Spring is here, and with it comes warmer weather, new flowers, and longer days (finally). It also heralds the arrival of what feels like a metric ton of new books, as publishers begin to gear up for summer and vacation season. This April isn’t as quite as full of new releases have some have been in the past, but the amount of long-awaited sequels and series conclusions arriving this month should be enough to satisfy any fantasy reader. (Plus, spoiler alert: one of the new releases hitting shelves in April is an odds-on favorite for one of the best fantasy books you’ll read this year.)
So, what are you waiting for—all that leisure time on park benches, in afternoons in back yard hammocks, and on spring break vacation flights isn’t going to fill up by itself.
Here are our picks for the best new fantasy books hitting shelves in April.
Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake
Release Date: April 1 from Tor Books
Why We’re Excited: Unique fantasy worldbuilding meets the cutthroat world of Succession in this ambitious tale of a family battle over a magical technology company. The three children of the late “magitech” mogul Thayer Wren all have an assortment of special abilities (telekeneis, electrokinesis) and all too human problems, but as they wait to discover which of them has been named heir to his business empire, they’re forced to confront both their own secrets and their relationships with their dead father. Though this book is less strictly “fantasy” and more character-based than many associate with Olivie Blake’s writing, the characters are sharply drawn and easy to both hate and root for. An intriguing swerve.
Publisher’s Description: Thayer Wren, the brilliant CEO of Wrenfare Magitech and so-called father of modern technology, is dead. Any one of his three telepathically and electrokinetically gifted children would be a plausible inheritor to the Wrenfare throne.
Or at least, so they like to think.
Meredith, textbook accomplished eldest daughter and the head of her own groundbreaking biotech company, has recently cured mental illness. You’re welcome! If only her father’s fortune wasn’t her last hope for keeping her journalist ex-boyfriend from exposing what she really is: a total fraud.
Arthur, second-youngest congressman in history, fights the good fight every day of his life. And yet, his wife might be leaving him, and he’s losing his re-election campaign. But his dead father’s approval in the form of a seat on the Wrenfare throne might just turn his sinking ship around.
Eilidh, once the world’s most famous ballerina, has spent the last five years as a run-of-the-mill marketing executive at her father’s company after a life-altering injury put an end to her prodigious career. She might be lacking in accolades compared to her siblings, but if her father left her everything, it would finally validate her worth―by confirming she’d been his favorite all along.
On the pipeline of gifted kid to clinically depressed adult, nobody wins―but which Wren will come out on top?
Holy Terrors by Margaret Owen
Release Date: April 1 from Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Why We’re Excited: The final installment in Margaret Owens’ thoroughly excellent Little Thieves trilogy, Holy Terrors brings everything full circle in a jam-packed, chaotic, and deeply satisfying story about justice, power, and the long-term impacts of the choices we make.
Publisher’s Description: It’s been nearly two years since Vanja brought down the cult she started, and she’s still paying the price. As the Pfennigeist, she bucks the law in order to help the desperate and haunt the corrupt all across the empire―and no matter what, she works alone.
But an impossible killer is tearing through royalty, and leaving Vanja’s signature red penny on every victim. Suddenly the Pfennigeist is no longer a folk hero but a nightmare. When even the Blessed Empress falls, the empire’s seven royal families must gather to elect her successor within a matter of weeks, or risk the collapse of reality itself… even though it puts every house in the killer’s sights.
Vanja tells herself she’s wading into the royalty’s vicious games only to save the name she made, and the loved ones also in jeopardy. But the Order of Prefects has also put their sharpest official on the case, the one who swore he’d always find Vanja―until she broke his heart. Journeyman Prefect Emeric Conrad may no longer be the boy Vanja knew, but they’ll have to work together one last time to have any chance of surviving the deadly catastrophe coming for them all.
This Monster of Mine by Shalini Abeysekara
Release Date: April 1 from Union Square & Co.
Why We’re Excited: A dark romantasy inspired by the world of Ancient Rome, This Monster of Mine mixes the plot of a legal thriller with a queer slowburn romance and is one of the more unique titles on this month’s list.
Publisher’s Description: Eighteen-year-old Sarai doesn’t know why someone tried to kill her four years ago, but she does know that her case was closed without justice. Hellbent on vengeance, she returns to the scene of the crime as a Petitor, a prosecutor who can magically detect lies, and is assigned to work with Tetrarch Kadra. Ice-cold and perennially sadistic, Kadra is the most vicious of the four judges who rule the land—and the prime suspect in a string of deaths identical to Sarai’s attempted murder.
Certain of his guilt, Sarai begins a double life: solving cases with Kadra by day and plotting his ruin by night. But Kadra is charming and there’s something alluring about the wrath he wields against the city’s corruption. So when the evidence she finds embroils her in a deadly political battle, Sarai must also fight against her attraction to Kadra—because despite his growing hold on her heart, his voice matches the only memory she has of her assailant…
Fearless by Lauren Roberts
Release Date: April 8 from Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Why We’re Excited: The highly anticipated conclusion to Lauren Roberts’s wildly popular Powerless trilogy sees Paedyn and Kai return to the kingdom of Ilya. Kitt is newly king, grieving his father’s death, and planning to marry Paedyn despite his brother’s obvious feelings for her. How this will all end is a question we’re all desperate to know the answer to.
Publisher’s Description: Paedyn Gray and Kai Azer return to the Kingdom of Ilya… And Paedyn has a life-altering choice to make. Whatever she decides will determine her fate – and the fate of those around her – forever.
In the ultimate battle of love and loyalty, who wins?
Firebird by Juliette Cross
Release Date: April 8 from Bramble
Why We’re Excited: Described as From Blood and Ash meets House of the Dragon, this immersive (and surprisingly dark) romantasy mixes political intrigue, ancient Rome, and, yes, dragons into a briskly paced, spicy tale of secrets and consequences.
Publisher’s Description: From the moment Roman general and nephew to the emperor Julianus Dakkia laid eyes on Malina, he was enthralled by the Dacian dancer. Years later, the fierce beauty stands before him on a scarred battlefield, her life in danger. He instinctively shifts into his fierce dragon form to save her, an action that may mean his head on the imperial gate. But he and his dragon know one thing: she belongs to them.
Malina can’t believe that the centurion who had once bestowed a secret talisman on her is the Roman general of legendary brutality. His prowess as a warrior cannot be denied, yet they don’t reveal the secret he hides. All Malina knows is his protection and gentle touch. And she cannot deny how her soul has always seemed to answer his.
As they navigate a world where flying deathriders conquer and burn, their love will ignite a firestorm that can only end in heartbreak or death. Or both.
The Wind Weaver by Julie Johnson
Release Date: April 8 from Ace
Why We’re Excited: The first installment of the debut romantasy series from contemporary romance writer Julie Johnson, The Wind Weaver is inspired by Welsh mythology and follows the story of a halfling who reignites the embers of an ancient prophecy, unleashing a storm that could save her realm—-or might doom them all.
Publisher’s Description: Fear of maegic plagues war-torn Anwyvn. Halflings like Rhya Fleetwood are killed on sight. But Rhya’s execution is interrupted by an unexpected savior—one far more terrifying than her would-be killers. The mysterious and mercenary Commander Scythe. In the clutches of this new enemy, Rhya finds herself fighting for her life in the barren reaches of the Northlands. Yet the farther she gets from home, the more she learns that nothing is as it seems—not her fearsome captor, not the blight that ravages her dying realm, not even herself.
For Rhya is no ordinary halfling. The strange birthmark on her chest and the wind she instinctively calls forth means she is a Remnant, one of four souls scattered across Anwyvn, fated to restore the balance of maegic…or die trying.
But mastering the power inside her is only the beginning. Desire for the Commander—a man she can never trust, a man with plans of his own—burns just as fiercely as the tempests beating against her rib cage for release. Rhya must choose: smother the flames…or let them consume her.
Tonight, I Bleed by Katharine J. Adams
Release Date: April 8 from Orbit
Why We’re Excited: This second installment in the Witches of Halstett trilogy is grimmer and more complicated than its predecessor, but its breakneck pace makes for a wild ride. (And one heck of a cliffhanger.)
Publisher’s Description: Penny Albright has burned night after night to keep her soul free of Malin’s contract. Now, she’s at the stake again, and this time, it’s her freewill about to burn. As the ashes settle over the temple inferno, Halstett faces the Samhain ball and attendance is mandatory. At midnight, when the veil between Life and Death is at its thinnest, the Warden means to destroy magic and the witches who wield it. With her family missing and her friends lost, Penny turns to the Sorcerer chained on the mysterious ninth floor of the library for aid.
He offers a deal: a legion to fight the Warden in exchange for her blood.
Just one drop into the eternal fires will end the Warden’s reign and set the Sorcerer free. But as Alice’s visions fail and Malin fights the lifeline bond Penny forged to save him, one drop of blood might destroy them all. And with the Warden using Penny’s circle of Resistance witch friends as a shield, Penny is forced to choose between the friends she loves and the covens she belongs to.
A single night might spark a war that will tear the world—or Penny’s heart—apart.
House of Blight by Maxym M. Martineau
Release Date: April 8 from Harper Voyager
Why We’re Excited: An intriguing Gothic fantasy about a threadmender whose magical abilities can heal others, but whose use means shortening her own life. But when her brothers are both simultaneously stricken by the deadly blight, she’ll have to make a deal with a member of the village’s most elite families to try to find a way to save them. Attraction ensues, alongside betrayal and many, many unexpected secrets.
Publisher’s Description: Edira Brillwyn is a threadmender. She holds a rare, lifesaving power that can cure disease and heal injuries in the blink of an eye. But magic always comes with a cost, and saving anyone sacrifices a sliver of her own life. She’s always kept her abilities hidden…until the powerful Fernglove family discovers her secret.
The Ferngloves are charming and beautiful, possess powerful magic, and don’t take no for an answer—especially Orin, the head of these ruling elites. When Edira’s brothers unexpectedly contract blight—an incurable virus killing people throughout the town, and an illness too strong for her to heal them both—Orin offers to help. Together at his estate they’ll research a cure while Orin slows their sickness and Edira hones her magic. His kindness and honesty surprise Edira, as does her undeniable attraction to him.
But the other Ferngloves are suspicious of her power and may be more dangerous than the ever-present disease. The longer Edira stays within the confines of the Manor, the more the family’s pristine exterior begins to crack—until Edira discovers a terrifying secret and must choose who she can save and at what cost…
The Book That Held Her Heart by Mark Lawrence
Release Date: April 8 from Ace
Why We’re Excited: The third and final installment of Mark Lawrence’s sprawling Library Trilogy sees protagonists Livira and Eva separated once again, divided by their opposing desires about the future of the library beneath their world. As their stories diverge and come back together, the story’s finale brings many characters, factions, timelines, and plots together for an intense (and surprising) conclusion.
Publisher’s Description: The fate of an infinite library hangs on one book, a book that holds the power to break the unbreakable. In the face of such forces, fragile things like hearts, worlds, and even family seem certain to fail.
The people most vital to Livira are scattered across time and space—lost, divided into factions, in mortal peril. Somehow she must bring them together and resolve the unresolvable argument that fuels the library’s war.
The bond between Livira and Evar has stretched and stretched again. Can it hold at the end, when things fall apart? Can it unite them against impossible odds?
The Ashfire King by Chelsea Abdullah
Release Date: April 15 from Orbit
Why We’re Excited: This follow-up to Chelsea Abdullah’s (excellent) The Stardust Thief, The Ashfire King follows a merchant and a prince trapped in the crumbling realm of jinn who must figure out how to save one world to return to their own.
Publisher’s Description: After fleeing a patricidal prince, legendary merchant Loulie al-Nazari and banished prince Mazen bin Malik find themselves in the realm of jinn. But instead of sanctuary, they find a world on the cusp of collapse.
The jinn cities, long sheltered beneath the Sandsea by the magic of its kings, are sinking. Amid the turmoil, political alliances are forming, and rebellion is on the rise. When Loulie assists a dissenter—one of her bodyguard’s old comrades—she puts herself in the center of a centuries-old war.
Trapped in a world that isn’t her own and wielding magic that belongs to a fallen king, Loulie must decide: Will she carry on someone else’s legacy or carve out her own?
The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson
Release Date: April 15 from Orbit
Why We’re Excited: When the Emperor of Orrun steps down, the competition to replace him is fierce—literally. The best of the best from across the kingdom—each representing one of the monasteries dedicated to the seven supernatural guardians who protect it—assemble to battle it out in a series of trials. But when one of them is murdered, the emperor’s High Scholar must enter the tournament to clear her name and solve a mystery that stretches back generations. Or die trying.
The Raven Scholar deftly blends lush high fantasy worldbuilding with a compelling murder mystery, complex political intrigue, and a delightfully offbeat lead character. An unexpected banger we’ll be talking about for the rest of the year.
Publisher’s Description: Let us fly now to the empire of Orrun, where after twenty-four years of peace, Bersun the Brusque must end his reign. In the dizzying heat of mid-summer, seven contenders compete to replace him. They are exceptional warriors, thinkers, strategists—the best of the best.
Then one of them is murdered.
It falls to Neema Kraa, the emperor’s brilliant, idiosyncratic High Scholar, to find the killer before the trials end. To do so, she must untangle a web of deadly secrets that stretches back generations, all while competing against six warriors with their own dark histories and fierce ambitions. Neema believes she is alone. But we are here to help; all she has to do is let us in.
If she succeeds, she will win the throne. If she fails, death awaits her. But we won’t let that happen.
We are the Raven, and we are magnificent.
Enigma by RuNyx
Release Date: April 29 from Brambl
Why We’re Excited: Described as The Secret History meets a retelling of the myth of Hades and Persephone, this latest novel from the author of Gothikana is a dark academia romance standalone that boasts complicated characters, a steamy rivals-to-lovers relationship, and a ton of unexpected twists.
Publisher’s Description: Salem Salazar comes to Mortimer University to get to the bottom of her sister’s mysterious death. There, obsessed with forensics, she discovers there have been a lot more unexplained deaths on the campus. Her search leads her down a dark and dangerous path to a secret society and to Caz.
Cazimir van der Waal is in her way and another mystery to unravel. Is he just an art student, a man living a double life, or a murderer? While also at the university seeking answers for another death, Caz has a lot more to him than meets the eye.
Secret forces are at play in Mortimer and no one is safe. As Salem tries to go under the radar and Caz tries to block her path, somehow, they both end up in the crossfire of a powerful, secret society. They are forced to work together to discover the truth or risk losing their lives.
The Floating World by Axie Oh
Release Date: April 29 from Fiewel & Friends
Why We’re Excited: A classic YA fantasy described as a cross between Shadow & Bone and Final Fantasy, The Floating World boasts delicate, thoughtful worldbuilding and a fast-paced plot that feels refreshingly straightforward in our current genre landscape.
Publisher’s Description: Sunho lives in the Under World, a land of perpetual darkness. An ex-soldier, he can remember little of his life from before two years ago, when he woke up alone with only his name and his sword. Now he does odd-jobs to scrape by, until he comes across the score of a lifetime―a chest of coins for any mercenary who can hunt down a girl who wields silver light.
Meanwhile, far to the east, Ren is a cheerful and spirited acrobat traveling with her adoptive family and performing at villages. But everything changes during one of their festival performances when the village is attacked by a horrific humanlike demon. In a moment of fear and rage, Ren releases a blast of silver light―a power she has kept hidden since childhood―and kills the monster. But her efforts are not in time to prevent her adoptive family from suffering a devastating loss, or to save her beloved uncle from being grievously wounded.
Determined to save him from succumbing to the poisoned wound, Ren sets off over the mountains, where the creature came from―and from where Ren herself fled ten years ago. Her path sets her on a collision course with Sunho, but he doesn’t realize she’s the girl that he―and a hundred other swords-for-hire―is looking for. As the two grow closer through their travels, they come to realize that their pasts―and destinies―are far more entwined than either of them could have imagined…
Lacy Baugher Milas is the Books Editor at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter and Bluesky at @LacyMB