I love a good series, but sometimes I'm just tired of them and need a story that wraps up in one volume. Book lovers have actually dubbed this series fatigue. I also love rereading standalones because it can help break a reading slump faster if I don't have to dread a long series. So if you prefer one-and-done books, here are the authors you should check out.
1. Kasie West
One of the queens of contemporary romance. A couple of her books cross over with each other, and she has one duology, but she mostly writes standalones, to my joy.
My faves: P.S. I Like You and On the Fence
2. Stacey Lee
Stacey writes the very best historical fiction, and she also has one contemporary/fabulism novel.
My favorite: can't pick just one
Often fantasy=series, but not in Margaret's case. She's written two excellent standalone fantasy novels, and I have no doubt more will be coming soon.
My favorite: Sorcery of Thorns
4. Lamar Giles
For mystery/thrillers, Lamar has you covered. He's also been in a few anthologies, wrote a middle grade book last year, and published his first YA contemporary this year.
My favorite: Overturned
5. Emma Mills
I can't write one of these lists and pass up mentioning my favorite author who writes great contemporary standalones.
The one I literally recommend to everyone: Foolish Hearts
My second favorite: Lucky Caller
6. Jenn Bennett
Jenn has written a bunch of contemporary YA (one with Macmillan, three with Simon & Schuster, plus one more coming in May) AND she had a standalone historical fantasy last fall.
My favorite: Serious Moonlight (no surprise, since I mention it in, like, every other post where I talk about pie)
All of Anna-Marie's books are rich magical realism with stories that are wholly contained within 300 pages (give or take a few pages).
The one I like most: Wild Beauty
Although only two of them exist, Lauren wrote some fun science fiction thrillers about six years ago. Definitely worth a read!
Which one I prefer: probably Parallel
Morgan's another contemporary queen, with five books under her belt so far. (She also has a couple contemporary series under a pen name - Katie Finn. My favorite, Broken Hearts & Revenge, is a quick binge of a trilogy.)
My favorite: Since You've Been Gone
10. Renée Watson
Renée has written three excellent YA titles, co-authored another one, and written a great middle grade too.
My favorite: Piecing Me Together
11. Kate Messner
Speaking of middle grade, Kate Messner has a BUNCH of standalones, and I binge-read a lot of them when I was interning at Bloomsbury.
The ones I recommend the most: All the Answers and Breakout.
12. Sandhya Menon
Sandhya is a rising contemporary romance star. Technically, three of her five books are companions to each other, with secondary characters from previous titles getting the spotlight in later books. But you don't have to binge them like a series (unless you're enjoying them that much) and you could technically could read one without reading the others.
My favorite: From Twinkle, with Love
13. Ruta Sepetys
If you want more historical fiction - especially that is the stories we don't hear often - Ruta's your gal. She's very passionate and does her research.
The one I recommend the most: Out of the Easy
If you have any other standalone author recommendations, I'm all ears!
No comments:
Post a Comment