22 Debuts Travel Guide: 12 novels set in popular tourist destinations

​The holiday season is almost upon us - so join the 22 debuts as we travel around the world! Where should your next holiday be?

The Things We Lost by Maggie Giles, April 19, 2022 from Rising Action Publishing Collective
We start our journey in Toronto. Maddie Butler has been haunted for fourteen years. After the suspicious death of a friend when she was twenty-two, Maddie tried to move on, convincing herself there was nothing she could have done. Now in an unfulfilling marriage, she realizes how much the guilt has led to an unhappy life.  

---

Ravenous Things by Derrick Chow, July 26, 2022, from Disney Hyperion
Staying in Toronto - because we like it so much here - Ravenous Things is a creepy reimagining of the Pied Piper. This book will be especially terrifying for readers who fear changeling rats, labyrinthine subway tunnels, impenetrable darkness, and strangers who make improbable promises. 

---

Drizzle, Dreams and Lovestruck Things by Maya Prasad, October 18, 2022, from Disney Hyperion
Moving south from Canada we head to Orcas Island on the Pacific Northwest. Four sisters, four seasons, four flavors of romance. The Singh sisters grew up helping their father navigate the bustle of the Songbird Inn. Nestled on dreamy and drizzly Orcas Island in the Pacific Northwest, the inn's always been warm and cozy and filled with interesting guests—the perfect home. But things are about to heat up now that the Songbird has been named the Most Romantic Inn in America.  

---

Being Mary Bennet by JC Peterson, March 15, 2022, from Harper Teen
Enough of the cold and drizzle - let's head down to San Francisco for some sunshine! Marnie Barnes is convinced she's the long-suffering protagonist of her life, just like the characters in all her favorite books. But a main character isn't the forgotten middle child of their family, nor does their love interest see them as only a friend. But then a series of Marnie-induced disasters forces her to confront the devastating truth: Marnie has more in common with Mary Bennet—the utterly forgettable middle sister of Pride & Prejudice—than effervescent Elizabeth Bennet.  

---

Florida Woman by Deb Rogers, July 5, 2022, from Hanover Square Press/HarperCollins
Heading east now to Florida for a gleefully dark and entertaining debut for fans of Kevin Wilson and Karen Russell about a young woman’s summer spent working at a Floridian wildlife center for exotic monkeys.  

---

Jaguars and Other Game by Brynn Barineau, November 22, 2022, from Orange Blossom Publishing
We now head further south to Brazil and we stop for a few days in Rio de Janeiro. In the spirit of The Three Musketeers and Pirates of Caribbean (but with less misogyny and not only white people), Jaguars and Other Game is a historical fiction set in 1809 Rio de Janeiro. Three women are brought together on the hunt for a murderer after a friend is wrongly imprisoned for the crime. As they interrogate smugglers, dodge corrupt police, and crash a royal ball, the friends realize they've uncovered a plot that reaches the highest levels of the Portuguese monarchy. Jaguars is an adventure about found family and how far we'll go to save them from injustice. There's also a mad queen and some kick ass whip wielding.  

---

The Storytellers by Caron McKinley, May 16, 2022, from Bloodhound Books
Leaving the Americas behind we journey across the Atlantic to start our tour of Europe in the beautiful city of Edinburgh. (I'm slightly biased here since this is where I was born) Trapped between life and the afterlife, three women meet and share their stories while discovering the truth about the men in their lives—and about themselves. Suspended in an eerie state of limbo, an entity called the Gatekeeper tells Nikki, Ronnie, and Mrs. Hawthorne they are on the cusp of entering the afterlife—but only if the women can persuade him that in their earthly lives, they knew the meaning of love. Fragments of their memories return, plunging them back into their pasts, and forcing them to face the desires, disappointments, addictions, lies, and obsessions they battled in life. But before time runs out, will they find the answer to the ultimate question: what is love?  

---

24 Hours in Paris by Romi Moondi, May 10, 2022, from W by Wattpad Books
From Scotland we hop on the ferry across to France and to another beautiful city. Paris. All bets are off in the City of Light . . . where life and love can change in less than a day. Shortly after calling off her engagement, Mira Attwal escapes on an all-expense-paid business trip to Paris. But even the delicious food and flowing wine can’t make her forget her parents' disappointment at leaving her fiancé or the fact that she’s just blown up her personal life. As the trip nears its end, Mira knows she’s just a few hours from having to face the consequences. Yet, the fates seem determined to keep her away just a bit longer.  

---

The Sleepers by KM Kelly, April 26, 2022, from Bloodhound Books
We stay in France, but leave the city heading down through the vineyards to the Loire region. But there isn't much time for sampling the food and the wine - A time bomb is ticking—but what if that time bomb is you? A chilling novel of intrigue, terror, and one man and woman in a race against the clock . . .  

---

Frances and the Monster by Refe Tuma, August 23, 2022, from HarperCollins
From France we head east, towards the mountains and into the Switzerland to visit the city of Bern. Frances Stenzel is an aspiring scientist, and one day she’ll be a world-famous inventor like her parents … if they’d only let her leave the house. When Frances is left home yet again with only an infuriatingly clever robot named Hobbes for company, she enters her parents’ off-limits laboratory, determined to claim her freedom and prove her scientific mettle. Instead, she accidentally awakens her great-grandfather’s secret and most terrible invention—an enormous monster who breaks out of the manor and disappears into the city below.  

---

The Prisoner of Paradise by Rob Samborn, November 30, 2022, from TouchPoint Press
We cross the Alps into Italy and here we stop for a while in Venice. There's some wonderful art galleries that we have to visit - but oh! Wait! On a trip to Venice, Italy, an American comes to believe that his true soul mate is not his wife, but a woman whose soul has been trapped in a Renaissance painting for 450 years--along with thousands of others. Teetering on the brink of insanity and navigating present-day and Renaissance Venice, he discovers a secret society that taps an ancient power to extract and imprison souls for eternity. He'll do anything to free his love, but freeing her means freeing all the souls--which the secret society will never allow.  

---

The Blue Bar by Damyanti Biswas, October 25, 2022, from Thomas and Mercer
For our final stop on our world tour we head further east, to India and the wonderful city of Mumbai. On the dark streets of Mumbai, the paths of a missing dancer, a serial killer, and an inspector with a haunted past converge in an evocative thriller about lost love and murderous obsession.  

---