I love finding new authors and reading books that I may not usually pick up… but there’s something comforting about reading a book by one of your all-time favorites. You know how exciting it is when you find out they’re releasing a new book! But I was thinking that I have so many authors I consider to be FAVORITES even though I may not have LOVED every single one of their books. Does this happen to anyone else?? I’ve read most of the books by my favorites but there are a few authors I’m quick to say “YES MY FAVE” but I actually didn’t love every one of their books. It makes me wonder what qualifications I have for determining who is a favorite.
Didn’t Love Em All
Miranda Kenneally
Loved or really enjoyed these: Catching Jordan and Breathe, Annie, Breathe are my absolute favorites by MK. I could see myself rereading and revisiting them for sure. Jesse’s Girl and Defending Taylor come somewhat close behind. These stories are the ones that keep me reading the series without question.
Didn’t like or felt meh about these: I have issues reading about religion in books, so Stealing Parker and Things I Can’t Forget were not favorites of mine. I didn’t mind Racing Savannah but it just didn’t have enough OOMPH for me to really love it, or want to move it to the other category. It was hard to read the first two here but I powered through because I love the series as a whole and want to keep reading MK books!
Liane Moriarty
Loved or really liked these: The Husband’s Secret was my first and favorite Liane Moriarty book. I made sure to add literally all of them to my TBR afterwards. This unfortunately meant a lot of them needed to live up to my lofty expectations! The twist at the end made me expect a crazy twist in each book, but that never happened. What Alice Forgot was pretty good as well, but not as good.
Felt meh about these: Big Little Lies was the second Liane Moriarty book I read and I was somehow able to predict the crazy twist, so it didn’t leave a big impact for me. Truly Madly Guilty was kind of interesting and I loved the setup, but there was basically no twist at all. Just not in the same ballpark as her others!
Sarah Dessen
Favorites of them all: I recently read (Saint Anything) and reread some Sarah Dessen books, but have been leaving some of my all-time favorites for last. Maybe I’m nervous they won’t hold up or maybe I’m just saving the best for last. I hope to get to The Truth About Forever, This Lullaby, and Along for the Ride really soon.
Loved these: What Happened to Goodbye always left a lasting impression for me plot-wise, so I was happy to revisit it recently and love it just as much. Colby is the best setting of Dessen’s books, so I knew I would love Keeping the Moon all over again as well. I remember really liking or loving Someone Like You but it’s been a long time since I read it. Just Listen was another recent reread that I enjoyed.
Haven’t read these (I think): These two don’t really ring a bell when I think back on Sarah Dessen books I’ve read. There is a chance I read Lock and Key but I’m fairly positive I haven’t read Dreamland.
Didn’t like these: I was so surprised that I DNFed a Sarah Dessen book, but The Moon and More was not for me. I don’t have an issue with love triangles per se, but this one was ridiculous and frustrating to me. I saw a spoiler for how the book ends, which made me feel better, but I was just so angry about the character’s actions I couldn’t continue. That Summer wasn’t great or terrible; it was a quick read but I just felt like nothing happened.
Didn’t Read Em All
As you saw the other day, I always hoard books by my favorite authors for a rainy day. I love knowing that I have one guaranteed favorite, safe and fluffy book to read by them. Morgan Matson, Kasie West, and Jenny Han are some, to name a few. I already talked about this at length but I always feel like an imposter when I’m like oh yeah, that’s one of my favorite authors but I haven’t even read all their books yet. Come on girl.
My favorite author is Leigh Bardugo because I adore everything she has ever written, so I haven’t had an issue since I’ve never disliked anything she wrote XD I hope it never happens either lol.
Brittany @ Brittany’s Book Rambles
Haha good! I hope so too 😉
I still consider an author an all time fav even if I didn’t love every single book. Liane Moriarty is like that for me in that I didn’t love Madly Truly Guilty or some of her older ones but the ones I loved I really loved. I think she is so clever. Colleen Hoover is another of my favorites. When I love her books I really love them. There have been a few though I wasn’t super into. So yeah I think it has to do with how much I love the books I love. I can overlook that I don’t love every book though.
Yes definitely on Liane Moriarty! I can overlook a few books too.
I think I consider an author a favorite if I’ve several of their books and loved at least a couple, i.e. Rainbow Rowell, Liane Moriarty, and JK Rowling to name a few. Of course it’s great when I love all of their books like I have with Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Jennifer Mathieu, and Marissa Meyer, but I am forgiving and understand that some books just aren’t for me. Authors where I want to read their next book ASAP or even pre-order it are also favorites: Katherine Reay, Taylor Jenkins Reid, etc. It’s interesting to think about. I think like you I have some backlist books by favorite authors that I can’t believe I haven’t read yet. But it’s kind of nice to space their books out, so I don’t overload and burn out.
Yeah exactly – it’s hard to have a 100% hit with every single book, but it’s always nice when it happens 😉 I love spacing them out – I think that’s my biggest thing with some of them!
I consider an author favorite if their books life an impact in my life, and at the same time I enjoyed it too! For example, Sarah Dessen is one of my faves, even though I only read 2 of her books, but they make me get back to reading ya contemporary <3
That’s true! I can see that.
Dreamland is my favorite Sarah Dessen book. It’s uncharacteristically heavy for one of her books but I think it handles the topic really, really honestly and well. Can’t wait to hear what you think of it!
oooh good to know! I’ve seen it be a lot of ~least favorites~ for that reason, but I’m excited!
I think I consider them a favorite depends on how much I love the story of at least one book I’ve read by tem. Such authors are Sarah J. Maas (my absolute favorite), Mary E. Pearson, Laini Taylor, Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner, etc. All of these authors have books I’ve read that hold a special place in my heart, even if I had only read one book at the time, but read more later on. The overall enjoyment level of their books really is what sets them apart, I think, for me.
That’s a good point!
[…] my rating process and factors for determining what a favorite is. I talked about this recently with favorite authors and asked what makes an author one of your favorites. Most people agreed that if you LOVE a few of […]