New Books to Read during April (YA & Fantasy)

The new books hitting the shelves during April are many. Here’s a short list of eight YA and fantasy books that you can enjoy during spring. Other planets, family, kings and queens, autism, and lots of adventures await you.

Defy the Worlds [The Book Depository] [Waterstones] by Claudia Gray is the romantic sequel of Defy the Stars. Noemi is an outcast from her home. Shunned after a trip through the galaxy with Abel, the most advanced cybernetic man ever created, Noemi dreams of traveling through the stars one more time. And when a deadly plague arrives on Genesis, Noemi gets her chance. As the only soldier to have ever left the planet, it will be up to her to save its people. But it seems that she’s flying straight into a trap.

Abel is on the run to avoid his depraved creator’s clutches. He believes he’s said goodbye to Noemi for the last time. After all, the entire universe stands between them…or so he thinks. When word reaches him of Noemi’s capture by the very person he’s trying to escape, Abel knows he must go to her, no matter the cost.

But capturing Noemi was only part of Burton Mansfield’s master plan. In a race against time, Abel and Noemi will come together once more to discover a secret that could save the known worlds, or destroy them all.

Starfish [The Book Depository] [Waterstones] by Akemi Dawn Bowman tells the story of Kiko Himura. She has always had a hard time saying exactly what she’s thinking. She has a mother who makes her feel unremarkable, plus she doesn’t quite understand her half-Japanese heritage. Kiko prefers to keep her head down, confident that once she makes it into her dream art school, her real life will begin.

But then Kiko doesn’t get into Prism, at the same time her abusive uncle moves back in with her family. So when she receives an invitation from her childhood friend to leave her small town and tour art schools on the west coast, Kiko jumps at the opportunity in spite of the anxieties and fears that attempt to hold her back. And now that she is finally free to be her own person outside the constricting walls of her home life, Kiko learns life-changing truths about herself, her past, and how to be brave.

Lady Mary [The Book Depository] [Waterstones] by Lucy Worsley is the story of Henry the Eighth and Catherine of Aragon’s divorce from the eyes of their daughter, Princess Mary. More than anything Mary just wants her family to stay together. But when her father announces that his marriage to her mother was void and by turns that Mary doesn’t really count as his child, she realizes things will never be as she hoped.

Things only get worse when her father marries again. Separated from her mother and forced to work as a servant for her new sister, Mary must dig deep to find the strength to stand up against those who wish to bring her down. Despite what anyone says, she will always be a princess. She has the blood of a princess, and she is ready to fight for what is rightfully hers.

Renegades [The Book Depository] [Waterstones] by Marissa Meyer is a story with high-stakes world of adventure, passion, danger, and betrayal. The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies, humans with extraordinary abilities. They emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone… except the villains they once overthrew.

Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice — and in Nova. But Nova’s allegiance is to a villain who has the power to end them both.

The Edge of Everything [The Book Depository] [Waterstones] by Jeff Giles asks you explores the life of Zoe. She’s still reeling from her father’s sudden death in a caving accident and her neighbors’ mysterious disappearance from their own home. Then on a blizzardy night in Montana, she and her brother are brutally attacked in a cabin in the woods. Luckily, a mysterious bounty hunter they call X saves them.

X is no ordinary bounty hunter. He is from a hell called the Lowlands, sent to claim the soul of Zoe’s evil attacker and others like him. X is forbidden from revealing himself to anyone other than his prey, but he casts aside the Lowlands’ rules for Zoe. As they learn more about their colliding worlds.

Children of Eden [The Book Depository] [Waterstones] by Joey Graceffa and Laura L. Sullivan is chilling. Rowan is a second child in a world where population control measures make her an outlaw. She should be dead. Rowan has been hidden away in her family’s compound for sixteen years. Restless and desperate to see the world, she escapes for what she swears will be only one night of adventure. Though she finds an exotic world, and even a friend, the night leads to tragedy. Soon Rowan becomes a renegade on the run.

Outside of Eden, Earth is dead. Thanks to a man-made catastrophe, all animals, and most plants disappeared. The brilliant scientist Aaron Al-Baz saved a pocket of civilization by designing the EcoPanopticon, a massive computer program that hijacked all global technology and put it to use preserving the last vestiges of mankind. Humans are to wait in Eden until the EcoPan heals the world.

Every Shiny Thing [The Book Depository] [Waterstones] by Cordelia Jensen and Laurie Morrison talks about two sisters: Lauren and Sierra. Lauren prides herself on being a good sister. Sierra is used to taking care of her mom. When Lauren’s parents send her brother to a therapeutic boarding school for teens on the autism spectrum, and Sierra moves to a foster home in Lauren’s wealthy neighborhood, both girls are lost until they find a deep bond with each other. But when Lauren recruits Sierra to help with a Robin Hood scheme to raise money for autistic kids who don’t have her family’s resources, Sierra has a lot to lose if the plan goes wrong. Lauren must learn that having good intentions isn’t all that matters when you battle injustice, and Sierra needs to realize that sometimes, the person you need to take care of is yourself.

The Electrical Venus [The Book Depository] [Waterstones] by Julie Mayhew is set in a lowly side-show fair in eighteenth-century England. Mim is struggling to find her worth as an actress. Not white, but not black enough to be genuinely exotic, her pet parrot who speaks four languages is a more significant draw than her. But Alex, the one-armed boxer boy, sees her differently. And she, too, feels newly interested in him.

But then Dr. Fox arrives with his scientific kit for producing ‘electrickery’ – feats of electrical magic these bawdy audiences have never seen before. To complete his act, Fox chooses Mim to play the ‘Electrical Venus.’ Her popularity – and the electric-shocking kisses she can provide for a penny – mean takings are up, slop is off the menu and this spark between her and Fox must surely be love.

But is this starring role her real worth, or is love worth more than a penny for an electrifying kiss?

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Copyright: Images on this post (C) by their owners / Top image made by dePepi with official book covers, (C) by their owners.