April is here, and so is cooler weather (by this we mean weather that isn’t 35ºC) and finally some rain, thank God. The weather this year has been all over the place, but we’re just glad it’s no longer cooking. If you’re in need of the best books to read in April while you enjoy these crisp sunny mornings, we’ve got you covered.
Can you believe we’re already a third of the way into the year? To all the books in our summer reading lists we promptly abandoned for some autumn fantasy releases, we’re sorry. Though not really, because what can we say, the fantasy releases are popping off this season — and there’s plenty more in this list.
So without further ado, here’s our list of new book recommendations for April releases.
Best new non-fiction books in April
Love & Autism by Kay Kerr
About the book:
April marks Autism Awareness Month, an important time to help spread awareness, acceptance and inclusion of those who have autism. More than 205,000 Australians are autistic and 1 in 4 Australians have a family member on the autism spectrum. It’s high time we not only destroy the stigma surrounding neurodivergence, but actively celebrate it. Autistic author Kay Kerr‘s warm, endearing writing is a great place to start.
Through the intimate writing of critically acclaimed autistic author Kay Kerr, Love & Autism presents an uplifting celebration of neurodivergent love, the search for it and a deeper look into the lives of autistic Australians.
From Michael, who made a name for himself on the hit show Love on the Spectrum to Chloë, who was always good at maths, with feelings ‘too big’ to be contained. When she reconnects with her childhood boyfriend, it must be fate. Next, we have Noor, who has had a lot on her plate from a young age, especially at home. People-pleasing becomes her survival mode, but Noor can’t keep her struggles inside forever. Then there’s Jess, who has spent a lifetime being put into different boxes. And finally, Tim, a non-speaking autistic man, who has been underestimated all his life.
Release date: March 28
Where to buy: Amazon ($23.99) | Booktopia ($29.75) | Dymocks ($36.99) | QBD ($29.59)
Best new fiction releases in April
Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati
About the book:
You wanna know who’s a real fkn queen in Greek mythology? Clytemnestra. Although her name is a mouthful, she’s one of the most badass women in The Iliad. This bitch (affectionate) ruled the kingdom of Mycenae for 10 years while her husband chased glory in Troy. Her husband committed adultery, rape, countless war crimes and even sacrificed their daughter for a bit of “good wind”. Then when he got back, she murdered him. A literal slay. It’s about bloody time she got her feminist retelling.
This is the story of a daughter betrayed by her father. Who watches her sister be destroyed by violence and rape. Whose child is sacrificed to ensure her family’s power. Who fights as fiercely as any warrior. Who falls in love with her husband’s enemy. Who is hungry for otherworldly retribution against both men and gods.
Condemned by Homer and the Greek poets as a sexually faithless, deceitful, murderous woman, Clytemnestra’s voice is obscured by the spiteful judgement of history. A judgement that refuses to see her strength and her cunning, her grief and her rage. Costanza Cosati’s dazzling debut isn’t just a retelling of the consequences of war on women – it is about how women fought their own wars. Because Clytemnestra understood something that the others didn’t.
Release date: April 4
Where to buy: Amazon ($24.74) | Booktopia ($26.95) | Dymocks ($32.99) | QBD ($24.99)
Homecoming by Kate Morton
About the book:
Fans of The Clockmaker’s Daughter, Kate Morton is back with an absolute chonker of a book, but don’t let the hefty size of this thriller deter you. It’s been praised as “mesmerising”, full of twists and turns as well as totally addictive.
Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959: At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek on the grounds of the grand and mysterious mansion, a local delivery man makes a terrible discovery. A police investigation is called and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most shocking and perplexing murder cases in the history of South Australia.
Sixty years later, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for almost twenty years, a phone call out of nowhere summons her back to Sydney, where her beloved grandmother, Nora, has suffered a fall. In Nora’s bedroom, Jess discovers a true crime book, chronicling the police investigation into a long-buried tragedy: the Turner Family Tragedy of Christmas Eve, 1959. It is only when Jess skims through the book that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this once-infamous crime—a crime that has never been resolved satisfactorily. And for a journalist without a story, a cold case might be the best distraction she can find…
Release date: April 13
Where to buy: Amazon ($19.95) | Booktopia ($19.95) | Dymocks ($24.99) | QBD ($22.99)
The Only Survivors by Megan Miranda
About the book:
A slow-burn mystery about a group of former classmates who reunite to mark the tenth anniversary of a tragic accident that they are the only survivors of — only to have one of their crew disappear amidst an impending storm, casting fear and suspicion on the original tragedy. We LOVE claustrophobic “one of us is the killer”/”snowed in” mysteries, so you bet this is on our list.
A decade ago, two vans filled with high school seniors on a school service trip crashed into a Tennessee ravine—a tragedy that claimed the lives of multiple classmates and teachers. The nine students who managed to escape the river that night were irrevocably changed.
Their annual meeting place, a house on the Outer Banks, has long been a refuge. But by the tenth anniversary, Cassidy Bent has worked to distance herself from the tragedy, and from the other survivors. This year, she is determined to finally break ties once and for all. But on the day of the reunion, she receives a text with an obituary attached: another survivor is gone. Now they are seven—and Cassidy finds herself hurling back toward the group, wild with grief—and suspicion.
Release date: April 11
Where to buy: Amazon ($27.99) | Booktopia ($30.95) | QBD ($32.99)
Best new romance book releases in April
Happy Place by Emily Henry
About the book:
A fake relationship between two people who used to be in love? Honestly, say less. Fans of Beach Read and Book Lovers won’t want to miss this new swoon-worthy romcom by Emily Henry.
Harriet and Wyn are the perfect couple – they go together like bread and butter, gin and tonic, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds. Every year for the past decade, they have left behind their lives to drink far too much wine and soak up the sea air with their favourite people in the world. Except this year, they are lying through their teeth. Harriet and Wyn broke up six months ago. And they still haven’t told anyone.
This is the last time they’ll all be together here. The cottage is for sale, and since they can’t bear to break their best friends’ hearts, they’ll fake it for one more week. But how can you pretend to be in love – and get away with it – in front of the people who know you best?
Release date: April 25
Where to buy: Amazon ($16) | Booktopia ($17.95) | Dymocks ($24.99) | QBD ($22.99)
Can I Steal You for a Second? by Jodie McAlister
About the book:
For those of you looking for something to fill the Bachie-sized hole in your heart, look no further. This story is perfect for reality TV-obsessed fiends, and it’s even better because it challenges the heteronormative nature of dating shows and presents us a queer romance instead.
Mandi Mitchell will do anything to get over her toxic ex. Even sign up to the polarising dating show, Marry Me, Juliet. But with her self-esteem in tatters, she’s not sure she’s brave enough to actually go on the show until she forms a friendship with Dylan Gilchrist at the auditions that gives her the push she needs.
Unfortunately, Dylan looks set to win, as she soon becomes the clear favourite of the Romeo, who also happens to share the same name. Mandie’s jealous. But it’s not because she wants to win the show. It’s because in her effort to get over her ex, she’s gone and fallen right back in love… with the wrong Dylan.
Release date: April 5
Where to buy: Amazon ($15.99) | Booktopia ($20.35) | Dymocks ($22.99)
Best new fantasy book releases in April
Silver in the Bone by Alexandra Bracken
About the book:
We first fell in love with Alexandra Bracken with her standalone novel, Lore, a Hunger Games x Greek mythology-inspired YA fantasy. Now, our girl is back with an epic new story that channels the legend of King Arthur.
Tamsin Lark is a Hollower – breaking into the ancient crypts of dark sorceresses in search of the treasures inside. Now, rumours are swirling about a powerful ring from Arthurian legend, a ring that could free her brother, Cabell from a curse. But they aren’t the only ones who covet it.
As word spreads, greedy Hollowers start circling, and many would kill to have the ring for themselves. Tamsin is forced into an alliance with her rival Emrys, the last person she wants to rely on. Together, they dive headfirst into a vipers’ nest of dark magic, and expose a deadly secret with the power to awaken ghosts of the past and shatter her last hope of saving her brother.
Release date: April 4
Where to buy: Amazon ($16) | Booktopia ($16.95 – signed) | Dymocks ($24.99) | QBD ($19.99)
In The Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune
About the book:
TJ Klune started making the rounds on BookTok with his cosy fantasy novel The House by the Cerulean Sea and then with Under the Whispering Door. In his new novel, Klune taps into Wall-E and Pinocchio for inspiration, because who would’ve foreseen such a dynamic duo?!
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?
Release date: April 26
Where to buy: Amazon ($22.99) | Booktopia ($28.50) | Dymocks ($34.99) | QBD ($24.99)
One For My Enemy by Olivie Blake
About the book:
Heavy with Russian folklore, Olivie Blake‘s latest novel is sure to captivate fans with its engrossing story about ambition, sacrifice and family legacies. Whether you love Olivie Blake for her Atlas Six trilogy (a sexy, character-driven dark academia series) or My Mechanical Romance (a YA romance about first loves), then you won’t want to miss this delicious read.
The Antonova sisters are beautiful, cunning and ruthless, and their mother – known only as Baba Yaga – is the elusive supplier of premium intoxicants.
Their adversaries, the influential Fedorov brothers, serve their crime boss father. Named Koschei the Deathless, his enterprise dominates the shadows of magical Manhattan.
Release date: April 11
Where to buy: Amazon ($34.99) | Booktopia ($25.95) | Dymocks ($34.99) | QBD ($24.99)
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
About the book:
Described as Shadow and Bone meets Lore, this enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance is exactly the kind of story BookTok will froth.
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
Where to buy: Amazon ($14.99) | Booktopia ($38.75) | Dymocks ($29.99) | QBD ($29.99)
A Hunger of Thorns by Lili Wilkinson
About the book:
If you’ve been craving a dark take on a classic fairy tale, you’re in the right place. A Hunger of Thorns has been described as a queer feminist twist of Alice in Wonderland, but with modern elements such as shopping malls and WiFi.
Maude is the daughter of witches. She spent her childhood running wild with her best friend, Odette, weaving stories of girls who slayed dragons and saved princes. Then Maude grew up and lost her magic — and her best friend.
These days, magic is toothless, reduced to glamour patches and psychic energy drinks found in supermarkets and shopping malls. Odette has always hungered for forbidden, dangerous magic, and two weeks ago she went searching for it. Now she’s missing, and everyone says she’s dead. Everyone except Maude, who’s sure she can find Odette inside the ruins of Sicklehurst, an abandoned power plant built over an ancient magical forest. The danger is, no one knows what remains inside Sicklehurst. And every good story is sure to have a monster.
Release date: April 18
Where to buy: Amazon ($21.46) | Booktopia ($21.75) | Dymocks ($24.99) | QBD ($19.99)
