Best of Book Riot

All the April Romance Books You Need

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Welcome to The Best of Book Riot, our daily round-up of what’s on offer across our site, newsletters, podcasts, and social channels. Not everything is for everyone, but there is something for everyone.

17 New April Romance Books

Among those thousands, April promises a heckuva lineup of top tier titles, including contemporary, historical, and fantasy romances. Here, we’ve got a smattering of those things (though, per usual, it leans heavily into contemporary). We’ve got retellings and sequels. We’ve got musicians and mermaids. We’ve got multiple adult debuts by popular Young Adult authors, and long-awaited new books by beloved favorites. We’ve got books you don’t need me to tell you about, including new books from Ruby Dixon, Eloisa James, and Emily Henry. We’ve got the sequel to Phantasma, the next Dark Olympus book, and the hilarious follow-up to The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love. Abby Jimenez and Jasmine Guillory are bringing it with the pinks and pastels in their new books, and Brenda Jackson brings us back to the Madaris family with Spilling the Tea, her ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH BOOK. 

The Bookish Life of Vivian Jenna Wilson

Vivian Jenna Wilson is the 20-year-old estranged trans daughter of current unelected “Senior Advisor to the President” Elon Musk. She’s made a name for herself speaking out against the way her father has treated her, about how the media treats trans kids like her, and more. Just recently, she was featured on on the cover of Teen Vogue Magazine. In that stellar profile, Wilson talks at length about her relationship with her famously anti-trans father, about the need to protect young trans people, and about how she’s come to troll some of the most awful corners of the far-right on the internet.


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Spring Releases by Latine Authors to Have On Your Radar

What’s not helping that TBR project is how many fantastic books from Latine authors are publishing this spring. We have the latest from prolific Chilean author Isabel Allende to look forward to, a historical novel set in 19th-century San Francisco. We have an epic family saga spanning the first 100 years of Spanish colonization in what is now New Mexico. We have a debut work of gothic horror with a haunted mansion turned hotel (because that’s always a great idea). We have romance, we have fantasy, we have vengeful zombies eating the rich. Santa Madre, my TBR never stood a chance, did it?

Celebrate Poetry With These 2025 YA Verse Novels

Every year, April rolls around and it becomes time once again to celebrate all things poetry. Poetry doesn’t get enough love throughout the year, so this is an opportunity to really slow down and savor what can be done through the form. We have seen a rise in the popularity of poetry thanks to social media over the last 10 or so years, though it is a writing form that has remained popular since the beginning because it is so adaptable. Poetry can be savored solo as much as it is the perfect medium for performance, for music, for slam, and so much more. If you’ve not been a big poetry fan because of how you learned it in school, chances are if you look around, you’ll find a style or method of poetry that does work for you. Indeed, there’s never a wrong time for learning how to read poetry and for learning how to appreciate it.

The Best Handmade Bookish Mugs

Ideally, a good mug perfectly fits in your hand, insulates a warm drink, and offers a bookish aesthetic cute enough to melt my worries away. While hand fit is difficult to judge online, I am relying on my personal experience to offer you the best bookish mugs available right now. These mugs fit my specifications and a wide selection of bookish aesthetics. I promise, at least one of these handmade bookish mugs is sure to offer you an excellent gift for yourself or a friend.

10 of the Best New Children’s Books Coming in April 2025

Overall, April is one of the most hopeful times of year because it’s finally starting to round the corner onto summer. People start coming out of hibernation, going for longer walks, breathing fresh air. And from picture books about pee etiquette and taco tragedies to middle grade comic clubs and Irish jigs, there’s a delightfully whimsical batch of books being released this April 2025. It’s always hard to choose favourites from so many incredible books being released, but I did. I really hope they’ll have you excited too.