20 Anticipated Releases of 2022

This list was a beast to make. I usually look forward to making anticipated book release lists, but because of the ongoing pandemic, publishing issues, publishing changes, and supply chain issues (anyone else really sick of saying these words??) it is really dang hard to get any information about books coming out past February. Keep in mind that these expected pub dates will likely shift! See you in the fall for Part Two!

Other things to note:

• I only included new releases/new series – although there are many great sequels coming out this year!  
• And yes, some of these have already been released because, well, I got behind and didn’t get this article out earlier in January …
• Goodreads synopsis and expected publication dates are given.

The School for Good Mothers

Release Date: January 4, 2022

Written by Jessamine Chan

Published by Simon & Schuster

Anytime we have a book that wants to discuss the unrealistic expectations we put on mothers and women in our society – I’m game. Especially looking through a dystopian lens because I feel, through dystopia, we uncomfortably see just how real everything is. Being a mother today is no joke and the judgement is real and the help is little.

Frida Liu is struggling. She doesn’t have a career worthy of her Chinese immigrant parents’ sacrifices. What’s worse is she can’t persuade her husband, Gust, to give up his wellness-obsessed younger mistress. Only with their angelic daughter Harriet does Frida finally feel she’s attained the perfection expected of her. Harriet may be all she has, but she’s just enough. Until Frida has a horrible day. The state has its eyes on mothers like Frida — ones who check their phones while their kids are on the playground; who let their children walk home alone; in other words, mothers who only have one lapse of judgement. Now, a host of government officials will determine if Frida is a candidate for a Big Brother-like institution that measures the success or failure of a mother’s devotion. Faced with the possibility of losing Harriet, Frida must prove that she can live up to the standards set for mothers — that she can learn to be good.

You can find it here: Bookshop.org

The Maid

Release Date: January 4, 2022

Written by Nita Prose

Published by Ballantine Books

I don’t know what it is about January, but I always crave a little murder mystery, so this new release is coming at the right time.

When Molly, a most excellent maid at the Grand Regency Hotel, finds the body of Mr. Black – the hotel’s most esteemed guest – dead in his bed, she is quite shocked indeed. But soon Molly herself is the prime suspect. Caught in a web of deception and lies, Molly, with her unique personality and view of the world, needs the help of some real friends solving the clues to Mr. Black’s murder.

You can find it here: Bookshop.org

Daughter of the Moon Goddess

Release Date: January 11, 2022

Written by Sue Lynn Tan

Published by Harper Voyager

Okay, yes the cover has called out to me like a foghorn, but the synopsis sounds pretty effing great as well! A fantasy with Chinese mythology, immortals, dreams, romance and magic … speaking my language!

Growing up on the moon, Xingyin is accustomed to solitude, unaware that she is being hidden from the powerful Celestial Emperor who exiled her mother for stealing his elixir of immortality. But when Xingyin’s magic flares and her existence is discovered, she is forced to flee her home, leaving her mother behind. Alone, untrained, and afraid, she makes her way to the Celestial Kingdom, a land of wonder and secrets. Disguising her identity, she seizes an opportunity to learn alongside the Crown Prince, mastering archery and magic, even as passion flames between her and the emperor’s son.To save her mother, Xingyin embarks on a perilous quest, confronting legendary creatures and vicious enemies across the earth and skies. When treachery looms and forbidden magic threatens the kingdom, however, she must challenge the ruthless Celestial Emperor for her dream—striking a dangerous bargain in which she is torn between losing all she loves or plunging the realm into chaos.

You can find it here: Bookshop.org

Gallant

Anticipated release date: March 1, 2022

Written by V.E. Schwab

Published by Greenwillow Books

Does anyone not have this on their anticipated releases list?? And yes we have another school for girls setting, but I can’t halllp myself. Gimme gimme …

Olivia Prior has grown up in Merilance School for girls, and all she has of her past is her mother’s journal—which seems to unravel into madness. Then, a letter invites Olivia to come home—to Gallant. Yet when Olivia arrives, no one is expecting her. But Olivia is not about to leave the first place that feels like home, it doesn’t matter if her cousin Matthew is hostile or if she sees half-formed ghouls haunting the hallways. Olivia knows that Gallant is hiding secrets, and she is determined to uncover them. When she crosses a ruined wall at just the right moment, Olivia finds herself in a place that is Gallant—but not. The manor is crumbling, the ghouls are solid, and a mysterious figure rules over all. Now Olivia sees what has unraveled generations of her family, and where her father may have come from. Olivia has always wanted to belong somewhere, but will she take her place as a Prior, protecting our world against the Master of the House? Or will she take her place beside him?

You can find it here: Bookshop.org

One Italian Summer

Anticipated release date: March 1, 2022

Written by Rebecca Searle

Published by Atria Books

Will this one likely crack open my cold, cold heart? Maybe. Likely. Storylines centring around grief and the loss of a mother/parent/grandparent are usually ones I avoid but this one sounded so unique to me … being able to converse with and talk to your parent when they were your age (before they had you), sounds really captivating!

When Katy’s mother dies, she is left reeling. Carol wasn’t just Katy’s mom, but her best friend and first phone call. She had all the answers and now, when Katy needs her the most, she is gone. To make matters worse, their planned mother-daughter trip of a lifetime looms: two weeks in Positano, the magical town Carol spent the summer right before she met Katy’s father. Katy has been waiting years for Carol to take her, and now she is faced with embarking on the adventure alone. But as soon as she steps foot on the Amalfi Coast, Katy begins to feel her mother’s spirit. Buoyed by the stunning waters, beautiful cliffsides, delightful residents, and, of course, delectable food, Katy feels herself coming back to life. And then Carol appears—in the flesh, healthy, sun-tanned, and thirty years old. Katy doesn’t understand what is happening, or how—all she can focus on is that she has somehow, impossibly, gotten her mother back. Over the course of one Italian summer, Katy gets to know Carol, not as her mother, but as the young woman before her. She is not exactly who Katy imagined she might be, however, and soon Katy must reconcile the mother who knew everything with the young woman who does not yet have a clue.

You can find it here: Bookshop.org

This Time Tomorrow

Anticipated release date: May 17, 2022

Written by Emma Straub

Published by Riverhead Books

Okay, yes, I still haven’t finished her mega popular All Adults Here, but I’ve still got my eye out for Emma’s new book this spring. For starters it features a lead female character over the age of 35 … god forbid! … basically a 13 Going on 30, but in reverse!

On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice’s life isn’t terrible. She likes her job, even if it isn’t exactly the one she expected. She’s happy with her apartment, her romantic status, her independence, and she adores her lifelong best friend. But her father is ailing, and it feels to her as if something is missing. When she wakes up the next morning she finds herself back in 1996, reliving her 16th birthday. But it isn’t just her adolescent body that shocks her, or seeing her high school crush, it’s her dad: the vital, charming, 40-something version of her father with whom she is reunited. Now armed with a new perspective on her own life and his, some past events take on new meaning. Is there anything that she would change if she could?

You can find it here: Bookshop.org

The Family Chao

Anticipated release date: February 1, 2022

Written by Lan Samantha Chang

Published by W.W. Norton & Company

Is it a comedy? Is it a thriller? A murder mystery? Dysfunctional family fiction? A little of all of it? I can’t get a read on this one yet, but it has me all intrigued none the same.

The residents of Haven, Wisconsin, have dined on the Fine Chao restaurant’s delicious Americanized Chinese food for thirty-five years, content to ignore any unsavory whispers about the family owners. Whether or not Big Leo Chao is honest, or his wife, Winnie, is happy, their food tastes good and their three sons earned scholarships to respectable colleges. But when the brothers reunite in Haven, the Chao family’s secrets and simmering resentments erupt at last. Before long, brash, charismatic, and tyrannical patriarch Leo is found dead—presumed murdered—and his sons find they’ve drawn the exacting gaze of the entire town. The ensuing trial brings to light potential motives for all three brothers: Dagou, the restaurant’s reckless head chef; Ming, financially successful but personally tortured; and the youngest, gentle but lost college student James. As the spotlight on the brothers tightens—and the family dog meets an unexpected fate—Dagou, Ming, and James must reckon with the legacy of their father’s outsized appetites and their own future survival.

You can find it here: Bookshop.org

The Nineties: A Book

Anticipated release date: February 8, 2022

Written by Chuck Klosterman

Published by Penguin Press

I am really excited to read this work of non-fiction that looks back on the nineties – my formative years – and the last great decade before our world became ruled by the instantaneous of communication and reachability, i.e. cell phones. We could talk for hours about my complicated feelings regarding the dependancy we have on these little black squares and the voids that we try to fill with them, but beyond that, I hope this is a great book looking back on a really unique decade.

You can find it here: Bookshop.org

Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop

Anticipated release date: April 19, 2022

Written by Danyel Smith

Published by Roc Lit 101

The other non-fiction book on this list, this time examining the rise and treatment of Black female pop stars in the music industry.

Synopsis: A weave of biography, criticism, and memoir, Shine Bright is Danyel Smith’s intimate history of Black women’s music as the foundational story of American pop. Smith has been writing this history for more than five years. But as a music fan, and then as an essayist, editor (Vibe, Billboard), and podcast host (Black Girl Songbook), she has been living this history since she was a latchkey kid listening to “Midnight Train to Georgia” on the family stereo. Smith’s detailed narrative begins with Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved woman who sang her poems, and continues through the stories of Mahalia Jackson, Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, and Mariah Carey, as well as the under-considered careers of Marilyn McCoo, Deniece Williams, and Jody Watley. 

You can find it here: Bookshop.org

A Tidy Ending

Anticipated release date: August 2, 2022

Written by Joanna Cannon

Published by Scribner Book Company

Three Things About Elsie is one of my favourite books of all time, so yes, this is going to be on my anticipated reads list. I don’t even need to know what it’s about, simply an auto-buy author right here. But, I do know what it’s about, and it also sounds superb and warm and charming and all things Joanna.

Linda has lived in a quiet neighborhood since fleeing the dark events of her childhood in Wales. Now she sits in her kitchen, wondering if this is all there is: pushing the vacuum around and cooking fish sticks for dinner, a far cry from the glamorous lifestyle she sees in the glossy magazines coming through the mail slot addressed to the previous occupant, Rebecca. Linda’s husband Terry isn’t perfect—he picks his teeth, tracks dirt through the house, and spends most of his time in front of the TV. But that seems fairly standard—until he starts keeping odd hours at work, at around the same time young women in the town start to go missing. If only Linda could track down and befriend Rebecca, maybe some of that enviable lifestyle would rub off on her and she wouldn’t have to worry about what Terry is up to. But the grass isn’t always greener and you can’t change who you really are. And some secrets can’t stay buried forever…

You can find it here: Bookshop.org

The Latecomer

Anticipated release date: May 31, 2022

Written by Jean Hanff Korelitz

Published by Celadon Books

A family drama? We’ve been here before. I recognize that tree … but I can’t help it. I love family drama fiction.

The Latecomer follows the story of the wealthy, New York City-based Oppenheimer family, from the first meeting of parents Salo and Johanna, under tragic circumstances, to their triplets born during the early days of IVF. As children, the three siblings – Harrison, Lewyn, and Sally – feel no strong familial bond and cannot wait to go their separate ways, even as their father becomes more distanced and their mother more desperate. When the triplets leave for college, Johanna, faced with being truly alone, makes the decision to add a fourth child to the family. What role will the “latecomer” play in this fractured family?

You can find it here: Bookshop.org

Book of Night

Anticipated release date: May 3, 2022

Written by Holly Black

Published by Tor Books

Holly Black. Adult fantasy. That’s it, I’m in.

Here’s a synopsis if you need more: Charlie Hall has never found a lock she couldn’t pick, a book she couldn’t steal, or a bad decision she wouldn’t make. She’s spent half her life working for gloamists, magicians who manipulate shadows to peer into locked rooms, strangle people in their beds, or worse. Gloamists guard their secrets greedily, creating an underground economy of grimoires. And to rob their fellow magicians, they need Charlie.

Now, she’s trying to distance herself from past mistakes, but going straight isn’t easy. Bartending at a dive, she’s still entirely too close to the corrupt underbelly of the Berkshires. Not to mention that her sister Posey is desperate for magic, and that her shadowless and possibly soulless boyfriend has been keeping secrets from her. When a terrible figure from her past returns, Charlie descends back into a maelstrom of murder and lies. Determined to survive, she’s up against a cast of doppelgängers, mercurial billionaires, gloamists, and the people she loves best in the world ― all trying to steal a secret that will allow them control of the shadow world and more.

You can find it here: Bookshop.org

Dele Weds Destiny

Anticipated release date: June 28, 2022

Written by Tomi Obaro

Published by Random House

I’m just a big sucker for a story that promises to explore complex relationships – especially female relationships. Sisters, mothers, daughters, friendships.

Set against an African backdrop this novel sounds incredibly compelling … Funmi, Enitan, and Zainab first meet at university in Nigeria and become friends for life despite their differences. Funmi is beautiful, brash, and determined; Enitan is homely and eager, seeking escape from her single mother’s smothering and needy love; Zainab is elegant and reserved, raised by her father’s first two wives after her mother’s death in childbirth. Their friendship is complicated but enduring, and over the course of the novel, the reader learns about their loves and losses. How Funmi stole Zainab’s boyfriend and became pregnant, only to have an abortion and lose the boyfriend to police violence. How Enitan was seduced by an American Peace Corps volunteer, the only one who ever really saw her, but is culturally so different from him–a Connecticut WASP–that raising their daughter together put them at odds. How Zainab fell in love with her teacher, a friend of her father’s, and ruptured her relationship with her father to have him. Now, some thirty years later, the three women are reunited for the first time, in Lagos. The occasion: Funmi’s daughter, Destiny, is getting married.

You can find it here: Bookshop.org

Kaikeyi

Anticipated release date: April 25, 2022

Written by Vaishnavi Patel

Published by Redhook

You had me at mythology … you all know me by now … that’s all it takes. Oh my stars does this one sound fantastic!!

“I was born on the full moon under an auspicious constellation, the holiest of positions—much good it did me.” So begins Kaikeyi’s story. The only daughter of the kingdom of Kekaya, she is raised on tales about the might and benevolence of the gods: how they churned the vast ocean to obtain the nectar of immortality, how they vanquish evil and ensure the land of Bharat prospers, and how they offer powerful boons to the devout and the wise. Yet she watches as her father unceremoniously banishes her mother, listens as her own worth is reduced to how great a marriage alliance she can secure. And when she calls upon the gods for help, they never seem to hear. Desperate for some measure of independence, she turns to the texts she once read with her mother and discovers a magic that is hers alone. With this power, Kaikeyi transforms herself from an overlooked princess into a warrior, diplomat, and most favored queen, determined to carve a better world for herself and the women around her. But as the evil from her childhood stories threatens the cosmic order, the path she has forged clashes with the destiny the gods have chosen for her family. And Kaikeyi must decide if resistance is worth the destruction it will wreak—and what legacy she intends to leave behind.

You can find it here: Bookshop.org

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Anticipated release date: July 12, 2022

Written by Gabrielle Zevin

Published by Knopf Publishing Group

Oh how weird and wonderful (hopefully?) this novel sounds.

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn’t heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. They borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo a game where players can escape the confines of a body and the betrayals of a heart, and where death means nothing more than a chance to restart and play again. This is the story of the perfect worlds Sam and Sadie build, the imperfect world they live in, and of everything that comes after success: Money. Fame. Duplicity. Tragedy.

You can find it here: Bookshop.org

Where I Can’t Follow

Anticipated release date: February 15, 2022

Written by Ashley Blooms

Published by Sourcebooks Landmark

Blame it on Narnia, we can’t resist a good “door” story … amiright? This one sounds to deliver some portal fantasy with some powerful emotion to boot.

Maren Walker told herself she wouldn’t need to sell pills for long, that it was only means to an end. But that end seems to be stretching as far away as the other side of Blackdamp County, Kentucky. There’s always another bill for Granny’s doctor, another problem with the car, another reason she’s getting nowhere. She dreams of walking through her little door to leave it all behind. The doors have appeared to the people in her mountain town for as long as anyone can remember, though no one knows where they lead. All anyone knows is that if you go, you’ll never come back. Maren’s mother left through her door when Maren was nine, and her shadow has followed Maren ever since. When she faces the possibility of escaping her struggles for good, Maren must choose just what kind of future she wants to build.

You can find it here: Bookshop.org

A River Enchanted

Anticipated release date: February 15, 2022

Written by Rebecca Ross

Published by Harper Voyager

I’m all aboard the YA authors transitioning to Adult Fantasy train! In my opinion it can allow the story greater room to breathe. Go to darker, deeper places.

This story sounds part fantasy, part mythology, part thriller and has me very very intrigued …

Jack Tamerlaine hasn’t stepped foot on Cadence in ten long years, content to study music at the mainland university. But when young girls start disappearing from the isle, Jack is summoned home to help find them. Enchantments run deep on Cadence: gossip is carried by the wind, plaid shawls can be as strong as armor, and the smallest cut of a knife can instill fathomless fear. The capricious spirits that rule the isle by fire, water, earth, and wind find mirth in the lives of the humans who call the land home. Adaira, heiress of the east and Jack’s childhood enemy, knows the spirits only answer to a bard’s music, and she hopes Jack can draw them forth by song, enticing them to return the missing girls.

As Jack and Adaira reluctantly work together, they find they make better allies than rivals as their partnership turns into something more. But with each passing song, it becomes apparent the trouble with the spirits is far more sinister than they first expected, and an older, darker secret about Cadence lurks beneath the surface, threatening to undo them all.

With unforgettable characters, a fast-paced plot, and compelling world building, A River Enchanted is a stirring story of duty, love, and the power of true partnership, and marks Rebecca Ross’s brilliant entry on the adult fantasy stage.

You can find it here: Bookshop.org

Book Lovers

Anticipated release date: May 3, 2022

Written by Emily Henry

Published by Berkley Books

Is it summer without Emily Henry? When I need a pause and some needed brevity, Emily Henry, is my go-to.

Nora Stephens’ life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby. Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute. If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.

You can find it here: Bookshop.org

Hotel Magnifique

Anticipated release date: April 5, 2022

Written by Emily J. Taylor

Published by Razorbill

If you’re going to blurb something as Caraval meets The Night Circus … Imma gonna buy it. But you better deliver as well. What is it with me and magical hotel settings??

All her life, Jani has dreamed of Elsewhere. Just barely scraping by with her job at a tannery, she’s resigned to a dreary life in the port town of Durc, caring for her younger sister Zosa. That is, until the Hotel Magnifique comes to town. The hotel is legendary not only for its whimsical enchantments, but also for its ability to travel—appearing in a different destination every morning. While Jani and Zosa can’t afford the exorbitant costs of a guest’s stay, they can interview to join the staff, and are soon whisked away on the greatest adventure of their lives. But once inside, Jani quickly discovers their contracts are unbreakable and that beneath the marvelous glamour, the hotel is hiding dangerous secrets. With the vexingly handsome doorman Bel as her only ally, Jani embarks on a mission to unravel the mystery of the magic at the heart of the hotel and free Zosa—and the other staff—from the cruelty of the ruthless maître d’hôtel. To succeed, she’ll have to risk everything she loves, but failure would mean a fate far worse than never returning home.

You can find it here: Bookshop.org

The Bone Orchard

Anticipated release date: March 22, 2022

Written by Sara A. Mueller

Published by Tor Books

Stahp it with this cover already… Did I over do it on Gothic Horror in the last couple years and determined to put a pin in it for now? Yes. That is true. But just one more can’t hurt, right?

Charm is a witch, and she is alone. The last of a line of conquered necromantic workers, now confined within the yard of regrown bone trees at Orchard House, and the secrets of their marrow. Charm is a prisoner, and a survivor. Charm tends the trees and their clattering fruit for the sake of her children, painstakingly grown and regrown with its fruit: Shame, Justice, Desire, Pride, and Pain. Charm is a whore, and a madam. The wealthy and powerful of Borenguard come to her house to buy time with the girls who aren’t real. Except on Tuesdays, which is when the Emperor himself lays claim to his mistress, Charm herself. But now–Charm is also the only person who can keep an empire together, as the Emperor summons her to his deathbed, and charges her with choosing which of his awful, faithless sons will carry on the empire—by discovering which one is responsible for his own murder. If she does this last thing, she will finally have what has been denied her since the fall of Inshil — her freedom. But if she does, she will also be betraying the ghosts past and present that live on within her heart. Charm must choose. Her dead Emperor’s will or the whispers of her own ghosts. Justice for the empire or her own revenge.

You can find it here: Bookshop.org

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