Happy Spring! I am so glad it’s here. For me, Spring means baseball season, when my local favorite ice cream store opens and due to the warmer weather and longer days, I am perfectly happy to take a book outside and enjoy. If you’re happy to celebrate the beginning of Spring with a new book, here are new and upcoming April book releases you could add to your TBR!
School Trip by Jerry Craft
School Visit is the latest installment in a delightful graphic novel series by Jerry Craft. The series follows Jordan, a seventh grader navigating his new school and the anxieties that come with that and being one of the only students of color in his grade.
Synopsis: Jordan, Drew, Liam, Maury, and their friends from Riverdale Academy Day School are heading out on a school trip to Paris. As an aspiring artist himself, Jordan can’t wait to see all the amazing art in the famous City of Lights.
But when their trusted faculty guides are replaced at the last minute, the school trip takes an unexpected—and hilarious—turn. Especially when trying to find their way around a foreign city ends up being almost as tricky as navigating the same friendships, fears, and differences that they struggle with at home.
Will Jordan and his friends embrace being exposed to a new language, unfamiliar food, and a different culture? Or will they all end up feeling like the “new kid”?
Release Date: April 4, 2023, via Quill Tree Books. Order Here.
The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown
A chilling science fiction novel, The Scourge Between Stars is Ness Brown’s debut and it has already received fantastic early reviews. If a thriller set in space is your jam, don’t miss this one.
Synopsis: As acting captain of the starship Calypso, Jacklyn Albright is responsible for keeping the last of humanity alive as they limp back to Earth from their forebears’ failed colony on a distant planet.
Faced with constant threats of starvation and destruction in the treacherous minefield of interstellar space, Jacklyn’s crew has reached their breaking point. As unrest begins to spread throughout the ship’s Wards, a new threat emerges, picking off crew members in grim, bloody fashion.
Jacklyn and her team must hunt down the ship’s unknown intruder if they have any hope of making it back to their solar system alive.
Release Date: April 4, 2023, via Tor Nightfire. Order Here.
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
Aside from the truly glorious cover, this book caught my attention mostly because of the first few sentences of its description, proclaiming it for fans of Shadow and Bone and an enemies to lovers romance. The rest of the synopsis hardly mattered and I’ll be eagerly waiting until April 4, so I can devour this book!
Synopsis: When two young rival journalists find love through a magical connection, they must face the depths of hell, in a war among gods, to seal their fate forever.
After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again. But eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow just wants to hold her family together. Her mother is suffering from addiction and her brother is missing from the front lines. Her best bet is to win the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.
To combat her worries, Iris writes letters to her brother and slips them beneath her wardrobe door, where they vanish—into the hands of Roman Kitt, her cold and handsome rival at the paper. When he anonymously writes Iris back, the two of them forge a connection that will follow Iris all the way to the front lines of battle: for her brother, the fate of mankind, and love.
Release Date: April 4, 2023, via Wednesday Books. Order Here.
Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
Some Desperate Glory is Emily Tesh’s debut and I’m so excited for it. A book that promises found family, timely and skillful storytelling and a diverse cast is one I am definitely eager to read.
Synopsis: Since she was born, Kyr has trained for the day she can avenge the murder of planet Earth. Raised in the bowels of Gaea Station alongside the last scraps of humanity, she readies herself to face the Wisdom, a powerful, reality-shaping weapon. Kyr is one of the best warriors of her generation, the sword of a dead planet. But when Command assigns her brother to certain death and relegates her to the Nursery Wing to bear sons until she dies trying, she knows must take humanity’s revenge into her own hands—so she escapes from everything she’s known into a universe far more complicated than she was taught and far more wondrous than she could have imagined.
Release Date: April 11, 2023, via Tor. Order Here.
Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina
This debut thriller by indigenous author, Nick Medina, draws on Native lore and stories passed down by his paternal grandmother. Eerily prescient and devastating, this book explores the ongoing horror of missing and murdered indigenous women.
Synopsis: A young Native girl’s hunt for answers about the women mysteriously disappearing from her tribe’s reservation leads her to delve into the myths and stories of her people, all while being haunted herself, in this atmospheric and stunningly poignant debut.
Anna Horn is always looking over her shoulder. For the bullies who torment her, for the entitled visitors at the reservation’s casino…and for the nameless, disembodied entity that stalks her every step—an ancient tribal myth come-to-life, one that’s intent on devouring her whole.
With strange and sinister happenings occurring around the casino, Anna starts to suspect that not all the horrors on the reservation are old. As girls begin to go missing and the tribe scrambles to find answers, Anna struggles with her place on the rez, desperately searching for the key she’s sure lies in the legends of her tribe’s past.
When Anna’s own little sister also disappears, she’ll do anything to bring Grace home. But the demons plaguing the reservation—both ancient and new—are strong, and sometimes, it’s the stories that never get told that are the most important.
Release Date: April 18, 2023, via Berkley. Order Here.
Jasmine and Jake Rock The Boat by Sonya Lalli
I immediately jumped on the chance to read this book for its charming concept: two childhood enemies get stuck on a seniors’ cruise to Alaska with their relatives. I don’t know about you but I can’t wait to read about the gorgeous setting in this delightful enemies to lovers romance.
Synopsis: Jasmine Randhawa likes everyone to think she has it all—great job, perfect Seattle apartment, and a handsome boyfriend. But she’s not as confident or successful as she seems, and her relationship is at a breaking point.
When Jasmine finds herself single and tagging along on her parents’ vacation, she’s not sure her life can get any farther off course. It’s a nightmare for someone who’s been so fiercely independent to find herself on a cruise full of family friends who’ve judged her since childhood. Things only get worse once the ship leaves the harbor and she realizes that this is a seniors’ cruise, and the only other person under fifty on the entire boat is her childhood acquaintance, cocky and successful Jake Dhillon.
Jasmine and Jake clash right away, with Jasmine smarting over how their South Asian community puts him on a pedestal as the perfect Indian son, whereas her reputation as a troublemaker precedes her. Except they can’t avoid each other forever during the ten-day cruise, and they soon recognize a surprising number of similarities, especially in how many secrets they’re keeping hidden from their families. Their restlessness seems to disappear whenever they’re together, but is this relationship strong enough to last on land?
Release Date: April 18, 2023, via Berkley. Order Here.
The Other Side of Infinity by Joan F. Smith
A high concept YA novel for fans of They Both Die At The End and You’ve Reached Sam, the book follows a teen who helps to save a drowning man, only to find that her actions set off a chain effect that will put the boy she will fall in love with at risk.
Synopsis: It was supposed to be an ordinary day at the pool, but when lifeguard Nick hesitates during a save,
seventeen-year-old December uses her gift of foreknowledge to rescue the drowning man instead. The action comes at a cost. Not only will Nick and December fall in love, but also, she envisions that his own life is now at risk. The other problem? They’re basically strangers.
December embarks on a mission to save Nick’s life, and to experience what it feels like to fall in love—something she’d formerly known she’d never do. Nick, battling the shame of screwing up the rescue when he’s heralded as a community hero, resolves to make up for his inaction by doing December a major solid and searching for her mother, who went missing nine years ago.
As they grow closer, December’s gift starts playing tricks, and Nick’s family gets closer to an ugly truth about him. They both must learn what it really means to be a hero before time runs out.
Release Date: April 25, 2023, via Feiwel & Friends. Order Here.
That Self-Same Metal by Brittany N. Williams
Do you love Leigh Bardugo and trust her opinions on books? Because I do! And Leigh Bardugo mentioned That Self-Same Metal by Brittany Williams, book one in a new fantasy series that is original and romantic and set in Shakesperian London. That’s enough of a reason to check it out to me. Plus any book described as “swashbuckling” is going to the front of my TBR.
Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old Joan Sands is a gifted craftswoman who creates and upkeeps the stage blades for William Shakespeare’s acting company, The King’s Men. Joan’s skill with her blades comes from a magical ability to control metal—an ability gifted by her Head Orisha, Ogun. Because her whole family is Orisha-blessed, the Sands family have always kept tabs on the Fae presence in London. Usually that doesn’t involve much except noting the faint glow around a Fae’s body as they try to blend in with London society, but lately, there has been an uptick in brutal Fae attacks. After Joan wounds a powerful Fae and saves the son of a cruel Lord, she is drawn into political intrigue in the human and Fae worlds.
Swashbuckling, romantic, and full of the sights and sounds of Shakespeare’s London, this series starter delivers an unforgettable story—and a heroine unlike any other.
Release Date: April 25, 2023, via Amulet Books. Order Here.
The Gifts by Liz Hyder
The Gifts is an ambitious historical fantasy set in Victorian London and one I am thrilled to read. With five (yes, FIVE) alternating perspectives and rave early reviews, this book promises to be a big book of the Spring.
Synopsis: October 1840. A young woman staggers alone through a forest in the English countryside as a huge pair of impossible wings rip themselves from her shoulders.
In London, rumors of a “fallen angel” cause a frenzy across the city, and a surgeon desperate for fame and fortune finds himself in the grips of a dangerous obsession, one that will place the women he seeks in the most terrible danger . . .
The Gifts is an astonishing novel, a spellbinding tale told through five different perspectives and set against the luminous backdrop of nineteenth century London, it explores science, nature and religion, enlightenment, the role of women in society and the dark danger of ambition.
Release Date: April 25, 2023, via Sourcebooks Landmark. Order Here.
In The Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune
TJ Klune might be one of my favorite authors right now and so his new release is one of my most highly anticipated of the season. I’m prepared to cry happy and anguished tears in equal measure with this one.
Synopsis:
In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots–fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They’re a family, hidden and safe. The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled “HAP,” he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio-a past spent hunting humans.
When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio’s former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic’s assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming. Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached? Inspired by Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio, and like Swiss Family Robinson meets Wall-E, In the Lives of Puppets is a masterful stand-alone fantasy adventure from the beloved author who brought you The House in the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door.
Release Date: April 25, 2023, via Tor Books. Order Here.
Happy Place by Emily Henry
Another highly anticipated release of 2023, Emily Henry’s latest promises another swoon-worthy, page-turning read. Devour now or save until summer, you won’t regret picking this one up.
Synopsis: Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since they met in college—they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and rolls. Except, now—for reasons they’re still not discussing—they don’t.
They broke up five months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.
Which is how they find themselves sharing a bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blissful week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.
Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends’ hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week…in front of those who know you best?
Release Date: April 25, 2023, via Berkley. Order Here.
Featured Image Courtesy of National Geographic Books, Pan Macmillan UK, Sourcebooks Landmark, Abrams, St. Martin’s Publishing Group
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