The best books of 2022

Kenna is ready to make right by those she wronged including her 4-year-old daughter. With very little help or support from the community—minus the charming local bar owner who she can’t seem to get out of her head (and heart)—Kenna sets out to win back everyone’s trust and with that, her and her daughter’s future.

Told in dual perspectives, nearly 50 years apart from one another, this historical fiction novel follows the lives of two independent women whose lives intersect after one of them leaves a string of hidden messages in one of New York City’s most impressive museums. 

Interspersed with emails, messages, and letters, The Appeal centers around a theater community as they come together to financially support their director’s granddaughter after she’s diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. However, not everyone is convinced of this sudden tragedy, and when their dress rehearsal unexpectedly ends with a murder, it’s made clear this town isn’t as close-knit as they once thought.

What happens when you see the man you killed two years ago lingering on the rooftop terrace directly across from your own apartment building? That’s for you, dear reader, to find out in this dark, twisted novel by Louise Candlish.  

It was Leigh and Susy’s dream to compete at the Winter Olympics together; but when Leigh doesn’t make the Team USA hockey roster, she not only loses her dreams of Olympic glory but her best friend as well. Twenty years later, fate and hockey bring these former teammates back together and for the sake of their children, they’ll need each other more than ever. Will they be able to let bygones be bygones?

Nora Stephens is a kick a*s literary agent and she knows it, but even this boss babe needs a vacation every now and again. So, she agrees to a sister trip with her ever-endearing little sister, Libby. There, she runs into fellow editor Charlie Lastra, aka the last specimen she was expecting to lay her eyes on during this vacay. It appears the literary world has other plans for these two main characters.

It’s been years since Leo Grady walked out of Lily Wilder’s life without so much as a proper breakup or goodbye. Still heartbroken, she’s begrudgingly following in her dead father’s treasure hunting footsteps and leading paying customers on fake hunts throughout the Utah canyons. But when Leo shows up for a boys trip at Wilder Adventures, which he was unaware was run by his first and only love, his world and hers is turned upside down. 

Julie Clark’s forthcoming thriller will send chills down your spine. Meg–Melody or Maggie, whoever she feels like being that day, and, of course, depending on her target—is the con of con artists. At the flip of a dime, she can morph into a new persona. Albeit, that’s not going to work on Kat, who’s spent the last decade studying Meg and seeking vengeance on the women who capsized her life so many years ago.

College friends Funmi, Enitan, and Zainab reunite for Funmi’s daughter’s lavish, over-the-top wedding weekend in Lagos. Though the group has had more downs than ups over the course of their 30-something-year long friendship, they must band together when a shocking crisis arises right before the big day.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle fans will eat up Tracey Livesay’s forthcoming novel about a prince who wants nothing more than to be out of the royal spotlight, which seemingly goes to plan when he finds himself falling for the audacious American rapper set to headline a tribute concert at the palace. 

With her life unraveling at the seams, Nicole RSVPs “yes” to an invitation to an elite networking retreat for women professionals. At Panthera Leo, Nicole is partnered with a CEO, an actress, a financer and a congresswoman. The group quickly strikes up a friendship that lives on outside of the retreat. But when unsettling things begin occurring, Nicole’s husband begs her to reconsider her ties to the group. When one of the ladies commits a crime, Nicole anxiously sketches up a plan to cut ties once and for all.

Step into the glossy world of the magazine industry in Iman Harir-Kia’s debut novel, “A Hundred Other Girls.” Noora has just landed her dream job as editorial assistant to *the* Loretta James, “Vinyl‘s” renowned editor-in-chief. It’s not before long that Noora finds herself living in a modern adaptation of “Devil Wears Prada.” Her unexpected crush on the magazine’s sexy IT guy doesn’t make her situation any better—or does it?

After a severe case of writer’s block, Naomi finds a muse in Caleb. He’s a foreigner with a sexy accent, and she’s totally smitten. Things take a turn when Naomi tracks down Caleb’s ex-girlfriend. Like Naomi, Rosemary also lives in NYC and works in the literary industry. Realizing she and Rosemary have a creepy amount of things in common, she befriends her man’s ex—but under a false identity. You’ll have to read the book to find out what happens next.

London has her hands full sifting through potential partnerships for her family’s event hotel, Spark House. On the cusp of finishing a meeting with a very interested and wealthy client, London is thrown off her game when the client’s CEO, Jackson Holt, joins the meeting. A few months prior, Jackson asked London out and she declined, not knowing who he was. The more time they spend together going over business plans, the more London wonders if she made a mistake saying no.

The Whisper Room is an elite dating app, where affairs, blackmail, and sometimes even murder are on the table. Journalist Geneva Chase comes across the platform when one of the app’s escorts is found dead. It just so happens the underage victim was allegedly involved in a sex tape with a local news anchor. Naturally, Geneva keeps digging for more evidence and what she finds could be her biggest and most dangerous story yet.

Told through alternating perspectives, “The Truth About Ben and June” will have you sitting on the edge of your seat until the very last word. The psychological thriller centers around a new mom suffering from postpartum anxiety and depression, who up-and-vanishes one early morning. Her husband works tirelessly to piece together small clues his wife may have left behind, including her odd obsession with a Greek myth.

Described as a”The Handmaid’s Tale x The Alice Network” crossover, C.J. Carey’s forthcoming novel takes place in an alternate world in which England has surrendered to the Nazis and has been under occuption for 13 years. Rose Ransom works at the Ministry of Culture, where her responsibility is to rewrite all classic works of literature that evoke a feminist appeals and ideas. When anti-book banning-inspired graffiti is splashed across public buildings, Rose is ordered to shut it down. However, she finds herself teetering between her job and justice.

It’s the perfect set-up: Pose as your fortune teller and tell a devilishly handsome man that’ll meet his soulmate in a specific bar, on a specific day, and her name is Mara. Well, meet Mara, the fake fortune teller. She has three months to get her life together, fix things at her job, and buy a whole new wardrobe. Things are going swimmingly until a hot new housemate signs onto her lease, giving Mara a whole lot of butterflies and mixed emotions.

This is the women’s empowerment book I needed this summer. At first glance, I didn’t expect to like a book about women turning into dragons because that’s not my typical style, but I was hooked immediately and devoured it in a few days. Although it takes place in the 1950s during that classic well-known period in American history where women were often oppressed, ignored, stifled, and forced into a life they didn’t necessarily want, it felt so prevalent and inspiring to me today, as a woman and mother in 2022.

-Karen Johnson, Assistant Commerce Editor

If you love reading creepy mysteries that leave you asking, “What on earth is going on here?” the whole time, The Paris Apartment is for you. It opens pretty quickly with the information that someone is missing and it’s looking very suspicious. As the main character searches for the person who went missing, she learns (therefore the reader learns) the truth about who actually lives in “the Paris apartment” and… well, it’s a lot to take in. A great page-turner, a great book club read, a great read if you like books with a little mystery, a little murder, and a lot of unexpected twists. 

-KJ

Reality TV fans and followers of the most talked about A-list celebs will love this one. The premise is that The Club is an exclusive group of only the richest, the hottest, the current “it crowd”, and everyone else is desperate to get in. But what you learn as you read this intense page-turner is that being in “The Club” is not what it seems. And some of the stars who were willing to do anything to get in might not make it out alive. This is one of those books that you really hope becomes a movie someday and you already have thoughts on who would play which parts.

-KJ

I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that nailed the epicness of becoming a mom while being so shockingly honest about it. Klein’s book about the realities of motherhood and identity reframing made me actually laugh out loud with every chapter—it’s her own story, but I felt so seen.

-Shannon Vestal Robson, Senior Director of Content Strategy

This summer release became my favorite winter book—Ware’s cozy mystery set at Oxford College in London is made for sitting in the comfiest chair in front of a fire with a steaming mug of tea (because you’ll also pretend to be British). The whodunit flashes back to the murder of the main character’s college roommate—whom everyone wanted to be, and it seemed, whom everyone had a reason for wanting gone. You’ll drink it up like the tea.

-SVR

I loved this book because it resonated with me on so many different levels.  It really reminded me of something I always tell my own children, that it is not how you start but how you finish and the importance of living your life authentically…  In this book, Viola does an exceptional job of inspiring, motivating, and encouraging us to not find shame in who people think we are and fitting into their box, but to love and accept every single part of ourselves.  So many emotions reading this exceptional memoir. 

–Tonika Starks, Director of People Operations

Especially for Millennials and Gen Z, this book will hit in so many perfect ways—from the nostalgia to the compelling relationship between the two main characters and more. I was captivated from the very beginning and absolutely adore Zevin’s writing style. At 300+ pages, it never dragged and I was left wanting more!

–Emily Glover, Branded Content Editor

As the original Motherly essays editor, Colleen Temple has the most poignant way of speaking to moms of young children. That absolutely rings true for her first novel, which follows a mom as she returns to her childhood home and is forced to confront some things she had hoped to leave in the past. A raw and moving story, this one is a great read for moms in any season of life. 

-EG

This book is actually a middle grade novel but author Brigit Young (who also wrote Worth a Thousand Words and The Prettiest- both AMAZING) somehow finds a way to make her stories so deeply relatable to everyone, particularly anyone who’s ever been a middle school girl. The main character feels like one of the stupid kids in middle school and joins her school’s quiz team in order to avoid failing 8th grade. It’s a book about overcoming your fear of failure and finding your own self-worth, and Brigit Young makes the main character Marianne so relatable and captures something so beautiful about female friendships. I especially loved it as someone who was so afraid of failure and judgment in middle school and as the mom of a daughter (though she is still far from middle school days!). I want to be friends with all of the characters that Young writes in her books, but especially Marianne. 

Side note: Brigit is a good friend and I read her first book to be supportive but have become a genuinely huge fan of all of her work! 

-Sasha Lazare, Digital Program Manager