Top 5 Books by Popular Authors I Want to Read

This Top 5 series started back in October 2018 and it has grown really big! This is a series of books that all have a common theme. I post the schedule for the next month the last week of the prior month. You can talk about books you want to read or books you have read and all prompts are open for interpretation! Feel free to get as creative as you want with the prompts.

---

Upcoming Schedule!

November 14th, 2020  — Dress on the Cover

November 21st, 2020 — Books with 2 Authors

November 28th, 2020 — Cover Buys

December 5th, 2020 — Apocalyptic Books

December 12th, 2020 — Water on the Cover

December 19th, 2020 — Famous Authors

December 26th, 2020 — 2021 Releases

---

Rules!

• Share your top 5 books of the current topic– these can be books that you want to read, have read and loved, have read and hated, you can do it any way you want.
• Tag the original post (This one!)
• Tag 5 people — So that more people can join us!!

---

This post is extremely late, but I’ve been really busy with Christmas stuff lately. I’m crocheting some gifts for people and it’s been crochet crunch time. But I’ve gotten pretty far with my projects, so hopefully I can finish them all in time!

---

Popular/Famous Authors

I didn’t realize how people would take this topic until I started seeing other’s posts. While I really had popular authors with best selling books in mind, lots of people took “famous authors” to mean celebrity authors or authors who are famous for something else. Since I don’t read much non-fiction I still decided to choose books by popular authors.

I’m not a person who gets a book just because the author has been on the best seller list before, actually at work there is rarely a book on the best seller table that I’ve actually read. But I do follow authors that I love and sometimes those are best selling authors, like Holly Black and Leigh Bardugo. There are a lot of really popular authors whose books I haven’t read yet, along with popular authors that have new releases coming out. I do find it a lot easier to pick up a book that is written by a proven author rather than a debut, but I don’t tend to let author popularity influence me too much.

---

The Project by Courtney Summers

Publication Date: February 2nd, 2021

Lo Denham is used to being on her own. After her parents died, Lo’s sister, Bea, joined The Unity Project, leaving Lo in the care of their great aunt. Thanks to its extensive charitable work and community outreach, The Unity Project has won the hearts and minds of most in the Upstate New York region, but Lo knows there’s more to the group than meets the eye. She’s spent the last six years of her life trying—and failing—to prove it.

When a man shows up at the magazine Lo works for claiming The Unity Project killed his son, Lo sees the perfect opportunity to expose the group and reunite with Bea once and for all. When her investigation puts her in the direct path of its leader, Lev Warren and as Lo delves deeper into The Project, the lives of its members it upends everything she thought she knew about her sister, herself, cults, and the world around her—to the point she can no longer tell what’s real or true. Lo never thought she could afford to believe in Lev Warren . . . but now she doesn’t know if she can afford not to.

I picked up an ARC of this book because Sadie absolutely blew my mind. I’ve yet to read any other books by Courtney Summers, but this book sounds dark and like it could be really fascinating. Based on how much I loved Sadie, I think that this book could wind up being truly incredible.

---

Lore by Alexandra Bracken

Publication Date: January 5th, 2021

From the #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Darkest Minds comes a sweepingly ambitious, high-octane tale of power, destiny, love and redemption.

Every seven years, the Agon begins. As punishment for a past rebellion, nine Greek gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals, hunted by the descendants of ancient bloodlines, all eager to kill a god and seize their divine power and immortality.
Long ago, Lore Perseous fled that brutal world in the wake of her family’s sadistic murder by a rival line, turning her back on the hunt’s promises of eternal glory. For years she’s pushed away any thought of revenge against the man–now a god–responsible for their deaths.

Yet as the next hunt dawns over New York City, two participants seek out her help: Castor, a childhood friend of Lore believed long dead, and a gravely wounded Athena, among the last of the original gods.

The goddess offers an alliance against their mutual enemy and, at last, a way for Lore to leave the Agon behind forever. But Lore’s decision to bind her fate to Athena’s and rejoin the hunt will come at a deadly cost–and still may not be enough to stop the rise of a new god with the power to bring humanity to its knees.

While I might have wanted to pick up Lore based on it’s description alone, once again it was the author that made me pick up an ARC. I read The Darkest Minds when I heard the movie was coming out and I really enjoyed it. I love books that are based on mythology, and I’m pretty excited to see how Medusa plays a role in this story.

---

The Cousins by Karen M. McManus

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying comes your next obsession. You’ll never feel the same about family again.

Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah Story are cousins, but they barely know each another, and they’ve never even met their grandmother. Rich and reclusive, she disinherited their parents before they were born. So when they each receive a letter inviting them to work at her island resort for the summer, they’re surprised . . . and curious.

Their parents are all clear on one point–not going is not an option. This could be the opportunity to get back into Grandmother’s good graces. But when the cousins arrive on the island, it’s immediately clear that she has different plans for them. And the longer they stay, the more they realize how mysterious–and dark–their family’s past is.

The entire Story family has secrets. Whatever pulled them apart years ago isn’t over–and this summer, the cousins will learn everything.

One of Us is Lying is one of my favorite YA thrillers, so when I saw that Karen McManus was coming out with a new book I knew I had to get my hands on a copy. I do really enjoy books about an inheritance, like The Inheritance Games, Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters and Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts. While YA thrillers aren’t my go-to genre, I pick them up pretty frequently when I need a fast paced book to take a break from all the fantasy books I read.

---

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever-and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.

Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.

But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore, and he remembers her name.

In the vein of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Life After Life, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is New York Times bestselling author V. E. Schwab’s #1 New York Times Bestselling Author genre-defying tour de force.

If you’ve followed my blog for a while you know that V.E. Schwab’s books have all been on my TBR for ages now, so when I saw that she was coming out with a new book I jumped at the chance to get my hands on a copy. I finally read a Schwab title, A Darker Shade of Magic, and I’m sorry to say that I was really disappointed. I am interested in reading this one and I think it might help me decide if Schwab’s books are for me or not.

---

Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco

Two sisters.

One brutal murder.

A quest for vengeance that will unleash Hell itself…

And an intoxicating romance.

Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria are streghe – witches who live secretly among humans, avoiding notice and persecution. One night, Vittoria misses dinner service at the family’s renowned Sicilian restaurant. Emilia soon finds the body of her beloved twin…desecrated beyond belief. Devastated, Emilia sets out to find her sister’s killer and to seek vengeance at any cost-even if it means using dark magic that’s been long forbidden.

Then Emilia meets Wrath, one of the Wicked-princes of Hell she has been warned against in tales since she was a child. Wrath claims to be on Emilia’s side, tasked by his master with solving the series of women’s murders on the island. But when it comes to the Wicked, nothing is as it seems…

Stalking Jack the Ripper is a series that has been on my TBR for a long time now. When I saw that Kerri Maniscalco was coming out with a book about witchy sisters, I was drawn to it right away. While witchy books always get me excited, the hype for Kerri Maniscalco’s Stalking Jack the Ripper series put this book at the top of my list.

---

Check out other book blogger’s top 5 picks!

Dini @ Dinipandareads — Top 5 Saturday: Celebrity Authors!

Jill @ Jill’s Book Blog — Top 5 Saturday — Fiction by Celebrity Authors

---

Let’s Chat!

What are some popular or famous authors that you love? What are some books on your TBR that are written by popular authors? Have you read any of the books I listed above? What did you think? Make sure to comment below so we can chat about books by popular authors!