Can y’all believe it’s almost 2022? Absolutely wild! This is the time of year where I usually start making my preliminary list of reading goals for the next year, as well as a list of my most anticipated releases. As I started looking through my anticipated reads, I noticed a bunch of debuts on the list, and I thought it would be nice to give those authors and their books a little shoutout!
Narrowing it down is a bit difficult, but I decided to go with 6 books that I’m especially excited for. So, without further ado, here are 6 novels from debut authors that I’m looking forward to in 2022!
Dauntless by Elisa A. Bonnin
Release Date: July 19th, 2022
We interviewed Elisa on the blog a few weeks ago (which you can read here) and that just made me even more excited for Dauntless! Truly, everything about this book sounds so interesting and I can’t wait to dive into this world!
A teen girl must bring together two broken worlds in order to save her nation in this lush, Filipino-inspired young adult fantasy novel from debut author Elisa A. Bonnin.
“Be dauntless, for the hopes of the People rest in you.”
Seri’s world is defined by very clear rules: The beasts prowl the forest paths and hunt the People. The valiant explore the unknown world, kill the beasts, and gain strength from the armor they make from them. As an assistant to Eshai Unbroken, a young valor commander with a near-mythical reputation, Seri has seen first-hand the struggle to keep the beasts at bay and ensure the safety of the spreading trees where the People make their homes. That was how it always had been, and how it always would be. Until the day Seri encounters Tsana.
Tsana is, impossibly, a stranger from the unknown world who can communicate with the beasts – a fact that makes Seri begin to doubt everything she’s ever been taught. As Seri and Tsana grow closer, their worlds begin to collide, with deadly consequences. Somehow, with the world on the brink of war, Seri will have to find a way to make peace.
Links for Dauntless: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | IndieBound
Epically Earnest by Molly Horan
Release Date: Just 21st, 2022
The Importance of Being Earnest is one of my absolute favorite plays, I truly am obsessed with it, so when I heard about Epically Earnest I added it to my TBR faster than you could say “Hell yes!” This book sounds so fun and really like something that I’m going to love!
In this delightfully romantic LGBTQ+ comedy-of-errors inspired by Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, a high school senior works up the courage to ask her long-time crush to prom all while deciding if she should look for her bio family.
Jane Grady’s claim to fame is that she was one first viral internet sensations, dubbed #bagbaby—discovered as a one-year-old in an oversized Gucci bag by her adopted father in a Poughkeepsie train station. Now in her senior year of high school, Jane is questioning whether she wants to look for her bio family due to a loving, but deeply misguided push from her best friend Algie, while also navigating an all-consuming crush on his cousin, the beautiful, way-out-of-her-league Gwen Fairfax.
And while Janey’s never thought of herself as the earnest type, she needs to be honest with her parents, Algie, Gwen, but mostly herself if she wants to make her life truly epic. With a wink toward Oscar Wilde’s beloved play, Epically Earnest explores the complexity of identity, the many forms family can take, and the importance of being . . . yourself.
Links for Epically Earnest: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | IndieBound
Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie
Release Date: February 8th, 2022
We all know that I’m a huge fan of coming of age stories, so I added Ophelia After All to my TBR right away. All the blurbs I’ve seen about this one have sounded so wonderful, and I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy!
A teen girl navigates friendship drama, the end of high school, and discovering her queerness in Ophelia After All, a hilarious and heartfelt contemporary YA debut by author Racquel Marie.
Ophelia Rojas knows what she likes: her best friends, Cuban food, rose-gardening, and boys – way too many boys. Her friends and parents make fun of her endless stream of crushes, but Ophelia is a romantic at heart. She couldn’t change, even if she wanted to.
So when she finds herself thinking more about cute, quiet Talia Sanchez than the loss of a perfect prom with her ex-boyfriend, seeds of doubt take root in Ophelia’s firm image of herself. Add to that the impending end of high school and the fracturing of her once-solid friend group, and things are spiraling a little out of control. But the course of love–and sexuality–never did run smooth. As her secrets begin to unravel, Ophelia must make a choice between clinging to the fantasy version of herself she’s always imagined or upending everyone’s expectations to rediscover who she really is, after all.
Links for Ophelia After All: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop | IndieBound
Love from Scratch by Kaitlyn Hill
Release Date: April 5th, 2022
We obviously stan a fellow Caitlyn/Kaitlyn who loves baking, so of course I knew that I had to add Love from Scratch to my most anticipated reads list. This one definitely sounds like an enemies-to-lovers story that I’ll enjoy.
This summer, Reese Camden is trading sweet tea and Southern hospitality for cold brew and crisp coastal air. She’s landed her dream marketing internship at Friends of Flavor, a wildly popular cooking channel in Seattle. The only problem? Benny Beneventi, the relentlessly charming, backwards-baseball-cap-wearing culinary intern–and her main competition for the fall job.
Reese’s plan to keep work a No Feelings Zone crumbles like a day-old muffin when she and Benny are thrown together for a video shoot that goes viral, making them the internet’s newest ship. Audiences are hungry for more, and their bosses at Friends of Flavor are happy to deliver. Soon Reese and Benny are in an all-out food war, churning homemade ice cream, twisting soft pretzels, breaking eggs in an omelet showdown–while hundreds of thousands of viewers watch.
Reese can’t deny the chemistry between her and Benny. But the more their rivalry heats up, the harder it is to keep love on the back burner…
Links for Love from Scratch: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop | IndieBound
This Vicious Grace by Emily Thiede
Release Date: June 28th, 2022
The second I saw the words “gift from the gods” I was in! I love mythology and magic, and This Vicious Grace sounds like it’ll deliver on both accounts. Plus the words “devastating conclusion” have me embodying the blurry eyes emoji.
Three weddings. Three funerals. Alessa’s gift from the gods is supposed to magnify a partner’s magic, not kill every suitor she touches.
Now, with only weeks left until a hungry swarm of demons devours everything on her island home, Alessa is running out of time to find a partner and stop the invasion. When a powerful priest convinces the faithful that killing Alessa is the island’s only hope, her own soldiers try to assassinate her.
Desperate to survive, Alessa hires Dante, a cynical outcast marked as a killer, to become her personal bodyguard. But as rebellion explodes outside the gates, Dante’s dark secrets may be the biggest betrayal. He holds the key to her survival and her heart, but is he the one person who can help her master her gift or destroy her once and for all?
Emily Thiede’s exciting fantasy debut, This Vicious Grace, will keep readers turning the pages until the devastating conclusion and leave them primed for more!
Links for This Vicious Grace: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | IndieBound
Salt and Sugar by Rebecca Carvalho
Release Date: Fall 2022
As we know, if a book involves baking of some kind, I’m gonna add it to my TBR! Add in rival bakeries and a forbidden romance story line and I am 100% sold!
This telenovela-esque YA rom-com debut follows the grandchildren of two rival Brazilian bakeries who fall in love despite their families’ feud while working to win a contest that would save both of their bakeries from being driven out by a predatory supermarket chain.
Links for Salt and Sugar: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph
There you have it! 6 debut novels releasing in 2022 that I’m looking forward to. Do you have any of these books on your TBR? Which debut novels are you excited for?
