I’ve never been to New York City but I grew up watching TV shows set there so it’s always seemed a lot of fun and as a reader I’m always drawn to books that are set there too. Now, I’ve never been so I can’t comment on how well these books actually reflect New York City… but I enjoyed them. So here are 12 books set in New York.
The Princess Diaries – Meg Cabot
Mia Thermopolis is 14-years-old and living in New York City with her single mother who has just started dating her algebra teacher when she finds out that her dad is the prince of a small European principality. She must deal with everyone finding out that she’s actually a princess alongside falling for her best friend’s older brother.
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Buy the book: bookshop.org | amazon
A Hundred Other Girls – Iman Hariri-Kia
Noora is an aspiring writer and amateur blogger living in New York and she’s finally got the chance to work her dream job – an assistant to the editor-in-chief of Vinyl magazine, Loretta James.
But she quickly realises her new boss is an unhinged nightmare that is constantly blowing up her phone with crazy demands. This job is nothing like she expected so when Loretta’s old-school print team finds themselves in a turf war with the new digital team… she must choose which side she’s on.
Genre: Adult, Contemporary
Buy the book: bookshop.org | amazon
They Both Die at the End – Adam Silvera
Just after midnight on September 5, Mateo and Rufus get calls from Death-Cast telling them they are going to die today.
Mateo and Rufus are complete strangers but they’re both looking for a new friend to spend their End Day with. So they both use the app Last Friend to find each other and go on one final adventure.
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Buy the book: bookshop.org | amazon
City of Bones – Cassandra Clare
16-year-old Clary witnesses a murder at a club – but no one else seems to see it. This is Clary’s first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons.
And when Clary’s mother mysteriously disappears, Clary is forced to work with them to find out what has happened to her.
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance
Buy the book: bookshop.org | amazon
Gossip Girl – Cecily von Ziegesar
Serena van der Woodsen has just returned to New York City’s Upper East Side after spending a year in boarding school. But why did she leave? And why is she back? Gossip Girl, an anonymous blogger out to ruin the lives of the city’s teenage elite, is ready to find out.
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Buy the book: bookshop.org | amazon
My Year of Rest and Relaxation – Ottessa Moshfegh
The unnamed narrator should be happy. She’s pretty, she’s young, she’s just graduated from Columbia, works a great job, and her apartment is paid for. But there’s a dark hole in her heart and she decides the only way to fix herself is to hibernate for 365 days and when she comes out she’ll be refreshed and ready to move on with her life again.
Genre: Adult, Literary
Buy the book: bookshop.org | amazon
Luster – Raven Leilani
Edie is working a dead-end admin job, she’s sleeping with all the wrong men, and she’s failed at the only career she really wanted.
And then she meets Eric, a white middle-aged man with a very simple suburban family, including a wife who has kind-of agreed to an open marriage, and an adopted black daughter who has no one like herself in her life.
Edie soon finds herself becoming more involved with Eric’s family than she ever expected.
Genre: Adult, Literary
Buy the book: bookshop.org | amazon
One Last Stop – Casey McQuiston
August has just moved to New York City, she works at a 24-hour pancake diner, and lives with a group of weird roommates. And one day she sees a beautiful girl on the subway that looks like she’s straight out of the 1970s and seeing her subway crush quickly becomes the best part of her day.
Until she begins to get to know her and realises that this girl doesn’t just look like an old school punk rocker from the 70s… She actually is from the 1970s. Jane is trapped in a time loop and August is going to have to save her.
Genre: Adult, Romance, Science Fiction
Buy the book: bookshop.org | amazon
Blackout – Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley
Woodfolk, Nicola Yoon
A summer heatwave causes a citywide blackout in New York City and we follow a number of young couples in a collection of intertwined short stories. 2 exes attempt to make their way home in time for a party, 2 boys trapped on the subway are forced to confront their feelings, best friends are trapped together in a library, and a bus full of kids on a school trip try to convince their teacher to allow them to attend a party.
Genre: Young Adult, Romance
Buy the book: bookshop.org | amazon
In Five Years – Rebecca Serle
In the most important interview of her career, Dannie is asked where she sees herself in 5 years. Later that night, she accepts her boyfriend’s marriage proposal and then goes to sleep. But when she wakes, it’s 5 years in the future and she is sleeping next to a different man.
After a very intense hour she wakes up again in 2020. She doesn’t believe in visions… until 4 and a half years later when she meets the man from her mysterious vision.
Genre: Adult, Romance
Buy the book: bookshop.org | amazon
Happy Hour – Marlowe Granados
Isa and her best friend are in their early 20s when they decide to spend the summer in New York City. They have little money and share one room but they are determined to have a good time. They spend their days selling clothes on a market stall and their evenings mingling with New York City’s elite.
Genre: Adult, Literary
Buy the book: bookshop.org | amazon
Felix Ever After – Kacen Callender
Felix Love has never been in love but he is desperate to know what it’s like. As a trans boy, Felix is proud of his identity but secretly fears he’s too marginalised – black, queer, and transgender – to ever get his own happily-ever-after.
When an anonymous student begins sending him transphobic messages, Felix comes up with a a plan for revenge that somehow lands him in a weird little love triangle.
Genre: Young Adult, Romance
Buy the book: bookshop.org | amazon
