As we start to think about waving goodbye to 2021, we look ahead to the New Year and the exciting new books on the horizon in 2022. We’re always on the lookout for our next favourite books to shout about and share far and wide and boy, although we’ve still got a few weeks to go, 2022 is already looking to be an absolute cracker! We’re positively giddy about some of the books coming out next year. And we’re sure you will be too!

As well as the thrilling news that Marian Keyes is revisiting the Walsh family, releasing Again, Rachel, the sequel to the simply superb Rachel’s Holiday, author of stand-out debut Saving Missy, Beth Morrey returns with her second book Em & Me, which Liz Robinson describes as “gorgeous in every possible way…an eloquent heart-warming novel about second chances”. She added: “beautifully glorious, this book danced into my heart and soul and I want to dangle from the rooftops to shout about it.” So here we are!

Whilst we’re on the topic of new fare from some of our favourite authors, we have some terrific thrillers for you with David Gilman, author of the outstanding spy action thriller The Englishman returning in 2022 with Betrayal. Author of the “smashing first novel”  I am Pilgrim Terry Hayes finally, after quite a gap, re-appears on our bookshelves with the much-awaited The Year of the Locust. And let’s not forget James Paterson’s new book; we’re so intrigued about his collaboration with the one and only Dolly Parton: Run, Rose, Run. From America's most beloved superstar and its greatest storyteller - a thriller about a young singer-songwriter on the rise and on the run, and determined to do whatever it takes to survive. Sold! And of course we are big fans of Lucy Foley, of The Hunting Party and The Guest List fame who is set to release The Paris Apartment in March. And finally, LoveReading fave Chris Hammer returns with his next book Opal Country, yes!

You might have guessed that we love a debut. There’s nothing more thrilling about being with an author from their very first outing and seeing them grow. Editorial Expert Joanne Owen has given us a heads up about a brilliant debut coming to our shelves in February. Brown Girls by Daphne Palasi Andreades is “potent and poetic, personal and choral, this exceptional work explores the experiences of a group of brown women from Queens, New York, through life." We are super excited about debut Nobody but Us by Laure Van Rensburg which is being billed as a cross between My Dark Vanessa and Gone Girl. Firmly on our TBR pile! The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois sounds breathtaking - a multi-generational story of one family, from the centuries of the colonial slave trade through the Civil War to our present day, by prize-winning poet Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. And book-loving Sara Cox has her “big-hearted” debut Thrown out in May, we gotta get our hands on that too.

If a touch of darkness is your thing, then look no further than Caitriona Ward’s new offering Sundial. The Last House on Needless Street was one of our books of 2021 and Liz Robinson has already named Sundial a shining star: “a unique blend of a twisted reality and chilling beauty form to create the most thrilling and disturbing read”. Liz is also highly recommending The Unravelling by Polly Crosby who wowed us with her debut The Illustrated Child. Liz says: “this gloriously bittersweet and intensely dark novel swims into the very depths of emotion and takes you with it.”

For those who love a series, there are new installments from Peter James with the 18th Roy Grace novel out in September, Billingham’s Thorne is on top form for another case in The Murder Book and Richard Osman tries for the hat trick with Thursday Murder Club 3 in September. We're also being treated to a new instalment from Detective Jack Warr, as Vanished by Lynda La Plante is due in March. And LoveReading fave Chris Hauty comes back with the third in his Hayley Chill series Storm Rising. Giddy.

We’re also excited to get our hands on the latest books from Freya North, Guy Gavriel Kay, Hanya Yanagihara, Veronica Henry, Josie Silver, Emily St John Mandel, Neil Gaiman and Isabel Allende. 

Keep reading to find out more about the books that we’re reading now, that are on our huge to-be-read piles, as well as the ones we can’t wait to get our grubby little mitts on! Whether we’ve read them yet or not, we are excited about them, and will share the reviews with you as usual as our reading allows.

Bring on 2022 and more reading joy!