Nowadays I don’t really have any authors or book series like this. As I kid I used to get really excited for a new Series of Unfortunate Events or Alex Rider book. For a while I kept my eye on Adrian Tchaikovsky, but lately I’ve found some of his novels to be hit or miss.
The only book release I’m currently looking forward to is Brigands & Breadknives in the Legends & Lattes series by Travis Baldree. The other two books have been cosy and wholesome, and it’s become a little tradition of mine to read these books around Christmas.
For stand-alone novels I used to buy new books by authors whose work I enjoyed prior, but have been burned so now I wait until others do so and let me know if its worth it. I also stopped buying unfinished series. Either the author takes forever to get around to the next one or dies before doing so (looking at you Jordan!), or the quality of the story falls drastically before the series end negating the initial investment.