Spring Ahead With the 10 Best Books Of April

A makeshift family, made of three robots and a human, lives together secretly and safely in the woods. That is, until Vic, the human, salvages a new robot that reveals the dark past of one of his housemates. Worse, their location is revealed and the group must travel together into the city to save one of their own in this sci-fi adaptation of “The Adventures of Pinocchio.” 

When it’s time for the friend group’s annual getaway, Harriet and Wyn hold back the secret that they broke up five months ago. The Maine cottage where they gather is for sale so this will be the last hurrah for the group and the exes don’t want to spoil it. They just need to keep the ruse up for a week, if they can fight their attraction for each other in the meantime.

The true story of the 1811 fire at a Virginia theater is told through the eyes of four different people in this new novel. There’s a young widow, a Black man, a stagehand and a blacksmith whose destinies will be forever linked by the tragedy. Small decisions they make will have lasting effects on history as well as the community around them. 

Gabe and Pippa's perfect little cottage sits atop a high cliff with the rough seas churning below. People flock here to end their lives and Gabe regularly talks them out of their plan, until one night when he doesn’t. Pippa discovers he knew the victim, which makes their marriage unravel and dark secrets come to light.

Rose is hired to a consort at Camp Zero, a new way of life in a remote Canadian town, in exchange for lodging for herself and her Korean immigrant mother. She’s really there to spy on the American architect constructing the camp and she learns everyone there has a secret. Fans of dystopian novels like "Station Eleven" will love this story of survival in a dying world.  

In this dark YA novel, a percentage of humankind has turned into The Hollowing, people who survive on human flesh, lest they go feral. Luckily, scientists have created synthetic flesh to curb the craving. When a group of Hollow teens journeys to a music festival with a cooler of Synflesh in tow with plans to have a pre-graduation party, one of them turns feral and concert-goers start disappearing one by one. The remaining girls must figure out the cause before it's too late for everyone else.

Dr. Briana Ortiz needs to finalize her divorce and find a kidney for her brother, all while aiming her ire at Jacob, the new doctor who annoys her. Then he sends her a charming, disarming letter and a friendship is born. Maybe she doesn’t hate him after all. After he offers to be her brother’s kidney donor -- might she actually love him? 

Fifteen-year-old Andrew spends his school days in Nigeria obsessing about becoming a superhero and dating blonde girls. When he meets Eileen, the daughter of the preacher, he falls hopelessly in love. At her welcome party, Andy’s troubles converge, from a man claiming to be his father to an angry mob headed right for the church. Andy must reconcile his identity and desires once and for all.

As a baby in the Pacific Northwest turns cobalt blue, a Palestinian family, soap makers whose factory was destroyed in an air raid, believe this baby embodies their sacred history of soap. Decades later, the baby, now a queer woman named Betty, is torn between family and love. She must turn to her aunt’s notebook to discover the family history so she doesn’t repeat her aunt’s mistakes.

Stevie and Nora keep their love secret, until they can graduate and move far away from their repressive town and families. Then Stevie has an accident, wiping Nora and their escape plan from her memory. Can the two lost lovers find their way back to each other once again?