7 Biggest Upcoming Book Releases of April 2017

With spring springing and the fourth month of the year just around the corner, you might be planning to spruce up your dusty bookshelves with some brand new titles. Here are seven novels being put out over the next month, in order of their release date, that are set to be 2017 hits.

 

1. Perfect, Cecelia Ahern

From the author of the classic rom-com P.S. I Love You comes the second installment of her YA sci-fi dystopian series following Celestine North as she tries to find her way under a rule that has deemed her officially ‘Flawed’.

On the run after being declared a threat to public morality, she has the choice to save herself for certain or risk her own safety in an effort to save all others classed as ‘Flawed’. Ultimately, of course, her aim is to prove that her flaws do not make her a danger to humanity, but the totalitarian rule under which she is living would rather keep the public in the dark.

 

2. A Criminal Defence – William L. Myers Jr

This mystery thriller follows Mick McFarland, a defence attorney, as he takes on the case of the death of a young reporter, and the esteemed businessman who is accused of her murder.

Everything is complicated by the appearance of a close friend of Mick’s on the other side of the case and the fact that the victim had appealed to Mick for legal help only a few hours before her death. This is the case that could make Mick’s reputation buckle under the strain, but he may well be able to deal with it – so long as he uses a couple of moral blind spots along the way.

 

3. Red Sister – Mark Lawrence

Red Sister is the first book in Lawrence’s collection Book of the Ancestor, and it is set around a convent where girls are trained up from childhood to be cold-blooded killers.

Nona Grey, a child murderer, is purchased by the convent with the intention of raising her the same way as all the other children who pass through their system. However, not everyone outside the centre’s rural location is on good terms with Nona, and she must learn to protect herself through the convent’s training to be able to look after herself if, and when, she is found.

 

4. Marlena – Julie Buntin

Marlena is a coming-of-age story about two girls and the year they enjoy together that secures how they will spend the rest of their lives: either six feet under or in desperate hope of self-forgiveness.

Fifteen-year-old Cat is thrown into a rather unglamourous new home in the aftermath of her parents’ divorce, and finds little joy or security in anything except the fitting-in feeling she gets during her time with new friend Marlena. When Marlena drowns less than a year later, Cat struggles into adulthood with the memories of that fateful friendship.

 

5. Alex and Eliza: A Love Story – Melissa de la Cruz

If you’re a fan of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton and are looking for something to read in between belting out the soundtrack, this might just be for you. Or, if you’re genuinely interested in the American Revolution and its place in history, I guess you’re welcome. I’m betting most of the sales will be resting on the former, though. The book is basically a cute run-down of the relationship between founding father Alexander Hamilton and his wife Eliza Schuyler, and sees them through arguably the biggest time in American history.

 

6. The Shadow Land – Elizabeth Kostova

Bestselling author Elizabeth Kostova is releasing her latest novel about Alexandra Boyd, an American woman, who travels to Bulgaria praying that the trip will relieve some of the loss felt by the death of her brother.

After accidentally keeping hold of someone’s bag in an act with the intention of good will, she finds herself possessing an urn, with no idea of whose contents are inside. On her quest to return the ashes to the family, she makes some uneasy revelations about Bulgaria and the people – and secrets – it houses.

 

7. The Thing About Love – Julie James

This contemporary romance novel follows undercover FBI agents Jessica Harlow and John Shephard as they try to manage each other after being assigned the same high-profile case.

Neither of them are particularly happy to see the other after their awkward and less-than-romantic history, and both their current struggles with love. I don’t think it would even be a spoiler for me to let you know that they obviously end up getting together by the end… it had to happen at some point.