It’s the new year and you may be thinking, “What should I read in 2022?” As any bookworm will tell you, it’s best to try and make a dent into the books you already own. But in reality, what true book lover is ever able to do that?! New books will always be calling, luring us into borrowing from the library or buying brand new hardcovers.
The old adage “so many books, so little time” never rings truer than when you’re considering all the new book releases coming up in the new year. We’ve scoured the book lists out there and put together our own list of the most anticipated new books of 2022. We’re only covering new book releases from January to July, so check back in a few months for an updated list of new books of 2022 for the latter half of the year.
This article contains affiliate links to Bookshop.org. If you are interested in pre-ordering any of these books, following the links here will help support independent bookstores and give us a small commission (at no extra cost to you). Without further ado, here are some new books of 2022 that we are excited about.
I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston
Publish Date: May 03, 2022
From the New York Times bestselling author of One Last Stop and Red, White & Royal Blue comes a debut YA romantic comedy about chasing down what you want, only to find what you need…Fierce, funny, and frank, Casey McQuiston’s I Kissed Shara Wheeler is about breaking the rules, getting messy, and finding love in unexpected places.
Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez
Publish Date: January 04, 2022
A blazing talent debuts with the tale of a status-driven wedding planner grappling with her social ambitions, absent mother, and Puerto Rican roots–all in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
Running Wild by K.A. Tucker
Publish Date: January 25, 2022
From the internationally bestselling author of The Simple Wild comes the story of a woman at a crossroads in her life, struggling between the safe route and the one that will only lead to more heartbreak.
Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong
Publish Date: April 05, 2022
In this deeply intimate second poetry collection, Ocean Vuong searches for life among the aftershocks of his mother’s death, embodying the paradox of sitting within grief while being determined to survive beyond it.
Flying Solo by Linda Holmes
Publish Date: June 14, 2022
A woman returns to her small Maine hometown, uncovering family secrets that take her on a journey of self-discovery and new love, in this warm and charming novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Evvie Drake Starts Over.
Vagabonds! by Eloghosa Osunde
Publish Date: March 15, 2022
In the bustling streets and cloistered homes of Lagos, a cast of vivid characters–some haunted, some defiant–navigate danger, demons, and love in a quest to lead true lives.
One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle
Publish Date: March 01, 2022
The New York Times bestselling author of the “heartwarming, heartbreaking, and hard to put down” (Laurie Frankel) modern classic In Five Years returns with a moving and unforgettable exploration of the powerful bond between mother and daughter set on the breathtaking Amalfi Coast.
The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk
Publish Date: February 01, 2022
The Nobel Prize-winner’s richest, most sweeping and ambitious novel yet follows the comet-like rise and fall of a mysterious, messianic religious leader as he blazes his way across eighteenth-century Europe.
The Suite Spot by Trish Doller
Publish Date: March 08, 2022
One of the few bright lights in Rachel Beck’s life is her job at a Miami Beach luxury hotel- until she’s fired for something she didn’t do. Rachel inquires about a position at a brewery hotel on a tiny island in Lake Erie called Kelleys Island. When she’s offered the job, not even the grumpy voice on the line can dissuade her from packing up her whole life and making the move. What she finds on Kelleys Island is Mason, a handsome, reclusive man who knows everything about brewing beer and nothing about running a hotel.
South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry
Publish Date: January 25, 2022
An essential, surprising journey through the history, rituals, and landscapes of the American South- and a revelatory argument for why you must understand the South in order to understand America.
The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E. Smith
Publish Date: March 01, 2022
An indie musician reeling from tragedy and a public breakdown reconnects with her father on a weeklong cruise in “a pitch-perfect story about the ways we recover love in the strangest places” (Rebecca Serle, bestselling author of In Five Years).
Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty
Publish Date: July 05, 2022
How do the living come back to life?
Set in a Native community in Maine, Night of the Living Rez is a riveting debut collection about what it means to be Penobscot in the twenty-first century and what it means to live, to survive, and to persevere after tragedy.
The Wedding Season by Katy Birchall
Publish Date: May 3, 2022
Four Weddings and a Funeral meets The Wedding Party in Katy Birchall’s The Wedding Season: when a recently jilted bride is forced to attend seven weddings in one summer, her friends devise a series of challenges as distraction.
You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
Publish Date: May 24, 2022
A New York Times bestselling author, National Book Award finalist, and “one of our greatest living writers” (Shondaland) reimagines the love story in this fresh and seductive novel about a young woman seeking joy while healing from loss.
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
Publish Date: May 03, 2022
An insightful, delightful new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read and People We Meet on Vacation. One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn’t see coming… I mean, that’s all we really need to know. We love Emily Henry here!
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Publish Date: April 05, 2022
The award-winning, best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.
The No-Show by Beth O’Leary
Publish Date: April 12, 2022
Three women. Three dates. One missing man… The No-Show is the brilliantly funny, heart-breaking and joyful new novel from Beth O’Leary about dating, and waiting, and the ways love can find us. An utterly extraordinary tearjerker of a book, this is O’Leary’s most ambitious novel yet.
Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead by Elle Cosimano
Publish Date: February 01, 2022
Finlay Donovan is- once again- struggling to finish her next novel and keep her head above water as a single mother of two. On the bright side, she has her live-in nanny and confidant Vero to rely on, and the only dead body she’s dealt with lately is that of her daughter’s pet goldfish. On the not-so-bright side, someone out there wants her ex-husband, Steven, out of the picture. Permanently.
All My Rage Sabaa Tahir
Publish Date: March 01, 2022
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Sabaa Tahir comes a brilliant, unforgettable, and heart-wrenching contemporary YA novel about family and forgiveness, love and loss, in a sweeping story that crosses generations and continents.
Rivals: American Royals III by Katharine McGee
Publish Date: May 31, 2022
The third book in the New York Times bestselling American Royals series is here, and a meeting of monarchs will test everyone’s loyalty to the crown…and their own hearts.
Woman of Light by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
Publish Date: June 07, 2022
“There is one every generation- a seer who keeps the stories.”
A dazzling epic of betrayal, love, and fate that spans five generations of an Indigenous Chicano family in the American West, from the author of the National Book Award Finalist Sabrina & Corina.
Something Wilder by Christina Lauren
Publish Date: May 17, 2022
From the author of the “heartfelt and funny” (Publishers Weekly) sensation The Unhoneymooners, this page-turning adventure full of second chances, complicated relationships, and the breathtaking beauty of the American Southwest will take fans on one wild ride.
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
Publish Date: February 01, 2022
In this moving debut novel, two estranged siblings must set aside their differences to deal with their mother’s death and her hidden past–a journey of discovery that takes them from the Caribbean to London to California and ends with her famous black cake.
See You Yesterday by Rachel Lynn Solomon
Publish Date: May 03, 2022
From the author of Today Tonight Tomorrow comes a magical romance in the vein of The Opposite of Always and Palm Springs about a teen girl forced to relive her disastrous first day of college- only to discover that her arch-nemesis is stuck in the time loop with her.
In the Face of the Sun by Denny S. Bryce
Publish Date: April 26, 2022
At the height of the Civil Rights Movement amidst an America convulsed by the 1960s, a pregnant young woman and her brash, profane aunt embark upon an audacious road trip from Chicago to Los Angeles to confront a decades-old mystery from 1920’s Black Hollywood in this haunting novel of historical fiction from the author of Wild Women and the Blues.
