April’s Hottest New Book Releases: Thrillers, Romances, Fantasies & More!
- Alis Page
- Apr 23
- 14 min read
Spring is here and so are a fresh crop of new book releases ready to bloom on your bookshelf! April is shaping up to be an exciting month for readers of all genres, with everything from pulse-pounding thrillers to beautiful, swoony romances and epic fantasies. Whether you're in the mood to be swept back in time or whisked away to another world, I’ve rounded up some of the most anticipated new book releases this month. Let’s have a look at what’s hitting the shelves in April!
🔪 Thriller New Releases
Get ready for twists, turns, and heart-racing suspense—April’s thriller new releases are packed with psychological mind games, cold cases, and dark secrets just waiting to be uncovered. Here is just a flavour of the ones that are on my radar.
Title: Heartwood
Author: Amity Gaige
Publisher: Fleet
Book Length: 302
About Book: In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. She is forty-two-year-old Valerie Gillis, who has vanished 200 miles from her final destination. Alone in the wilderness, Valerie pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the elements and struggles to keep hoping. At the centre of the search is Beverly, the determined Maine State Game Warden tasked with finding Valerie, who managing the search on the ground. While Beverly is searching, Lena, a seventy-six-year-old birdwatcher in a retirement community, becomes an unexpected armchair detective. Roving between these compelling narratives, a puzzle emerges, intensifying the frantic search, as Valerie's disappearance may not be accidental.
Title: A Proposal To Die For
Author: Molly Harper
Publisher: Berkley - US
Book Length: 352
About Book: Jessamine Bricker loves a plan. Contingency plans and pros-and-cons lists are her love language, and because of that, her proposal planning business is thriving. But with rent costs rising at her office building, Jess jumps at the chance to plan a proposal between her snobby high school classmate, Diana, and her very wealthy boyfriend, Trenton Tillard... the Fourth. Roped into joining Diana's 'pre-bridal' retreat at the exclusive Golden Ash resort, Jess hopes to fade into the background, get some work done, and maybe find some time to unwind. Their first day is anything but relaxing: Diana is furious about the mountain spa's lack of cell phone reception, the couple next door argues constantly, and Jess swears she just saw a drug deal go down. To top it all off, she's warned to stay out of the woods by the gruff and sexy chef, Dean Osbourne. Is this a retreat or a horror movie? As Jess tries to do her job while placating the bride-to-be and her increasingly over-the-top demands, she spends more and more time with the resort owners, finding herself much more in tune with the laid-back Osbourne family than her social climbing 'boss.' Between a meditation garden-related drowning and Jess's discovery of a body in a sauna, it's clear that deadly secrets abound at the Golden Ash. Now it's up to Jess to unravel the mysteries here in the mountains - before all her plans are cancelled... permanently.
Title: The Liar
Author: Louise Jenson
Publisher: HQ
Book Length: 352
About Book: The Abbotts’ new lodger Luke hasn’t told them much about himself, but they can’t expect to know everything about a stranger who’s just moved in.
But Luke keeps asking about their family photos and looking through their things. Why does he want to know everything about them? And why does daughter Jen think someone is watching her?
Then, suddenly, Mum Mel texts the family to say she needs a break. But Mel has never gone away alone before. And now it’s been days, and no one has heard from her.
The Abbotts’ house is full of secrets.
They say people never tell the whole truth.
They’re right.
Title: No Roast For The Weary
Author: Cleo Coyle
Series: Coffeehouse Mysteries Book 21 of 21
Publisher: Berkley - US
Book Length: 352
About Book: As much as master roaster Clare Cosi adores coffee, the landmark shop she manages won't survive if she doesn't sell enough of it. So when the Village Blend's customer traffic grinds to a halt, she turns to her staff for creative ideas, and the Writer's Block Lounge is born. Madame, the eccentric octogenarian owner of the shop, is upset by this news. Years ago, a group of accomplished writers used the shop's second-floor lounge to inspire each other, but the group disbanded when something dark occurred. Though that history is shrouded in mystery, Clare presses forward, soon the Village Blend tables are filled with aspiring novelists, playwrights, and poets, all happy to be coaxed, cajoled, and caffeinated by her coffeehouse crew. Clare admires the stamina of these scribes, many of them toiling at night jobs-driving taxis, tending bar, ushering for Broadway-while penning projects during the day. Then one of their fictions turns fatal when a shocking secret leads to a deadly end. Unless Clare can untangle this mystery, uncover the truth, and stop a desperate killer, she fears more of these weary writers may be marked for eternal rest. Includes a knockout menu of recipes!
🏰 Historical New Releases
This month’s historical new releases take us from war-torn Europe to opulent courts and women that have changed the future, offering beautifully written stories that shine a light on the past.
Title: Strangers in Time
Author: David Baldacci
Publisher: MacMillan
Book Length: 448
About Book: EVERY SECOND COUNTS Orphaned with no prospects, Charlie Matters’ life has always been a fight for survival. He miraculously emerges unscathed from the Blitz, but there’s no telling when the next bomb will fall, and whether it will be the one to end his life.Molly Wakefield’s dreams of a joyful homecoming are all she’s had to hold on to after being evacuated to the countryside five years before. But when she finally returns, Molly faces a London changed beyond recognition, and the devastating news that neither of her parents are there. Charlie and Molly’s paths converge at ‘The Book Keep’, where they find an unexpected ally and protector in the bookshop’s owner, widower Ignatius Oliver. But the trio’s newfound peace is jeopardized as past secrets catch up with them. Can they help one another survive this turbulent time? Or will they be ripped apart from the last people they hold dear?
Title: The Eights
Author: Joanna Miller
Publisher: Fig Tree
Book Length: 384
About Book: They knew they were changing history. They didn’t know they would change each other. Oxford, 1920. For the first time in its 1000-year history, the world’s most famous university has admitted female students. Giddy with dreams of equality, education and emancipation, four young women move into neighbouring rooms on Corridor Eight. They have come here from all walks of life, and they are thrown into an unlikely, life-affirming friendship. Dora was never meant to go to university, but, after losing both her brother and her fiancé on the battlefield, has arrived in their place. Beatrice, politically-minded daughter of a famous suffragette, sees Oxford as a chance to make her own way – and her own friends – for the first time. Socialite Otto fills her room with extravagant luxuries but fears they won’t be enough to distract her from her memories of the war years. And quiet, clever, Marianne, the daughter of a village vicar, arrives bearing a secret she must hide from everyone – even The Eights – if she is to succeed. But Oxford’s dreaming spires cast a dark shadow: in 1920, misogyny is still rife, influenza is still a threat, and the ghosts of the Great War are still very real indeed. And as the group navigate this tumultuous moment in time, their friendship will become more important than ever.
Title: The Book Club For Troublesome Women
Author: Marie Bostwick
Publisher: Harper Muse
Book Length: 380
About Book: By 1960s standards, Margaret Ryan is living the American woman's dream. She has a husband, three children, a station wagon, and a home in Concordia--one of Northern Virginia's most exclusive and picturesque suburbs. She has a standing invitation to the neighbourhood coffee klatch, and now, thanks to her husband, a new subscription to A Woman's Place--a magazine that tells housewives like Margaret exactly who to be and what to buy. On paper, she has it all. So why doesn't that feel like enough?
Margaret is thrown for a loop when she first meets Charlotte Gustafson, Concordia's newest and most intriguing resident. As an excuse to be in the mysterious Charlotte's orbit, Margaret concocts a book club get-together and invites two other neighbourhood women--Bitsy and Viv--to the inaugural meeting. As the women share secrets, cocktails, and their honest reactions to the controversial bestseller The Feminine Mystique, they begin to discover that the American dream they'd been sold isn't all roses and sunshine--and that their secret longing for more is something they share. Nicknaming themselves the Bettys, after Betty Friedan, these four friends have no idea their impromptu club and the books they read together will become the glue that helps them hold fast through tears, triumphs, angst, and arguments--and what will prove to be the most consequential and freeing year of their lives.
Title: The Pretender
Author: Jo Harkin
Publisher: Bloomsbury Circus
Book Length: 464
About Book: Kill the pretender. Do not let it be known that there was a pretender to kill. The year is 1483 and England is in peril. The much-despised Richard III is not long for the throne, and the man who will become Henry VII stands poised to snatch the crown for himself. But for twelve-year-old John Collan, living in a remote village with his widowed father, these matters seem far away. But history has other plans for John. Stolen from his family, exiled - first to Oxford, then to Burgundy, and then Ireland - and apprenticed to a series of unscrupulous political operators, he finds himself groomed for power; not as John Collan, but as Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick - and rightful heir to the throne. Far from home at the Irish court, preparing for a war that will see him become king or die trying, John has just his wits - and the slippery counsel of his host's daughter, the unconventional Joan - to navigate the choppy waters ahead.
🐉 Fantasy New Releases
If you love magic, myth, and immersive world-building, the fantasy new releases this April are bringing the drama with fierce heroines, ancient prophecies, and enchanted realms.
Title: Watch Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Series: Shatter Me: The New Republic book 1
Publisher: Electric Monkey
Book Length: 368
About Book: Ames Anderson had a plan. Or half of one. He managed to do what his older brother, the famous Aaron Warner Anderson, never did: infiltrate Ark Island, the last refuge of The Reestablishment. No outsider has breached the stronghold of the authoritarian regime, but James is in. In a prison cell, sure, but as far as James is concerned, a win is a win.
It’s been ten years since the notorious duo Juliette Ferrars and Aaron Warner Anderson led a worldwide rebellion and established the New Republic of the West. But The Reestablishment is ready to make a devastating move, and they have the perfect assassin for the job.
Rosabelle Wolff had a plan. She always has a plan. On Ark Island, where constant surveillance is packaged as security, even emotions must be experienced with caution. Her every movement is monitored―and when she’s given an order to kill, she never hesitates.
Brimming with pulse-pounding action and torturous romance, Watch Me is an explosive journey through a dystopian landscape where enemies-to-lovers has never felt more impossible. Step into a beloved and breath taking world that demands an answer to a desperate question―
Who are we when no one is watching?
Title: King of Envy
Author: Ana Huang
Series: Kings of Sin Book 5
Publisher: Piatkus
Book Length: 528
About Book: Dangerous. Powerful. Reclusive. Vuk Markovic is notorious for shunning human interactions. The scarred billionaire rarely talks, and he has no interest in relationships outside his small but trusted circle. His only exception? Her. The beauty to his beast, the object of his obsession. He saw her first. He wanted her first. But now, she's engaged to his oldest friend-and the closer the wedding looms, the more he's torn between loyalty and desire. She should be his . . . and he might just risk it all to have her.***Beautiful. Successful. Glamorous. To the world, supermodel Ayana Kidane leads the perfect life. Her career has skyrocketed, and she's engaged to one of New York's most eligible bachelors. What people don't know is that the engagement is only a business arrangement. He gets his inheritance when they marry; she gets the money she needs to leave her abusive agency. Pretending to be in love should be easy-until she finds herself increasingly drawn to her fiancé's enigmatic best man. Vuk thrills and terrifies her in equal measure. She knows she should stay away, but when her wedding is thrown into chaos, he's the only person who makes her feel safe...Until his past catches up with them and threatens everything they love.
Title: A Drop of Corruption
Author: Robert Jackson Bennett
Series: Shadow of the Leviathan book 2
Publisher: Hodderscape
Book Length: 480
About Book: An impossible crime has occurred. A Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air - abducted from his quarters in a building whose entrances and exits are all sealed. The brilliant and mercurial investigator, Ana Dolabra, and her assistant Dinios Kol have been called in to crack the case. Before long, Ana discovers that they're actually investigating a murder. Worse, the adversary seems to be able to pass through warded doors like a ghost, and can predict every one of Ana's moves as though they can see the future. Ana's solved impossible cases before. But this time, with the stakes higher than ever and the investigators seemingly a step behind their adversary at every turn, has Ana finally met an enemy she can't defeat?
Title: Gifted and Talented
Author: Olivie Blake
Publisher: Tor
Book Length: 512
About Book: Where there’s a will, there’s a war.
Thayer Wren, brilliant CEO of Wrenfare Magitech, is dead. As the ‘father of modern technology,’ he leaves an incredible legacy. But which of his three telepathically and electrokinetically gifted children could inherit the Wrenfare throne? Meredith, head of her own profitable company, has recently cured mental illness. If only her journalist ex-boyfriend wasn’t set on exposing what she really is: a total fraud. Arthur, second-youngest congressman ever, wants to do everything right. Except his wife might be leaving, and he’s losing his re-election campaign. Heading Wrenfare could relaunch his sinking ship. Eilidh was a world-famous ballerina, until a life-altering injury. Gaining the company might finally validate her worth. On the pipeline of gifted kid to clinically depressed adult, nobody wins. Yet as they gather to read his final words, which Wren will come out on top?
💕 Romance New Releases
April’s romance new releases are bursting with second chances, opposites attract, friends-to-lovers, and all the swoony tropes we adore—perfect for a cosy reading night in.
Title: All The Stars Align
Author: Gretchen Schreiber
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Book Length: 352
About Book: All the women in Piper's family know their true love at first sight, complete with butterflies, heart eyes, and a gut instinct. The kind of fated love that lasts forever. Piper grew up with her ancestors' epic love stories repeated like fairy tales, and yearns for the day she'll start her own. Already singled out in her family due to her physical disability, Piper collects a second strike against her when her parents announce their divorce, which convinces her family that she's doomed.
When she finally finds her true love at a party, she's more determined than ever to attain her love story and earn a spot in her family. But after completely botching their first meeting, she realizes that she'll need help from her best friend Leo, who is sort of a love expert. The catch--he and Piper haven't talked in six months, since he needed a "break" from their friendship.
To win over the love of her life and a place in her family, Piper must convince Leo to teach her his ways. And it's all going as planned...until Leo confesses his own love for Piper. Now, she must decide: will fate choose her love, or will love choose her fate?
Title: Crash Landing
Author: Annie McQuaid
Publisher: Avon
Book Length: 302
About Book: A funny and heart warming debut romance about two exes forced to reunite when a plane crash leaves them stranded on a deserted island.
Piper Adams is completely, totally, one hundred percent over Wyatt, the former love of her life. At least, that’s what she tells herself. After he broke her heart, she stopped taking risks and focused instead on building a perfect—and perfectly safe—life. But bumping into Wyatt at the airport on the way to her best friend’s destination wedding wasn’t part of the plan. Neither was a cancelled flight nor Wyatt’s offer of a ride on the tiny plane he’s flying to attend the same event. Desperate to make it on time, she accepts his offer, but things go from awkward to full-blown nightmare when their plane crashes in the Caribbean, stranding Piper on a deserted island with the last person she ever wanted to see again.
At first, rule-following Piper clashes with adventure-driven Wyatt, but as the days tick by, she can see the boy she once loved has grown into a man. A man who makes her laugh, knows his way around a fire, and is annoyingly hot shirtless. A man she could love again. As the chemistry still simmering between them boils over, Piper begins wishing Wyatt was more than just a survival partner. But for their love to survive a second chance, she’ll have to not only trust Wyatt again, but also learn to trust herself and find the courage to let go of her carefully curated life for the chance at something far greater—if they can survive the island long enough for rescue.
Title: Say You’ll Remember me
Author: Abby Jimenez
Publisher: Piatkus
Book Length: 400
About Book: The perfect guy. The perfect date. Utterly disastrous timing. There might be no such thing as the perfect guy, but Xavier Rush comes disastrously close. A gorgeous veterinarian giving Greek god vibes - all while cuddling a tiny kitten? Immediately yes. That is until he opens his mouth and proves that even sculpted gods can say the absolute wrong thing. But there's nothing Samantha loves more than proving an asshole wrong . . .. . . unless he can admit he made a mistake. But after one incredible date - possibly the best in living history - Samantha is forced to admit the truth, that any kind of relationship would be impossible. Samantha begs Xavier to forget her. To remember their night together as a perfect moment, as crushing as that may be. Only no amount of distance or time is nearly enough to forget that something between them. And the only thing better than one perfect memory is to make a life - and even a love - worth remembering.
Title: Sweet Obsession
Author: Katee Robert
Series: Dark Olympus book 8 of 9
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Book Length: 384
About Book: “He was mine to protect. Mine to adore. Mine to lose forever.” Icarus may not have flown particularly close to the sun, but he has fallen…right into the rough hands of Olympus’s own Poseidon. Being held captive by the gentle giant wouldn’t be so bad if Olympus wasn’t on the eve of destruction…or if Poseidon stopped looking at him with those irresistibly stormy eyes .Poseidon doesn't have time to babysit his increasingly bratty prisoner, but he has no choice: Olympus is officially at war, and someone has to keep their best bargaining chip out of harm's way. The thing is, the longer Poseidon is with Icarus, the more he starts to care for his sworn enemy...and the more he realises that Icarus isn’t the villain he's been made out to be. There's a warmth to him, a vulnerability, that Poseidon finds difficult to ignore or deny. Now, with Circe and the Aeaens at the gate and Olympus a hair's breadth away from falling, Poseidon will have to make a difficult choice: about himself, about his allegiances, and about the man who woke his heart from its long slumber – only to threaten to break it for good...
Final Thoughts There you have it—just a few of the most exciting new book releases landing in April! Whether you're adding to your TBR or just browsing for your next binge-read, I hope this roundup helped you spot a few gems. Let me know in the comments which one you're most excited about—or if you’ve already got one of these on pre-order!
Love Alis x
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