Hold On To Your Feels! Saturday Top 5 Debut Authors Coming To Drop The Hammer On Readers

Top 5 Saturday: Debut Authors 

This Saturday Top Five series was created by Amanda at Devouring Books, she has kept it going since last October, every Saturday and holy hell has it grown!!! I don’t typically tag anyone but anyone and everyone is welcome to join. Here is the schedule for May

Oh! About that…

If you didn’t catch the note on the featured image, the background of photo might seem odd. However, that is a photo of where I live. That is Pikes Peak, Colorado Springs. It is not exactly where I live. If you are on twitter and follow me, you have probably seen many pictures from my patio. Those are the mountains you see from my patio. That area is and many like it, are a short drive away. I had planned to start exploring those areas by now but obviously, the world has much different plans, right now.

Additionally, I found out yesterday (which you also know if you saw it on twitter) that I found out from one of my best friends in St. Louis, she lost her Uncle to Covid, yesterday. Add it all together and I thought it would be nice to have that as a background even though it didn’t make much sense. Not that anyone cares or asked for an explanation.

Yes… Sorry… Moving On…

List Of The Five Best Books By Debut Authors To Keep On Your Radar

Four books you can look for on during the second annual Spring/Summer Fling 2020, one comes out in November and one… well we will leave that for last, as a surprise. BUT that isn’t because it breaks the rules! It absolutely does not. It is more like, when you look at all five books, you want to sing that song… One of these things aren’t like the other, one of these things don’t belong…

Obviously, these aren’t the ONLY books I’m looking forward to by debut authors – but I could only pick 5… I’m sure I will kick myself as soon as I hit publish!

1) Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson

Summary: In the lands of Bethel, where the Prophet’s word is law, Immanuelle Moore’s very existence is blasphemy. Her mother’s union with an outsider of a different race cast her once-proud family into disgrace, so Immanuelle does her best to worship the Father, follow Holy Protocol, and lead a life of submission, devotion, and absolute conformity, like all the other women in the settlement.

But a mishap lures her into the forbidden Darkwood surrounding Bethel, where the first prophet once chased and killed four powerful witches. Their spirits are still lurking there, and they bestow a gift on Immanuelle: the journal of her dead mother, who Immanuelle is shocked to learn once sought sanctuary in the wood.

Fascinated by the secrets in the diary, Immanuelle finds herself struggling to understand how her mother could have consorted with the witches. But when she begins to learn grim truths about the Church and its history, she realizes the true threat to Bethel is its own darkness.  And she starts to understand that if Bethel is to change, it must begin with her.

Genre: Adult Dark Fantasy/Horror/Occult

Release Date: July 21, 2020

Publisher: Ace Books

2) These Violent Delights (These Violent Delights #1) By Chloe Gong 

Summary: This heart-stopping debut is an imaginative Romeo and Juliet retelling set in 1920s Shanghai, with rival gangs and a monster in the depths of the Huangpu River.

The year is 1926, and Shanghai hums to the tune of debauchery.

A blood feud between two gangs runs the streets red, leaving the city helpless in the grip of chaos. At the heart of it all is eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, a former flapper who has returned to assume her role as the proud heir of the Scarlet Gang—a network of criminals far above the law. Their only rivals in power are the White Flowers, who have fought the Scarlets for generations. And behind every move is their heir, Roma Montagov, Juliette’s first love…and first betrayal.

But when gangsters on both sides show signs of instability culminating in clawing their own throats out, the people start to whisper. Of a contagion, a madness. Of a monster in the shadows. As the deaths stack up, Juliette and Roma must set their guns—and grudges—aside and work together, for if they can’t stop this mayhem, then there will be no city left for either to rule.

Release Date: Young Adult/Fiction/Historical

Release Date: November 17, 2020

Publisher: Simon Pulse

3) The Safe Place by Anna Downes

Summary:  Welcome to paradise…will you ever be able to leave?

Emily is a mess. Emily Proudman just lost her acting agent, her job, and her apartment in one miserable day.

Emily is desperate. Scott Denny, a successful and charismatic CEO, has a problem that neither his business acumen nor vast wealth can fix. Until he meets Emily.

Emily is perfect. Scott offers Emily a summer job as a housekeeper on his remote, beautiful French estate. Enchanted by his lovely wife Nina, and his eccentric young daughter, Aurelia, Emily falls headlong into this oasis of wine-soaked days by the pool. But soon Emily realizes that Scott and Nina are hiding dangerous secrets, and if she doesn’t play along, the consequences could be deadly

Genre: Adult Thriller/Suspense/Psychological

Release Date: July 14, 2020

Publisher: Minotaur Books

The Sin in the Steel (The Fall of the Gods #1) By Ryan Van Loan

Summary: Fantasy set in a diverse world, featuring dead gods, a pirate queen, shapeshifting mages, and a Sherlockian teenager determined to upend her society.

Buc and Eld: She’s a brilliant former street-rat, with a mind that leaps from clues to conclusions in the blink of an eye. He’s an ex-soldier, her champion and partner-in-crime. No…not in crime—in crime-solving. In this fast-paced, action-driven, second world fantasy, the teenager and the veteran are the Holmes and Watson of a world where pirates roam the seas, mechanical engines can change the tide of battle, mages speak to each other across oceans, and earthly wealth is concentrated in the hands of a powerful few.

The Kanados Trading Company hires Buc and Eld to restore the flow of sugar—a source of power and wealth in Venice-like Servenza—from the Shattered Coast. Buc swiftly discovers that the trade routes have become the domain of a sharp-eyed pirate queen. All Buc has to do now is sink the Widowmaker’s ship.

Unfortunately for Buc, the gods have other plans. Unfortunately for them, so does Buc.

Genre: Adult Epic Fantasy/Action and Adventure

Release Date: July 21, 2020

Publisher: Tor Books

5) A Very Punchable Face by Colin Jost

OK. You had to see this coming and don’t even at me. It is his first book… so yeah. It counts. Of course, it counts. And. What more could we ask for? Weekend Update is out of commission for the summer. Michael Che lost his grandmother to Covid. The Avengers are done. We need to laugh. We need to just feel good things. I trust Colin Jost to bring it. And of course, I’m going to give you a clip. How can I NOT give you a clip? I am going to give you a different clip.

I have cut and pasted the below from the Spring Summer Fling:

Please understand that Colin Jost and Michael Che have been my comedic crushes for years now. Understand that outside of the political pieces, which they always nail, I haven’t been a fan of SNL for about a decade, now. But weekend update?  There have been weeks where they were all I had to look forward to. Now them and John Oliver are sometimes the only laugh I have to look forward to and that is a lifeline. Knowing Jost is narrating the audible (but of course he is) …

I expect this is going to be a fantastic book BUT that much better on audible.

Summary: In these hilarious essays, the Saturday Night Live head writer and Weekend Update co-anchor learns how to take a beating.

If there’s one trait that makes someone well suited to comedy, it’s being able to take a punch–metaphorically and, occasionally, physically.

From growing up in a family of firefighters on Staten Island to commuting three hours a day to high school and “seeing the sights” (like watching a Russian woman throw a stroller off the back of a ferry), to attending Harvard while Facebook was created, Jost shares how he has navigated the world like a slightly smarter Forrest Gump.

You’ll also discover things about Jost that will surprise and confuse you, like how Jimmy Buffett saved his life, how Czech teenagers attacked him with potato salad, how an insect laid eggs inside his legs, and how he competed in a twenty-five-man match at WrestleMania (and almost won). You’ll go behind the scenes at SNL (where he’s written some of the most memorable sketches and characters of the past fifteen years) and Weekend Update. And you’ll experience the life of a touring stand-up comedian–from performing in rural college cafeterias at noon to opening for Dave Chappelle at Radio City Music Hall.

For every accomplishment (hosting the Emmys), there is a setback (hosting the Emmys). And for every absurd moment (watching paramedics give CPR to a raccoon), there is an honest, emotional one (recounting his mother’s experience on the scene of the Twin Towers’ collapse on 9/11). Told with a healthy dose of self-deprecation, A Very Punchable Face reveals the brilliant mind behind some of the dumbest sketches on television, and lays bare the heart and humor of a hardworking guy–with a face you can’t help but want to punch.

Category/Genre: Adult Non-Fiction Memoir

Release Date: July 14, 2020

Publisher: Crown Publishing

What have been your favorite books by debut authors? What books by debut authors are you looking forward to?

Any on my list catch your attention?

Have you already read any of them?