The Best Books of 2022: Romance

Best Books of 2022: Romance!

Two elements are always present in my annual roundup of the year’s best romance novels: 1) I always praise the entire genre for being a smart, well-crafted, and incredibly reliable haven from the drooling and turd-flinging that tends to characterize so much of the rest of the publishing world’s offerings, and 2) I always strive, alone, in heroic solitude, to make my list balanced enough to include types of romance other than my beloved Regencies. The first is always easy. As to the second? Well, I read more romance novels in 2022 than any previous year of my life, and these were the best of them:

10 The Rebel and the Rake by Emily Sullivan (Forever) – This one gets onto the list under the wire, since it came out almost on the very last day of 2021, long after all year-end book-listers had tottered off for their fair share of heavily spiked eggnog. That seemed like an unfair deal for this delightful novel by Emily Sullivan, the story of an undercover agent masquerading as a rake who unexpectedly falls in love with a lady’s companion who very much seems to want nothing to do with him (or with men in general). She’s harboring a secret identity of her own, and Sullivan does a very entertaining job bringing all these plot strands together. 

9 The Bride Goes Rogue by Joanna Shupe (Avon) – In most of my genre-driven year-end lists, it’s unavoidable, I hope, that familiar names will crop up, and that’s certainly true on the Romance list, starting with this entry by Joanna Shupe, the third of her “Fifth Avenue Rebels” series. In this delightful entry, a New York debutante long affianced to a stand-offish tycoon is enjoying her life to the fullest when both she and the tycoon encounter the most unexpected obstacle of all: they actually fall in love. All of Shupe’s strengths for pacing and witty dialogue are on full display here. 

8 A Daring Pursuit by Kate Bateman (St. Martin’s) – Another long-time favorite, Kate Bateman, returns with this second entry in her “Ruthless Rivals” series, in which a young woman is very deliberately trying to ruin her chances on the marriage mart. Using outlandish behavior (and acting for her own reasons, protecting a secret she views as disastrous), she’s succeeded for a couple of years – but the one man who’s never fully believed her facade is also the one man she’s secretly obsessed with. Bateman is always wonderful at constructing plots that work with perfect smoothness, and this time was no exception.

7 How To Be a Wallflower by Eloisa James (Avon) – When it comes to familiar names, they don’t get much more familiar than Eloisa James, and this terrific book kicks off her new “Would-Be Wallflower” series in which a young woman is about to make her debut in high society at the wishes of her pushy grandfather, even though she has no desire to marry. In these pages, she’s matched against a wealthy American who’s in London to buy an emerald for his intended back in America – that is, until he begins to fall in love right there in London, with a woman who’s falling in love with him. Eloisa James has never once failed me, and this delightful novel certainly doesn’t.

6 Return of the Duke by Lorraine Heath (Avon) – This third installment in Lorraine Heath’s “Once Upon a Dukedom” series rests in an uncharacteristically dark backdrop of murder and betrayal. A man whose father was hanged for attempting to kill Queen Victoria finds himself ruined and embittered, dedicated to investigating a very much still-active plot against the Crown – an aim he unexpectedly shares with the young woman he considers one of the worst traitors in his life. Lorraine Heath shapes an involving and ultimately uplifting story of love and redemption out of these dark elements.

5 The Gunslinger’s Guide to Avoiding Matrimony by Michelle McLean (Entangled: Amara) – Most romance novels sparkle at least a little, but Michelle McLean indulges herself in a full-on comedy of errors in this wonderful story of a young gunslinger who seeks refuge in the hidden Old West town of Desolation and quickly finds something more than refuge – namely an unexpected marriage with a feisty young woman who doesn’t think he’s all that impressive. McLean is clearly having a blast all through the book, never passing up an opportunity to crack jokes in the admittedly absurdist Shangri-La she’s created.

4 Tough Justice Tee O’Fallon (Entangled: Amara) – Dark plot materials return with a vengeance in this first installment in Tee O’Fallon’s “K-9 Special Ops” series, in which a DEA K-9 agent (and his dog, of course) is hunting for the source of a new drug that’s causing massive overdoses in the Denver area. He hopes he can enlist the help of a brilliant ER doctor, even though she deeply distrusts him for an array of personal reasons. I wasn’t familiar with O’Fallon’s books (despite their penchant for having gorgeous dogs on their covers), and I was very pleased by her talent for the old familiar “reluctant lovers” romance pattern.

3 Must Love Books by Shauna Robinson (Sourcebooks Landmark) – For all the unlikely pairings featured in the vast backlog of the romance genre, maybe the most unlikely is the marriage of bookishness with romance of any kind (since most bookish people would rather stay home and read). But Shauna Robinson indulges in the fantasy with this story of an overworked and underappreciated editorial assistant at a publishing house who’s thrown into a relationship with a bestselling author when the publishing house begins to fire people. Robinson fills her tale with details every bookish person will love – from the solitary comfort of their reading couches, that is.

2 The Boardwalk Bookshop by Susan Mallery (Mira Books) – As most genre readers have known for a long time, romance novels don’t need to be seamy bodice-rippers; sometimes, the ones that are more about love than sex are actually more thrilling in their own heart-touching way. Susan Mallery is a virtuoso at this kind of romantic fiction, and her entry on this list, The Boardwalk Bookshop, is a classic of the kind, the story of three strangers who find themselves co-owners of a bookshop in California. These three women come from three separate battlefields of romantic pasts, and they approach the opportunities of their new shop in touchingly different ways, all of which Mallery does a wonderful job of portraying.

1 Nobody’s Princess by Erica Ridley (Forever) – This third book in Eric  Ridley’s “The Wyld Winchesters” series is the story of a clash of titanic willpowers: a fiercely-tempered young woman has come to London for clandestine training that will serve her well back in her own homeland, and a handsome member of the Wynchester clan who’s determined to come to the aid of a young woman who doesn’t want his help at all – or thinks she doesn’t, until the inevitable happens (this is a romance novel, after all, in fact the best romance of the year) and these two strong-willed people begin to fall in love.