Contemporary suggestions?

I'm almost through my tbr pile and am now looking for new contemporary authors like

Suzanne Elisabeth Phillips
Rachel Gibson
Jennifer Crusie

I'm not that much into romantic suspense, straight laced plot is more my style.

Oh, and can someone tell me how Susan Mallery writes, she is all over my amazon suggestion list.

Thanks,
Julia

Hmmm....

Exes and Ohs
Feet First
Seven Ways To Lose Your Lover

also, books by

Lori Foster (she wrote a bunch of contemps, just be sure those are the ones you're getting)
Susan Andersen
Susan Donovan

Susan Andersen
Susan Donovan

are autobuy's for me as well as

Kate Angell
Pattie Berg if she would just write another book
Elizabeth Bevarly
Deirdre Martin
Kasey Michaels
Hailey North
Julie Ortolon
Carly Phillips
Christie Ridgway

just to give you more of an impression. :D

I like Susan Andersen and Susan Donovan too. Susan Mallery is -- for me -- a 'lite' version of Phillips and Crusie. Her books are good, but not (again, for me) memorable. Elaine Fox and Christie Ridgway fall into that same category for me - light, funny, and enjoyable while I'm reading them but I don't reread them.

I'd been looking for someone like Phillips and Crusie, too, as I love their books, and I finally ran across Lani Diane Rich. I've only read her romances; she also writes chick lit, but I don't like chick lit, so I've avoided those. So far I've read Crazy in Love, The Comeback Kiss, Maybe Baby, and Wish You Were Here, and they were all great. She writes every bit as well as Phillips and Crusie, though for some reason her books don't stick in my mind quite as much. I highly recommend her, though.

You might also try Kristan Higgins. Her books veer a little too far into the chick lit lane for me, but she's a great writer, and it's the same style as the other -- light, sophisticated and funny.

I highly recommend Julie James, she has two books out Just the Sexiest Man Alive and Practice Makes Perfect, two of my favorite contemporaries - can't be beat, you won't be sorry. Snappy dialogue, great plotlines and characters, a real treat to read them! More on the humorous side with two people competing against one another.

Julia, try Tall Tales and Wedding Veils by Jane Graves - absolutely loved it!

Thanks so far. Keep 'em coming.

For some reason I find it harder to locate new contemp. authors than historical ones. :(

I had put Julie James already on my amazon wishlist as she was so highly recommended in another thread. LOL

Some of your authors have just a few books published, which makes it harder to find them on ebay to stock up my tbr. :D So amazon it must be.

Julia

Julia - here is a pretty cool website you might try. You type in the name of the author you like & it gives you other authors similar to them.

http://www.literature-map.com/

Julia - just thought of another author you may like: Christie Ridgeway.

bookbeat - That's kind of a neat site. Thanks for sharing that.

BB, the site is really funny.

I typed in Jennifer Crusie and practically all of my above mentioned authors poped up. LOL

The closest ones were drum roll...Susan E. Phillips and Rachel Gibson. Next was Jane Graves which I had already decided to pursue. Lot's of the others were historical authors but I will look into the ones I have never heard.

Oh, Christie Ridgway is an autobuy for me.

Cheers,
Julia

Hi Julia. Give Kristin Higgins a try. I just read Too Good to be True, and loved it.

Kristan Higgins is good, but stay away from Catch of the Day. If everyone has an "off" book, that's definitely hers. Too Good To Be True was excellent, as was Just One of the Guys.

Thanks sparje, I put her on my to look for list.

I'll third Kristan Higgins, I've really enjoyed her books but I have to disagree with adeptmagic about Catch of the Day. That is my favorite book of hers.

As far as Susan Mallery's books go, I've read her bakery sisters trilogy and I found the characters kind of annoying. I think the only reason I read all three is because I have this weird fantasy about owning a bakery. :)

Dang, I just ordered the Bakery sisters as they seemed a good start. But I'm openminded so maybe I will like them.

Julia

@Julia1605 - That's okay, you might like them much more than I did.

Vickylondon, I agree on Catch of the Day! I thought it was charming and I really liked Malone, the lobster-man hero.

Julia, have you looked into some of the non-paranormal works by Katie MacAlister? I also like Jan Freed, although I think some of her work might be out of print.

Lisa Kleypas is great (just read the summaries before picking a book - she also writes hist. rom. Try Blue-eyed Devil)

I also like Emily Giffin. (Something Borrowed is really good.)

A good one I just finished reading is Double Play by Jill Shalvis. It's the first book I have read by her and I really enjoyed it.

Yes Lisa Kleypas is amazing. Even though she writes mostly historic romance which are also great specially the Wallflowers series. Her Contemporary Trilogy is amazing. It starts with Sugar Daddy then Blue-Eyed Devil as Books007 pointed to and the last one (my favorite) is Smooth Talking Stranger

I find Susan Mallery a little too "sweet" and not in a good way. I did read the bakery trilogy, because I wanted to know what happened, but I haven't been tempted to try anything else of hers.

I had bought the Bakery sisters trilogy and they will be the next contemp books I start basically to fetermine if I like Susan Mallery.

Julia

The blue-eyed devil . It's great.

bump

I agree....you can't go wrong with Blue-eyed Devil. It was awesome.

I really enjoy reading Jill Shalvis too. Rachel Gibson is another good one. Her most recent release, Nothing But Trouble is the best book I have read in a very long time. I highly recommend it.

Oh, and a classic contemporary, one really not to be missed if anyone hasn't read it, is Susan Elizabeth Phillips' Ain't She Sweet.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I saw the new book by Kristan Higgins in the library so I'm on that. After I finish I'm going to start looking up some of these suggestions. I have Sugar Daddy on my to read pile so I'll push it up in the pile.

I have read a couple of Linda Howards and some I loved and some were just ok to me. My favorites were Open Season and Mr. Perfect. I also love Judith McNaughts Paradise Series. Perfect was my all time favorite! I also love Lisa Kleypas contemporary series. Sugar Daddy, Blue Eyed Devil and Smooth Talking Stranger.

I have a couple related books by Shirley Jump that I really enjoyed: The Bride Wore Chocolate and The Devil Served Tortellini. The Devil is probably the better of the two. There's a third book, The Angel Craved Lobster, but it's really not good.

I've really enjoyed Exclusively Yours and Undeniably Yours by Shannon Stacey. Currently they're only available as ebooks (they're published by Carina Press, the Harlequin ebook line) but they're coming out in hard copy next year, I believe.

I also second the recommendation for Jill Shalvis - she has a series out at the moment that starts with Simply Irresistible and continues with The Sweetest Thing, with a third book due later in the year.