Looking ahead to April, here’s a selection of the new releases we think are likely to contribute to your reading pleasure over the next few weeks. Please drop by to tell us what YOU’RE looking forward to reading in April!
Click on the images to find out more!
Releasing 1st Apr
Releasing week of 5th Apr
Releasing week of 12th Apr
Releasing week of 19th Apr
Releasing week of 26th Apr
Very pleased to learn that Elizabeth Rolls has a new book coming out. Definitely will go in the TBR pile as soon as ir’s available for purchase. It sounds like a winner to me.
Joanna Chambers has just announced via Newsletter that The Labours of Lord Perry Cavendish will be released on 28 April 2021. It’s the next book in her Winterbourne series. The blurb sounds good – a romance between a sporty, ‘nice-but-dim’ and a free-thinking artist
Awesome! (And a perfect example of why things sometimes miss this column).
Yes, that’s how two books that I’m looking forward to missed the column last time!
Stella Riley’s Under a Dark Moon – Brandon Brothers-Adam releases on 27 March and Lily Morton’s The Quiet House (Black and Blue series) on 26 March. With The King’s Man on 25 March, that’s three great books coming out on three consecutive days this week!
I didn’t know about the Stella Riley book! Thank you!
I said somewhere here – LM only announced her new book a week or so ago so it was too late to put into the March column (the Sally Malcolm was in there though and it’s fantastic – my review will be up later this week). I’m reviewing the Morton although I might be a bit late as ARCs only just went out.
I have to say that the Sally Malcolm is the one that I’m most looking forward to. Rebel worked very well as an appetiser!
Lily Morton always seems to announce her books very close to the release date – maybe because she self-publishes?
This post always makes me think of my favorite authors so I went to check up and see if any have books on the horizon.
I just saw that Joanna Bourne is retiring from writing. I wish her all the best and great happiness.
Selfishly, I am just so sad that there will not be any upcoming books. I know I should, and will be, grateful for the ones I have. The Spymaster Series is one of my most re-read and beloved series.
Now, can someone recommend a great book or series to me? The cheerier the better because I’m super sad.
With the usual caveat that tastes in humor are extremely individualistic, are you already familiar with G. A. Aiken, Pippa Grant, and Shelly Laurenston?
Aiken & Laurenston are two names of the same author. Her stories are extremely unPC (violent characters), but her humor really works for me. Aiken is fantasy romance, Laurenston is paranormal contemporary.
Pippa Grant writes straight contemporary, and her humor also really works for me. My sister found them sexier than she prefers her contemporaries, but one of my brothers shares my enjoyment.
Check https://www.fantasticfiction.com for series order info.
To see if my taste in humor is any use as a guide for you, see my list at http://www.ccrsdodona.org/markmuse/reading/romwhumorlist.html.
Hi Mark,
thanks very much for the recommendations! I recognize the authors names but I haven’t read any of them yet. I downloaded two of the Shelly Laurenston books because she’s the name I’m most familiar with and the blurbs on the books reminded me of Molly Harper’s work which I enjoy.
I appreciate your kindness in posting some fun reads for me. I will dig into the Laurenstons tonight!
That makes me super blue–but we all get to retire sometime.
Yes, she certainly deserves it, especially as I believe she took up romance writing after retiring from her government/diplomatic? work.
I will miss her posts at Word Wenches because she always had such a fun way of covering any topic, even if it was the history of bread.
She contributed so much to the romance genre in such a relatively small amount of time.
That’s a shame, but she’s given us some fantastic books to savour (and I’m honestly glad she’s decided to step back rather than to keep going and churn out sub-standard stuff).. I wish her a happy retirement!
Yes, choosing when and how you wrap up your writing is the best option for sure. She would post about her pets and her gardening and pottery making so hopefully she is getting to enjoy all those things at her leisure.
I’m curious. Where do you (meaning AAR readers) find out about what is coming? I have a very few authors whose newletters I subscribe to and I check posts like this one. But in general I don’t really know of any consolidated sources of upcoming releases now that libraries no longer carry magazines like Publisher’s Weekly (or at least, mine don’t).
Thanks!
It’s pretty much catch-as-catch-can with me since I’m not on social media and don’t follow any writers. With my favorite writers, I’ll check their listings on Amazon (sorting by publication date) or look in the backs of their most recent books, which often list upcoming books/dates. I jot upcoming books down on a 12-month calendar I use only to track books. I also check here and several other sites that provide monthly or weekly new releases. But I still don’t catch everything: I just discovered that CD Reiss, one of my favorite writers, started a new trilogy with MAFIA BRIDE on March 16. I knew nothing about it. So, of course, my March book budget is blown because I had to download the book immediately.
We get our information from most of the same places – as you say, gone are the days where you could get comprehensive lists from other publications; there are just so many books being published each month since self-publishing exploded, it’s impossible to get them all – especially as so many authors who self-publish work to much shorter deadlines. (Lily Morton, for instance, announced a week or two ago that she has a new book out on 26th March – way too late for me to put it into the March Coming Soon). NetGalley is a useful source of informationsbecause we get so many of our ARCs from there. And then it’s Amazon, author newsletters, websites, social media etc.
I have pretty completely shifted from printed books to ebooks, so the main two places I get my ebooks are Kobo and Amazon. Both sites list many suggestions based on past purchases, AND list upcoming books by authors I’ve bought before. I keep a BooksTBB document with dates up to a year ahead, and any time I see a forthcoming title at either site by an auto-buy author (a LONG list), I add it to the appropriate month. (The same file also has my list of almost 300 ebooks for which I’m waiting for price reductions.)
I occasionally check the home page of https://www.fantasticfiction.com when I’m there checking info for a specific book or author. A few time a year I do an extensive search of that site for specific authors (favorites that I don’t recall seeing recently).
I also try to remember to skim the monthly list at https://www.fictiondb.com/new-releases/new-books.htm at least once a month.
I definitely copy both staff and visitor mentions that I see here at AAR.
Even with all that, I frequently get Kobo & Amazon notices AFTER the books are already out.
Ok, two people who keep calendars of upcoming releases! How interesting. As mentioned before, I have a very few authors whose newsletters/emails I get and they frequently discuss release dates far (like, months) in advance. I’ve not been keeping them/noting those dates anywhere, assuming they’ll be reviewed at actual release. Clearly, I need to create my own calendar of favorites ;-)
And I use fantasticfiction.com just like you Mark (to make sure I haven’t missed something by a favorite author). It’s an awesome site, particularly for books in series order. But fictiondb is new to me. Thanks!
For romance, I enjoy going to Harlequin and Carina Press’s official websites and clicking on the “Coming soon!” tabs under various subgenres to view upcoming titles. They are a little more organized than they used to be and tend to update pretty frequently.
There are also a few small presses I follow for science fiction just by visiting their blogs occasionally, but that’s sporadic.
I love Carina’s site but haven’t really checked out any of the big publishers’ lately. On my to-do list now!
Thanks ladies! DiscoDolly – love the calendar idea. For “not being on social media” you always have a few suggestions. ;-)
Goodreads has a new release feature by month that includes all authors on your reading shelf. Some additional titles next month are:
A Wicked Conceit by Anna Lee Huber
The Devil Comes Courting by Courtney Milan
Last Night by Mhairi McFarlane
Just One Night by Carly Phillips
The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary
The Defiant Wife by Jess Michaels
Save Me from the Dark by Cynthia Eden
https://www.goodreads.com/new_releases/2021/4
That’s useful to know, thanks! As I always say, this is a very selective list, chosen by AAR staff – but I’m happy to hear from readers about the books they’re looking forward to! (See below re. the Milan though – I’ll believe it when I see it!)
Ok, that is a feature that might be worth using GoodReads. Thanks Mary!
Courtney Milan’s newest book, THE DEVIL COMES COURTING is supposed to come out on the 20th, but frankly, I’ll believe it when I see it. It’s been postponed three times. I think Milan may be losing interest in romances. Her latest books have tried to break away from the usual and they haven’t worked for me. I will give her one more chance, maybe, but I may have write her off, which would be a real shame, as she used to be my favorite writer.
*sigh* I put it in Feb’s column, and then again in March when someone (maybe you) said it had been postponed. So I confess I didn’t check it again as I assumed it had been released. I’m in the same position as you – maybe a bit further down the road. CM used to be one of my favourites, too, but the four (?) books released in the Worth saga so far were such huge disappointments that I decided to move on.
Kresley Cole is an author I have been waiting to publish again for a while. Her latest in the Immortals series was supposed to come out last summer.
I’ve read online that this is due to health issues and I hope if this is true that her health is improving and she’s doing better.
Does anyone know what Thea Harrison is planning?
I had fun with a lot of her books, but she seems also to slow down or stop????
Someone commented on her blog that she has an autoimmune disease and has temporarily halted writing etc.
Hopefully she is recuperating and will be able to pick up again soon. A serious illness just derails everything.
Ack! Is April upon us already? Here are some of the titles I am looking forward to:
1) “Revealing the True Miss Stansfield” by Bronwyn Scott. This looks like a total cover read for me, and I’m not one bit ashamed to make that statement. A painter heroine? Awesome!
2) “A Marriage of Equals” by Elizabeth Rolls. Would you believe I found the free preview to this book on Harlequin yesterday? So far, I love it. A Jamaican heroine who runs a coffee shop in 1803 London? Yes! This is exactly what I’m looking for right now: believable entrepreneurial HR heroines with interesting backstories. I put in a request at my library and hope they buy it.
3) “Multispecies Cities” from World Weaver Press. This one’s not coming out until late April and I have been waiting, waiting, waiting to read this uplifting science fiction anthology in the solarpunk subgenre for ages. Lately I’ve been on a bit of a solarpunk kick because, like romance, this science fiction subgenre requires a hopeful rather than bleak outlook. Sometimes, solarpunk stories contain mini romances, so there’s that too. Maybe a new genre of romance- solarpunk romance- is waiting to be born. Either that, or I’ll have to invent it. Who’s with me?
Happy April Reading everyone!
Elizabeth Rolls! She hasn’t had a book out in a very long time. Or have I missed them? She has written some Regencies I really liked.
I think she’s had one or two out over the past couple of years, but she’s not one of M&B’s most prolific authors. Most seem to put out 2-3 books a year, but I don’t think Rolls has done that for quite a while.
No, you haven’t missed them. According to her author page on Harlequin, her last publication was in January 2018. All her paperbacks through this publisher appear to be out of print.
This will be a new-to-me author if I’m able to get the book at the library. A Marriage of Equals is actually pre-Regency, takes place in 1803, which should be interesting.
I only have a few books on my April tbr, which is just as well because my list for May is huge and is already siphoning money from my April book budget!
April 1 brings two books from one of my favorite writers, Caitlin Crews: Crews’s latest HP: THE SECRET THAT CAN’T BE HIDDEN—obviously an unplanned pregnancy/secret baby romance; and Crews’s latest for Harlequin’s Dare line , THE PLEASURE CONTRACT, a take on a reality show similar to The Bachelor. As I’ve said before, HPs require an occasional sex scene to interrupt the angsty heartache, while Dares require an occasional twinge of existential angst to interrupt the almost non-stop sexy-times—and Crews is one of the few writers who can truly handle the different requirements of both.
BRODERICK, the second book in Katee Robert’s Sabine Valley series, arrives on April 13. The premise of the series is that seven brothers (I’m assuming there will be a book for each brother) return to their home town and upend the tenuous balance of power between three rival groups. The books are mashups of contemporary romance tropes along with historical, mythic, and pop-culture elements—not to mention lots of hot-hot-hot sexy-times. BRODERICK is an M/F/F-ménage romance between Broderick, the woman he really loves, and another woman whom he has to marry for political reasons. Let the games begin!
Lauren Blakely’s THE VIRGIN RULE BOOK drops on April 16. Blakely publishes so many books in so many series at such a rapid clip, I just can’t keep up! This one appears to include the brother’s best friend and virgin heroine tropes—not particular favorites, but the hero is a baseball player, so I’ll give it a try.
Molly O’Keefe (writing as M. O’Keefe—the name she reserves for her darker books) drops BROKEN HEARTS on April 27. It continues the story O’Keefe started in STOLEN HEARTS, about a young widow who begins to realize her her husband’s death was not what it seemed and is tied in some way to an enigmatic Irishman who works for the heroine’s mentor and close friend (but is she really?). STOLEN HEARTS ended on a cliffhanger, so I’m assuming BROKEN HEARTS picks up the action right where the first book left off.
Also currently showing as releasing on April 27 are two more books from Dare: Caitlin Crews’s JUST ONE MORE NIGHT (second book in the Summer Seductions series and companion to the aforementioned THE PLEASURE CONTRACT) and Jackie Ashenden’s WITH THE LIGHTS ON, companion to her earlier Dare, IN THE DARK. I’ll include them here because right now they’re showing a drop date of April 27, but Harlequins usually release on the first of the month, so I won’t be surprised if they show up in May 1–adding another burden to my already stretched book budget for May.
One more: I just discovered that Juliana Stone’s older-heroine romance, SLOW KIND OF LOVE, has been moved from March 26 to April 25. I hope it does arrive next month—I really enjoy the world Stone has created in her Crystal Lake novels.