DiscoDollyDeb
I divided my list of favorite books of 2022 into two categories: books published in 2022 and books published in a prior year but that I read for the first time in 2022. Regardless of publication date, a beautifully-written emotional-nuanced journey with angsty complications and a splash of melancholy will get me every time.
Favorite books published in 2022:
THE LONG GAME by Rachel Reid: Immensely satisfying, smoothly written finale to Reid’s six-book Game Changer series of m/m hockey romances, in which Shane & Ilya (the couple from HEATED RIVALRY) achieve their HEA after more than a decade of secretly being together. My favorite book of 2022. Lovely in every way.
THE LONE WOLF’S REJECTED MATE by Cate C. Wells: Beautifully written, if dark, story about coming to terms with childhood traumas and learning from the resulting mistakes made as an adult; and how the path to trust and hope requires courage but is ultimately worth it.
PEN PAL by J. T. Geissinger: Brilliant mash-up of romance, psychological suspense, and supernatural/gothic horror featuring a recently-widowed young woman, living in a crumbling Victorian mansion, who begins a hot romance with the guy who comes to fix the house’s leaky roof. Avoid seeking out spoilers because part of the enjoyment of this book comes from trying to determine where the twists and turns of the plot are going.
HOW TO FAKE IT IN HOLLYWOOD by Ava Wilder: Intensely angsty story of how the fake relationship between an up-and-coming actress and a former A-list actor gradually becomes serious, only to have love undermined by addiction and enabling. Wilder vividly captures the see-sawing emotions of loving someone who struggles with addiction.
YOU AND ME by Tal Bauer: Beautifully written bi-awakening story between a struggling widower and the out, divorced, former Mormon who runs the booster club for their sons’ football team. A wonderful story about finding yourself and being a good parent and partner. Bauer does a great job of presenting a truly decent and kind person without making them unrealistic or one-dimensional.
RETURN OF THE OUTBACK BILLIONAIRE by Kelly Hunter: Bracingly unsentimental story of a wealthy Australian landowner, released after serving seven years in prison, and the former-model-turned-photographer who inadvertently played a role in his incarceration. The couple grow closer, but both have a long road to recovery and Hunter does not sugar-coat their journey. Follows the Harlequin Presents template in broad strokes while neatly circumventing it at every turn.
REWRITING THE STARS by Claire Kingsley: Gorgeous “Romeo and Juliet” retelling brings Kingsley’s Bailey Brothers series to a heartfelt close. Two people from rival families decide to buck tradition, face family blowback, and embrace love. A fitting end to a wonderful series.
TWO TRIBES by Fearne Hill: Alternately funny, sexy, heartbreaking, and uplifting romance which covers 25 years in the lives of an upper-middle class doctor and a working-class history buff who first meet as 17-year-old schoolmates. Informed by a quarter-century of pop culture, New Wave & Grunge music, and an incredibly snarky sensibility.
BROKEN PLAY by Alison Rhymes. Angsty and nuanced story of a married couple torn apart by the husband’s infidelity and the long hard road they must travel to regain love and trust. Rhymes does a brilliant job with not only the heroine’s understandable cascade of emotions but also with making the hero a fully-fleshed human being and not a villainous caricature.
Favorite books published in a prior year:
BASS-ACKWARDS by Eris Adderly (published in 2019): Erotic romance that completely reframes the “woman agrees to sexual relationship with boss” trope of dark/billionaire romance: moving the setting to a working-class equipment rental business and creating MCs who fully inhabit the milieu and their own vivid personalities.
BOLD FORTUNE by M. M. Crane (published in 2021): Wonderful grumpy-sunshine pairing between an optimistic, resilient academic who works for an environmental think-tank and the taciturn “mayor” of an Alaskan wilderness town she is trying to persuade to prevent the reopening of an abandoned gold mine. Each can see that the other has adopted a persona to hide deeper hurts, and the sunshiny heroine confounds the gruff hero at every turn. A delicious, snowy bon-bon of a book.
HITTING THE WALL by Cate C. Wells (published in 2021): Gritty, unsentimental story of how poverty creates its own mindset and how the entitled wealthy exploit that. The hero must re-evaluate his belief that his powerful and influential family members are all uniformly good and kind when he discovers that some of them ran a teenager (pregnant with his child) out of town seven years before. Decidedly not a “capitalist rescue fantasy,” but a nuanced and clear-eyed presentation of the stark differences between rich and poor.
LONG WINTER & SIGNS OF SPRING by Rachel Ember (published in 2021): Lovely m/m duet about two lonely people who gravitate toward each other when stranded together during a snowstorm. Full of tropes (slow-burn, age-gap, best friend’s brother, enforced proximity, bi-awakening, found family) handled so beautifully that they don’t seem like tropes at all, but instead feel like individualized story elements.
LAST CHANCE REBEL by Maisey Yates (published in 2016). Melancholy story about a woman, scarred emotionally and physically from a severe vehicle accident in childhood, who falls for the man who caused the accident. Yates does a fabulous job with describing the way atonement, contrition, and forgiveness gradually morph into love.
BURN THIS CITY by Aleksandr Voinov (published in 2021): Dark and violent “enemies-to-lovers” story of two high-ranking “made” men from rival mob families and the cat-and-mouse game that ensues after one takes the other captive, planning to torture information out of him before killing him. Well-written, carefully paced, and intricately plotted, but not for the faint of heart.
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