Best Books of Summer 2022
Every Summer After by Carley Fortune
In the mood for summertime nostalgia (cottage summers, young crushes, sandy nights)? Fortune brings those lakeshore towns and emotional memories to life in Every Summer After, about haunting past choices and second-chance love. Berkley
The Lost Summers of Newport by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White
Murder, family lies and famous summer mansions in Newport, Rhode Island, come alive in this novel that spans three timelines over 100 years. William Morrow
You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
A young Nigerian artist struggles to heal from the accident that killed her husband. But when an encounter with a handsome man turns into a whirlwind summer, she’ll learn to balance the loss of an old love and the possibility of a new one. Atria
The Island by Adrian McKinty
Soon to be a Hulu series, The Island is an Australian-set thriller about a family vacation that turns into a nightmarish attempt to stay alive. Little, Brown and Company
Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone
A woman wakes up in Portugal with a missing husband—and an international suspense ensues. How far will she go with everything on the line and the clock ticking away? MCD Books
Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley
Seasoned commuters don’t talk to strangers on the train. It’s a standard rule, especially for Iona Iverson, a magazine advice columnist (who is always accompanied on the train by her dog, Lulu). But when something happens on their morning commute, she and the daily group of eclectic commuters just might find unexpected friendships. Pamela Dorman Books
Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour
Sara Foster and Emilie Dubois have damaged pasts of their own—ones they’d prefer to keep hidden. At high-end restaurant Yerba Buena, Sara is the renowned bartender, Emilie is the flower arranger and there is no denying the sparks that fly. But when their pasts, and the choices they’ve made, begin to catch up with them, the two decide if their blossoming romance can overpower it all. Flatiron
Meant to Be by Emily Giffin
A riff on the love story of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, Meant to Be follows one darkly handsome American royal and his sought-after model girlfriend through Hamptons summers, paparazzi-fueled rumors, clashing pedigrees and family curses. Ballantine
Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen
Two Asian-American women turn a fake handbag scheme into a global enterprise. Need we say more? William Morrow
More Than You’ll Ever Knowby Katie Gutierrez
A woman’s double life is exposed after one husband murders the other. Years later, a true-crime-obsessed writer wants to tell her story. William Morrow
Cult Classic by Sloane Crosley
Ghosts of heartbreak past come alive in Crosley’s second novel, about a woman named Lola forced to confront her ex-boyfriends when she keeps running into them on the streets of New York—and all within Chinatown. Coincidental? Lola starts questioning what’s actually happening to her. MCD Books
Tracy Flick Can’t Win by Tom Perrotta
Twenty-four years after Election—adapted into the 1999 cult-classic film starring Reese Witherspoon—Perrotta returns with Tracy Flick Can’t Win, about the once-overachieving high schooler who is now a middle-aged assistant principal dealing with disappointment and frustrated ambition. Scribner
The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand
It isn’t escapist summer fiction season without Hilderbrand, whose 27th novel introduces you to a once-gleaming, now haunted Gilded Age beachside hotel and the staff working through a summer of scandal to restore it. Little, Brown and Company
Privacy by Nina Sadowsky
A psychological thriller meets romantic suspense—a therapist’s clients are being watched and targeted with cryptic messages. But as the media takes interest and she partners with an investigative reporter, the target on her back grows even bigger. Bantam
The Twilight World by Werner Herzog
From filmmaker Herzog comes his first novel, based on the true story of Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier who defended a small island in the Philippines for three decades after WWII ended. Penguin
The Beach Trap by Ali Brady
A twist on The Parent Trap, two best friends are torn apart after learning they’re actually half-sisters. Fifteen years later, will a rundown beach house inheritance and a summer of renovation help them accept their shared past? Berkley
The Lies I Tellby Julie Clark
One woman is determined to expose the con artist who ruined her life 10 years earlier. But as they grow closer, her long-held assumptions begin to crumble. June 21, Sourcebooks Landmark
The Last Resort: A Chronicle of Paradise, Profit, and Peril at the Beach by Sarah Stodola
What drives us to seek out the sand? Stodola looks into the psyche of the beachgoer as well as the shadier impacts of beach resort culture on local economies, overdevelopment, climate and more. A perfect summertime read. June 28, Ecco
Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark
The relationship of two lifelong friends, now in the twilight of their lives, is tested (along with the destiny of a land trust they co-own in Maine) as shared histories, class differences and secrets come to light. July 5, Scribner
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
This is a modern love story that explores intimacy in digital storytelling when two childhood friends reunite as adults and become successful video game developers. July 5, Knopf
JOAN by Katherine J. Chen
An epic take on the life of Joan of Arc, Chen’s JOAN reimagines the martyr as a secular, fierce, intelligent young warrior and woman, humanized and ripe for our time. July 5, Random House
Cloudmoney by Brett Scott
Can physical currency become obsolete? Scott discusses blockchain technology and the risks and rewards of cash, cards and crypto. July 5, Harper Business
Normal Family: On Truth, Love, and How I Met My 35 Siblings by Chrysta Bilton
In Bilton’s memoir, she writes about learning the identity of her sperm donor dad, reckoning with a new definition of family and setting out to meet the dozens of other kids he fathered. July 12, Little, Brown and Co.
The Man Who Could Move Clouds by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Magic runs in Ingrid Rojas Contreras’s family, and in her memoir, she’ll reflect on those family “secrets” (talking to the dead, curing the sick, casting out spirits) as well as the richness of her culture and the bounds of reality. July 12, Penguin
The It Girl by Ruth Ware
A decade after an Oxford University porter is convicted of murdering a female student, something isn’t adding up, and her best friend will dig for answers. July 12, Gallery/Scout Press
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
A heartbreaking love story that follows a marine biologist who goes missing on a submarine expedition. When she returns, she’s changed, and her wife fears she’s slipping from her grasp. July 12, Flatiron
The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green
In this chilling literary thriller, a woman uncovers truths about a secret Southern community (formed by Black slaves who fought for the British during the Revolutionary War) and unveils the city’s sinister history. July 19, Celadon
The Force of Such Beauty by Barbara Bourland
After a failed escape attempt, the princess of a tiny European kingdom begins to reevaluate her life in Barbara Bourland’s The Force of Such Beauty. July 19, Dutton
Bread by Maurizio de Giovanni
A squad of squabbling detectives investigates the brutal killing of a baker in Naples, Italy, in this deliciously entertaining procedural Bread, the fifth book in Maurizio de Giovanni’s Bastards of Pizzofalcone series. July 19, World Noir
The Swell by Allie Reynolds
Pick up this adrenaline-pumping novel for a cast of unhinged, sinister surfers, a remote Australian beach and a woman caught in a deadly adventure. July 19, G.P. Putnam’s Sons
All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews
A young Indian immigrant graduates and begins her first post-college job in Milwaukee during the Great Recession. As trouble arises, she’ll search for love, friendship, community and security. August 2, Viking
Alias Emma by Ava Glass
In this race-against-the-clock espionage thriller (written by a former employee of the British Home Office), a young spy has 12 hours to covertly travel across London (after Russia hacked the city’s CCTV cameras) to deliver the handsome son of Russian dissidents into protective custody. August 2, Bantam
Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra
An ambitious young Italian woman leaves Mussolini’s Italy for Hollywood. Years later, she’s an associate producer at Mercury Pictures, a nexus of European émigrés, on the eve of World War II. August 2, Hogarth
The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell
A standalone sequel to the chilling bestseller The Family Upstairs, Jewell’s latest begins when a bag of human bones is discovered, linked to a woman killed years prior. But the bag also contains a trail of clues about three deaths in a Chelsea mansion 30 years ago—and a brother and sister searching for the only person who can make sense of it all. August 9, Atria
All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers
If you’re a true crime podcast buff, you’ve probably heard of Flowers from her No. 1 podcast “Crime Junkie.” So it should be no surprise that she’s jumping into the world of crime novels with her debut, All Good People Here, about a big city journalist who returns to her small Indiana hometown and finds deep-held secrets as she begins digging into the recent disappearance of a child—and the unsolved murder of her neighbor 20 years prior. August 16, Bantam
Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
You may notice Carrie Soto from Jenkins Reid’s past made-for-summer books (including her appearance in Malibu Rising). She’s the best tennis player in the world, and she retires at the top. But at 37 years old in 1994, as someone else begins breaking her records, she’ll work alongside her father (and coach) to attempt a comeback and reclaim what’s hers. August 30, Ballantine
