Coming Soon – The Romances We’re Most Looking Forward to Reading in April 2022
Time for our regular look ahead to the new releases we’re most looking forward to reading over the next few weeks. There’s a bumper crop of new books this April, although as usual, there’s no way we can fit them all in, but hopefully rhere’s something here that’ll tickle your fancy!
We love hearing from you about which of these titles you plan to read, or which books you’ve waiting for that aren’t on our list, so please do stop by for a chat in the comments!
Releasing week of 4th Apr 2022
Releasing week of 11th Apr 2022
Releasing week of 18th Apr 2022
Releasing week of 25th Apr 2022
It occurred to me that I had not checked to see if Rachel Lee was still writing Conard County books. Turns out she had releases in February—Conard County Conspiracy—and in March—Conard County: Mistaken Identity, both as always, from Harlequin, though from different lines (Romantic Suspense and Intrigue). The Conspiracy plot involves an endangered widow helped to an HEA (I assume, given Lee’s track record) by her late husband’s best friend. The mistaken identity story is about a woman being stalked by someone who assumes she is her identical twin.
Rachel Lee’s Conard County books range from good, workmanlike suspense to excellent can’t-put-it-down. I will definitely catch up on the titles I have missed, and the best friend with secret longings plot is one I am particularly susceptible to. Worth noting: These two titles are volumes 48 and 49 in the Conard County: The Next Generation series. I hope the 50th book in the series turns out to be a strong performance, but even if it is not, that’s a lot of books set in a locale that is not urban.
I am looking forward to the Grace Burrowes book Never a Duke about Ned Wentworth, who first appeared in the series as an enterprising boy from the slums. Now he’s an adult who is/isn’t part of the Wentworth tribe. While the book can probably be read as a standalone, I find Burrowes’ books from her later series a richer reading experience when I have read the whole sequence from the start. She likes to construct a social milieu, and the more books in a series she writes, the more involved with each other the characters get.
Not a lot here is calling out loudly to me but four have raised my interest. Before the Fortress Falls sounds very different and I look forward to a review for this one. Robyn Carr is an old favourite so A Family Affair may be worth a look. And maybe The Earl She Should Never Desire might be a good read. Finally, The Unknown Beloved sounds like it might be a great story.
I’m most looking forward to The Long Game (Rachel Reid) and Flare (Jay Hogan). I’m also interested in Penny Reid’s book.
For books not on the list, I’m interested in Famous in a Small Town by Kylie Scott (April 7). The blurb sounds like the heroine returns home to her small town in N. California and moves in next door to a grumpy rock star widower (!) who is trying to escape his L.A. life. I do love a grumpy main character. I am also going to read Runaway by Noelle Adams (April 12), which is the next in the Magnussons series. I liked the first book Breakaway.
I’ll be reading Runaway too! I hadn’t heard a date for it yet but I see on Amazon that it’s April 12th.
The Mad girls of New York looks good because I’ve always found Nellie Bly to be interesting.
Unfortunately it’s $13.99 here in Canada and my library doesn’t have it either. I’ll check back in a few weeks to see if it’s available.
A.J. Demas is releasing Honey & Pepper on March 31st.
I am really happy about that & thought to share the info here, though it is (just) not an April release.
Thanks – yes, I saw that around but as you say, it’s not April :( It can be quite a challenge to keep these lists relevant and up to date; so many authors who self-publish do so in very short timeframes and unless you follow all of them on SM or newsletters, it’s hard to keep up with what they’re up to! I’m always happy for readers to email me with information on new releases for these posts :)
I guess things are getting so much harder with all the self publishing on short notice.
Lots of work for you!
I just thought people might like to know.
Absolutely – I want people to comment here with books they’ve found that I’ve misssed! And as I say, if you ever want me to include something, feel free to email me.
So far on my April tbr I have the following books (although I’m sure I’ll add more once I’ve had a chance to really look at what you have listed above):
ONCE UPON A COWBOY by Maisey Yates (April 1): Part of her Four Corners Ranch series, this is a widowed single-dad & nanny romance. Yates always does the angst really well, so I’m expecting her to bring it.
NIGHTINGALE (April 5) is an anthology of over 50 new stories by a number of our favorite Romancelandia writers (Skye Warren, Katee Robert, Kate Canterbary, Karla Sorensen, Penny Reid, and many others) with 100% of the royalties being donated to relief and human rights organizations working in Ukraine. A worthy cause and a way to read new stories by many favorite writers? I’m there!
In addition to spearheading NIGHTINGALE, Skye Warren is releasing BEHIND CLOSED DOORS on April 12. This is a novella set in the world of her ROCHESTER trilogy but with different MCs. This one features a woman running from her past who owns an inn in a quiet town in Maine. But when a stranger shows up in the middle of the night, has her past caught up with her?
UNWANTED by Marley Valentine (April 21) is an m/m romance that begins a new series featuring MCs who grew up in foster care. I expect plenty of angst from this one, which has a very evocative and emotional cover.
Cate C. Wells’s THE HEIR APPARENT’S REJECTED MATE (April 22) is the second book in her Five Packs series of shifter romances. I loved the first book in the series, THE TYRANT ALPHA’S REJECTED MATE, which made my list of Favorites of 2021. Wells really knows how to write heroes who have screwed up and want to do better but often lack the emotional bandwidth to do so without blunders. I’m expecting more of the same from this book.
April 26 is a red-letter day: Rachel Reid’s THE LONG GAME arrives! This is my most anticipated release of 2022 so far and brings Shane and Ilya (from HEATED RIVALRY) their HEA. I would encourage anyone who plans to read THE LONG GAME to definitely read HEATED RIVALRY first. I also understand that part of THE LONG GAME’s time-line runs parallel to that of ROLE MODEL, where Ilya has a major supporting role, so it would be best to read that too. I plan a reread of both the week before THE LONG GAME drops. If you can’t tell, I’m really stoked for THE LONG GAME.
Also dropping April 26 is Jackie Ashenden’s FIND YOUR WAY HOME, the first in her new Small Town Dreams series set in New Zealand. This is an antagonists-to-lovers romance with some ties to Ashenden’s Deep River, Alaska, series. I like Ashenden’s angsty style (she excels at writing HPs), so I’m looking forward to this one.
Also, I didn’t realize Mia Hopkins was finally releasing TANKED. I thought it would remain one of those books that we eagerly await but it never shows up.
And I have no idea what THE BRIGHT AND HUNGRY FUTURE OF HAWKS is all about, but I’m totally there for that cover!
The Bright and Hungry Future of Hawks is the final (#9) book of More Hear Than the Sun series. Follows the same couple Ben – an ex special forces soldier and Nik – Danish diplomat (among other things). You’d def need to read the previous books. AAR reviewed the previous book.
Thank you. As of right now, the books are available on KU, so I grabbed the first one (LOVE IS A STRANGER).
The audios – for anyone who does audio – are absolutely fantastic; Gary Furlong is one of the best voice actors around. I’ve reviewed a couple of them over at AudioGals if anyone’s interested – because these aren’t what I’d call your run-of-the-mill military/suspense books; They’re quite bonkers at times in terms of the plots and the two leads, while compelling, are total fuck-ups.
Also – one of them is a billionaire but never seems to buy any lube… ;)
Yes, the timelines of Role Model and The Long Game do overlap, so we see Ilya’s PoV of That Incident.
I saw the Marley Valentine book but I find her stuff is too full of long-winded navel-gazing for my taste, and while I enjoy angsty stories, the angst in hers is too overblown and manufactured. If you read it, come back and let me know what it’s like.