From a pitch-black satire set in the Australian beauty industry to a feminist Sleeping Beauty reimagining, April’s new book releases are packed with unmissable reads. Discover Emily Henry’s much-anticipated new romcom and whip up wallet-friendly dinners with Chelsea Goodwin’s latest cookbook. Whatever your favourite genre may be, we’ve got you covered with our must read list for April 2025… with a sneaky May release or two.
Sweet Fury Sach Bischoff
Release date: 8th April
Famous film star Lila Crayne is America’s Sweetheart: she’s generous and kind, gorgeous and magnetic. A golden girl. She and her fiancé, visionary filmmaker Kurt Royall, have settled into a stunning New York apartment, and are embarking on a new movie: a modern feminist adaptation of a classic twentieth-century novel.
To prepare for the leading role, Lila begins work with charming and accomplished therapist Jonah Gabriel to dig into the trauma of her past. Soon, Lila’s impeccably manicured life begins to unravel on the therapy couch – and Jonah is just the man to pick up the pieces. But everyone has a secret, no one is quite who they seem, and before long, careers, reputations and lives are in danger of being irrevocably destroyed . . .
Audition by Katie Kitamura
Release date: 15th April
Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He’s attractive, troubling, young – young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In this compulsively readable, brilliantly constructed novel, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day – partner, parent, creator, muse – and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us most intimately.
Money-Saving Meal Plans with Chelsea by Chelsea Goodwin
Release date: 15th April
Following the success of her bestselling first cookbook, $10 Meals with Chelsea, beloved recipe creator Chelsea Goodwin is back with more budget-friendly inspiration to help you get a delicious dinner on the table every night with ease. Meal-planning is the secret to saving money on your grocery spend – and every meal plan in this book works out at $3 per serve or less!
Every chapter comes with a photographic menu for the week, shopping list, cost-saving tips and all the family-friendly recipes needed to feed four people each night – including many that are cook once, eat twice. Every recipe is easy to follow, complete with prep instructions and options for ingredient swaps, and has a mouth-watering full-page photograph that will have everyone looking forward to dinnertime!
Spellbound Georgia Leighton
Release date: 23rd April
In a remote castle perched atop a windswept island, a long-awaited royal heir is born. In accordance with ancient custom, a blessing ceremony takes place to bestow the princess with magical gifts – along with a terrible curse.
Except this is not the love story you may think you know. There is no enchanted sleep for the princess, and no handsome prince to save the day. Just three women, who together concoct a desperate plan of misdirect that changes the course of all their lives. But dark magic cannot be tricked, and as the end of the curse edges closer, each of the women has a choice to make. They can wait to find out if the worst will happen, or they can turn to face the coming storm . . .
An atmospheric, feminist retelling of a classic fairy tale that asks, What if Beauty never went to sleep?
Great Big Beautiful Life Emily Henry
Release date: 23rd April
When Margaret Ives, the famously reclusive heiress, invites eternal optimist Alice Scott to the balmy Little Crescent Island, Alice knows this is it: her big break. And even more rare: a chance to impress her family with a Serious Publication.
The catch? Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud, Hayden Anderson, is sure of the same thing.
The proposal? A one-month trial period to unearth the truth behind one of the most scandalous families of the 20th Century, after which she’ll choose who’ll tell her story.
The problem? Margaret is only giving each of them tantalising pieces. Pieces they can’t put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room.
And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story – just like the tale Margaret’s spinning – could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad … depending on who’s telling it.
Rytual by Chloe Elisabeth Wilson
Release date: 6th May
Marnie Sellick is adrift when she lands a job at the coveted, mysterious beauty brand rytuał cosmetica. The enigmatic founder and CEO, Luna Peters, takes a liking to Marnie, and as the two grow closer Marnie becomes intoxicated by the life that Luna, and rytuał, can offer her.
But all is not what it seems at rytuał. Luna has a cult-like hold over the all-female staff, and that’s not to mention what happens at their weekly Friday Night Drinks. As Marnie edges closer to the darkness at the centre of rytuał’s millennial-pink facade, cracks begin to show. Luna is hiding something, but will Marnie uncover the truth – and the role Luna has cast her in – before it’s too late?
Both a darkly funny deconstruction of the beauty industry and a gripping examination of identity, beauty and desire, Rytual asks the question: what if your favourite cult beauty brand … was actually a cult?
Favourite Daughter Morgan Dick
Release date: 6th May
‘He left you some money.’
Mickey felt her mouth drop open. The first half of that sentence had rung clear and true. The second half had not. Her father was one to take, not give.
After he left them for his new family, Mickey resolved never to think of her father again. She’s fine without him; yes, she drinks, but only sometimes and, really, she can’t not.
But with only $181 to her name, she’s not above attending some mandated therapy to access her inheritance. She’ll kneel at the Kleenex alter and soon be bingeing Bridgerton with a bottle of Russian Standard, five million dollars richer.
Arlo has more issues than most of her clients. Being a therapist has not prepared her for grief. She adored her father – his laughter, his charm, the smell of his cologne. She thought he adored her, too, but now he’s given his inheritance to a daughter no one knows, and Arlo is at a loss.
Two sisters are unknowingly thrown together for the first time. It’s crazy. It’s unethical. It’s perfect.
Read more of our book recommendations here.
