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Top Reader-Recommended Young Adult Books for April
Hey, YA readers! Heads up! We’ve found the hottest and most popular new book titles of April!
As dedicated readers already know, some of the best and most innovative stories on the shelves come from the constantly evolving realm of young adult fiction. Every month our team looks at the books being published and how they're resonating with early readers. We use this information to put together a roundup of soon-to-be favorites.
New in April: Magical twins unravel a New Orleans mystery in Terry J. Benton-Walker’s Blood Debts. Amnesia complicates a perfectly good love story in Alyson Derrick’s Forget Me Not. And Arthurian legend gets an update with Alexandra Bracken’s Sliver in the Bone. Also in the mix: Time travel hijinks, police depositions, and synthetic flesh.
Add the books that catch your eye to your Want to Read shelf and let us know what you're reading and recommending in the comments!
As dedicated readers already know, some of the best and most innovative stories on the shelves come from the constantly evolving realm of young adult fiction. Every month our team looks at the books being published and how they're resonating with early readers. We use this information to put together a roundup of soon-to-be favorites.
New in April: Magical twins unravel a New Orleans mystery in Terry J. Benton-Walker’s Blood Debts. Amnesia complicates a perfectly good love story in Alyson Derrick’s Forget Me Not. And Arthurian legend gets an update with Alexandra Bracken’s Sliver in the Bone. Also in the mix: Time travel hijinks, police depositions, and synthetic flesh.
Add the books that catch your eye to your Want to Read shelf and let us know what you're reading and recommending in the comments!
This intriguing historical fantasy features rival young journalists, a curious correspondence, and love during wartime. The twist in this particular war story? The ongoing battle is between the gods themselves. Young writer Iris is losing her mother to addiction, and her brother to the war effort. When she starts receiving anonymous replies to letters she never actually sent, things get interesting. The latest from Rebecca Ross is being billed as Shadow and Bone meets Lore.
The debut fantasy thriller from author Terry J. Benton-Walker introduces Clement and Cristina Trudeau, sixteen-year-old twin heirs to a powerful magical family in New Orleans. On the thirtieth anniversary of a notorious murder and lynching, the twins make a series of startling discoveries. To clear their family name, they’ll need to defeat deadly magical foes, solve an increasingly bizarre mystery, and—most importantly—get over their own sibling issues.
How’s this for climate paranoia? In the not-too-distant future, global warming has released a deadly pathogen from the permafrost. The new virus turns a certain subset of people into ghouls, only able to survive by eating the flesh of other humans. Happily for all, a kind of synthetic flesh (cleverly marketed as SynFlesh™) is keeping the population from going feral. That’s the setup for this cheerful sapphic horror/romance. Insert your own “ghoulfriend” joke here.
Girlfriends Stevie and Nora have a plan. After graduation, they’ll ditch their small, conservative town and move to California, where they can live and love openly. But then Stevie awakens from a freak accident with no memory of the last two years. Can these two rediscover each other in time? Alyson Derrick, co-author of She Gets the Girl, delivers a romance about choosing your love and loving your choice—more than once, if need be.
Here’s the rare book title that doubles as solid advice: Never Vacation with Your Ex follows high school volleyball star Kaylee Jordan, who has recently split with her boyfriend Dean, breaking the poor boy’s heart. The real problem, though, is that Kaylee and Dean’s families vacation together every summer in Malibu. Kaylee’s dubious plan: She will teach Dean her own patented rules for getting over an ex. Oh, yeah. This can’t miss.
If you like your queer romance novels spiked with action-adventure and contemporary fantasy, well, we have good news. Author F.T. Lukens (In Deeper Waters) is back with the story of Edison “Rook” Rooker, apprentice sorcerer. When his mentor runs afoul of the Magical Consortium, Rook must team up with a cranky but dangerously cute rival apprentice whose mentor is also under attack. Can these two crack the mystery, rescue their teachers, and save the day?
This one looks like fun: Author Chelsea Sedoti (The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett) flips the script on the typical mystery template with the story of five friends who set out on a weekend camping trip. Only four return. The solution to the whodunit is hidden in the transcripts of one-on-one police interviews with the four suspects. Bonus trivia: Author Sedoti is a former paranormal investigator.
Inspired by Arthurian legend, this new series opener from author Alexandra Bracken (The Darkest Minds) introduces Tamsin Lark, a somewhat reluctant tomb raider. When Tamsin’s foster father disappears with a valuable artifact, she must descend into the dangerous world of the Hollowers, breaking into ancient crypts and fighting off wily sorceresses and the worrisome Cunningfolk. Dark magic! Deadly secrets! Obscure Arthurian allusions!
High schooler Clark has a very strange, very exhausting problem. He’s been reliving the same Monday for months now—309 times in a row, at last count—and despair is setting in. But on day 310, things take a happy turn when the boy of his dreams turns up in math class. This new twist on the old time-loop story comes from author Robbie Couch (The Sky Blues) and advance readers are praising the clever plotting and touching love story.
High-schooler Samantha Kang and her mom, Priscilla, don't really get along, but that's okay because the universe has just cooked up a really weird way for them to spend more time together: time travel! Sam finds herself whisked back to the 1990s to attend high school with a now-17-year-old-Priscilla. Can Gen Z Sam deal with getting to know her mom in a new way and the analog nature of the 1990s? How do you use a floppy disk, anyway?
Which new releases are you looking forward to reading? Let's talk books in the comments!
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Forget me not gets me excited just by the look of the cover. So pretty ❤️
if spell bound is another "let me bang my friends to make my love interest jealous enough to want me", its gonna be a hard pass...
is i see you again tomorrow looks so good, Always waiting for more Queer Novels!
Already read Divine Rivals and LOVED it! It's amazing!
I'm also excited to read Spell Bound and This Delicious Death