Top Ten Tuesday (21): “Gateway” Books/Authors in my Reading Journey

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the gals at The Broke and the Bookish. For this week, here are my… 

Top Ten “Gateway” Books/Authors in my Reading Journey…

 

 

Judith McNaught. Her books were my introduction to historical romance. I burned through her book list, reading one book after another. Some of her works are included in my list of most memorable and favorites of all time.

 

   

Susan Elizabeth Phillips. She remains as one of my favorite Contemporary Romance authors. I’ve read everything she wrote and I will read everything she will write. She introduced me to a contemporary romance genre that’s fun and hilarious, swoon worthy, and heartwarming.

 

  

The Harry Potter series. This series introduced me to fantasy books and it was one of the series that I remember reading that was out of my comfort zone at that time. This was basically a great but totally worth it leap of faith.

 

 

The Twilight series. Another branching out in my reading journey. And no matter what some people may say, I really enjoyed this series.

 

  

Nalini Singh. I will never look or see Paranormal Romance the same way again. Not since I read my first Nalini Singh novel. She set the bar so high that I would find myself consciously or unconsciously comparing every other book in the genre that I read with her books.

 

 

  

Bec McMaster. She, Kate Cross, and Cassandra Clare are the first authors whose books introduced me to the awesome world of Steampunk. I love their books. And it is always a great experience ‘living’ in this particular setting when I read their stories.

 

  

The Hunger Games trilogy. I believe this was my first foray into the Dystopian genre and while it’s not necessarily my go-to genre, I began to appreciate it more and I’ve learned to enjoy reading books in this genre after I read this awesome trilogy.

 

  

Megan Whalen Turner. Her Queen’s Thief series is one of the greatest series I’ve ever read. This was another leap of faith for me. I didn’t know if I would enjoy reading this kind of books but they came with glowing recommendations from some of my go-to book  bloggers so I gave the first book a try and just devoured the series.

 

 

Cora Carmack & Cheryl McIntyre. They are the first authors I’ve read in the New Adult genre and because I found their books totally engaging, heartbreaking, and yet satisfying, I’ve been reading more NA books since then.

 

  

Sweet Valley Twins, Mary Higgins Clark, & Clive Cussler. These three basically defined my reading materials when I was a kid so they will always hold a special place in my heart. Before I got around to exploring other genres, these were my reliable go-to’s.

 

 

There you go. My Top Ten Tuesday for this week. What are yours? Leave your link in the comment section and I will definitely check them out.