It's been a couple weeks since I've participated in my favorite weekly meme, and I've missed it and all of my TTT friends! It's good to be back. 

Although I could probably do a Top 100 post with this week's topic—Top Ten Books I Never Reviewed—I'm going to go back to last week's Love Freebie instead. Since I'm always trying out new-to-me authors, I thought I'd highlight some I'm hoping to LOVE this year.

As always, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl.

1. Chanel Cleeton—I've been meaning to read Cleeton's Cuba-inspired historical fiction novels for years.

2. Elle Cosimano—I started reading Finlay Donovan Is Killing It very early this morning while waiting for my daughter to arrive home from a weeklong school trip. It's been keeping me royally entertained since the first page. I've got the whole series downloaded on my Kindle—I see some series binge-reading in my near future!

3. Emily Critchley—Both of Critchley's dual-timeline mysteries sound like reads I would enjoy.

4. Veera Hiranandani—Hiranandani's middle-grade novels about kids of Indian descent struggling to find their place in the world sound intriguing to me.

5. Elise Hooper—Hooper's historical novels cover a lot of territory, from Little Women to the 1928 Olympics to Walt Disney's studio in the 1950s. I want to read all of them!

6. Elizabeth Macneal—Macneal's novels are all set in England in the 1800s. They sound unique and compelling.

7. Ginger Reno—Reno writes books based on her Cherokee heritage. She has a couple of picture books coming out soon. Her debut novel, a middle-grade book called Find Her, which is about a missing Indigenous woman and the young daughter who's desperate to find her, is getting lots of positive buzz.

8. Lauren E. Rico—Although her latest novel, a mystery titled After the Ocean, is the one getting all the attention right now, Rico isn't a debut author like I thought. She's written a number of women's fiction and romance books. After the Ocean and Familia are the ones I'm most interested in.

9. Katy Watson—Watson writes "Golden Age crime for modern times," which sounds right up my alley. Her Three Dahlia cozy mystery series features a trio of actresses who work together to catch killers. It sounds really fun.

10. Jane Yang—Yang's debut novel, The Lotus Shoes, came out in January. Set in 1800s China, it tells the story of two very different women who must work together to survive in the wake of a scandal that makes them both outcasts in an unforgiving society.

There you go, ten authors I'm hoping to LOVE this year. Have you read any of them? Which are your favorites? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.

When a young, beautiful artistocrat is savagely sacrificed in a cemetery on All Hallow's Eve, it shocks the residents of Victorian London. Who would kill a woman like her? And why was she slain in such a cruel way? Another death, that of a young widower and part-time reporter for The Daily Telegraph, occurs on the same day, but to much less fanfare. Only Gemma Tate, the deceased man's twin sister, is left to mourn her brother Victor. Gemma has no connection to the dead woman until the police give her Victor's notebook, in which the journalist had frantically recorded notes about her odd death. His scribbles make little sense, but Gemma is convinced her brother saw something in the cemetery that night. Something that got him killed.

Sebastian Bell has been a police officer for 15 years. A good one, too, until the murder of his wife and unborn child devastated him completely. Now, he's barely going through the motions, preferring to lose himself in a haze of alcohol and opium than face the emptiness of his life. When Gemma seeks him out, begging him to help her find answers to her brother's death, he sees a chance to redeem himself. Victor's notebook doesn't offer much in the way of clues, but it's the only lead Sebastian's got. Although he doesn't want a sidekick, he can't shake off Gemma, who insists on helping with the investigation. 

As Gemma and Sebastian investigate both murders, they find themselves combing London's seedy underbelly as well as its polished drawing rooms for the truth behind the deaths. The closer they get, the more dangerous their pursuit becomes. Can they solve the case? Or will theirs be the next bodies rotting at the city mortuary?

Whew, January was a long year month! With all the chaos going on in the U.S. and the world, I hope you were able to relax with some good reads, some of which were bookish books. I read three in January, all of which were cozy mysteries:

She Doesn't Have a Clue by Jenny Elder Moke—This new release is supposed to be a rom-com/cozy mystery mashup. It's too much of the former (and spicy at hat) and too little of the latter. Even though the premise is fun (a bestselling mystery writer and her irritating editor must play nice long enough to solve a mystery at a destination wedding), I was disappointed in this one and found it to be only an average read for me.

Like every other reader, I have my favorite, go-to authors whose books I always look forward to reading. I also enjoy discovering new authors to love. In fact, out of the 230 titles I read in 2024, 127 of them—almost half—were penned by new-to-me writers. That made it really easy to create a list to fit this week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt: Top Ten New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2024. As always, this fun weekly link-up is hosted by the lovely Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl.

1. Benjamin Stevenson—Everyone knows I love me a good mystery/thriller, especially when it's both clever and funny. Stevenson's Ernest Cunningham series is exactly that. You can tell just by the titles of the books—Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone; Everyone On This Train is a Suspect; and Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret—that they're hilarious. I read all three in 2024 and loved each one.. This Australian author has a couple other mystery/thriller series that I need to check out.

2. Sally Hepworth—Another Aussie, Hepworth writes absorbing domestic thrillers. I read three of them in 2024, of which The Good Sister was my favorite. I definitely plan to continue exploring Hepworth's backlist this year. 

3. Raquel V. Reyes—Cozy mysteries make nice palate cleansers for me between heavier reads, so I'm always on the lookout for entertaining ones. Reyes' series starring a Cuban American food anthropologist and amateur sleuth in Miami is a fun one. I read the first two books last year and have already read #3 this year.

4. Erin Lindsey—I'm a big historical mystery fan, so I get excited when I find new series in this genre to enjoy. I discovered Lindsey's Rose Gallagher series in 2024. It stars an Irish American housemaid in Gilded Age New York City who can see ghosts. She becomes part of the Pinkerton Detective Agency's secret paranormal division, which deals with supernatural disturbances. With lots of interesting historical details, cameos by famous people of the past, and quirky characters, it's an enjoyable series. I read the first book in 2024 and the second last week.

5. Marthe Jocelyn—Speaking of historical mysteries, I found Jocelyn's Aggie Morton series last year. The series, which is aimed at middle grade readers, features a young Agatha Christie and her new friend, Hercules Poirot. The youngsters team up to do what else, but solve mysteries. I read the first installment, The Body Under the Piano, in 2024 and plan to continue the series this year.

6. Gabrielle Meyer—Meyer is a popular author of Christian and inspirational fiction. Her publisher, Bethany House, has kindly sent me all the books in her Timeless series as they have come out. It took me until last year to finally read the first installment, When the Day Comes, which I enjoyed. The book is about a woman who has the unique ability to time travel between two lives—one in Gilded Age New York City, one in 1774 Colonial Williamsburg. When she turns 21, she will have to choose which life to inhabit permanently. 

7. Ying Chang Compestine—Compestine is a Chinese American food expert and writer who grew up in Wuhan, China, a city that became famous in 2020 because of the Covid outbreak there. Morning Sun in Wuhan, a middle grade novel, was one of my favorite reads of 2024 because of its authenticity and hopeful vibe. I'm interested in reading Compestine's other middle grade novels as well as her memoir, Growing Up Under a Red Flag.

8. Naomi Stephens—Although she only has a few books under her belt, this Christian historical fiction writer impressed me with The Burning of Rosemont Abbey. I hear that she is planning to write more mysteries and I am here for them!

9. Melanie Crowder—Crowder writes books for children in several different genres. I read her YA novel, An Uninterrupted View of the Sky, last year. It's set in 1999 Bolivia and concerns an Indigenous boy whose father is unfairly targeted by a corrupt government and sent to prison. Unable to cope, his mother abandons the family, leaving the boy and his younger sister no choice but to live with their father in prison. It's a beautiful novel about keeping hope alive even in the most dire circumstances. I enjoyed it, so I want to read more by Crowder.

10. Lesa Cline-Ransome—Cline-Ransome pens biographies and novels featuring important events and people in Black history. I loved One Big Open Sky, her middle-grade verse novel about Black homesteaders on the American frontier. Not only does it tell a unique story, but it's also poetic, poignant, and powerful. I'm definitely up for reading more by this author.

There you are, ten new-to-me authors I discovered in 2024. Are they new to you, too? Which writers did you find last year? I'd love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.