The Happy Place 5: Anticipated 2022 Books
The Happy Place 5 is a monthly series where a few friends and I post 5 of our favorites books for a certain topic or theme. The name is from a Discord group that I am a part of. We created the space to have a positive environment for a handful of close friends. All of us are bookworms, and many of us are bookstagrammers and bloggers. So we decided to start a blog post series together! I’ll link my friends blogs and posts for this month’s topic at the end of this post.
I guess I missed the November edition of The Happy Place 5 haha. But oh well! We continue on with the series with this month’s theme. December is a month of wrapping up the past year, but it’s also a great time to look ahead to the coming one. In that vein, today I’ll be talking about five of my anticipated 2022 books. This was honestly so hard to choose (and you’ll see I cheated and added an honorable mention). 2022 is really looking like an INCREDIBLE reading year. So let’s get to it!
Seasonal Fears
- Author: Seanan McGuire
- Target audience: Adult
- Series info: Second in an ongoing but loosely related series
- Genre: Fantasy
- Release date: May 3rd, 2022
Have you heard me scream about Middlegame? Perhaps in this review of it? Or in any of these posts? As you can see, I talk about it a fair amount. Now, Middlegame is a complete story in and of itself. But our queen Seanan McGuire has graced us with a sequel following new main characters, but set in the same world and with the same themes. I don’t know how I can possibly express how excited I am. I’ve thought about Middlegame constantly since I read it, and I know the same will be true of Seasonal Fears.
Nona the Ninth
- Author: Tamsyn Muir
- Target audience: Adult
- Series info: Third in a quartet (incomplete)
- Genre: Fantasy
- Release date: September 13th, 2022
Another series that I cannot stop talking about is the Locked Tomb series!!! This year it was announced that instead of being a trilogy, it was being bumped up to a quartet. Maybe it’s because I love Tamora Pierce who has lots of quartets, but I love a good quartet. And I’m just so glad that it means I get to spend more time in this world. It’s so creative and just like. BUCK WILD. And!! We just recently got a release date for Nona so IT’S HAPPENING. STAY CALM EVERYONE. The first book is Gideon the Ninth, and the series is a great blend of fantasy, science fiction, murder mystery, and so much more.
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy
- Author: Becky Chambers
- Target audience: Adult
- Series info: Second in an ongoing series of novellas
- Genre: Science Fiction
- Release date: July 12th, 2022
This is the sequel to the novella A Psalm for the Wild-Built which definitely has to be in my top ten books of this year. It is the definition of cozy sci-fi. The sequel will follow the main characters, a tea monk and a robot, on their further adventures. I honestly want like a million stories about them. Psalm made me so so happy, and I can’t wait for the boost of serotonin that I’m sure Prayer will give me.
Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution
- Author: R.F. Kuang
- Target audience: Adult
- Series info: Standalone
- Genre: Fantasy
- Release date: August 23rd, 2022
R.F. Kuang is well known for writing The Poppy War trilogy, and now she is moving into the dark academia realm?? Oh my god I am so ready. This book is all about translation magic which sounds FASCINATING. It also deals a lot with the colonialism of the British Empire. As the Goodreads synopsis describes, “Babel — a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal response to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell — grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of translation as a tool of empire.”
Daughter of the Moon Goddess
- Author: Sue Lynn Tan
- Target audience: Young Adult
- Series info: First in a duology (incomplete)
- Genre: Fantasy
- Release date: January 11th, 2022
Hands up if you know that I’m obsessed with retellings? Okay everyone put their hands down. This debut is inspired by the Chinese legend of Chang’e, who is the Chinese moon goddess. This legend was briefly touched on in one of my favs, Burning Roses by S.L. Huang, so I’m really excited to see more stories inspired by it. I’ve heard great things in early reviews, and also LOOK! AT THAT! COVER!!!!!! It’s so gorgeous.
And for my bonus pick, we have Seven Mercies by Laura Lam and Elizabeth May. This is the sequel to Seven Devils, and is an adult science fiction novel. This novel will complete the duology. I absolutely LOVED the first book and the ending left me dying to get back to this world. I’m so excited!! And it comes out in January (on the 18th in the US, 20th in the UK). SOON.
What upcoming 2022 releases are you excited for? Did you have any of these ones on your list? Or have I convinced you to put them on your list? Hahaha.
it pains me that I didn’t have Seasonal Fears on mine. Why did we go with The Happy Place 5 and not 10 XD
ahahaha HONESTLY why did we limit ourselves to so few!!
I have my eye on Seven Mercies/Devils. But what I’m super looking forward to is The Red Palace, The Kindred by Alechia Dow, DOTMG, Kaikeyi the legendborn/ gilded ones sequel and Strike the Zither to name a few!
oooo wow okay all the ones you mentioned are def on my TBR as well!!
These look so good! I’d only heard of Darkness of the Moon Goddess before and I’m so excited for it
YESSSS I am eagerly awaiting my copy