I’ve noticed a really fun trend lately where authors are writing adventure-forward contemporary fiction and romance. These stories can have an Indiana Jones vibe, featuring paleontologists, archeologists, or scientists going out on a dig or quest or something similar. The first author I think of is Jo Segura; I’ve really enjoyed all of her books within this trope so far.   Her books follow archeologists or scientists who go out to dig sites looking for fossils, scientific discoveries, lost cities, and more. The romances are always really fun and offer a unique setting for a contemporary novel. As you can tell, the titles are all puns based on Indiana Jones movie titles, if that gives you an idea of the vibe! I went back in my brain a bit and remembered that SOMETHING WILDER was actually my first foray into this sub-genre. It’s not the most popular Christina Lauren because it felt a little unrealistic, but honestly I enjoyed the ride! It follows a treasure hunter’s daughter who uses her father’s maps to bring tourists on a fake hunt. I’ve owned a copy of THE JEWEL OF THE ISLE, which is another OG within this genre recently, but haven’t gotten to it yet. This one doesn’t really follow the science or job-forward vibe of the others, but features “two very indoor people rough[ing] it on a remote island after getting swept up in an archaeologist’s hunt for a famed jewel.” I also learned of the Raiders of the Arcana series recently […]

I’ve written many times about my auto-buy or auto-read authors… if they release a book, I will be buying and/or reading it each time. I feel like this list is always evolving or at least growing. Some authors fall off the list for a while for one reason or another, then pop back up again later. For example, I religiously read Kasie West’s YA books for a while and then just grew out of them, especially when I DNFed one a few years ago. I took a break for a while then read one of her adult novels and I think I’ll be back on track with reading all of her new books. Here are some of the authors who I recently added to my auto-read list. Read Multiple and Ready for More The books below are some more proven players lately. I’ve read multiple of their recent releases in the last few years and show no signs of stopping anytime soon! Some of them are writing long series, like Cosimano and Mack, while others return annually with a fun mystery or cute romance. Read One and Can’t Wait for the Next This group are authors that really pulled me in with the first book I read by them and I definitely plan to read their next book immediately. I believe the majority of these authors are debut but some of them have another backlist book or two that I just haven’t read yet.