Discovering New Favorite Authors

Don’t you just love it when you stumble across a new author who changes your world? An author whose stories are so poignant and real and beautiful that you want to live there forever.

Other than one Hallmark-style contemporary women’s fiction novel, The Inheritance, I write mysteries, both cozies and clean romantic suspense. So 60% of what I read falls into some subcategory of that genre, and nonfiction consists of at least 20%. The other 20% are books outside of those genres that others have recommended or that have caught my attention.

One of those is The Prayer Box by Lisa Wingate. Oh! My! Gosh! It hooked me and has stayed with me since. The writing was so beautiful, the characters so captivating, and the story drew me into that place and time. I read it about three months ago and it’s still in my mind.

I just finished another of her books, A Month of Summer, with the same results. “They” say not to overuse dialect in a story because it takes the reader out of the story, but her writing in this book had the exact opposite effect on me. She did a fabulous job with Teddy, a character with special needs, and the difficulties of a stroke victim rendered unable to speak. It covers so many hard topics from blended families, Alzheimer’s, care facilities, marital communication, and parent/child relationships.

I just purchased two more books on my Kindle, and cannot wait to get to them.

Another mention:

A good friend of mine has a book coming out on May 15th, published by the awesome The Wild Rose Press. Stiletto to the Pedal is book 5 in the Tow Truck Murder Mysteries. If you like mysteries, you’ll love this series.

Discovering a killer. Dodging a tax collector. Speeding toward disaster.

When the IRS claims Delaney Morran, the high-heeled tow truck driver and amateur sleuth, owes back taxes, she hires an accountant to fight Uncle Sam. Before Delaney can resolve the issue, a tax collector shows up in Spruce Ridge, Colorado demanding an amount Delaney can’t afford. It gets worse when Delaney’s accountant becomes the town’s next murder victim and Delaney’s tax records are locked inside the crime scene. The quickest way to get the Internal Revenue off her case is to catch the killer and get her files back, so she speeds around town questioning suspects while keeping one step ahead of the tax man. Will Delaney be able to solve yet another murder and secure her records before the IRS shuts her down?

Share your favorite authors and/or stories in the comments section so the rest of us can discover another favorite.