I recently read somewhere that April is Jazz Appreciation Month. That’s a pretty great genre of music with a lot of classic artists and I might put some on in the background when I’m reading this month, but I am not likely to make it out to any concerts or out to buy an albums. Why? Because I have too many books to read!
April is not going to make my list any shorter though as this looks to be another great month in the world of books with a ton I want to read. The Sea of Tranquility is one of my most anticipated books of the year. The latest from Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven and The Glass House, looks like another great book from an author who seemingly only writes great books.
There are also some excellent mysteries coming out this month. The latest in the Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery series, a new Gaslight Mystery series book, and the latest Scottish Bookshop Mystery have you covered in the world of cozies. While The Investigator by John Sandford and Crimson Summer by Heather Graham look like must-reads.
I’m also ready to be scared this month with the latest from Alma Katsu. I loved The Hunger and the next book takes place in a Japanese internment camp during World War II.
The romance books this month are just incredible as well as I really struggled to come up with only five for this list. You’d think it was Valentine’s Day all over again with the amount of quality romance this month.
As you can probably tell, I’m pretty excited about April’s books. Let’s take a look at the complete list of Upcoming Books for April 2022:
Best Upcoming Cozy Mystery Books: April 2022
A Margin for Murder by Lauren Elliot: This will be the eighth edition in the Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery series. This story will see Addie leaving her bookstore in the hands of her assistant when she travels to Pen Hollow for a book sale. She ends up finding a real treasure, a bookmobile, and decides to buy it. However, before it can be delivered, a car crash happens and the victim was poisoned. Now, Addie will have to find out what drove someone to murder.
Quilted Cherries by Ann Hazelwood: The fourth installment in the Door County Quilts series which takes place in Door County where they have amazing cherries. Claire and her friend Cher are planning the Door to Door Quilt show while Claire also does her best to juggle her love life. Despite their best planning, everything that can go wrong at the quilt show does go wrong.
Murder on Madison Square by Victoria Thompson: The latest entry in the Gaslight Mystery series begins when Frank Malloy is asked by a woman to manufacture evidence against her husband so that she can get a divorce. Frank refuses the request and a week later Frank and Sarah meet her husband. He’s very wealthy and shortly after turns up dead. Now, the obvious suspect is his wife, but Frank and Sarah suspect there is more to the story.
The Vanishing Type by Ellery Adams: It’s a bit quieter in the cold January winter in Miracle Springs so Nora ends up taking an offer to help Deputy Andrews plan his wedding proposal. He is going to propose to Hester who loves Little Women so they plan a special event for the proposal. Before the big day Nora makes a discovery that someone has sliced into the pages of every copy of The Scarlet Letter where Hester Prynne’s name is mentioned. Nora senses a mystery and finds one when a dead man is found on a hiking trail just outside of town.
The Burning Pages by Paige Shelton: Bookseller Delaney and her co-worker Hamlet are invited to a Burns Night dinner in order to try and make amends between Edwin, Delaney’s boss, and a former friend of his who believed he burned down his bookshop twenty years ago. After dinner, the house they are in is set aflame and a body goes down with it. Now, Hamlet is being accused of the crime and Delaney will try to prove his innocence.
Best Upcoming Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books: April 2022
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel: Station Eleven is one of the better novels, and television miniseries, of the past few years and now St. John Mandel returns to science-fiction. The novel is a story of art, time, love, and it takes the reader Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later.
Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher: A new subversive fantasy from Kingfisher sees a woman named Marra who never wanted to be a hero. She is a princes who managed to escape the traditional fate of being married away, but her sister wasn’t so lucky. Now, Marra is done watching her sister suffer at the hands of her abusive husband and sets out to do something about it. She’ll team up with a disgraced ex-knight, a reluctant fairy godmother, an enigmatic gravewitch and her fowl familiar to try and save her sister.
Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse: The sequel to Black Sun should be one of the most anticipated books of the month. The series is inspired by pre-Colombian culture and tells a tale of repression, opposition, revolution, of cruelty and love. The first book made many end of the year lists and was nominated for many awards. I won’t be surprised when this one does the same.
Into the Real by John Ringo & Lydia Sherrer: Lynn Raven is the boss master of an online game who has been asked by the CEO of Tsunami Entertainment to test a new augmented reality game. The only bad part is it meant going outside and dealing with people. She becomes immersed in the new game and as she improves it seems that the game has it in for her. In order to get what she’s always wanted, she will need to step into the ral.
The Hungers of the Gods by John Gwynne: The Bloodsworn trilogy continues with The Hungers of the Gods. The series is set in a Norse-inspired world and follows a band of warriors as they face off against ancient gods in their quest.
Best Upcoming Horror Books: April 2022
The Bladed Faith by David Dalglish: Cyrus lost everything when he was twelve years and and has been held prisoner ever since. Now, he’s given the chance to escape and get his revenge when he is approached by a group of revolutionaries. They want him to put on the skull mask and take up swords to become the legendary hero known as Vagrant. However, his vengeance will come at a price.
The Fervor by Alma Katsu: I was a big fan of Katsu’s The Hunger and this book looks like another winner. It takes place in the Japanese internment camps in 1944 as Meiko Briggs and her daughter, Aiko, find themselves in an internment camp in the Midwest even though Aiko was American-born. A mysterious disease begins to spread through the camp that leads to spontaneous fits of violence and aggression. A doctor arrives who is even scarier than the disease which leads to the women teaming up with a newspaper reporter and a missionary to investigate. What they find is pure evil.
Convulsive by Joe Koch: This collection of stories by Joe Koch could be the scariest thing to come out this month. The tales in this one have a surreal intensity that are nearly as bloody as they are well-written.
The Children on the Hill by Jennifer McMahon: In 1978, Dr. Helen Hildreth does work with the mentally ill in Vermont, but to her grandchildren, Eric and Vi, she’s just Gran. One day, she brings home a child, Iris, to stay with her grandchildren who is not like normal girls. The kids are excited to have a playmate and accept the girl, bringing her into their Monster Club. The kids catalogue and hunt monsters as Vi says that monsters to be all around them. In 2019, Lizzy, the host of the Monsters Among Us podcast, travels to Vermont where a young girl has been abducted and a monster has been sighted. Lizzy wants to hunt it down because she knows just how real monsters are because her sister is one.
The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham: Red dots appear in the sky and crash into the oceans. Aliens have arrived, but most believe that they are just interested in what’s below. That turns out not to be the case when the ice-caps begin to melt. Whatever these beings are, they aren’t interested in sharing the Earth with humans.
Best Upcoming Mystery/Thriller Books: April 2022
Crimson Summer by Heather Graham: FDLE Special Agent Amy Larson discovers a small horse figurine at the scene of a deadly murder. To many this would just be a toy, but she knows exactly what it is as she has been investigating an apocalypse cult and this is their calling card. The horse signifies that this isn’t just an average murder case, it’s actually the beginning of a war.
Her Silent Prayer by M.M. Chouinard: This will be the fifth book in the Detective Jo Fournier series. Jo is called to the scene of a suburban home where a single mother has been found dead inside of a bedroom closet. She was trapped in there and died slowly in a torturous manner. Jo is left to find out who would kill a mother in such a cruel way, and why.
City on Fire by Don Winslow: Two criminal empires, the Irish and the Italians, control all of New England. They have existed in an uneasy tension, but that’s about to all go out the window and turn into a full-fledged war. Danny wants to to go legit, but as the war escalates he will have to become a leader if he wants to save his family.
The Investigator by John Sandford: Letty Davenport is the adopted daughter of Lucas Davenport and she’s taking the lead in this new book from John Sandford. She has just graduated Stanford and is working a desk job for a U.S. Senator. She is bored in her work at first, but then the Senator offers her a job doing an investigation alongside Homeland Security. Letty and DHS investigator John Kaiser head to Texas to investigate crude thefts that could be tied to a dangerous militia group.
Dream Town by David Baldacci: This is the third book in the Aloysius Archer series. It takes place at the end of year in 1952 as Archer is getting ready to celebrate the New York with an old friend. However, their night is interrupted by a screenwriter named Eleanor Lamb who fears her life is in danger and wants to hire Archer to look into it. Before he can officially take on the case, a dead body is found in her home and Eleanor disappears. Now, Archer is out to find her…and the murderer.
Best Upcoming Romance Books: April 2022
Summer at the Cape by RaeAnne Thayne: Cami Porter is the older sisters to twins, Lily and Violet, and has felt like the odd sister out throughout her life. Things got worse when their parents split up and her and the twins went to live with different parents. Twenty years later, Cami’s mother calls to tell her that her sister Lily has died saving a child’s life and asks her to return home to help settle the estate. Cami struggles to adjust to the family she hasn’t known in decades as well as the strained relationship with her family as Violet tries to figure out who she is without her sister. The little girl Lily saved will pull her back to the man she once loved.
Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes: This will be the fifth entry in the Walsh Family series. The story follows Rachel who was a mess back in the 90s. She went to rehab which changed everything for her and life became good. Now, the sudden reappearance of a man she once loved could change everything once again.
The No-Show by Beth O'Leary: Jane is a soft-spoken volunteer, Miranda is a tree surgeon and just one of the guys, and Siobham is a quick-tempered life coach. These women couldn’t been more different, but they’ve all just been stood up on Valentine’s Day by the same man. They each forgive him and give him a second chance, and they are all are starting to fall in love with him. Will they find out the truth before it’s too late? And where was he on Valentine’s Day?
Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez: Alexis and Daniel have an undeniable chemistry even though they couldn’t be more different. Alexis comes from a wealthy family and her parents want her to become a renowned surgeon as it is the family legacy. While Daniel is a carpenter from a small town that is ten years younger than her. She wants to spend more time with him in his world, but giving up her family’s dream means giving up the opportunity to help thousands of people. Bringing Daniel into her world is impossible. Ultimately, she’ll need to choose between her world and his.
Mulberry Hollow by Denise Hunter: Avery become a physician after losing her mother, but now is at risk of getting the same illness so she guards her heart form love. She buries herself in her work instead. Wes Garrett is hiking the Appalachian trail when an illness hits and he barely makes it to the hospital. Avery saves him and he believes himself to be in her debt so he decides to help her renovate a rundown carriage house. The attraction grows, but there are many roadblocks that could stop that attraction from becoming anything more.
That’s what I am looking forward to in the month of April. What are you reading this month? Let me know in the comments below! I’m always looking for recommendations to add to my TBR (to be read) list.
