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Readers’ Most Anticipated New Books for April
At the beginning of each calendar month, Goodreads’ crack editorial squad assembles a list of the hottest and most popular new books hitting shelves, actual and virtual. The list is generated by evaluating readers’ early reviews and tracking which titles are being added to Want to Read shelves by Goodreads regulars.
Each month’s curated preview features new books from across the genre spectrum: contemporary fiction, historical fiction, mysteries and thrillers, sci-fi and fantasy, romance, horror, young adult, nonfiction, and more. Think of it as a literary smorgasbord. Check out whatever looks delicious.
New in April: A small-town family makes contact with an alien intelligence in Alexandra Oliva’s The Radiant Dark. An NYC twentysomething watches her borough transform in Xóchitl González’s Last Night in Brooklyn. And two women write a new kind of platonic love story in Jessica George’s Love by the Book.
Also on tap this month: a devilish housesitting gig in coastal Oregon, a young female samurai in 1877 Tokyo, and midlife adventures on the Upper West Side. Plus: Swiss boarding school stories!
It’s one of the most delicious story setups we’ve seen in a while: Phony tradwife influencer Natalie Heller Mills wakes up one morning to find that her fake online farm life has been transformed into the brutal realities of real pioneer life circa 1805. Is it a reality-show prank? A sustained hallucination? Some kind of spontaneous time travel? Debut author Caro Claire Burke explores the consequences when performative traditional virtue meets cold, historical reality.
Read our interview with Caro Claire Burke.
Read our interview with Caro Claire Burke.
It’s a lamentable fact of adulthood: Making new friends—really tight new friends—is harder to do as we grow older. The sophomore novel from British author Jessica George (Maame) tells the story of Remy and Simone, two women who forge a deep connection after a random encounter in a favorite bookshop. George uses an alternating POV technique for a kind of double character portrait. Early readers are loving the novel’s easy humor and heartfelt insights on female friendship.
Author and comic book writer Rainbow Rowell likes to tour around various genres with her books—you might remember her debut rom-com Attachments, or her 2012 YA classic, Eleanor & Park. Rowell’s latest adult title follows the fortunes of resilient heroine Cherry, who’s deeply ambivalent about the fictional version of her created by her soon-to-be ex-husband for his bestselling graphic novel. But things start looking up when an old school friend pops up on Cherry’s radar…
Beloved Seattle author Maria Semple assembled an army of lifelong readers with her 2012 novel, Where’d You Go, Bernadette, which was later made into a feature film starring Cate Blanchett. She’s back on shelves in April with the story of Adora Hazzard, a private tutor and former screenwriter who gets mixed up in the high-stakes world of NYC art deals. Intrigue and capers ensue. Early readers are loving the return of Semple’s cerebral comedy instincts.
Native Brooklynite Xóchitl González won two Goodreads Choice nominations for her 2022 debut novel, Olga Dies Dreaming. González’s new novel returns to her favorite borough, circa 2007, as Brooklyn weathers changes both sudden and gradual. With the economy on the verge of a historic freakout, 26-year-old Alicia Canales Forten tries to navigate accelerating gentrification, epic hipster parties, and what’s left of the American dream.
Here’s an American fantasy for you: Newly divorced Annie has just agreed to a nostalgic four-day themed cruise featuring her favorite 1990s boy band, 3,000 screaming fans, and a no-limit drink ticket. Wouldn’t it be crazy if Annie ended up making a connection with one of the boy band members—the guy she crushed on so hard in childhood? Well, that’s what’s up in the new novel from Emma Straub (This Time Tomorrow), which splashes about in the messy waters of middle age and aching nostalgia.
When bestselling novelist Arthur Fletch invites six other authors to his remote Scottish island estate, the question presents itself: Why? Well, it seems old Arthur is kinda-sorta dead and his publishing team needs someone to finish his last book. Among the twists: Each invited author represents a popular genre—romance, horror, YA—and each has a desperate need for the grand prize. Look for plenty of book industry scuttlebutt from debut author Evelyn Clarke, who is actually two authors.
Australian author Sally Hepworth (Darling Girls) is back with the story of Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick, 81 years old and rather notorious, for all the wrong reasons. People around Mabel tend to die, it seems, but you’ll want to be careful with assumptions in this particular mystery-thriller. Hepworth uses then-and-now alternating chapters to unwind a particularly knotty story about bad childhoods, found families, and…well, about assumptions, actually.
In the horror genre, caretaker jobs are a famously fraught proposition. Think creepy little ghost girls and old Colorado hotels. This latest twist on the story setup introduces Macy Mullins, an unemployed graphic designer on a three-day housesitting job in coastal Oregon. The money is good, but the gig comes with some oddly specific instructions. They’re more like rituals, really. Author Marcus Kliewer (We Used to Live Here) brings the scary.
If you like your horror novels crosscut with intriguing historical dimensions, consider this latest novel from Kylie Lee Baker, author of last year’s innovative genre twist Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng. Using parallel timelines in 2026 and 1877, Baker comes at her central mystery from two directions and finds interesting new angles on old gothic horror traditions. Dead college roommates! Young female samurai! Oddly disturbing sword ferns!
The title of this new horror novel from Monika Kim (The Eyes Are the Best Part) refers to a real-world epidemic in South Korea, in which creepy little men use spycams to illegally film women. Molka tells the story of one young office worker, Dahye, who refuses to be a victim. Things get bloody as Kim digs into themes of surveillance, misogyny, and vengeance. Heads up that Molka gets very dark indeed—readers may want to consult the provided trigger warnings at the front of the book.
Rainy March is a book witch, a special branch of the sisterhood tasked with policing fictional worlds from intrusions, alterations, and assorted mischief. But there are rules, and book witches are not allowed to become part of the story. When Rainy teams with her favorite fictional detective, things get sticky. Author Meg Shaffer (The Wishing Game) invites readers on a quest through various literary worlds and some familiar names—Alice in Wonderland! Nancy Drew! The Great Gatsby!
Another adventure in the books-about-books aisle, Honor & Heresy follows two young scholars exploring a haunted magical library. Australian author Max Francis’ debut novel mixes dark academia with atmospheric suspense, queer rivals-to-lovers romance, and some evocative scene setting in an imaginative locale—the Orphic Basilica is old and hungry and infested with ghosts. Underneath it all is a clever kind of love letter to fantasy literature itself.
How’s this for a family secret? In 1980, the Girard family began communicating with an alien intelligence 11 light-years from Earth. The Radiant Dark explores developments over the next 50 years as the family guards their world-shattering secret: We are not alone. Author Alexandra Oliva (The Last One) rethinks a traditional sci-fi narrative template—the First Contact story—to explore themes of spirituality, trauma, ambition, and other matters of the human heart.
Moorea Corrigan’s debut historical romantasy tells the story of orphan Mouse Dunne (great name!) and her strange dilemma. In the dark days just after World War I, Mouse is bequeathed a dilapidated English country manor, Thistlemarsh Hall. When a handsome faerie offers to magically restore the mansion, Mouse must decide whether to trust the faerie folk, who supposedly disappeared from the world more than a century ago. What’s really going on?
Recommended for readers of Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros, Rites of the Starling is the second installment in author Devney Perry’s Shield of Sparrows romantasy series. Book two continues the saga of reluctant princess Odessa and a legendary monster hunter known as the Guardian. Readers of the first book have responded enthusiastically to Perry’s mix of creative worldbuilding, snarky dialogue, and found family themes. Bargain shoppers will want to note that there are five kingdoms at stake in this series, so, you know, get your money’s worth.
Rich people are weird. Everyone knows this. The upside is that they tend to have good stories. Author Ana Huang updates her billionaire romance series with this sixth adventure, following previous stories concerning the King of Envy, the King of Greed—like that. Our billionaire this time around is Sebastian Laurent, French heir to a culinary empire. Maya Singh is his childhood academic rival and the only person who ever really got to him. Apparently, there are some good Swiss boarding school stories involved.
This YA murder mystery, which takes place on and around the set of an escape room–themed TV show, starts in an interesting place: It seems that Season 4 of The Escape Game ended in tragedy when a contestant was found murdered on the set. Understandably, the contestants in Season 5 are a little jumpy. Authors Marissa Meyer (The Lunar Chronicles) and Tamara Moss (the Lintang series) team up for a thrill ride story of puzzles, alliances, treachery…and murder!
London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth
by Patrick Radden Keefe
by Patrick Radden Keefe
Regular readers of The New Yorker magazine may recognize the name Patrick Radden Keefe, longtime investigative reporter and one of the best old-school literary journalists still rooting out stories. (His 2018 bestseller, Say Nothing, was adapted into a miniseries by FX in 2024.) Keefe’s latest uncovers the truth behind the mysterious 2019 death of London teenager Zac Brettler, taking readers into the posh nightclubs and dark alleys of London’s criminal underground.
History nerds will want to check out this one: Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Beverly Gage (G-Man) chronicles 13 key moments from America’s past based on 13 historical locations—including battlefield memorials, roadside attractions, Detroit factories, and an old missile silo in the deserts of New Mexico. Early readers have filed some useful and detailed observations in the Goodreads community reviews section.
