Top Ten Tuesday #13: Top Ten Authors Who Deserve More Recognition

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.





This is a fun topic - a lot of the authors I mention in my TTT are well-known and loved - your J.K. Rowlings, your Melina Marchettas. So I sat back and had a good long think over authors I think should see more attention.

YA Authors:

1. Hilary T. Smith

Notable works: Wild Awake - 494 ratings - 136 reviews

Smith has only one published novel, but that novel is simply amazing. Don't take just my word for it though. There was some buzz around her and the book before it came out, but I would love for this to find a wider audience and more recognition. Wild Awake is beautiful and thoughtful, wild and grief-stricken.

2. Tom Pollock

Notable works: The City's Son (my review) - 398 ratings - 135 reviews, and the forthcoming sequel The Glass Republic

This book is weird. It is not for everyone. But it is so creative and fresh and just plain interesting I do not understand how it (and this author!) have been so largely ignored. The US cover isn't doing it any favors, but this unique urban fantasy brings new meaning to the idea of place-as-character.

3. Haley Tanner

Notable works: Vaclav and Lena - (my review) - 2,606 ratings - 594 reviews

This book is both charming and heartbreakingly sad. It's a look at immigrants, abuse, love, and family. A debut novel, Tanner's first effort is impressive and NONE of my goodreads friends have read or reviewed it. It's short and a wider interest is more than merited.

4. Franny Billingsley

Notable works: Chime - 5,999 ratings - 1,566 reviews

Though Chime hasn't been ignored, it hasn't garnered nearly the attention it deserves. A year after reading it, I can still remember key sentences and passages that just moved me, or were bursting with imagery. Billingsley has a unique way with words and if more of my friends would try this weirdly lovely novel, I would be excited beyond all meaure.

5. Zoe Marriott

Notable works: Shadows on the Moon - 1,174 ratings - 300 reviews; The Swan Kingdom - 2,217 ratings - 262 reviews

Though the Japanese retelling of Cinderella, Shadows on the Moon, had some hype and buzz, I haven't seen the love for it. It's harsh and imperfect, but that novel is just plain amazing. The Swan Kingdom is a weaker effort - that has more ratings at least - but still deserves attention. Especially for fans of fairytales looking for new interpretations.

Non YA Authors:

6. Karen Miller

Notable works: Kingmaker, Kingbreaker series, and the Godspeaker Trilogy (book one, Empress - 2,492 ratings - 308 reviews)

I don't know how this author doesn't have a bigger following. Her fantasy is creative, she uses well-written characters - and a lot of them are strong, empowered women. In a genre where female authors are largely overlooked for their male counterparts, she can more than hold her own.

7. Kate Forsyth

Notable works: Bitter Greens (my review) - 369 ratings - 118 reviews; The Wild Girl - 143 ratings - 55 reviews

Impressive, sprawling, detailed, with Bitter Greens Kate Forsyth proved what a talented author she is. Her books can be hard to come by, which I am sure is part of the reason her latest hasn't been widely read. Her character are rich, her storytelling unparalleled, and her writing evoactive. It may take more time and money to get a copy, but it is more than worth it.

8. Maurice Druon

Notable works: The Accursed Kings series - book one The Iron King (my review) - 2,046 ratings - 169 reviews

This is an older series, currently being republished for a newer audience. A historical fiction writer, Druon's epic story of the Hundred Years War would go on to inspire non other than George R. R. Martin. The parallels are abundant, but Druon's original should be read by all ASOIAF fans.

9. Kate Elliott

Notable works: The Spiritwalker series- book one Cold Magic - 2,928 ratings - 508 reviews

I was nervous going into Cold Magic, as I didn't have the best history with the author's earlier published and more known series, Crown of Stars. However, all the attention that series has received should be redirected to this "Afro/Celtic alternative history ice-punk" series. This fantasy is so well-written and vividly imagined it is incredibly impressive.

10. Susanna Kearsley 

Notable works: Mariana (my review) - 5,693 ratings - 840 reviews; The Shadowy Horses (my review) 3,903 ratings - 631 reviews; The Firebird - 1,329 ratings - 348 reviews

Susanna Kearsley does have a bit of a following, but I would like to see my friends interested in historical fiction give her a chance. Her novels are engrossing, detailed, and full of some of the best romances I've read.

DNF Review: The Troop by Nick Cutter

Title: The Troop
Author: Nick Cutter
Genre: horror
Series: N/A
Pages: 370 (ARC edition)
Published: expected January 7 2014
Source: publishers via edelweiss
Rating: DNF

Lord of the Flies meets The Ruins in this frightening novel written in the bestselling traditions of Stephen King and Scott Smith.

Boy Scouts live by the motto “Be Prepared.” However, nothing can prepare this group of young boys and their scoutmaster for what they encounter on a small, deserted island, as they settle down for a weekend of campfires, merit badges, and survival lessons.

Everything changes when a haggard stranger in tattered clothing appears out of nowhere and collapses on the campers’ doorstep. Before the night is through, this stranger will end up infecting one of the troop’s own with a bioengineered horror that’s straight out of their worst nightmares. Now stranded on the island with no communication to the outside world, the troop learns to battle much more than the elements, as they are pitted against something nature never intended…and eventually each other.

“Lean and crisp and over-the-top....Disquieting, disturbing,” says Scott Smith, author of The Ruins and A Simple Plan, The Troop is a visceral burn of a read that combines boldly drawn characters with a fantastically rendered narrative—a terrifying story you’ll never forget.

This book is not for me. I had inklings that it wasn't going to work early on - the narrative starts very slowly, andthe characters are uniformly either awful or bland. I'm not a huge horror reader - especially outside of the YA genre for it. Adult horror is often not for me, and The Troop is a perfect example of why. The comparisons to The Lord of the Flies have merit, as I was beginning to really see with the five boys..... before The Troop went too far off the rails for me to follow.

For the first ninety pages, I was just plain bored.. and then in the middle of "The Infestation" (aka around page 160-170) I was really, really grossed out. It turns out that this was just not the type of book for me. I can handle some varieties of horror fine. Gorey zombie novels? Sure. Hand them over. Creepy psychological stories with stalking and murder and general unpleasantness? Give them to me. But just plain gross-out medical experiments consisting of <SPOILER> awful, extended animal testing </SPOILER> are not something I can read and keep going.

Once the recorded animal testing segment was introduced, I was out of there. The scene is very graphic, and extremely disturbing. The scenes on the island had been becoming more and more out of hand as the situation devolves and the contagion spreads, but were far from the level of depravity shown in the mixed media with Dr. Edgerton and Dr. Erikson. This is totally a personal issue; I think more seasoned horror readers will feel squeamish but will be able to continue reading. However, I can't.

The author seems to be trying to show how far humanity will go for science, or to capitalize on a dangerous, unethical scheme. I'm not sure how well he carries either theme off (or even if those emerge as core themes), because 46% was as far in as I could make myself read. I'll just get someone made of sterner stuff to fill me in on the details later. Much, much later.

Review: Her Ladyship's Curse by Lynn Viehl

Title: Her Ladyship's Curse
Author: Lynn Viehl
Genre: alternative history, steampunk, supernatural, mystery
Series: Disenchanted & Co. #1
Pages: 220 (ARC edition)
Published: expected August 12 2013
Source: publishers via NetGalley
Rating: 2/5

In a steampunk version of America that lost the Revolutionary War, Charmian (Kit) Kittredge makes her living investigating magic crimes and exposing the frauds behind them. While Kit tries to avoid the nobs of high society, as the proprietor of Disenchanted & Co. she follows mysteries wherever they lead.

Lady Diana Walsh calls on Kit to investigate and dispel the curse she believes responsible for carving hateful words into her own flesh as she sleeps. While Kit doesn’t believe in magic herself, she can’t refuse to help a woman subjected nightly to such vicious assaults. As Kit investigates the Walsh family, she becomes convinced that the attacks on Diana are part of a larger, more ominous plot—one that may involve the lady’s obnoxious husband.

Sleuthing in the city of Rumsen is difficult enough, but soon Kit must also skirt the unwanted attentions of nefarious deathmage Lucien Dredmore and the unwelcome scrutiny of police Chief Inspector Thomas Doyle. Unwilling to surrender to either man’s passion for her, Kit struggles to remain independent as she draws closer to the heart of the mystery. Yet as she learns the truth behind her ladyship’s curse, Kit also uncovers a massive conspiracy that promises to ruin her life—and turn Rumsen into a supernatural battleground from which no one will escape alive.

This was coasting along; a decent, if shallow, alternative history steampunk.... until that non-ending reared its head to frustrate me. Her Ladyship's Curse has an intriguing enough premise - a supernatural steampunk story set in "Toriana" (Provincial Union of Victoriana), a version of the United States where the Revolutionary War failed - but execution was shallow if serviceable. For the most part... but I will get to that in just a minute.

I wanted more from the worldbuilding early on. The idea at the heart of the novel  is a good one - far too few steampunk novels turn their focus outside of Great Britain - but the author failed to provide enough detail to flesh out her alternative history. The book is decent if far from stellar at several things: plot, pacing, writing, and creativity. However, the author's clear lack of detail works against Her Ladyship's Curse. The mystery element is pretty weak, but since Kit is a dry, amusing protagonist I was content to ride along with her and see where it all ended up.

And then, after two hundred pages of nondescript writing and very little characterization -which I was more than willing to look past because the novel was engaging enough - we get to that "ending." And I am being generous with that description. The last chapter is utterly frustrating. The cliffhanger resolves NOTHING. There is NO resolution to the main plot, just a clear ploy to buy book two. UGH. It was a cheap way to end a novel - regardless of how short the book may be. There are no answers, just an interlude THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PLOT that just.. terminates. It's over, and it's far from a good stopping point.

I can't say I will pick up His Lordship Possessed because of how terribly Her Ladyship's Curse ended. There are plenty of supernatural steampunk mysteries already published to keep me busy, and at least they are concerned with satisfactorily wrapping up plots before attempting to solicit more money from their readers. What had been a shaky 3-star read quickly downgraded into a 2/5 and just convinced me to never pick up this series again.

This is a cheap buy for $2.99 for ebooks, but how much enjoyment others will derive from it...  I cannot predict.

Review: Tumble & Fall

Title: Tumble & Fall
Author: Alexandra Coutts
Genre: young adult, contemporary fiction
Series: none
Pages: 384
Published: Expected September 17, 2013
Source: publishers via NetGalley
Rating: 3/5

A novel about the end of days full of surprising beginnings

The world is living in the shadow of oncoming disaster. An asteroid is set to strike the earth in just one week’s time; catastrophe is unavoidable. The question isn’t how to save the world—the question is, what to do with the time that's left? Against this stark backdrop, three island teens wrestle with intertwining stories of love, friendship and family—all with the ultimate stakes at hand.

Alexandra Coutts's TUMBLE & FALL is a powerful story of courage, love, and hope at the end of the world.

Reviewed by Danielle. 

Tumble & Fall tells the interconnected story of three teenagers in the week leading up to the end of the world. Their stories are overwrought, soap opera fodder. The third-person present narration is personally distracting and hindered my ability to invest in the main characters, who are unlikeable, flawed, and self-absorbed. It features one of the most blatant uses of insta-love I've seen in a YA novel.

But if you stick it out, the ending is beautiful.

In the heart-felt, hopeful climax, I finally got what the last 380 pages were trying to do. And it wasn't pretty. I rolled my eyes and huffed. I yelled at the e-reader's screen. I was confused by loose ends. But teenagers are selfish, people act badly when presented with their mortality, and not everything gets closure. In showing this, I think the book showed a real understanding of humanity and felt refreshingly realistic.

Unfortunately, while effective, I wouldn't classify it as an enjoyable read. Zan and Sienna's plots felt like retreads of other contemporary dramas, (dead boyfriend's last secret and summer romance that Daddy doesn't approve of, respectively,) and Caden's was just odd. In a book that was sometimes unflinchingly realistic, kidnapping and extortion felt out of place. It's fitting that most of his scenes took place off island, because they didn't feel like they meshed with the rest of the book. Someone please explain to me the Camille scene. It was really out of nowhere.

Characters run into each other with too great frequency to really be coincidental, the general feeling that all of humanity is deep-down good and won't rob and murder during the end of the world is naïve, and it does shamelessly tug at the heartstrings.

But I'll be haunted by the last chapter long after I've forgotten the secret of Vanessa or Sophie or Owen's tribe.

Book Tour Review: Astor Vintage Place by Stephanie Lehmann

Title: Astor Place Vintage
Author: Stephanie Lehmann
Genre: historical fiction, contemporary
Series: N/A
Pages: 416
Published: June 11 2013
Source: Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours for review
Rating: 3.75/5

When a vintage clothing store owner in New York City discovers a journal from 1907, she finds her destiny at stake as the past and present collide.

The past has a seductive allure to Amanda Rosenbloom, especially when it comes to vintage clothing. She’s devoted to running her shop, Astor Place Vintage, but with Manhattan’s rising rents and a troubled economy, it’s tough to keep the business alive. Meanwhile, she can’t bring herself to end an affair with a man who really should be history. When Amanda finds a journal sewn into a fur muff she’s recently acquired for the shop, she’s happy to escape into the world of Olive Westcott, a young lady who lived in New York City one hundred years ago.

As Amanda becomes immersed in the journal, she learns the future appeals to Olive. Olive looks forward to a time when repressive Victorian ideas have been replaced by more modern ways of thinking. But the financial panic of 1907 thrusts her from a stable, comfortable life into an uncertain and insecure existence. She’s resourceful and soon finds employment, but as she’s drawn into the social circle of shopgirls living on the edge of poverty, Olive is tempted to take risks that could bring her to ruin. Reading Olive’s woes, Amanda discovers a secret that could save her future and keep her from dwelling in the past.

It’s Olive, however, who ends up helping Amanda, through revelations that come in the final entries of the journal. As the lives of these two women merge, Amanda is inspired to stop living in the past and take control of her future.

Stephanie Lehmann tries for something new with her fifth novel, telling the stories of two oddly similar women who just happen to live a century apart. With her characters of Amanda in 2007 and Olive in 1907, Lehmann casts a detailed and visual look at both the city of New York itself and feminist issues at different points in time. Astor Place Vintage is about the past, and about progress and change. Though the timelines are separated by a wide margin of years, Lehmann uses both her protagonists creatively and well. Tthe author fully and subtly showcases how both similar and different Amanda and Olive's lives are through the parallels that pop up in each character's plot.

The dual narrative structure makes for compelling storytelling and is evenly matched between modern Amanda and vintage Olive. Both women are interesting and well-drawn, and their lives create a dichotomy that will make readers - especially women - think about how far feminism has gotten our gender. There are a lot of similarities between the two perspectives: they each struggle to secure a place to live, both have gone through life with absent parent(s), and each, in her way, goes about refusing to adhere to society's intransigence on how a woman should live her life. Both women (Olive as a shopgirl, Amanda as a single female business owner) exist in roles not exactly approved of by their respective societies and struggle mightlily because of that. Both women live in turn of the century decades and fight to find their footing on their own, with as little help from outside sources as possible.

For all their connections and similarities, Lehmann makes sure to give each woman a unique characteristics and different voice. They may be more alike than different, but there are several things that set them apart from one another. Notably one such instance is sex, and how each character relates to it and men. A woman of her time in that regard, Olive is far from a sexually liberated woman, and is without the barest knowledge about sex or her own body. The lengths society went to in order to keep women caged, ignorant of their own bodies is frightening to look back on, and Lehmann shows how frustrating and even scary that situation would be. Amanda is an empowered woman of the 2000s, but takes monetary help from her married lover --- something Olive expressly would never do, despite having far fewer chances for sources of income than Amanda. Be it premarital sex or extramarital affairs, the way Olive and Amanda relate to the men their lives could not be more different. The author takes pains to not cast judgement and say which character is "right" in her opinions and actions, which leaves the door open for reader interpretation of who is the more "modern" woman.

It's more than obvious just how much time and research Stephanie Lehmann put into her story. This is obviously an author with a deep and abiding love for the Big Apple, and it is apparent on the pages of her novel. From the black and white pictures to the architectural details woven into the story, both versions of her New York come alive with ease. An enjoyable story in its own right, Astor Place Vintage gets an extra little boost from the inclusion of the photographs showing New York as it grew and changed during the time that Olive would have lived in the city. The setting comes to life as only New York can - a sprawling, expanding beast of a city that changes immeasurable over the 100 years between the two storylines.

I enjoyed this novel from the beginning, but I did have a few issues with some of the plotting as the novel wore on. The magical realism, or the trances that Amanda has due to her hypnotism felt misused and like an unnecessary inclusion. For such a strong novel about real issues and problems during the turn of the centuries, Amanda's visions were too melodramatic for me. I would've preferred a novel that was a straight historical fiction/contemporary and though the interludes were few and far between, they detracted from my overall impression of Astor Place Vintage.

This is a solid, well-written, and obviously researched piece of fiction. The ending was perhaps too open-ended to provide full satisfaction, but Lehmann leaves hope for both her characters without being to definite on what happens after the final page. Astor Place Vintage is a nostalgic, smartly-woven tale of two likeable and flawed women just trying to make it own their own. I absolutely recommend it to historical fiction readers, especially those that like a little feminism in their fiction.

Review: Starry Nights by Daisy Whitney

Title: Starry Nights
Author: Daisy Whitney
Genre: young adult, supernatural
Series: N/A
Pages: 288
Published: expected September 3 2013
Source: publishers via NetGalley
Rating: 2/5

Seventeen-year-old Julien is a romantic—he loves spending his free time at the museum poring over the great works of the Impressionists. But one night, a peach falls out of a Cezanne, Degas ballerinas dance across the floor, and Julien is not hallucinating.

The art is reacting to a curse that trapped a beautiful girl, Clio, in a painting forever. Julien has a chance to free Clio and he can't help but fall in love with her. But love is a curse in its own right. And soon paintings begin to bleed and disappear. Together Julien and Clio must save the world's greatest art . . . at the expense of the greatest love they've ever known.

Like a master painter herself, Daisy Whitney brings inordinate talent and ingenuity to this romantic, suspenseful, and sophisticated new novel.A beautifully decorated package makes it a must-own in print.

I really wanted to love this novel. It has all the things that ostensibly, I should love: Paris? Paintings that come alive? Some interesting uses of mythology? A feminist twist? An author that has been garnering more and more acclaim and attention? But sadly for me, Starry Nights never panned out or impressed me. Honestly, if Starry Nights wasn't such a short, simple, and easily digestible novel, I doubt whether I would have finished. All I can really say is that this is another case of "it's not you, it's me" because I can bet that there will be vast love for it. While I can understand that, I just can't take part in it.

It's not that Starry Nights is a bad book. It's not. It just never really clicked for me. I was utterly indifferent to the characters, the writing was serviceable but nothing to take not of, the romance didn't interest me, and the plot... well, the plot reminded me of a toned down, less suspenseful Darker Still and Night at the Museum. I didn't care about Julien, or Clio, or what kept their love apart. The one character that did generate some interest, Bonheur, isn't around nearly enough to make up for the vacuum of personality that is Julien, or the vapid nature of his love Clio. 

When I wasn't bored or disinterested... I was chagrined at the sheer amount of cheese in the love story. It's just badly written, even for a seventeen year old and a girl caught in a painting for 130 years. I mean "She was a revolution and she staged a coup d'etat in my heart"? Really? Really? That line is so full of cheese, it should be a twelve-foot sub. And falling in love with a painting, even before he saw her come to life? My nineties self wants to say: Puh-lease.

As for the promised feminist twist, well, I heard more about it than I saw in the pages of the novel. Suzanne Valadon is important to the plot, and her struggles as a female painter in a male-dominated world are far more interesting than is shown here. And for a novel set in Paris, the city of love and art!, Whitney neglects her setting to focus on the saccharine romance, to the novel's detriment.

I don't have a lot to say about this book, because, for me, it didn't have a lot to offer. A shallow amusement for two hours, I can't say I walked away from Starry Nights feeling much of anything at all. It was more tedious than romantic, silly rather than compelling. I will still seek out other Daisy Whitney novels, but I won't expect so much from them.

Review: This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales

Title: This Song Will Save Your Life
Author: Leila Sales
Genre: young adult, contemporary
Series: N/A
Pages: 288 (ARC edition)
Published: expected September 27 2013
Source: publishers via NetGalley
Rating: 4.5/5

Making friends has never been Elise Dembowski’s strong suit. All throughout her life, she’s been the butt of every joke and the outsider in every conversation. When a final attempt at popularity fails, Elise nearly gives up. Then she stumbles upon a warehouse party where she meets Vicky, a girl in a band who accepts her; Char, a cute, yet mysterious disc jockey; Pippa, a carefree spirit from England; and most importantly, a love for DJing.

Told in a refreshingly genuine and laugh-out-loud funny voice, This Song Will Save Your Life is an exuberant novel about identity, friendship, and the power of music to bring people together.

This book is a whirlwind of emotion. It's got plenty of heart, a great voice, dry humor, real emotion, and a memorable main character. Leila Sales knows how to write a thoroughly compelling and totally flawed protagonist that still makes you sympathize and empathize with as she struggles to find a place in her world. A vast improvement on her fun but shallow Past Perfect, This Song Will Save Your Life takes a familiar YA plot and adds in originality and flair to create an engrossing, raw, heartfelt and impossible-to-put-down novel. 

The depiction of Elise is the best thing about This Song Will Save Your Life. Hands down. She is so genuine and real, it's pretty much impossible to not recognize some aspect of yourself in her. I loved this character so very much, and Sales hit her difficult characterization with precision. Elise grows and learns and changes over the rather short course of the book, but it takes time, experience and thought to get Elise to where she needs to be. Her foibles and flaws make her all the more interesting (and compelling), and her humor keeps things light enough to keep this from being a total downer for the first half. Socially awkward, smart ("precocious"), Leila Sales nails what it is to be an outsider with no real place to fit in. 

Besides Elise, the author packed This Song Will Save Your Life full of real, dimensional secondary characters. With the exception of the pack of mean girls at Elise's school (and also the only reason this is a 4.5 instead of a full 5-star rating), Sales imbues these characters with personality and problems. They are all so real - the mom's obsession with fairness? I get that. The friends Elise feels are not good enough? I loved that they were shown to be so much more than Elise had assumed. This book takes a lot of tropes and stands them on their heads and is so much better than its contemporaries for doing so. First loves aren't perfect. Mysterious aloof guys aren't always the ones you should be with. 

This is a short book, and though I have so much love for it, I don't want to say too much and spoil the experience for other readers. Bullying plays a key part in the plot, but there is more to This Song Will Save Your Life and Elise herself than a simple story about being bullied and ostracized. It's about growing up, moving on, finding yourself and being okay. It's a wonderful novel and I hope it finds the wide audience it more than deserves.