Underrated Authors: The Ritchie Fizzle Force
Shadin Al-Dossari ‘18 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer
Twin sisters Krista and Becca Ritchie started the Addicted series in 2013. All of their books feature witty banter, empowered women, and great character development. They feature all kinds of relationship goals, including romantic, familial, and ones between friends. Their books have the makings of bestsellers. However, one of many reasons they are so underrated is the fact that the sisters are self-published; the Ritchies don’t have agents or a publishing house to get their names out there, like many big-name authors do.
The Addicted series falls under the new adult genre. It follows the story of a female sex addict, Lily Calloway, and her alcoholic best friend, Loren Hale, who pretend to be in a real relationship to hide their addictions from their families. But as the series progresses, the lives of the two other featured couples take center stage as well. There’s a little something for everyone’s taste. Readers can find intellectual “nerd stars” in Connor Cobalt and Rose Calloway, the adventurous, forbidden romance couple in Ryke Meadows and Daisy Calloway, and of course the friends to lovers couple in Lily Calloway and Hale; Lily, Rose and Daisy are sisters. Each book follows the point of view of the couple it focuses on, but every book’s events affect every character, no matter which perspective each is set in.
The Ritchie sisters have an unprecedented online presence through their social media accounts. The twins participate in character takeovers on their Facebook and Tumblr pages, host YouTube live chats, track fan creations, write bonus scenes, and are very active answering fan questions. Since the authors are self-published through Amazon, fan feedback is very important to them. Often, it is fans’ requests for certain bonus scenes that prompt the twins to write. Case in point—fans wrote to the twins so often to express their love for two small side characters, Garrison Abbey and Willow Moore, that the couple got their own web series.
The content being so unique and well-written is what draws so many readers to this series. There aren’t a lot of books out there that seriously delve into what it’s like to be a female sex addict. The series highlights many important issues, including sexism, self-love, misogyny, and feminism. Through female-driven plotlines, real societal problems are addressed, like public slut-shaming and the media’s treatment of women.
The flawed, honest characters the Ritchies write are realistic in ways that make them relatable to readers everywhere. They constantly mess up, but ultimately are just trying to be the best version of themselves in the face of adversity. These kinds of characters are inspiring, and the twin’s books are filled with them; it’s amazing to watch the characters grow and develop from the first book to the epilogue. Readers see the characters discover themselves and who they are through explorations of sexuality and identity as they take charge of their lives without shying away from who they are.
Readers will get attached to the core characters as they go through the emotional journey of reading this series. It has been a joy to see these six characters mature into adulthood and navigate through life.
The recommended reading order for the Addicted series is as follows:
- Addicted to You
- Ricochet
- Addicted for Now
- Kiss the Sky (A Calloway Sisters spinoff novel)
- Hothouse Flower (A Calloway Sisters spinoff novel)
- Thrive
- Addicted After All
- Fuel the Fire (A Calloway Sisters spinoff novel)
- Long Way Down (A Calloway Sisters spinoff novel)
- Some Kind of Perfect (A full-length epilogue novel)
Currently, the Ritchie twins are working on the first book in the Like Us series, which follows the original character’s children—the next generation of Addicted kids. They are also working on Infini, a standalone novel set in the Aerial Ethereal universe first seen in their novel Amour Amour.