40+ Books Set in New York City
Books Set in New York City
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Reading books set in different locations offers a uniquely immersive experience, allowing us to "travel" to places we may not have the time, resources, or ability to visit. Each story invites us into the heart of a new setting, whether it's a bustling cityscape, a quiet countryside, or an exotic, far-off land. Through rich descriptions, we can picture ourselves wandering the colorful streets of Marrakech, feeling the salty breeze of a coastal Irish village, or navigating the dense, vibrant energy of New York City.
Books transport us by weaving in the sights, sounds, smells, and even cultural nuances of a place, offering us not just a superficial view but a deeper, more intimate understanding. A well-crafted novel set in a different country or region often incorporates local traditions, languages, and perspectives, giving us insight into what it might be like to live there. This sense of armchair travel can be both enriching and eye-opening, showing us how diverse—and yet interconnected—our world truly is.
In fact, reading about different places can inspire real-life travel plans. We may find ourselves drawn to visit the ancient ruins described in a historical novel or to taste the cuisine that a character adores in a foreign setting. The experience of reading can be both a journey in itself and a catalyst for our curiosity about the world, reminding us that every destination, no matter how far, has its own story worth exploring.
Reading books set in New York City feels like diving into the heartbeat of one of the world’s most iconic and dynamic places. New York has a character of its own, and it often serves not just as a backdrop, but as an active participant in the stories that unfold there. Each neighborhood—whether it’s the glitz of the Upper East Side, the creative hum of Greenwich Village, or the multicultural vibrance of Queens—adds a unique flavor to the narrative. Through books set in New York, readers get to experience the city’s layers, from the rich history of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty to the modern buzz of Times Square and Wall Street.
Authors often use the city’s ever-changing landscape to mirror the complexities of their characters’ lives. In the pages of these novels, we can lose ourselves in the sweeping views from the top of the Empire State Building or imagine the cozy bookshops and cafes tucked into the West Village. Through descriptions of Central Park's beauty in each season, we can feel as if we're strolling through its leafy paths ourselves, experiencing the quiet solace it offers amid the city’s constant motion.
New York's literature also captures the ambition, resilience, and diversity that define the city. Whether we’re reading about the immigrant experience in the early 20th century, the bustling art scene of the 1960s, or the roller-coaster of modern-day relationships and careers, books set here showcase how people from all walks of life come together, each pursuing their own dreams within the same sprawling metropolis. Reading stories set in New York reminds us of the endless possibilities the city holds, capturing a slice of its magic in every page. It’s a literary journey that allows us to visit a place so alive and layered, that each story feels as vibrant as the city itself.
The Coat Check Girl by Laura Buchwald
Sometimes, it's in confronting the shadows that we find the brightest light.
Embark on a touching journey with Josie Gray as she navigates the turbulent waters of loss, love, and the supernatural. After bidding farewell to her cherished grandmother, Josie finds herself adrift in a sea of grief, compounded by the complexities of an ambiguous romantic entanglement and the return of her unsettling "gift"-the ability to sense and communicate with spirits. A presence haunts the restaurant where she works, dredging up long-buried memories from her childhood.
But amidst the shadows, a luminous figure emerges-the restaurant's new coat check girl. Mia is a beacon of understanding and solidarity, offering solace in shared experiences and a determination to unravel the mystery shrouding the restless spirit. Bolstered by a vibrant ensemble of characters, from restaurant comrades to familiar faces in the neighborhood, Mia keeps Josie afloat during one of the most difficult seasons of her life, helping her to embrace her unique talents and confront the ghostly enigma looming over them.
Set against the backdrop of the bustling restaurant scenes of New York City and New Orleans, The Coat Check Girl is a compelling tale weaving together threads of sorrow, redemption, and the enduring power of connection. Join Josie as she discovers that sometimes, it's in confronting the shadows that we find the brightest light.
Plays Well With Others by Sophie Brickman
In the vein of Where’d You Go, Bernadette and Fleishman Is in Trouble, a wickedly funny and incisive epistolary debut novel following a mother trapped in the rat race of NYC parenting as her life unravels.
Annie Lewin is at the end of her rope. She’s a mother of three young children, her crypto-VC husband is never around, and the vicious competition for spots in New York City’s kindergartens is heating up. A New York Times journalist-turned-parenting-advice-columnist for an internet start-up, Annie can’t help but judge the insanity of it all—even as she finds herself going to impossible lengths to secure the best spot for her own gifted and precocious son, Sam.
As Annie comes to terms with the infinitesimal odds of success, her intensifying rivalry with hotshot divorce lawyer Belinda Brenner—a deliciously hateful nemesis, what with her perfectly curated bento box lunches, effortless Instagram chic, and expertly coiffed son Brando, who’s been studying Suzuki violin seemingly from birth—pushes her to the brink. Of course, this newly raw and unhinged version of Annie is great for the advice column: the more she spins out, the more clicks and comments she gets.
But when she commits a ghastly social faux pas that goes viral, she’s forced to confront a single question: is she really any better than the cutthroat preschool parents she always judged?
A shimmering epistolary novel incorporating emails, group texts, advice columns, newspaper profiles, and more, Plays Well with Others is a whip-smart, genuinely funny romp through the minefield of modern motherhood. But beneath its fast-paced, satirical veneer, Brickman gives us a fresh, open-hearted, all-too-real take on what it means to be a parent—fierce love, craziness, and all.
The Summer of Yes by Courtney Walsh
This wasn’t how Kelsey Worthington’s day was supposed to go. She wasn’t supposed to be picking up Starbucks for her smarmy boss. She wasn’t supposed to get hit by a car that jumped the curb. And she certainly wasn’t supposed to wake up in a hospital room next to Georgina Tate—the legendary matriarch of New York City businesswomen.
Kelsey and Georgina couldn’t be more opposite. Kelsey’s a dreamer, a writer who questions her own skill. And Georgina is a confident businesswoman whose years of shouldering her way into boardrooms and making her voice heard have made her far too outspoken for the faint of heart.
But now, when Georgina’s failing kidneys force her to face some big regrets about the way she’s lived her life, the two women recognize they share a common thread. Maybe it’s time to confront a few things. They must ask themselves: What if I said yes to everything I’ve always said no to?
With Georgina as her companion, Kelsey soon finds herself doing things she’s never done before. Eating street food. Swimming in the ocean. Matchmaking for Georgina with the help of Georgina’s handsome son. And writing her own romance—both in book form and in real life.
So begins the Summer of Yes.
Veridian Sterling Fakes It by Jennifer Gooch Hummer
Freshly graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design, Veridian Sterling shops her art to every gallery in New York City. Unfortunately, not one of them is interested, so she opts for a personal assistant role working for a difficult woman who has an old grievance with her mother.
No glitz, no glam, and definitely none of the money she needs to help her struggling mother finally realize her dream of starting her own business after having sacrificed everything for Veri to go to art school. So when she overhears her new boss discussing the impressive finder's fee for a lost Van Gogh, Veri takes matters into her own hands. Maybe her own artwork isn't celebrated, but she knows how to copy what is, and maybe those skills can help lead to a discovery.
When a famous art dealer takes her under his wing (and his charming driver takes her interest), Veri realizes she's in deeper than she expected, and quite possibly with the wrong people. With her mother's dreams and her own future at stake, Veri will have to pull out every trick she can think of to wipe her canvas clean and erase the mess she's created before she goes down for someone else's crimes.
Shadowheart by Meg Gardiner
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Gardiner comes a new high-octane thriller in the acclaimed UNSUB series.
FBI Special Agent Caitlin Hendrix faces a case from nightmares.
In a Tennessee prison, Efrem Judah Goode draws haunting portraits of women he claims he has killed. Around the country, desperate families of the missing seek answers in his eerie drawings. And on darkened back roads and New York City streets, a new killer poses duct-taped bodies at the sites of Goode’s murders.
Two serial killers are locked in a twisted rivalry. To stop the brutal slayings, FBI profiler Caitlin Hendrix must unravel the connection between Goode and the Broken Heart Killer. Their warped competition destroys anyone in their path. Caught between a manipulative psychopath and a ruthless UNSUB, Caitlin has to dive into not one, but two dark and twisted minds. She will risk everything, plunging into the depths of their depraved clash to hunt down an unstoppable killer.
The King of New York by Kathy Iandoli
A suspenseful thriller of a gangster’s obsession with dominating his city’s organized crime network to become the “King of New York,” perfect for fans of Gangsters Don’t Die and McMafia.
For Jimmy Martello, the mafia is a way of life. On his 25th birthday Jimmy inherits both an honor and a duty that he didn’t sign up for, when both his father and grandfather are simultaneously murdered in front of his own eyes, leaving Jimmy as the heir, or in mafia speak, the Don. Jimmy is no stranger to navigating his Brooklyn streets but he’s clueless on how to move like a Don, make money like a Don, and kill like a Don.
When his uncle Salvatore is released from prison with hopes of dominating New York City as a new kind of drug dealing kingpin, killing every family member in his way, Jimmy has to learn fast. The only way for Jimmy to fight back is to align with some of the most nefarious crime families and gangs, including securing top alliances with the notorious Russian Mob, the Yakuza, the Cartel, and the Black Mafia Family. The mafia calls it the Don, the streets call it all city, but for Jimmy Martello his mission is clear: to become the King of New York.
The Wren in the Holly Library by K.A. Linde
Can you love the dark when you know what it hides?
Some things aren’t supposed to exist outside of our imagination.
Thirteen years ago, monsters emerged from the shadows and plunged Kierse’s world into a cataclysmic war of near-total destruction. The New York City she knew so well collapsed practically overnight.
In the wake of that carnage, the Monster Treaty was created. A truce...of sorts.
But tonight, Kierse―a gifted and fearless thief―will break that treaty. She’ll enter the Holly Library...not knowing it’s the home of a monster.
He’s charming. Quietly alluring. Terrifying. But he knows talent when he sees it; it’s just a matter of finding her price.
Now she’s locked into a dangerous bargain with a creature unlike any other. She’ll sacrifice her freedom. She’ll offer her skills. Together, they’ll put their own futures at risk.
But he’s been playing a game across centuries―and once she joins in, there will be
Cole and Laila Are Just Friends by Bethany Turner
Author Interview with Bethany Turner
Cole Kimball and Laila Olivet have been best friends their entire lives. Cole is the only person (apart from blood relatives) who's seen Laila in her oversized, pink, plastic, Sophia Loren glasses. Laila is always the first person to taste test any new dish Cole creates in his family's restaurant . . . even though she has the refined palate of a kindergartener. Most importantly, Cole and Laila are always talking. About everything.
When Cole discovers a betrayal from his recently deceased grandfather that shatters his world, staying in Adelaide Springs, Colorado, is suddenly unfathomable. But Laila loves her life in their small mountain town and can't imagine ever living anywhere else. She loves serving customers who tip her with a dozen fresh eggs. She loves living within walking distance of all her favorite people. And she's very much not okay with the idea of not being able to walk to her very favorite person.
Still, when Cole toys with moving across the country to New York City, she decides to support her best friend--even as she secretly hopes she can convince him to stay home. And not just for his killer chocolate chip pancakes. Because she loves him. As a friend. Just as a friend. Right?
They make a deal: Laila won't beg him to stay, and Cole won't try to convince her to come with him. They have one week in New York before their lives change forever, and all they have to do is enjoy their time together and pretend none of this is happening. But it's tough to ignore the very inconvenient feelings blooming out of nowhere. In both of them. And these potentially friendship-destroying feelings, once out in the open, have absolutely no take-backs.
If When Harry Met Sally had a quippy literary love child with Gilmore Girls' Luke and Lorelai, you'd get Cole and Laila. Just . . . don't tell them that.
The Last Note of Warning by Katharine Schellman
Also listed in Books Set in the 1920s
Author Interview with Katharine Schellman
The Last Note of Warning is the third in the luscious, mysterious, and queer Nightingale mystery series by Katharine Schellman, set in 1920s New York.
Prohibition is a dangerous time to be a working-class woman in New York City, but Vivian Kelly has finally found some measure of stability and freedom. By day, she’s a respectable shop assistant, delivering luxurious dresses to the city’s wealthy and elite. At night, she joins the madcap revelry of New York’s underworld, serving illegal drinks and dancing into the morning at a secretive, back-alley speakeasy known as the Nightingale. She's found, if not love, then something like it with her bootlegger sweetheart, Leo, even if she can't quite forget the allure of the Nightingale's sultry owner, Honor Huxley.
Then the husband of a wealthy client is discovered dead in his study, and Vivian was the last known person to see him alive. With the police and the press both eager to name a culprit in the high-profile case, she finds herself the primary murder suspect.
She can’t flee town without endangering the people she loves, but Vivian isn’t the sort of girl to go down without a fight. She'll cash in every favor she has from the criminals she calls friends to prove she had no connection to the dead man. But she can't prove what isn't true.
The more Vivian digs into the man’s life, and as the police close in on her, the harder it is to avoid the truth: someone she knows wanted him dead. And the best way to get away with murder is to set up a girl like Vivian to take the fall.
Summer Fridays by Suzanne Rindell
Also listed in Books Set in the 1990s
Author Interview with Suzanne Rindell
You’ve Got Mail for a new generation, set in the days of AOL and instant messenger banter, about a freshly engaged editorial assistant who winds up spending her “summer Fridays” with the person she least expects
Summer 1999: Twentysomething Sawyer is striving to make it in New York. Between her assistant job in publishing, her secret dreams of becoming a writer, and her upcoming wedding to her college boyfriend, her is plate full. Only one problem: She is facing an incredibly lonely summer as her fiancé has been spending longer and longer hours at work . . . with an all-too-close female colleague, Kendra.
When Kendra’s boyfriend, Nick, invites Sawyer to meet up and compare notes about their suspicions, the meeting goes awry. She finds Nick cocky and cynical, and he finds her stuck in her own head. But then Nick seeks out Sawyer online to apologize, and a friendship develops.
Soon, Sawyer’s lonely summer takes an unexpected turn. She and Nick begin an unofficial ritual—exploring New York City together every summer Friday. From hot dogs on the Staten Island Ferry and Sea Breezes in a muggy East Village bar to swimming at Coney Island, Sawyer feels seen by Nick in a way that surprises her. He pushes her to be braver. To ask for what she wants. Meanwhile, Sawyer draws Nick out of his hard shell, revealing a surprisingly vulnerable side. They both begin living for their Friday afternoons together.
But what happens when the summer is over?
Summer Fridays is a witty and emotional love letter to New York City that also captures the feeling of being young and starting out, uncertain what to do on your summer Friday. It’s also perfect for readers who remember when “going online” meant tying up the phone line, and the timeless thrill of seeing a certain someone’s name in your inbox.
The Mother Act by Heidi Reimer
Set against the sparkling backdrop of the theater world, this propulsive debut follows the relationship between an actress who refuses to abandon her career and the daughter she chooses to abandon instead.
Sadie Jones, a larger-than-life actress and controversial feminist, never wanted to be a mother. No one feels this more deeply than Jude, the daughter Sadie left behind. While Jude spent her childhood touring with her father’s Shakespearian theater company, desperate for validation from the mother she barely knew, Sadie catapulted to fame on the wings of The Mother Act—a scathing one-woman show about motherhood.
Two decades later, Jude is a talented actress in her own right, and her fraught relationship with Sadie has come to a scandalous head. On a December evening in New York City, at the packed premiere of Sadie’s latest play, the two come face-to-face and the intertwined stories of their lives unfold—colorfully and dramatically. What emerges is a picture of two very different women navigating the complicated worlds of career, love, and family, all while grappling with the essential question: can they ever really understand each other?
Compelling, insightful, and cleverly conveyed as a play in six acts, The Mother Act is a stylish page-turner that looks at what it means to be a devoted mother and a devoted artist—and whether it is possible to be both.
The Waves Take You Home by María Alejandra Barrios Vélez
In this heartfelt story about how the places we run from hold the answers to our deepest challenges, the death of her grandmother brings a young woman home, where she must face the past in order to become the heir of not just the family restaurant, but her own destiny.
Violeta Sanoguera had always done what she was told. She left the man she loved in Colombia in pursuit of a better life for herself and because her mother and grandmother didn’t approve of him. Chasing dreams of education and art in New York City, and with a new love, twenty-eight-year-old Violeta establishes a new life for herself, on her terms. But when her grandmother suddenly dies, everything changes.
After years of being on her own in NYC, Violeta finds herself on a plane back to Colombia, accompanied at all times by the ghost of her grandmother who is sending her messages and signs, to find she is the heir of the failing family restaurant, the very one Abuela told her to run from in the first place. The journey leads her to rediscover her home, her grandmother, and even the flame of an old love.
Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray
Author Interview with Stephanie Dray
New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Dray returns with a captivating and dramatic new novel about an American heroine Frances Perkins.
Raised on tales of her revolutionary ancestors, Frances Perkins arrives in New York City at the turn of the century, armed with her trusty parasol and an unyielding determination to make a difference.
When she’s not working with children in the crowded tenements in Hell’s Kitchen, Frances throws herself into the social scene in Greenwich Village, befriending an eclectic group of politicians, artists, and activists, including the millionaire socialite Mary Harriman Rumsey, the flirtatious budding author Sinclair Lewis, and the brilliant but troubled reformer Paul Wilson, with whom she falls deeply in love.
But when Frances meets a young lawyer named Franklin Delano Roosevelt at a tea dance, sparks fly in all the wrong directions. She thinks he’s a rich, arrogant dilettante who gets by on a handsome face and a famous name. He thinks she’s a priggish bluestocking and insufferable do-gooder. Neither knows it yet, but over the next twenty years, they will form a historic partnership that will carry them both to the White House.
Frances is destined to rise in a political world dominated by men, facing down the Great Depression as FDR’s most trusted lieutenant—even as she struggles to balance the demands of a public career with marriage and motherhood. And when vicious political attacks mount and personal tragedies threaten to derail her ambitions, she must decide what she’s willing to do—and what she’s willing to sacrifice—to save a nation.
Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez
Also listed in Books Set in the 1980s
1985. Anita de Monte, a rising star in the art world, is found dead in New York City; her tragic death is the talk of the town. Until it isn’t. By 1998 Anita’s name has been all but forgotten―certainly by the time Raquel, a third-year art history student is preparing her final thesis. On College Hill, surrounded by progeny of film producers, C-Suite executives, and international art-dealers, most of whom float through life knowing that their futures are secured, Raquel feels herself an outsider. Students of color, like Raquel, are the minority there, and the pressure to work twice as hard for the same opportunities is no secret.
But when Raquel becomes romantically involved with a well-connected older art student, she finds herself unexpectedly rising up the social ranks. As she attempts to straddle both worlds, she stumbles upon Anita’s story, raising questions about the dynamics of her own relationship, which eerily mirrors that of the forgotten artist.
Moving back and forth through time and told from the perspectives of both women, Anita de Monte Laughs Last, is a propulsive, witty examination of power, love, and art, daring to ask who gets to be remembered and who is left behind in the rarefied world of the elite.
The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard by Natasha Lester
Also listed in Books Set in the 1970s
Author Interview with Natasha Lester
"Vogue meets Daisy Jones & the Six," says New York Times bestseller Kate Quinn, in this bold novel of feminism and fashion set in 1970s New York City and the historic designers’ showdown in Versailles.
Everyone remembers her daringly short, silver lamé dress. It was iconic photo capturing an electric moment, where emerging American designer Astrid Bricard is young, uninhibited, and on the cusp of fashion and feminism’s changing landscape. She and fellow designer Hawk Jones are all over Vogue magazine and New York City's disco scene. Yet she can't escape the shadow of her mother, Mizza Bricard, infamous "muse" for Christian Dior. Astrid would give anything to take her place among the great houses of couture–on her own terms. I won’t inspire it when I can create it.
But then Astrid disappeared…
Now Astrid's daughter, Blythe, holds what remains of her mother and grandmother's legacies. Of all the Bricard women, she can gather the torn, painfully beautiful fabrics of three generations of heartbreak to create something that will shake the foundations of fashion. The only piece missing is the one question no one's been able to answer: What really happened to Astrid?
The Winthrop Agreement by Alice Sherman Simpson
A captivating historical novel set in Gilded Age New York City about an immigrant daughter’s ascent from a miserable tenement to the heights of haute couture, driven by an insatiable hunger for a place in society and secrets she must not betray.
When Rivkah Milmanovitch arrives at Ellis Island, her husband is not waiting for her as promised. Alone and pregnant, she makes her way to the Lower East Side tenement of an old friend. Lottie Aarons, whose husband went out for a newspaper and never returned, takes Rivkah in and they work side-by-side in dispiriting sweatshops. Rivkah gives birth to a daughter, Mimi, determined that her child will have a better life in America.
Frederick Winthrop, slum landlord, lives in one of Fifth Avenue‘s sumptuous mansions—and preys on young girls. When he serendipitously meets fifteen-year-oldMimi, who dreams of silks, satins and velvets, imagines costumes and ball gowns, she is easily seduced, and her life takes an unexpected turn. To avoid scandal, the Winthrop family offers Mimi a rare opportunity. While Lottie, now a bookkeeper in the employ of the Winthrops, wisely advises her, Mimi knows exactly what she wants. But as she rises to international fame, she must struggle with the secrets of her past and protect those she loves.
Part history, part romance, with a twist of gothic, The Winthrop Agreement is a spellbinding tale of a determined heroine who will entrance Bridgerton and all historical fiction fans.
Harlem After Midnight by Louise Hare
Also listed in Books Set in the 1930s
Author Interview with Louise Hare
A body falls from a town house window in Harlem, and it looks just like the newest singer at the Apollo...in this evocative, twisting new novel from the author of Miss Aldridge Regrets.
Harlem, 1936: Lena Aldridge grew up in a cramped corner of London, hearing stories of the bright lights of Broadway. She always imagined that when she finally went to New York City, she’d be there with her father. But now he’s dead, and she’s newly arrived and alone, chasing a dream that has quickly dried up. When Will Goodman—the handsome musician she met on the crossing from England—offers for her to stay with his friends in Harlem, she agrees. She has nowhere else to go, and this will give her a chance to get to know Will better and see if she can find any trace of the family she might have remaining.
Will’s friends welcome her with open arms, but just as Lena discovers the stories her father once told her were missing giant pieces of information, she also starts to realize the man she’s falling too fast and too hard for has secrets of his own. And they might just place a target on her back. Especially when she is drawn to the brightest stage in town.
Women of the Post by Joshunda Sanders
Also listed in Books About The Holocaust
For fans of A League of Their Own, a debut historical novel that gives voice to the pioneering Black women of the of the Six Triple Eight Battalion who made history by sorting over one million pieces of mail overseas for the US Army.
1944, New York City. Judy Washington is tired of working from dawn ‘til dusk in the Bronx Slave Market, cleaning white women’s houses and barely making a dime. Her husband is fighting overseas, so it's up to Judy and her mother to make enough money for rent and food. When the chance arises for Judy to join the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) and the ability to bring home a steady paycheck, she jumps at the opportunity.
Immediately upon arrival, Judy undergoes grueling military drills and inspections led by Second Officer Charity Adams, one of the only Black officers in the WAC who has a secret relationship with one of the other women officers. Yet just as quickly as she arrived, Judy and her newfound friends Stacy, Bernadette, and Mary Alyce are transferred to Birmingham, England as part of the 6888th Central Postal Battalion—the only unit of Black women to serve overseas in WWII. Here, they are assigned the mission to sort a backlog of over one million pieces of mail to troops who marched on Normandy.
The women work tirelessly, knowing that they're reuniting soldiers to their loved ones through the letters they write. Meanwhile, their fearless leader, Officer Charity Adams, advocates for better work conditions and hours. However, their work becomes personal when Mary Alyce discovers a backlogged letter addressed to Judy that will upend her personal life. As life-changing findings and unexpected romances arise, will the group of women fail the daunting task ahead of them, or will they succeed?
Told through the alternating perspectives of Judy, Charity, and Mary Alyce, Women of the Post is an unforgettable story of perseverance, female friendship, romance, and self-discovery.
The Wife App by Carolyn Mackler
Three best friends decide they’re finally done with their ex-husbands taking their work as wives and moms for granted. They’re ready to monetize the mental load, stick it to their exes, and have a wild ride in the process.
Lauren, mother of twins, wakes up one morning to her Wife Alarm Bells sounding. She sleuths on her husband’s phone and stumbles on a dirty secret that explodes her marriage. Madeline has it all—a penthouse apartment, a perfect daughter, and no-strings-attached romps with handsome men. When she learns that she might lose her child to her ex in England, it stirs up a decades-old personal tragedy. Sophie, with too much FOMO and never enough money, obsesses over her ex-husband’s Family 2.0—all while keeping her true desires hidden, even from herself.
It starts as a joke during a tipsy night out, as Lauren, Madeline, and Sophie rail against everything wives do for free. Let’s build an app that monetizes the mental load. And maybe get revenge on our exes in the process? Soon, the Wife App is born, and before long, it’s the fastest growing start-up in New York City. But then life intervenes. Love intervenes. Ex-husbands intervene. And the consequences are bigger than anything Lauren, Madeline, or Sophie could have expected. Carolyn Mackler marks her debut into adult fiction with a hilarious rollercoaster ride of revenge and redemption that is at once a send-up of modern marriage and a celebration of female friendship and love in all forms.
Love Betrayal Murder by Adam Mitzner
Matthew Brooks and Vanessa Lyons are attorneys at a powerful New York City law firm and they’re in love. But their relationship is fraught with peril. For starters, Vanessa is married and her husband is suspicious of her long nights at work. And then there’s the fact that Vanessa is up for partner, and to boost her chances, she’s assigned to work on the firm’s biggest trial, which places her directly under Matt’s supervision. When Vanessa is denied her partnership, despite assurances to the contrary from the firm’s senior partner, she can only assume that her affair with Matt was the reason. Then, on a crowded Manhattan street corner, a knife flashes in the midday sun, leaving behind a scene of horror. But with so many having been betrayed, will the murderer be brought to justice?
Funny Guy by Emma Barry
Author Interview with Emma Barry
From the author of Chick Magnet comes a heartfelt friends-to-lovers story about what can happen when a funny guy and his childhood best friend are stuck together in a small New York City apartment.
Sam can’t escape the smash hit “Lost Boy” because, well, he is the lost boy. His pop-singer ex immortalized him in a song about his childish ways, and now his comedy career is on the line.
At least he still has Bree, his best friend and confidante. Bree has always been there for Sam, but she’s never revealed her biggest secret: she’s in love with him. To help herself move on, Bree applies for her dream job across the country—and doesn’t say a thing to Sam.
But as Sam tries to resuscitate his career, he turns to Bree for support—and maybe more. In the confines of her tiny apartment, they share a different dynamic. A charged dynamic. But she’s his friend. He can’t be falling for her.
Except he is.
Are his feelings for Bree just funny business? Or is their smoldering attraction the real deal?
American Arcadia by Laura Scalzo
Also listed in Books Set in the 1980s
New York City, 1985, the scaffolded and torchless Statue of Liberty is under reconstruction,
the Twin Towers hum with money, and the clubs pulse with music. Young Wall Streeter,
Mina Berg, and her roommate, Chry Risk, strike up friendships with the volatile Danny Nyro
and easygoing Dare Fiore. Mina wants Chry’s family prestige, while Chry only wants to play
the bass like Jaco Pastorius. Nyro trades on his father’s notoriety and Dare is keeping secrets. Each of these twenty-somethings attempts to rewrite their origin story as they find themselves knotted in the cross purposes of friendship and love, life and death. Meanwhile, the Sicilian grandmothers on Staten Island are telling tall tales of a fugitive mermaid who lives in the New York Harbor. Themes of art, immigration, reproductive rights, AIDS, assault, class, and betrayal, simmer beneath a dynamic plot that spans one life-altering year.
The Rise and Fall of Ava Arcana by Jennifer Banash
Inspired by a twisted Lady Gaga conspiracy theory, Jennifer Banash transports us to the gritty exhilarating streets of New York City where two young talented women hope to be noticed, loved, and transformed into stars. THE RISE AND FALL OF AVA ARCANA explores how a tight but fragile friendship grows, thrives, and then ultimately crashes when the ugly pressures of promise and fame take control.
When Rolling Stone journalist Kayla McCray is assigned a cover story on pop icon Lexi Mayhem, Kayla stumbles across a startling new angle to the exposé. Years ago, another rising star from Lexi’s past mysteriously leaped to her death. Some things are better off forgotten, Lexi says. Kayla disagrees. It’s 2005 and Ava Petrova moves to New York with a notebook full of songs and a dream. Then she meets Lexi, an up-and-coming singer who brands Ava with an enigmatic new stage name and introduces her to an intoxicating city alive with possibilities. From fast friends and kindred spirits to creative muses and inseparable soul mates, Ava and Lexi embark on a parallel journey to stardom, but there is room for only one at the top. As past and present converge, Kayla chases the ghost of a young woman doomed by betrayal and erased by a secret and unravels the truth that it takes more than ambition to become a star.
Tell Me One Thing by Kerri Schlottman
Inspired by a true story and set against the backdrop of a rural Pennsylvania trailer park, and the complicated world of Manhattan during the AIDS epidemic, Tell Me One Thing spans place and time as it delves into New York City’s free-for-all grittiness while exposing a neglected slice of the struggling rust belt, traversing decades from the 1980s up to present day. At the center of it all is a photograph taken by an ambitious young artist of a 9-year-old girl sitting on the lap of a trucker outside a motel. The photograph becomes famous decades later, prompting the subject to seek out the photographer and find out why she never helped her all those years ago.
Kerri's background in the arts lends to the authenticity of the novel, and the book is inspired by Mary Ellen Mark’s famous 1990 photograph, “Amanda and Her Cousin Amy,” which depicts nine-year-old Amanda smoking a cigarette in a kiddie pool in rural North Carolina.
Tell Me One Thing is an atmospheric debut novel that examines power, privilege, and the sacrifices one is willing to make to succeed.
A Castle In Brooklyn by Shirley Russak Wachtel
Spanning decades, an unforgettable novel about reckoning with the past, the true nature of friendship, and the dream of finding home.
1944, Poland. Jacob Stein and Zalman Mendelson meet as boys under terrifying circumstances. They survive by miraculously escaping, but their shared past haunts and shapes their lives forever.
Years later, Zalman plows a future on a Minnesota farm. In Brooklyn, Jacob has a new life with his wife, Esther. When Zalman travels to New York City to reconnect, Jacob’s hopes for the future are becoming a reality. With Zalman’s help, they build a house for Jacob’s family and for Zalman, who decides to stay. Modest and light filled, inviting and warm with acceptance—for all of them, it’s a castle to call home.
Then an unforeseeable tragedy—and the grief, betrayals, and revelations in its wake—threatens to destroy what was once an unbreakable bond, and Esther finds herself at a crossroads. A Castle in Brooklyn is a moving and heartfelt immigration story about finding love and building a home and family while being haunted by a traumatic past.
Something from Tiffany's by Melissa Hill
Soon to be a Hello Sunshine/Prime feature film, from international bestselling author Melissa Hill comes an adorable holiday romance about taking chances, falling in love, and trusting destiny.
New York City at Christmas and a visit to Tiffany’s is a recipe to sweep a girl off her feet unless fate has other plans . . .
When Ethan Greene lost his wife, he never thought he would be able to replace her, until one woman stepped in and showed him how to be happy again. Now, on a romantic Christmas trip to New York City, he has a plan to show Vanessa just how important she is to him and maybe even to give his daughter, Daisy, a complete family again. He’s going to propose with a perfect ring from Tiffany’s.
Gary Knowles and his girlfriend, Rachel, are on the trip of a lifetime in New York at the most magical time of year. The only thing missing is Gary’s gift for Rachel, since as usual, he’s left his shopping far too late. On a last-minute Christmas Eve visit to Tiffany’s, he quickly picks out a charm bracelet for her and heads back to their hotel. But, in a moment, one small mistake changes everything…
The Break by Katie Sise
Author Interview with Katie Sise
After the traumatic birth of her daughter at a New York City hospital, Rowan O’Sullivan returns home to her apartment with her perfect newborn, Lila. At her side are her husband, Gabe, and June, a part-time babysitter hired to help Rowan in any way she can.
But in this time of joy, Rowan can’t shake the feeling that something isn’t right. She feels dread. She’s breaking.
Rowan’s growing instability leads her to accuse June of unspeakable things. And when June disappears just days later, Rowan becomes a suspect. The neighbors heard the screaming. But only Rowan knows what really happened. If her mind can be trusted. Since Lila’s birth, her memory has been both unreliable and frightening.
To uncover what happened to June and protect her new baby, Rowan must try to untangle the deep recesses of her mind and face the dark things she’s so desperate to keep buried. When she does, no one is prepared for where the truth leads.
Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz
This is not just another novel about a dead girl. Two women—one alive, one dead—are brought together in the dark underbelly of New York City to solve a tragic murder.
When she arrived in New York on her eighteenth birthday carrying nothing but $600 cash and a stolen camera, Alice Lee was looking for a fresh start. Now, just one month later, she is the city’s latest Jane Doe. She may be dead but that doesn’t mean her story is over.
Meanwhile, Ruby Jones is also trying to reinvent herself. After travelling halfway around the world, she’s lonelier than ever in the Big Apple. Until she stumbles upon a woman’s body by the Hudson River, and suddenly finds herself unbreakably tied to the unknown dead woman.
Alice is sure Ruby is the key to solving the mystery of her short life and tragic death. Ruby just wants to forget what she saw…but she can’t seem to stop thinking about the young woman she found. If she keeps looking, can she give this unidentified Jane Doe the ending and closure she deserves?
Call Me When You’re Dead by A.R. Taylor
Author Interview with A.R. Taylor
"Call Me When You're Dead" is a darkly comic novel about payback gone wild, gone sour, maybe even sweet. “If anything bad happens to me, I want you to get him.” That's what Eleanor Birch’s glamorous friend Sasha Cole requests of her during a New York City dinner one hot August night. Something bad does happen, and Eleanor is forced to become another person altogether in the wilds of Manhattan, acting as her own little Pygmalion in the harsh world of advertising and its remorseless denizens. How she triumphs, and how her prey becomes first her ally and then her lover, makes her journey a tragic romp, a hilarious disaster, and even an all-out farce—but one with very serious consequences.
The Thread Collectors by Shaunna J. Edwards and Alyson Richman
Author Interviews with Shaunna J. Edwards and Alyson Richman
1863: In a small Creole cottage in New Orleans, an ingenious young Black woman named Stella embroiders intricate maps on repurposed cloth to help enslaved men flee and join the Union Army. Bound to a man who would kill her if he knew of her clandestine activities, Stella has to hide not only her efforts but her love for William, a Black soldier and a brilliant musician.
Meanwhile, in New York City, a Jewish woman stitches a quilt for her husband, who is stationed in Louisiana with the Union Army. Between abolitionist meetings, Lily rolls bandages and crafts quilts with her sewing circle for other soldiers, too, hoping for their safe return home. But when months go by without word from her husband, Lily resolves to make the perilous journey South to search for him.
The Night Shift: A Novel by Natalka Burian
Sweetbitter meets Russian Doll in this nostalgia bomb. When Jean’s friend Iggy introduces her to the underground world of NYC shortcuts—secret passageways that allow you to jump through time and space to emerge in different parts of the city—it’s nice to shorter her commute between her night shifts bartending and at the upscale bakery. But when the side effects become tough to shake, her past traumas become her present. When Iggy goes missing, Jean must explore the origins into these shortcuts, discovering a startling connection. A shimmering, propulsive novel set in New York City during the early aughts and across time, The Night Shift shows that by confronting the past can we reshape our future.
City of Likes by Jenny Mollen
Megan Chernoff is a talented but unemployed copywriter in an identity crisis after the birth of her second child. Seeking a fresh start, she and her family move to New York City, where she meets Daphne Cole-a gorgeous, stylish, well-known momfluencer. To Meg's surprise and delight, Daphne shows an inordinate amount of interest in Meg, showering her with compliments, attention, gifts, and all the perks that come with having a massive digital platform. Before she knows it, Meg finds herself immersed in Daphne's world-hobnobbing at exclusive power mama supper clubs, partaking in fancy wellness rituals, and reveling in the external validation she gets from her followers who grow daily by the thousands. Her friendship with Daphne, as well as the world she's been granted access to, is intoxicating and all-consuming. But is it authentic? When Meg realizes she's losing track of what matters most-her relationship with her sons and her husband-the deep cracks in Daphne's carefully curated façade are finally exposed. It's up to Meg to find her way back to her real life. But first she must determine what "real" even means.
The Heart of the Deal by Lindsay Macmillan
Rae is in a romantic recession.
The Wall Street banker is single in New York City and overwhelmed by the pressure to scramble up the corporate and romantic ladders. Feeling her biological clock ticking, she analyzes her love life like a business deal and vows to lock in a husband before her 30th birthday. The Manhattan dating app scene has as many ups and downs as the stock market, and outsourcing dates to an algorithm isn’t exactly Rae’s idea of romance. She considers cutting her losses, but her friends help her stay invested, boosting her spirits with ice cream and cheap wine that they share in their sixth-floor walk-up while recapping cringe-worthy dates. And then Rae meets Dustin, a poetic soul trapped in a business suit, just like her. She starts to hear wedding bells, but Dustin’s struggles with depression will test their relationship, and no amount of financial modeling can project what their future will look like. Can Rae free herself from the idea she had of what thirty was supposed to look like and let love breathe on its own timeline? Or is she too conditioned to stay on the “right track” to follow her unpaved intuition? Moving and timely, The Heart of the Deal is the story of one woman’s reckoning with what success really is in a city, an industry, and a relationship whose low lows continually challenge the enchantment of the high highs.
Our Laundry, Our Town: My Chinese American Life from Flushing to the Downtown Stage and Beyond by Alvin Eng
Also listed in Books Set in the 1970s
From behind the counter of his parents' laundry and a household rooted in a different century and culture to the turbulent, exciting streets of 1970s New York City, playwright, performer, acoustic punk rock raconteur, and educator Alvin Eng delivers an illuminating time capsule of the Chinese-American experience in his new memoir, OUR LAUNDRY, OUR TOWN. Fans of memoirs that speak to the immigrant experience – such as Beautiful Country and Sigh, Gone – and the gritty Downtown scene – such as Just Kids and Vanishing New York – will delight in Eng’s story of finding voice, identity, and community through the transformative power of Asian American arts, activism, punk rock and theater.
Shadows of Berlin by David R. Gillham
Also listed in Books Set in the 1950s
1955 in New York City: the city of instant coffee, bagels at Katz’s Deli, ultra-modern TVs. But in the Perlman’s walk-up in Chelsea, the past is as close as the present. Rachel came to Manhattan in a wave of displaced Jews who managed to survive the horrors of war. Her Uncle Fritz fleeing with her, Rachel hoped to find freedom from her pain in New York and in the arms of her new American husband, Aaron. But this child of Berlin and daughter of an artist cannot seem to outrun her guilt in the role of American housewife, not until she can shed the ghosts of her past. And when Uncle Fritz discovers, in a dreary midtown pawn shop, the most shocking portrait that her mother had ever painted, Rachel’s memories begin to terrorize her, forcing her to face the choices she made to stay alive—choices that might be her undoing.
Westside Lights by W.M. Akers
Also listed in Books Set in the 1920s
The Alienist meets the magical mystery of The Ninth House as W. M. Akers returns with the third book in his critically acclaimed Jazz Age fantasy series set in the dangerous Westside of New York City, following private detective Gilda Carr’s hunt for the truth—one tiny mystery at a time.
The Westside of Manhattan is desolate, overgrown, and dangerous—and Gilda Carr wouldn’t have it any other way. An eccentric detective whose pursuit of tiny mysteries has dragged her to the brink of madness, Gilda spends 1923 searching for something that’s eluded her for years: peace. On the revitalized waterfront of the Lower West, Gilda and the gregarious ex-gangster Cherub Stevens start a new life on a stolen yacht. But their old life isn’t done with them yet.
They dock their boat on the edge of the White Lights District, a new tenderloin where liquor, drugs, sex, and violence are shaken into a deadly cocktail. When her pet seagull vanishes into the District, Gilda throws herself into the search for the missing bird. Up late watching the river for her pet, Gilda has one drink too many and passes out in the cabin of her waterfront home.
She wakes to a massacre.
Eight people have been slaughtered on the deck of the Misery Queen, and Cherub is among the dead. Gilda, naturally, is the prime suspect. Hunted by the police, the mob, and everyone in between, she must stay free long enough to find the person who stained the Hudson with her beloved’s blood. She will discover that on her Westside, no lights are bright enough to drive away the darkness.
Abandoned In Death by J.D. Robb
Homicide detective Eve Dallas must untangle a twisted family history while a hostage’s life hangs in the balance.
The woman’s body was found in the early morning, on a bench in a New York City playground. She was clean, her hair neatly arranged, her makeup carefully applied. But other things were very wrong—like the tattoo and piercings, clearly new. The clothes, decades out of date. The fatal wound hidden beneath a ribbon around her neck. And the note: Bad Mommy, written in crayon as if by a child.
Eve Dallas turns to the department’s top profiler, who confirms what seems obvious to Eve: They’re dealing with a killer whose childhood involved some sort of trauma—a situation Eve is all too familiar with herself. Yet the clues suggest a perpetrator who’d be roughly sixty years old, and there are no records of old crimes with a similar MO. What was the trigger that apparently reopened such an old wound and sent someone over the edge?
When Eve discovers that other young women—who physically resemble the first victim—have vanished, the clock starts ticking louder. But to solve this case she will need to find her way into a hidden place of dim light and concrete, into the distant past, and into the cold depths of a shattered mind.
The Music Stalker by Bruce J. Berger
Also listed in Books Set in the 1970s
Kayla Covo is a piano prodigy. In mid-1970’s New York City, she vaults to fame, holding audiences in awe with her renditions of Beethoven and Chopin and winning their hearts forever with a smile. But deep within lie the seeds of her destruction, the genes leading to paranoid fear of being stalked by a murderous fan. Supported yet oppressed by her devoted brother Max, Kayla struggles to find the right path. The Music Stalker closely examines how genius and love might survive in a close-knit family torn by trauma, insanity, and jealousy.
After Perfect by Maan Gabriel
Thirty-six-year-old Gabriella Stevens is living a quiet and content fairy tale as a devoted housewife to Simon--just as her traditional Filipino mother has always told her to do--when, after sixteen years of marriage and twenty years together, he tells he wants a divorce. Simon has been Gabby's everything since they were kids; without him, her world implodes. But as she navigates her way through the wreckage of the marriage she thought would last forever, she becomes determined to make a life on her own. With New York City as her backdrop, Gabby--single for the first time since she was a teenager--goes back to school, gets her first real job, and faces unfamiliar reality with determination. Gabby's life takes another turn when she falls in love with her mysterious but utterly beautiful creative writing professor, Colt. Being with Colt is exhilarating for her--something new, something exciting and beyond understanding. He is almost seven years her junior, and a literary genius. But he is also battling demons of his own: a tragic past that may have made him incapable of love. Is Gabby destined for another heartbreak--or will her connection with Colt be what unbreaks her?
The Sorting Room by Michael Rose
In Prohibition-era New York City, Eunice Ritter, an indomitable ten-year-old girl, finds work in a sweat shop―an industrial laundry―after impairing her older brother with a blow to the head in a sibling tussle. When the diminutive girl first enters the sorting room, she encounters a giant: Gussie, the largest human being she has ever seen. Gussie, a powerful, hard-working woman, soon becomes Eunice’s mentor and sole friend as she finds herself entrapped in the laundry’s sorting room by the Great Depression, sentenced to bring her low wages home to her alcoholic parents as penance for her childhood mistake. Then, on her sixteenth birthday, Eunice becomes pregnant and her drunken father demands that the culprit marry his daughter, trapping her anew―this time in a loveless marriage, along with a child she never wanted. Within a couple of years, Eunice makes a grave error and settles into a lonely life of drudgery that she views as her own doing. She spends decades in virtual solitude before her secret history is revealed to those from whom she has withheld her love.
An epic family saga, The Sorting Room is a captivating tale of a woman’s struggle and perseverance in faint hopes of reconciliation, if not redemption.
Saved at the Seawall by Jessica DuLong
Jessica DuLong is a journalist, historian, and chief engineer, emerita of the retired 1931 New York City fireboat, John J. Harvey. She served at Ground Zero, spending four days supplying Hudson River water to fight the fires at the World Trade Center. In her book she tells the greatest 9/11 story you’ve never heard—how boat captains and crews delivered to safety nearly 500,000 people stranded on Manhattan Island on one of America’s darkest days.
The Godmothers by Camille Aubray
Meet the Godmothers: Filomena is a clever and resourceful war refugee with a childhood secret, who comes to America to wed Mario, the family's favored son. Amie, a beautiful and dreamy French girl from upstate New York, escapes an abusive husband after falling in love with Johnny, the oldest of the brothers. Lucy, a tough-as-nails Irish nurse, ran away from a strict girls' home and marries Frankie, the sensuous middle son. And the glamorous Petrina, the family’s only daughter, graduates with honors from Barnard College despite a past trauma that nearly caused a family scandal. But the women’s secret pasts lead to unforeseen consequences and betrayals that threaten to unravel all their carefully laid plans. And when their husbands are forced to leave them during the second World War, the Godmothers must unexpectedly contend with notorious gangsters like Frank Costello and Lucky Luciano who run the streets of New York City.
