Blogiversary Celebreation Day #3: Top Ten Indie Authors I Love and Giveaway!

Welcome to Day #3 of The Cover Contessa's Blog Anniversary Celebration!

Today I want to tell you about some Indie authors that I love! Authors that have and continue to inspire me to read, to keep reading and to love reading. If you haven't picked up their books, you really need to do so! All author pictures are clickable and link to their Websites and all book titles are also clickable to their Goodreads listing.

Don't forget to read all the way through to enter today's Rafflecopter for a chance at lots of awesome prizes and to see the Amazon listing for the books listed below!

This author is not only has amazing talent to pull you into her stories, but she's also a good friend! I love chatting with her. She often asks me for advice and opinions and I am honored to give the to her; honored that she would trust my opinion. I have read both her fiction and her non-fiction. This here is Christine Fonseca, known for her Requiem series, her psychological thriller Transcend, and her non-fiction due out later this year The Girl Guide: Finding Your Place in a Mixed-Up World.

This lady is someone who I love to talk about. She's just full of so much awesomeness it's hard to put it into words. Julie Reece is author of a most wonderful book by the name of Crux. This book has everything: action, adventure, magic, a kick butt heroine and, of course, a completely and totally swoonworthy male lead character. I will read anything Julie writes, and I can't wait to see more from her! Oh and her blog is pretty super duper awesome, as well!

I'm proud to say that I have been friends with David Estes before I even knew anything about his writing! And let me tell you, you will never meet a nicer guy. His books are total awesome: The Evolution Trilogy, The Dwellers Saga, and his children's books Nikki Power Gloves. I have had the honor of reading his books as ARCs and just got taken into the fold to be one of his beta readers. My son had the privilege of reading his Nikki Power Gloves series prior to it's release and David even included his name in the acknowledgements! If you have no picked up his Dwellers Saga, The Country series is my favorite by far, then get out there and do so. You will not regret it!

Have you gone out and read The Mindjack Trilogy by Susan Kaye Quinn? No, you say. What are you waiting for? I love this series and Susan's writing is totally awesome. The trilogy also has three novellas associated with it: Mindjack Origins. Susan's most recent quest, Debt Collector, is a series of episodes that combined make a novel (the fourth one is being released today!). It's a bit more on the mature side, but just as awesome as her first series. Her writing is really out of this world and I look forward to anything she chooses to put out there for me to read!

You see this author right here? Do you know her? Well, you should! Her name is Stephanie Judice and she is the amazing author of The Saga of the Setti. You want action, adventure, Norse warriors and a bit of romance to boot? Then this is your series. Stephanie truly has a knack for making her characters leap off the page at you. And when they do, they grab you and pull you right into the story with them! You're anxiously turning pages and waiting for things to go POW! It helps that she's also a terrific friend and supporter of anything I do!

Now this author really knows how to pack a punch into her books! I had the honor of reading Grasping at Eternity (The Kindrily, #1) for a read and review and let me tell you, I was hooked. The story line was terrific and I just loved her characters to death. She has also written another series: The Sea Monsters Memoirs.

I discovered Penelope King through a read and review from a group on Goodreads. And what a great discovery she has been! Here Demonblood series is so totally awesome. You want a totally kick butt heroine? Well, this is the series to read! It is like nothing you have ever read before. Penelope also has another series that has gotten great acclaim: Spellbound Trilogy. And her Demonblood series just got a totally terrific facelift which is totally GORGEOUS!

I'm gonna be honest and say I really don't remember how I found Ella James. But, does it really matter since I love her writing so much? My favorite series that she has written so far is the one you see her holding in her hand: Here Trilogy. It's a Sci-fi alien adventure reminiscent of Jennifer L. Armentrout's Lux series. Once I started this book, I could not put it down. I'm anxiously awaiting the publication of the second book. HURRY ELLA, HURRY! Ella has also written another YA paranormal series called Stained. And her newest conquest is a New Adult book called Selling Scarlet (which I just got a copy of and can't wait to read!).

Now this totally awesome sauce woman just makes me want to go "EEK!" And she would let you know what that's all about if you asked her! She's a great friend, and I mean that in every sense of the word. And on top of that, she writes some totally awesome books. Ever heard of The Lost Immortals series? No, well go read find out about it! And do you like stories about mysterious creatures from the sea? Well then you better go pick up Dark Seraphine because you'll love it! But she's not just a YA author, she also does some awesome New Adult stuff, such as Hacienda Moon (in which I am honored to be mentioned) and Prelude. KaSondra Leigh is totally terrific and I'm proud and honored to call her friend!

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not include Emi Gayle in this list. She published a wonderful book called After Dark (The 19th Year, #1). I was able to obtain an ARC of this book and boy oh boy was I super excited! I could not put this down. The story is so different. And, when I was offered a stop on her blog tour for the second book, Day After (The 19th Year, #2), I jumped up and down and spun in circles to be able to join! Look for my post on May 6, 2013. If you haven't heard of this series, go take a look. It's totally awesome, especially the characters who have totally pulled at my heart strings!

Once again, this list is certainly not exhaustive of the Indie authors I have gotten to know over the last year. So here are a few more that I really think you need to check out!

Cambria Hebert

Sara M. Ross

Jennifer Murgia

Sara Daniell

Janine Caldwell

Ali Cross

Heather McCorkle

Rochelle Maya Callan
BC Morin

So, who are some Indie authors you know and love? Tell me so I can add them to my list! And don't forget to enter the giveaway below. And circle back to the posts for Days #1 and #2 to gain more entries by tweeting! Good luck and thanks for stopping by!

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