His father, Harrison, and Raven’s mother, Hazel also have their own history, having been in love once upon a time. While Raven and her family grew up in poverty, Braxton was born into a life of wealth and luxury. I loved her and I loved her close-knitted, nosy family all of whom, despite their grifting lifestyle, are as loyal to each other as they are loving.īraxton Steel is handsome and proper, an upstanding tailor from a wealthy shipping family in Boston. In short, she follows in the pantheon of iconic Ms. She is clever and cunning, wily and witty, and always manages to be a step ahead. Raven Moreau comes from a family of thieves and con artists.

To say it was a delight would be an understatement. I was lucky enough to score an ARC from Avon for To Catch a Raven, the 3rd and final book in her Women Who Dare series. I’ve been reading a couple of them every month, the highlight of every reading month. I had already read several but after perusing her website, there were 18 titles I hadn’t yet read, including her newest release. Early this year, I decided I was going to do a deep dive into Ms. In alphabetical order by book title.I don’t want to point fingers but Beverly Jenkins has been responsible for a lot of the late, sleepless nights in my life, especially this year. No best of list can possibly cover all of the books that deserve placement, nor is there an agreed-upon definition of “best.” But for what it’s worth, these are the ten best romance novels of 2022, according to me. Indeed, I have read every book that made the top ten, and most of the books that earned a mention (the exceptions, in the “Other Rioters Recommend” section, simply had too long a wait at my library, and I did at least read excerpts of those). I’ve made every effort to be inclusive of books I might not normally gravitate toward I asked for input from the other Book Riot romance readers, and have spent the last two months of the year frantically reading every title they suggested.

I do not think either of these things is better than the alternative(s)! But the fact is, when one reads about a book per week, there are simply thousands of books that there isn’t enough time for, so I hope you’ll forgive any omissions. So let me tell you a bit about my reading habits: I mostly read contemporary romance, and I mostly read traditionally published. And yet, I wonder: who am I to determine the best romance novels of 2022? Well, qualified or not, here I am doing just that. I’ve read about 60 books in 2022, and all but perhaps ten of them were romance (and of those ten, several included romance).

To catch a raven by beverly jenkins