April books on my radar
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Series: None
Author: Kaitlyn Hill
April 4th 2023 by Delacorte Press
This friends-to-lovers spin on The Bachelor follows two childhood besties reuniting to spend the summer in L.A. after five years apart—but when they both get involved with a teen reality dating show, their lives take an unexpected turn for the unreal.
Sloane McKinney feels like a background character in her own life. But this summer will be different, because she’s spending it with her childhood best friend, Liam Daniels, in her dream city, Los Angeles. Sure, she’s surprised to find that Liam just happens to have had a Hot Guy glow-up since she last saw him, but so what? A little attraction won’t ruin her plans for their fun—and completely platonic—reunion.
What might, however, is that Liam has been roped into working for his producer dad’s new teen reality dating show, Aspen Woods’s Future Leading Lady. Liam figures Sloane can still hang out with him on set while he fetches coffee for the film crew, or whatever it is that production assistants do. Except it turns out the show is one contestant short . . . and Sloane is the perfect last-minute addition.
Once cameras are rolling, the whirlwind of dating teen heartthrob Aspen Woods feels way more real than Sloane expected, and Liam doesn’t exactly enjoy watching it all unfold. But it’s behind the scenes where the drama really picks up. . . .
Because wanting to kiss your best friend? That’s a plot twist neither Sloane nor Liam ever saw coming.
Goodreads
Series: The Luna Sisters #1
Author: Liana De la Rosa
April 4th 2023 by Berkley Books
A forbidden love between a Mexican heiress and a shrewd British politician makes for a tantalizing Victorian season.
Ana María Luna Valdés has strived to be the perfect daughter, the perfect niece, and the perfect representative of the powerful Luna familia. So, when Ana María is secretly sent to London with her sisters to seek refuge during the French occupation of Mexico, she experiences her first taste of freedom far from the judgmental eyes of her domineering father. If only she could ignore the piercing looks she receives across ballroom floors from the austere Mr. Fox.
Gideon Fox elevated himself from the London gutters by chasing his burning desire for more: more opportunities, more choices. For everyone. Now as a member of Parliament, Gideon's on the cusp of securing the votes he needs to put forth a measure to abolish the Atlantic slave trade once and for all--a cause that is close to his heart as the grandson of a formerly enslaved woman. The charmingly vexing Ana María is a distraction he must ignore.
But when Ana María finds herself in the crosshairs of a nefarious nobleman with his own political agenda, Gideon knows he must offer his hand as protection...but will this Mexican heiress win his heart as well?
Goodreads
Series: None
Author: Amalie Howard
April 4th 2023 by Joy Revolution
A teen girl seeking retribution against her backstabbing former best friend finds her plans slightly derailed once she catches the eye of a familiar, handsome marquess. Bestselling author Amalie Howard delivers a delightful, anti-historical Regency-era romp that’s Bridgerton meets The Count of Monte Cristo!
Lady Ela Dalvi knows the exact moment her life was forever changed—when her best friend, Poppy, betrayed her without qualm over a boy, the son of a duke. She was sent away in disgrace, her reputation ruined.
Nearly three years later, eighteen-year-old Ela is consumed with bitterness and a desire for . . . revenge. Her enemy is quickly joining the crème de la crème of high society while she withers away in the English countryside.
With an audacious plan to get even, Ela disguises herself as a mysterious heiress and infiltrates London’s elite. But when Ela reunites with the only boy she’s ever loved, she begins to question whether vengeance is still her greatest desire.
In this complicated game of real-life chess, Ela must choose her next move: Finally bring down the queen or capture the king’s heart?
Goodreads
Series: Silver in the Bone #1
Author: Alexandra Bracken
April 4th 2023 by Quercus Children's Books
From the No.1 New York Times bestselling author of Lore and The Darkest Minds trilogy comes this stunning series opener inspired by Arthurian legend and fuelled by love, revenge and pure adrenaline - cementing Alexandra Bracken's status as one of the top fantasy authors writing today.
Tamsin Lark didn't ask to be a Hollower. As a mortal with no magical talent, she was never meant to seek legendary relics from the ancient crypts of dark sorceresses. But after her thieving foster father disappeared without so much as a goodbye, it was the only way to keep herself - and her brother, Cabell - alive.
Ten years later, rumours are swirling that her guardian vanished with a powerful ring from Arthurian legend, igniting Tamsin's hope of freeing Cabell from a curse that threatens them both. But they aren't the only ones who covet the ring ...
As word spreads, greedy Hollowers start circling, and Tamsin is forced into an uneasy alliance with her rival Emrys just to survive. Their race for the ring leads them across modern-day England into Avalon, but the misty otherland is nothing like the legends claim. As the mystery rotting the heart of Avalon consumes them, and they come no closer to finding the ring, Tamsin begins to fear she won't just lose her brother - she'll lose her one chance to uncover the secret of who she truly is.
Goodreads
Series: None
Author: Maurene Goo
April 10th 2023 by Hodder Children's Books
Samantha Kang has always butted heads with her mom, Priscilla, who is a first-generation Korean American, a former high school cheerleader and expects Sam to want the same all-American nightmare. Meanwhile, Sam is a girl of the times who has no energy for clichéd high school aspirations. After a huge fight, Sam is desperate to get away from Priscilla, but instead, finds herself thrown back. Way back.
To her shock, Sam lands in the ’90s . . . alongside a 17-year-old Priscilla. Now, Sam has to deal with outdated tech, regressive ’90s attitudes, and a time-crossed romance with the right guy in the wrong era.
With the clock ticking, Sam must figure out how to fix things with Priscilla or risk being trapped in an analog world forever. Sam’s blast to the past has her questioning everything she thought she knew about her mom . . . and herself.
Back to the Future meets To All the Boys in this thrilling new YA time-travel romance by award-winning author Maurene Goo.
Goodreads
Series: The Regency Vows #4
Author: Martha Waters
April 11th 2023 by Atria Books
The Regency Vows series returns with this story about a viscount and his irascible new wife who hopes to chase her husband from their shared home so that she can finally get some peace and quiet—only to find that his company is not as onerous as she thought.
Viscount Penvale has been working for years to buy back his ancestral home, Trethwick Abbey, from his estranged uncle. And so he’s thrilled when his uncle announces that he is ready to sell but with one major caveat—Penvale must marry his uncle’s ward, Jane Spencer.
When the two meet in London, neither is terribly impressed. Penvale finds Jane headstrong and sharp-tongued. Jane finds him cold and aloof. Nevertheless, they agree to a marriage in name only and return to the estate. There, Jane enlists her housekeeper for a scheme: to stage a haunting so that Penvale will return to London, leaving her to do as she pleases at Trethwick Abbey. But Penvale is not as easily scared as his uncle and as their time together increases, Jane realizes that she might not mind her husband’s company all that much.
Goodreads
Series: Something Fabulous #2
Author: Alexis Hall
April 11th 2023 by Montlake
From the USA Today bestselling author of Boyfriend Material comes a riotous Regency romp full of art, expensive hats, and a love that is nothing short of spectacular.
Peggy Delancey’s not at all ready to move on from her former flame, Arabella Tarleton. But Belle has her own plans for a love match, and she needs Peggy’s help to make those plans a reality. Still hung up on her feelings and unable to deny Belle what she wants, Peggy reluctantly agrees to help her woo the famous and flamboyant opera singer Orfeo.
She certainly doesn’t expect to find common ground with a celebrated soprano, but when Peggy and Orfeo meet, a whole new flame is ignited that she can’t ignore. Peggy finds an immediate kinship with Orfeo, a castrato who’s just as nonconforming as she is—and just as affected by their instant connection.
They’ve never been able to find their place in the world, but as the pair walks the line between friendship, flirtation, and something more, they may just find their place with each other.
Goodreads
Series: None
Author: Ella Cerón
April 11th 2023 by Kokila
A debut young adult novel that's BOOKSMART with a dash of magic, about a Mexican American teen who spends the summer in Mexico City, meets two very cute boys, attempts to learn Spanish, and uncovers a family secret that changes her life forever.
Lola Espinoza is cursed in love. Well, maybe not actually cursed — magic isn't real, is it? When Lola goes to spend the summer with her grandmother in Mexico City and meets handsome, flirtatious Rio, she discovers the unbelievable truth: Magic is very real, and what she'd always written off as bad luck is actually, truly . . . a curse. If Lola ever wants to fall in love without suffering the consequences, she'll have to break the curse. She finds an unlikely curse-breaking companion in Javi, a seemingly stoic boy she meets while working in her cousin's restaurant. Javi is willing to help Lola look into this family curse of hers, and Lola needs all the help she can get. Over the course of one summer — filled with food, family, and two very different boys — Lola explores Mexico City while learning about herself, her heritage, and the magic around us all.
Goodreads
Series: None
Author: Jenny Ireland
April 13th 2023 by Penguin
Juliet believes girls like her - girls with arthritis - don't get their own love stories. She exists at the edges of her friends' social lives, skipping parties to play online chess under a pseudonym with strangers around the world. There, she isn't just 'the girl with crutches'.
Ronan is the new kid: good looking, smart, a bad boy plagued by guilt over what happened to his brother Ciaran. Chesslife is his escape; there, he's not just 'the boy with the brother'.
Juliet thinks Ronan thinks someone like Ronan could never be interested in someone like her - and she wouldn't want him to be anyway because he always acts like he's cooler than everyone else. Whereas, Ronan thinks life is already too complicated for dating and just wants to keep his head down at school.
Little do they know they've already discovered each other online, and have more in common than they think . . .
Goodreads
Series: Letters of Enchantment #1
Author: Rebecca Ross
April 13th 2023 by HarperCollins Publishers
NO GOD
NO CREATURE
NO WAR
CAN COME BETWEEN THEM
The latest from the number one SUNDAY TIMES bestseller Rebecca Ross
When two young rival journalists find love through a magical connection, their fate depends on their facing the depths of hell … together.
After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again …
All eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow wants to do is hold her family together. With a brother on the frontline forced to fight on behalf of the Gods now missing from the frontline and a mother drowning her sorrows, Iris’s best bet is winning the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.
But when Iris’s letters to her brother fall into the wrong hands – that of the handsome but cold Roman Kitt, her rival at the paper – an unlikely magical connection forms.
Expelled into the middle of a mystical war, magical typewriters in tow, can their bond withstand the fight for the fate of mankind and, most importantly, love?
An epic enemies-to-lovers fantasy novel filled with hope and heartbreak, and the unparalleled power of love.
Goodreads
Series: Dangerous Damsels #3
Author: India Holton
April 18th 2023 by Berkley Books
Two rival spies must brave pirates, witches, and fake matrimony to save the Queen.
Known as Agent A, Alice is the top operative within the Agency of Undercover Note Takers, a secret government intelligence group that is fortunately better at espionage than at naming itself. From managing deceptive witches to bored aristocratic ladies, nothing is beyond Alice’s capabilities. She has a steely composure and a plan always up her sleeve (alongside a dagger and an embroidered handkerchief). So when rumors of an assassination plot begin to circulate, she’s immediately assigned to the case.
But she’s not working alone. Daniel Bixby, otherwise known as Agent B and Alice’s greatest rival, is given the most challenging undercover assignment of his life— pretending to be Alice’s husband. Together they will assume the identity of a married couple, infiltrate a pirate house party, and foil their unpatriotic plans.
Determined to remain consummate professionals, Alice and Daniel must ignore the growing attraction between them, especially since acting on it might prove more dangerous than their target.
Goodreads
Series: Goode's Guide to Misconduct #1
Author: Susanna Craig
April 25th 2023 by Zebra
In her print debut, award-winning author Susanna Craig launches a new Regency historical romance series, based around the daring ladies’ magazine, Mrs. Goode’s Magazine for Misses, Being a Guide to Improve Conduct and Promote Wisdom among Young Persons of the Fair Sex—also known as Goode’s Guide to Misconduct—and the witty, clever, often rebellious heroines behind it, including a controversial new advice columnist. A modern twist on the genre, will appeal to fans of Ella Quinn, Sabrina Jeffries, and those who love faster-paced, innovative historical romance featuring strong women.
Serving as the advice columnist, ‘Miss Busy B.’, for an often-subversive ladies’ magazine is the perfect outlet for Daphne Burke’s outspoken nature. But when she advises a young lady of the ton, to break off her engagement to a notorious rake, the consequences take Daphne beyond the page and into her real life.
Miles, Viscount Deveraux, sometimes known as ‘that devil Deveraux’, needs a respectable bride by the end of the Season, and he’s bet a fortune that he can get one. Now, his fiancée has not only changed her mind—but done it publicly, in a letter to London’s most infamous magazine. With the stakes high and time short, it seems reasonable to him that the columnist responsible should come to his rescue and marry him instead.
Fortunately for Miles, Daphne is eager to escape the pressures of the London marriage mart. She agrees to a courtship. But at the end of two weeks, she intends to turn him down in a big, splashy, scandal that will ruin her reputation and set her free. There’s just one shocking wrinkle: Who knew being ruined by a rake could be so much fun?
Goodreads
Series: None
Author: Sarah Mallory
April 25th 2023 by Harlequin Historical
An intriguing Regency romance
Her mysterious midnight visitor?
The duke!
Hearing herself described as "a lady as dull as her name" is the final straw in Prudence Clifford’s disastrous season, so she decides to stay with her aunt in Bath. But Pru’s new life is anything but dull when one night she finds an uninvited, devastatingly handsome duke at her kitchen table! Pru will never forget the emotional connection they shared. But it’s their unexpected reunion three months later that will prove truly unforgettable…
Goodreads
Series: The Widow Rules #3
Author: Janna MacGregor
April 25th 2023 by St. Martin's Paperbacks
Beth Howell needs to find her dowry, post haste. After her good-for-nothing first husband married her―and two other women, unbeknownst to them all―she’s left financially ruined and relegated to living with her brother, who cares more for his horses than he does his blood relatives. If Beth fails to acquire her funds, her brother will force her to marry someone fifty years her senior and missing half his teeth. She’d prefer to avoid that dreadful fate. But her now-deceased husband, Meri, absconded with her money mere days after their illegitimate marriage. To find it, Beth will have to leave town and retrace Meri’s steps if she’s to take her future into her own hands.
Julian Raleah, Marquess of Grayson, cares not a whit for social norms and generally growls at anyone in his path. Grayson has had a heart of stone ever since his engagement to Beth Howell went down in flames―long before she married that cad, Meri, and sealed her own fate for good. But now she’s on his doorstep, asking for use of his carriage and accompaniment on the hunt to find her lost dowry. Surely Grayson cannot go on the road with the woman who has occupied his thoughts for the past decade. Yet, knowing she needs him, how can he resist helping her this one last time? And maybe that’s just enough time to change the ending to their over-too-soon love story.
Goodreads
Series: Daring Ladies #2
Author: Tina Gabrielle
April 25th 2023 by Entangled: Amara
From the moment her pet pig attacks him, Adeline Foster knows she does not care at all for the Duke of Warwick. Certainly the man is handsome, but such an arrogant arse. But when her scoundrel half brother demands she marry a stranger over a failed investment, the duke does something shocking…he announces he’s courting her.
One moment, Daniel Millstone is enjoying tinkering with his inventions in his quiet country home with relative anonymity. The next, he’s courting the willful Miss Adeline. It might have begun as a way to vex her half brother—his childhood nemesis—but her striking beauty and kissable lips prove an irresistible temptation.
Now Adeline and her faux beau must convince the ton and their families that they’re an item. It doesn’t matter if they can barely tolerate each other. It doesn’t matter that scandal is only a touch away. Because if this charade doesn’t work, Adeline will find herself in dangerous hands…
Goodreads
What has caught your eye for April? Have you read any of these? Let me know :)
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