harry Potter release day to pick up my copy. Now I’m more likely to immediately add books to my Amazon wishlist, but some authors still get an automatic buy.
This Top 5 Wednesday, we’re talking about Instant Pre-Orders:
1. Theodora Taylor
To be quite fair, I’ve yet to fully get through Taylor’s back catalog, simply because I want to take my time with it. However, I did snatch up Her Scottish Hero and the second part of Hades as soon as they were available. I was waiting for them.
I don’t know if I’ve said it before, but I am honestly a big fan of Taylor’s ability to world-build and her adherence to continuity. A lot of authors try to connect their works, whether loosely or tightly, but none of it matters if you forget the major plot points or – God forbid – somebody’s characterization.
Currently, Taylor is supposed to be getting ready to end her 50 Loving States series, and she also has the Irish Wolves trilogy to officially publish. So, I feel like I’ve got a good five more years with her. I’m definitely looking forward to it.
2. NK Jemisin
I recently said that the TikTok folk have never seen me go up for NK Jemisin, but my blog readers know exactly what it is. I still have 3 of Jemisin’s books in my physical TBR, so there’s definitely time to introduce TikTok to my favorite sci-fi writer.
NK Jemisin’s world-building is something that I will continue to rave about for the rest of my days. The Broken Earth trilogy is still the best science fiction I have ever read in my life, and I will sing the praises of the Inheritance trilogy until I am hoarse.
3. Tamora Pierce
Back in the mid-00s, Tamora was revisiting Tortall with the Daughter of the Lioness duology and the Beka Cooper series. As soon as those books were announced, I would put my allowance money together and head to the Barnes and Noble website to submit my pre-order. The amount of times I came back from a semester of college with a book I didn’t leave with was ridiculous.
Tamora Pierce’s Tortall books were a big hit with me: I really can’t say it enough. The other girls were into The Circle, and I just did not care for it, but Tortall was my jam. Tortall was what really put me on to Fantasy fiction in a way that I’ve never replicated.
4. Olivia Gaines
When I started my run of interracial books, Olivia Gaines’ Modern Mail Order Bride series was a pleasant surprise. Once I started, I felt like I needed to keep going. While I haven’t finished it, I definitely have the books thirteen and fourteen in my Kindle waiting to be read.
Gaines does not shy away from the awkward topics – she really didn’t shy away from anything. If it was in the book, she was going to talk about it, but that didn’t mean that it had to be heavy. And Gaines’ continuity wasn’t terrible, although I remember having some questions when the Bride series intersected with her assassin series, The Technicians, for a few seconds.
Some people dipped out of the Modern Mail Order Bride series because book fourteen centered on a white woman with a black man. And I understand that not being what we came for, but thirteen and seventeen center black couples, and not all of the grooms were white men. Ultimately, Gaines is allowed to write the stories that she wants, and I’m going to continue to enjoy them.
I also wasn’t too surprised because the heroine in book fourteen was the sister of one of the grooms from earlier in the series. She deliberately contacted the matchmaking company (as did the heroine in thirteen who is a sister of the bride in book twelve).
I love the fact that Gaines is continuing this series, though I’m unsure if she’ll be like Theodora Taylor and have a book for every state. If she is, I’m definitely going to read them.
5. Yvonne Bennett
I think Yvonne Bennett’s about done writing Dark Romance, but when she was I was definitely picking them up as they came out.
I like to think that Yvonne Bennett is the reason that I don’t care to read Mafia Romance as much anymore. She wrote a very brutal version of Dark Romance, especially when it had to do with a man in a crime family. These heroines were definitely brutalized and sexually assaulted, if not raped. I couldn’t understand how any of them stayed, but I just could not put down any of those books.
The last two books of Bennett’s that I read were Escorted into the Mafia and Deadly Matrimony. I didn’t hesitate to buy either, despite the fact that Deadly Matrimony had to be an apology for how dark and brutal Escorted into the Mafia was. I can still feel the headache that reading the latter book gave me.
Should Bennett ever return to writing Dark Romance, I’ll definitely be waiting for her.
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If this week’s post looked a bit lifeless, it was because I meant it to be. For once, my Top 5 Wednesday looks like a list, and I’m okay with that.
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Eurydice Howell 