Top Ten Tuesday #6: Authors who deserve more recognition

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created by The Broke and The Bookish. Each week the girls at B&B think up a fun theme, and participating bloggers post their favorite 10 books in that category. This week's theme is

Authors who deserve more recognition

There are plenty of amazing authors out there, but sometimes, it seems the only ones anyone ever wants to talk about are: JK Rowling, George RR Martin, John Green, Stephenie Meyer, Suzanne Collins, or Veronica Roth. Sure, I get it. These authors are great and deserve every bit of press (except Stephenie who receives far too much negative press. Get over it, people) they get. But just once, I'd love to see more people know and love these authors too!

1. Jennifer Echols. I can't say enough good things about Jennifer. Not only is she an incredibly kind and funny person in real life, but she's a top-notch author as well. Jennifer has this amazing ability to write about things that are so close to my own life that I feel like she's writing pages from my diary for me! The heroines are strong but flawed, the love interests sexy but vulnerable, the relationships 100% relatable and realistic. If you haven't, you really should read her books. I particularly recommend Going Too Far for her dramas and The Boys Next Door for her comedies for those of you who are new to her books.

2. Elizabeth Eulberg. I found The Lonely Hearts Club in a B&N years ago. After I fell in love with the premise, I promptly ran over to my local Borders and bought it, as well as the copy of Prom & Prejudice I found. Well, Borders didn't last, but my love of Elizabeth's writing did. LHC will resound with every girl who has ever had love troubles, and P&P is for that deep-seated desire in all of us to live Elizabeth Bennet's life. Elizabeth is also a lovely woman in real life, and her writing is utterly relatable too.

3. Jen Calonita. I met Jen last year at the same time as Elizabeth, and she's another author who is super kind and interesting IRL. While I had already devoured all 3 of Elizabeth's books, although I actually possessed two of Jen's, I had never picked them up. In the year since, I have read all except the very last book in the Secrets of My Hollywood Life series. Jen's books speak to the guilty pleasure we all have of living in Hollywood, and she has plenty of behind-the-scenes info to back it up. The best thing I can say about Jen's books is that I always feel good when I close the back cover.

4. Andrew Smith. Andrew is getting plenty of buzz for his amazing novel Winger (as he should; it's fantastic), but I hadn't heard of him before I went to TLA and a copy of Winger was urgently pressed into my hands. Andrew is a male ya writer, a novelty in the current female-driven ya economy. Andrew's writing is flush with humor and Real Life Issues and it's all about boys. I love it, and I'm super excited to start on Marbury Jack.

5. Kady Cross. I picked up The Girl in the Steel Corset because it's a freaking awesome cover, and I had recently really gotten into the whole steampunk movement. Kady blew my expectations away. It's an amazing story about tough girls, cute boys (including a good guy duke with a kind personality and a bad boy criminal with a soft heart), and cool gadgets. While the Steampunk Chronicles has a decent following, it doesn't get Kady nearly the attention it should.

6. Miranda Kenneally. Catching Jordan was all the rage for its release, but I haven't heard a lot of acclaim for Miranda's companion novels in the Hundred Oaks series. Miranda is another amazing contemporary author with a mind for high school realism while maintaining butterfly-inducing romance with cute boys. Love her books!

7. Elana K. Arnold. After reading Burning, I was hooked on Elana's writing. It's so poetic and lovely. I haven't read her other work yet, but I absolutely will after having such an amazing experience with this one. While the good reviews are glowing and amazing, there are some negative ones out there that I think Elana and Burning totally did not deserve. Trust me; that book is amazing, and so is Elana.

Aaaand....that's all I can think of! Do you have any suggestions? I'd love to hear them!