Top Ten Too-Hard-to-Rank Authors

The Top Ten Tuesday theme this week is your top ten favorite in authors in the genre of your choice. 

And so I totally cheated and did two genres. Contemporary and Historical Fantasy. Because if ya'll haven't noticed there are a lot of fantasy books that cross the pages of my blog. A LOT. But, really and truly I love many other genres too, I just don't get around to gushing about them as much. 

So this post is compromise. I had to get my fantasy favs in there, but I limited it to just five of a specific fantasy sub-genre, so I could also sneak in my top five fav YA contemporary authors in here too.  

Oh, and also - I couldn't rank these. I tried, I debated, I reshuffled - I finally just deleted the numbers. 

Top Ten Tuesday is  an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish blog with a different top ten list theme (all related to books) every Tuesday (see the full list here). 

My top five favorite YA contemporary authors:

Kirsten Hubbard, author of Like Mandarin and Wanderlove.  Recommended for anyone who has ever befriended a "bad girl" (or maybe was one), and anyone who loves travel (both the good and the bad).

Maureen Johnson, author of Girl At Sea, Suite Scarlett and many others. Recommended for when you need light-hearted laughter and some great sibling or friend interaction. Or friction.

Gail Giles, author of Right Behind You, What Happened to Cass McBride and others. When teenagers go off the deep end; realistic and suspenseful but not creepy. Compelling, compelling, compelling!

Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Speak, Wintergirls, and others. Serious issues very well done.

Stephanie Perkins, author of Lola and the Boy Next Door and Anna and the French Kiss, and more soon.
Months after reading these I can still remember all the characters so vividly. That's rare.

On the fence: John Green. The Fault in Our Stars, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns. Simply must mention him because he has a character named Margo (grin). Definitely on the edgy/gritty side, but memorable.

My top five favorite Historical Fantasy authors: 

Erin Morgenstern, author of the Night Circus and hopefully more soon! Set in the Victorian time period but really it's all about the circus. I am not even a fan of circuses but I loved this one because it's like a miniature moving fantasy world.

Megan Walen Turner, author of the Queen's Thief series. Set in something close to Ancient Greece and rife with espionage and twists and complexity.

Naomi Novak, author of His Majesty's Dragon and the rest of the Temeraire series. Napoleonic era; think Master and Commander, with dragons. Or even better, Jane Austen on a fantasy rip.

Juliet Marillier, author of the Wildwood and Sevenwaters series, many others. Wildwood Dancing was such an interesting combination of historic setting (Transylvania!) and fairy-tale retelling that I knew instantly I would read anything else by her.

R.L. LaFevers, author of Grave Mercy (YA) more to follow in the His Fair Assassin series. Grave Mercy is set in medieval Brittany and uses real historical characters, with a touch of dark fantastical elements - a girl who can see whom Death has marked, and is trained to assassinate help them along in their fate. Dark and brilliant at the same time.

Also this isn't quite historical fantasy but I simply had to mention it because it is SO YUMMY, Gail Carriger's Soulless series which is a strange brew of historical paranormal and steampunk. Werewolves and vampires in Victorian times - and nothing like any wolvies and vammies you've ever encountered before.

Who are your favorite genre author(s)?

This shall be my last Top Ten for quite a while -- It's NaNoWriMo season! Next week you shall be smothered in plans to recruit you into this wonderful madness. You've been warned.