Hi there AAR readers! Happy December!
The staff has begun submitting their Best of 2022 Lists. (I adore these–every year I discover great reads I missed!) I confess I’m having a hard time with mine. For whatever reasons, in the past year, I didn’t love many of the love stories I read. So, I’m asking for help from you–I’ve still got four weeks to find my dream romance published in 2022. What should I read? It must be a romance–have an HEA or an HFN–and have been published this year.
And I’d love it if you’d break your replies into genres. If you could recommend one book from, oh say, historical romance, contemporary romance, romantic suspense, and/or fantasy romance, that would be the bomb. Thanks!
Go!
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I’m usually a few years behind in my romance reading and haven’t read that many this year. Red Blossom in Snow by Jeannie Lin is one of the few 2022 releases I picked up, and I did like it, as I have all her Tang Dynasty/ Lotus Palace Mystery books.
I haven’t read Red Blossom in Snow yet, so I’m looking forward to it. I love Jeannie Lin’s books. They are simply fascinating.
I’m glad you liked it! I gave it a DIK/A here and it’s definitely on my list.
I haven’t read as much as I would have liked to this year – but I would say it’s a three way tie between Pack of Lies by Charlie Adhara, I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston, and Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell.
I’m so glad to here you enjoyed Ocean’s Echo. I have that on my audible wishlist. I enjoyed Maxwell’s first book so I was hoping this was good as well.
I liked it better than Winter’s Orbit, actually!
That is good to know, I am getting to it soon.
I found the final part of Winter’s Orbit a bit too long and yet not clearly resolved,, once the focus was on the broader world it was not so brilliant to me. I will like to discover why you liked this better.
Would you tell more?
I reviewed the audio version of Winter’s Orbit HERE – I liked a lot about it, but thought it was generally too busy and there wasn’t enough in depth focus on the characters. So I’ve been on the fence about Ocean’s Echo.
You put it well – those were my negatives about WO.
Which is why I was glad to read that Allie liked OE better. I really liked WO for its relationship building and main couple, and was hoping for the author to get even better in the next book after WO.
I thought Ocean’s Echo had more interesting scifi world building, and it was a good character study of the two main protagonists. There’s actually no sex between them in the book, but they really get to know each other almost better than they know themselves. It’s an intimacy slow burn which I really enjoyed.
Thank you, I am just about in the middle and enjoying it a lot – the courage of Surit in protecting the free choice of Tennal in the face of opposition, it really draws me into their relationship – I like that it did not go down the obvious route of “we are forced into this bond, we will just go with it and work it out”, many more surprises remain possible since the freedom is still there to not go into bonding, but choose freely.
I finished the book and agree. It is overall better than WO. Story arc and world building’ as well as the political plot are a coherent backdrop to a strong romance & to lovely character growth for both men.
No sexy times, which fit this story very well, they could not be sure of full consent until the end.
Not so good that it displaces my favorites below, still, excellent !
Thank you Allie, I might have waited much longer to read it, without you, and missed a good time sorely needed in winter’s grey.
The NYT picked it as one of the best romances (sci-fi/fantasy) for 2022.
I missed this one so I’m so glad people are talking about it here. It’s on reserve at my library now!
I Kissed Shara Wheeler was great!
I didn’t get the hype about Red, White and Royal Blue and probably wouldn’t have picked it up without your review! I liked it a lot more than RWARB.
Thanks for the Everina Maxwell recommendation! Just finished OE – which I quite enjoyed – and off to find a copy of Winter’s Orbit. Would have blown right by these without your mention and everyone’s comments here. Thank you everyone!
Two Tribes by Fearne Hill was a standout for me. Original, angsty and a really superb depiction of closeted life in the 1990s
All the books on my best of list are m/m.
Fantasy romance: The Doctor by C.S. Poe (steampunk), with Farview by Kim Fielding coming in a close second. Pack of Lies by Charlie Adara (urban fantasy) and Proper Scoundrels by Allie Therin get Honorable Mentions (A-)
Romantic suspense: it’s a tie between Unstable Connections by Nicky James and Subway Slayings by C.S. Poe (mystery).
Contemporary Romance: In Step by Jay Hogan is my only A book of 2022 in this category, but there were several A- books, including two more by Hogan: Flare and Sass, plus The Long Game by Rachel Reid.
I realize I haven’t read any Historical Romance (other than fantasy books set in alt-history) published this year,
So my top book of the year is Subway Slayings by C.S. Poe. I haven’t had another book effect me the same way. Her musings on grief were so moving.
Most of those are going to be on my Best of 2022 list as well!
Slim picking, in 2022.
No m/f romance, contemporary or historical, of 2022 really stayed with me. (Kelly Hunter’ s Outback Billionaire was good, and triggered a reread of some of her older better books, but I did not remember it without prompting from DiscoDollyDeb – so not good enough).
I do not much like romantic suspense so that was out.
Below, the best. Though they are not their best books overall, for the Demas & Cooper books.
Only the Sherwood Smith was stellar, keep me up at night, just about perfect joy to read, and that was for the grand fantasy adventure, not the romance.
A j Demas – Honey & Pepper – alternate ancient Greece, m/m
Forget me Not by R. Cooper – urban fantasy would probably fit, m/m
Phoenix Feather Quartet by Sherwood Smith – High fantasy with a lovely central romance of youngsters growing up – mostly fantasy, nor romance, in a fantasy China
I’m not familiar with any on your list! I’m going to investigate them now. Thanks!
My favorite by Demas is Something Human, her Sword Dance trilogy is splendid’ too. I loved this book, it is just not her best, for me.
R Cooper – all her books are wonderful, I went by blurbs to choose and ended up devouring most of her backlist, Hard to pick a favorite.
Thanks for the recs!
I love R. Cooper and haven’t had a chance to read that one yet – must try to read it soon!
Subway Slayings is book 2 of the Momento Mori series and my absolute best book for 2022.. Everett and Ira are my new favourite couple. Every other book I’ve read has been forgettable. I put that down to it being a me problem. My level of concentration has taken a real nose dive during the pandemic. Hopefully 2023 is better for my reading enjoyment.
Agreed on Larkin and Doyle – and I think that Nicky James’ Valor and Doyle (what a strange coincidence!) are running them a close second this year.
Around the time I was reading Madison Square Murders and Nicky James’ Temporary Partner, I was also finishing up an older series by Mary Calmes, the Marshals series, which also has a main character (in law enforcement, set in Chicago) named Doyle, this time it was Ian Doyle. It must be a common name in certain big cities!
‘The Long Game’, by Rachel Reid, a male/male sports romance, that has been my best book of this year.
This year I have read all the Game Changers series and it is amazing. .
It was a great year of reading for me:
Historical Romance Anthology (M/F, M/M): Duke in a Box by Kate Bateman et. al.
Regency Romance (STEM/Neurodiverse): Katerina and the Reclusive Earl (Sisters of Castle Fortune #3) by Alicia Cameron
Contemporary Romance (M/M): The Long Game (Game Changers #6) by Rachel Reid
Romantic Suspense: Into the Storm (Evidence: Under Fire #1) by Rachel Grant
Fantasy Steampunk Romance (LGBTQ+): The Prince’s Poisoned Vow (Infernal War Saga #1) by Hailey Turner
Science Fiction Romance: Peace Maker (Verdant String #6) by Michelle Diener
Women’s Fiction (Romantic Elements): The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin
Historical Fiction: The Montesoro Legacy (Brandon Brothers #3) by Stella Riley
Mystery (M/M; Neurodiverse): Subway Slayings (Memento Mori #2) by C.S. Poe
Fantasy (Dark Academia): Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R. F. Kuang
I have The Montesoro legacy! I need to get that out. Thanks for the reminder.
Stella Riley’s writing is wonderful. I appreciate her attention to detail, period history and fully realized characters. She adds other elements though, sly humour, poignancy, intrigue and emphasis on family bonds and friendships.
I totally agree! I’ve read most of her books, but somehow put this aside and forgot to read it. My husband is now reading her Roundheads and Cavalier books. He just finished The Black Madonna and he couldn’t stop praising it! I have them on audio, but now he’s buying them all on Kindle, along with A Splendid Defiance. I also have The King’s Falcon on audio that I need to listen to.
Have you read her Rockliffe series?
I’m not so good with audio but have read through her backlist on epub. First picked up the Rockliffe series in 2019. One of my favourites. Stella Riley’s writing echoes that of Georgette Heyer’s historical fiction works (An Infamous Army, Simon the Coldheart, The Spanish Bride). A similar mix of history, culture, society, wit, strong characters, intrigue and light romance.
I have the last two Roundheads and Cavalier to read and then I will have read most of her backlist. Brandon Brothers #2 and #3 were both 5-star reads for me.
Forgot to include…there is no romance in Babel…and there is no HEA. It’s strictly High Fantasy.
So far, two of my favorite books of 2022–Rachel Reid’s THE LONG GAME and Claire Kingsley’s REWRITING THE STARS—are the sixth and final books of their respective series and really require reading all the previous books to get the full depth of the story (plus, THE LONG GAME is m/m, which I think you’ve said you don’t read). I didn’t have high expectations for Ava Wilder’s HOW TO FAKE IT IN HOLLYWOOD, a fake relationship story between an up-and-coming actress and a former A-list actor, but I found a beautifully-written story which handled the serious topics of addiction and enabling with both sensitivity and realism. As soon as I finished it, it went straight to my Best of 2022 list. Another favorite—although I’d describe it as “romance-adjacent” despite the rather qualified HEA—was J.T. Geissinger’s PEN PAL, a really good mashup of romance, psychological suspense, and gothic horror. If you decide to read it, I recommend going into it blind without looking for spoilers: part of the enjoyment of the book is trying to figure out where all the twists and turns are going (and I think Geissinger played fair with all the clues). Finally, my Best of list is never complete without an HP, and this year Kelly Hunter’s RETURN OF THE OUTBACK BILLIONAIRE fits the bill: written in Hunter’s smoothly readable style, it’s the story of an ex-con and the woman whose situation inadvertently played a part in the reason he was incarcerated.
Two other favorites this year—Fearne Hill’s snarky dual-timeline TWO TRIBES and Tal Bauer’s angsty bi-awakening YOU AND ME—are both m/m.
I think I’ll look for the Hunter. I’ve really enjoyed her in the past!
Thanks!
I liked the Wilder, too (I reviewed the audio version for AudioGals). I don’t do much m/f CR, but it was our DIK review that prompted me to pick it up!
The Fearne Hill was superb. I enjoyed You and Me too
Just adding that mentions/recommendations for J.T. Geissinger’s Pen Pal should include trigger warnings.
Yes, agreed. I believe Geissinger does include content warnings at the beginning of the book. The book is definitely on the darker end of the spectrum, and I’d really classify it as “romance adjacent” as opposed to a standard (dark) romance. There are elements of psychological suspense and gothic horror in it too.
for me this year for the first time ever – nothing. No new book that I read this year did it for me. Some were pleasant reads, but I can’t remember what they were.
Historical romance needs a reboot and less emphasis on the Regency. I want a bit more grit in my books, more real stakes and less fluff, more references to events of the time (I read a book this year set in 1818 that didn’t once refer to the death of Princess Charlotte). I want the falling in love to mean something, not just be a pause for an I Love You and a quick bedding.
I am not talking about love between criminals, like the mafia romances.
Maybe it’s just me.
The desire for more real stakes and grit is what I’m finding in m/m romantic suspense and mysteries – Nicky James, Gregory Ashe, C.S Poe and others are consistently delivering great stories that incorporate superbly written relationships.
I agree that HR is in desperate need of a reboot. Some incorporation of actual history and its conventions would be nice too.
Absolutely agree. Am venturing into the mm waters. I used to read them years ago, not sure why I stopped. I even wrote one!
Yes, real history, please!
There are some fantastic m/m authors and books out there – I hope you find lots to enjoy!
Also in HR – it would be really nice if so many authors didn’t regard UK history as the one thing they can mess with without getting in trouble over. I can’t see any of them taking the liberties they do with books set in other countries and cultures.
Read one taking place in Germany or Austria and you will never say that again!
I agree. I just read a book set in the US in 1949 that got all sorts of things wrong. We all are sensitive to our own cultural slights!
Of course – but I still maintain it’s worse in UK-set historicals, more now than ever.
So you’ve said….. ;)
It’s probably true due to the sheer number of historical romance books set in England. It would be interesting to know the percentage of HR set in England that is written by a non-native writer. I would assume it was a much larger percentage than non-American writers writing about the US.
Are you open to contemps? Mia Hopkins’s Eastside Brewery series is a great working-class romance that’s “gritty” in the sense that it refuses to look away from the challenges of real life, not in the sense that it’s dark melodrama. Historical-wise, you might like this: https://allaboutromance.com/book-review/tempting-hymn-by-jennifer-hallock/