15+ Adult Books Set in New York City
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After I did my list of picture books set in New York City, the obvious follow-up question was “what about books for adults set in New York City?”
Well, your wish is my command!
Here are some of my favorites, followed by a bunch of suggestions from my Instagram community!
BOOKS TO READ SET IN NEW YORK CITY
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
This was one I meant to read for years and didn’t get around to until it was the only audiobook I had when I was doing hours and hours of driving every week down to my elementary school libraries in Boston. And I completely got the hype. (Full review here).
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
I listened to and loved this story about a woman who in her late thirties goes to sleep and mysteriously wakes up on the morning of her 16th birthday, back in the 90s. There are wonderful and terrible things about this, but the most important thing is that her beloved father, who is slipping away in the present, is young and healthy in this alternate past.
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle
This is one of those books with the theme of time-travel-within-your-own-life plot and it was pretty good. Dannie Kohan has her whole future perfectly planned out, but a mysterious hour spent five years in the future (with a different ring, a different apartment, and a different man) throws everything she thought she wanted into question.
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
On the last night of 1937 in a smoky Greenwich Village jazz bar, Katey Kontent crosses paths with a charming banker, a chance meeting that pulls her into the glittering world of New York high society. It is set in roaring 20s/30s New York, and has a very Great Gatsby feel – glamorous, sharp, and a little bit disillusioned.
Shopaholic Takes Manhattan by Sophie Kinsella
Sophie Kinsella is most known for her Shopaholic book series, which is also a delight, even if you’ll kind of die a little inside at the over-the-top spending. This was one of the first series I read when I was reading again for fun after a long hiatus during high school and college and I’ll never forget the sheer delight of blowing through a just-for-fun book. This specific installment takes main character Becky to New York when her boyfriend moves there for work and asks her to come with him.
And here are some books set in New York City that I haven’t read that my Instagram community raved about!
In a New York Minute by Kate Spencer
Franny Doyle’s already having the worst day, she was laid off, her dress ruined by the subway doors, and her unmentionables flashed to half of lower Manhattan. But then a stranger swoops in with his Gucci jacket and the whole thing goes viral as the internet’s new favorite “meet-cute”. This one sounds like such a fun New York opposites-attract rom-com.
Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson
This one follows three women from one old-money Brooklyn Heights family – the eldest daughter who gave up too much for motherhood, the middle-class wife who married in and don’t quite fit, and the younger sister falling for someone she shouldn’t. If you like reading about how that 1% live with plenty of drama, this sounds perfect!
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
Lillian spent the 1930s as the highest-paid advertising woman in the country, and now, on the last night of 1984 at eighty-five years old, she’s walking ten miles across a grittier New York on her way to a party. Along the way she runs into bartenders, bodega clerks, and strangers of every kind, all while looking back on a life full of passion, heartbreak, and everything in between.
The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis
Charlotte’s career studying a dismissed female pharaoh in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings gets upended by tragedy, and decades later, she’s leading a quiet life as a curator at the Met when a priceless artifact vanishes the night of the famous Met Gala. Paired up with a young gala assistant, Charlotte has to head back to Egypt and face the past she swore she’d left behind. This one is a great mix of mystery, history, and glamour.
Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn
Meg is a calligrapher known for her amazing hand lettering, and while working on wedding invitations for a couple about to get married, she senses disaster with their relationship. She encodes the word “mistake” in their wedding invitations, and a year later the groom shows up at her door demanding to know how she knew. Let’s just say…the wedding never happened.
The Super Big Favor by by Nuria Muñoz
Antonia’s grandmother left one stipulation on inheriting her family’s beloved arts center: get married. Enter Matthew, an art history professor who needs a wife to help him land tenure, and what starts as a mutually convenient fake marriages quickly turns into the real question of whether either of them actually wants out – and since it’s a novella, this is the shortest (and quickest!) read on the list.
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
Set in early 20th-century New York, this novel follows Belle da Costa Greene, the personal librarian to J. P. Morgan, who becomes a powerful force in the art and book world while curating one of the most important collections in the country. Behind her success, Belle is carrying a dangerous secret – she is a Black woman passing as white in a society where everything depends on her ability to stay hidden.
The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis
This intriguing historical fiction follows Sadie as she pursues her dream job as a curator of the New York Public Library. But while she is working on an exhibit, books and manuscripts begin disappearing and some unwelcome family secrets start emerging.
A Fall of Marigolds by Susan Meissner
I love Susan Meissner’s historical fiction novels and I’m anxious to read this one about a scarf handed down through generations that connects two women, a hundred years apart in New York City.
Marchmaker’s Gift by Lynda Choen Loigman
Spanning generations, this novel follows Sara Glikman, a gifted matchmaker in early 1900s New York who must fight to be taken seriously in a male-dominated world, and her granddaughter Abby, a Manhattan divorce attorney who uncovers her grandmother’s hidden journals. As Abby digs into Sara’s story, she’s forced to rethink her own beliefs about love, ambition, and what truly lasts. I haven’t read this one, but it sounds intriguing!
The Engineer’s Wife by Tracey Enerson Wood
If you’re interested in the history behind one of New York City’s most iconic landmarks, this historical novel about the Brooklyn Bridge is a great pick. It’s based on the true story of Emily Roebling, whose leadership was essential in completing the bridge after her husband was injured, bringing long-overdue attention to the woman behind its success.
The Overdue Life of Amy Byler by Kelly Harms.
I definitely have meant to read this for ages! It it is all about a single mom who has the whole summer to herself when her husband who left years earlier offers to take their children for the summer. So instead of staying in her rural Pennsylvania town, she sets off for New York City.
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
In the early 1950s, Eilis Lacey leaves small-town Ireland for a new life in Brooklyn, where she’s figuring out work, independence, and what home might look like in a completely different place. She slowly builds a life there, including a sweet, steady romance, but a loss back in Ireland forces her to make an impossible choice between the life she’s building and the one she left behind.
Drawn Together by Juliana Smith
An aspiring illustrator and a brooding children’s author strike an unlikely bargain to help save their struggling careers, only to find themselves falling in love along the way in this slow-burn romance. It’s set in New York City during the fall, so it is the perfect cozy autumn read, with witty banter, plenty of bookish charm, and a fun twist I didn’t see coming.
And if you’d like a printable copy of this list of books set in New York City that you can take to your library or screenshot on your phone for easy access, just pop in your email address below and it’ll come right to your inbox!
