New Book Releases | April 28, 2026
Including print, ebook, and audiobook editions
April closes out with a week that has something for everyone. A dark romance/fantasy debut. A mecha fantasy where a woman disguises herself as her twin brother to pilot a giant robot on reality TV. A post-apocalyptic thriller about billionaires in bunkers vs. raiders above ground. And TJ Klune writing about the end of the world, which is exactly as devastating as you'd expect.
My featured pick this week is Blood Bound by Ellis Hunter. This was my BOTM pick for April and I can't wait to read it!
Here are the new book releases for April 28, 2026, plus all the new books coming out this week across every genre.
Missed last week? Catch up on the new book releases for April 21, 2026.
Empyrean fans: If you missed it last week, a mystery Empyrean book just appeared on Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Hachette UK titled "Untitled Empyrean (Not Book Four)" with a September 29, 2026 release date. No title, no cover, no description. Yarros hasn't said a word. We updated our Fourth Wing Book 4 tracker with everything we know so far.
⭐️ Featured Release
Blood Bound by Ellis Hunter Book Cover
Blood Bound by Ellis Hunter
📖 Buy on Amazon | Buy on Bookshop.org | 🎧 Listen on Audible
A debut high-stakes fantasy romance set against a once-in-a-generation duel to the death between rival witches and dragon riders. Astrid is the last Nachstern witch, cursed by a centuries-old covenant to duel Prince Zryan, the most powerful dragon rider in eons, for the source of all magic: the Heart. She's going to die, and any chance her queendom has of curing the Blight will die with her. Meanwhile, Skylar and her travelling troupe arrive in the capital to profit off the spectators — until her best friend disappears, suspected taken in the conscription, pulling her closer to the royals than she ever imagined. As the duel looms, Skylar and Astrid's fates intertwine in a story about rebellion, inner demons, and whether together they'll save or doom their world.
Series: Book 1 of a planned trilogy
Tropes: dual POV, witches vs. dragon riders, forbidden connection, political intrigue, duel/tournament, unreliable history
Read if you love: Fourth Wing, Throne of Glass, QuicksilverFantasy & Romantasy
Why this is the feature pick of the week: A debut high-stakes fantasy romance trilogy set against a once-in-a-generation duel to the death between rival witches and dragon riders as they battle to control the source of all magic in their kingdoms.
Looking for your next read? Join Book of the Month and get your first book for just $1. It's one of the easiest ways to discover new releases across every genre. I've found some of my favorite recent reads through BOTM picks.
Kings of Sin Book 6 by Ana Huang Book Cover
Kings of Sin Book 6 by Ana Huang
Kings of Sin #6
📖 Buy on Amazon | Buy on Bookshop.org | 🎧 Listen on Audible
Handsome, talented, and beloved by almost everyone, Sebastian Laurent is the heir to a culinary empire whose golden-boy facade hides demons no one sees. There's only one person who's ever come close to knowing the real him. Maya Singh, his childhood rival and secret obsession. She's the only one who's ever successfully challenged him. He can't stand her. So why can't he stop thinking about her?
Maya is a top marketing executive who's used to winning. Unless her opponent is Sebastian. When a series of unfortunate events forces her to work with her sworn enemy, she's determined to one-up him once and for all. What she didn't count on? Not hating their time together. To her horror, she might even like it.
Childhood rivals to lovers, forced proximity, a culinary empire backdrop, and Ana Huang's signature heat. This is book six of the Kings of Sin series but can be read as a standalone. Sebastian has made appearances in other Ana Huang books and we are so excited to finally get his story.
Read if you love: Twisted Love, The Kiss Quotient, enemies-to-lovers with real history.
An Arcane Study of Stars by Sydney J. Shields Book Cover
An Arcane Study of Stars by Sydney J. Shields
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From the breakout author of The Honey Witch comes a historical dark academia fantasy that's been getting serious early buzz. Claudia Jolicoeur makes a bargain with a devilish stranger named Dorian: he'll get her into the prestigious Cygnus University if she learns to free him from a prison of stars. He takes a bite of her soul to seal the deal. Once inside, Claudia discovers that celestial witches at Cygnus have been murdered for over a century and she could be next. By night she unravels Dorian's prison. By day she wages rhetorical war with Cassius MacLeod, her academic rival, until their rivalry turns into something darker and more dangerous.
Read if you love: The Atlas Six, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Ninth House
The Sea Spinner by Julie Johnson Book Cover
The Sea Spinner by Julie Johnson
The Windweaver Duology #2
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The highly anticipated sequel to the #1 Sunday Times bestseller The Wind Weaver. Rhya Fleetwood is tired of being a pawn in other people's wargames. The fledgling wind weaver needs to master her magic before anything else is taken from her. She's already lost her friends, her newfound home, and she might lose Penn too.
There's no denying the scorching heat between them, but in the aftermath of battle Penn, the Remnant of Fire, burns for revenge and for rebuilding his kingdom more than anything else. And he's not the only one calling to Rhya across the wind. From the distant island city of Hylios, King Soren, Remnant of Water, offers insight into the magic that binds them together. He's as different from Penn as sparks are from mist.
Torn between fire and sea, between the king who could break her heart and the king who understands her potential, Rhya will have to step into her power or risk losing it altogether.
Series: The Windweaver Duology #2
Tropes: love triangle (fire vs. water), elemental magic, forced proximity, war and rebellion
Read if you love: Powerless by Lauren Roberts, The Air Awakens series, elemental magic systems with romantic tension
Project V by Park Seolyeon Book Cover
Project V by Park Seolyeon
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STEMinist mecha fantasy meets reality television, from the author of A Magical Girl Retires. Robotics student Kim Wooram is a world-class pilot and engineer who prefers the company of robots to most humans. When she learns about a secret government robotic project known as V, she's desperate for a chance to make history. Problem: only male pilots are allowed to apply.
Posing as her twin brother Boram, Wooram auditions for Project V, the reality competition show whose winner will pilot the robot V. She quickly becomes one of the top contestants in both skill and popularity, attracting fans and friends. And a rival in Jinyoung, the ruthless heir to a Korean corporate dynasty. As she comes tantalizingly close to achieving her goal, she realizes that V's arrogant AI is a ticking time bomb. With victory within reach and her identity at stake, will Wooram destroy the robot of her dreams to save lives, or stick to the script?
Read if you love: A Magical Girl Retires, Ready Player One, and Korean speculative fiction with cultural commentary.
Thrillers & Suspense
Sanctuary by James Claverly Book Cover
Sanctuary by James Claverly
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"The meek shall inherit the Earth, unless the rich get there first."
Climate disasters have crippled the United States. Half the country is underwater, the other half a dust bowl. Billionaire John Brandt anticipated this and channeled his money, power, and influence into being prepared for the great unraveling. Now Brandt, his family, and his security team must retreat to Sanctuary, their underground bunker, a vast luxury mansion beneath the parched earth of the Nebraskan Great Plains.
But they are not alone. Above ground, a group of raiders are desperate to survive and will use any means possible. As tensions mount both inside and out, battle lines are drawn between the haves and the have-nots, between decency and expediency, between life and death. In this game, everyone's a loser.
An electrifying debut thriller that's going to generate a LOT of conversation about who deserves to survive and what wealth actually buys you when the world ends.
Tropes: bunker thriller, class warfare, post-apocalyptic, siege mentality, moral reckoning
Read if you love: Station Eleven, Leave the World Behind, The Road, post-apocalyptic fiction with ethical teeth
Break Room by Miye Lee Book Cover
Break Room by Miye Lee
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Eight unsuspecting people receive an invitation to participate in a new reality show called Break Room. But what starts as an opportunity for fame is quickly revealed to be something far more unsettling when they learn how they were chosen. Each voted in by their coworkers as "the office villain."
Among them is an imposter, a mole planted by the show's producers. The only way to win the prize money is to uncover the saboteur before time runs out. As alliances shift and paranoia festers, the contestants begin to realize that the true challenge isn't surviving the show. It's facing themselves.
Psychological game-show drama from one of the biggest stars in Korean fiction. If you loved The Dallergut Dream Department Store, this is Miye Lee going darker.
Tropes: reality show gone wrong, workplace dynamics, unreliable contestants, psychological game, who's the mole
Read if you love: The Traitors, Liar Game, The Dallergut Dream Department Store, and Korean fiction.
Romance & Literary Fiction
The Island Club by Brenda Janowitz Book Cover
The Island Club by Brenda Janowitz
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Set in 1956 on idyllic Balboa Island off the California coast, The Island Club follows three women whose seemingly perfect lives are quietly unraveling. Milly moved her family from Hollywood hoping to save her marriage. Instead, her husband barely comes home. Society matriarch Sylvia is about to lose the tennis club she built when she discovers her husband has been risking their finances. And loner Adele is hiding a shameful past that could destroy the anonymous life she's spent decades protecting. What connects them is the club, the game of tennis, and the kind of unlikely friendship that only forms when women stop performing and start telling the truth.
Tropes: 1950s historical fiction, women's friendship, secrets and reinvention, small-town facade
Read if you love: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Beach Read meets Mad Men, book club fiction with substance.
Ms. Mebel Goes Back to the Chopping Block by Jesse Q. Sutanto Book Cover
Ms. Mebel Goes Back to the Chopping Block by Jesse Q. Sutanto
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From the USA Today bestselling author of Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers and Dial A for Aunties. Sixty-three-year-old Mebel's retirement plan didn't include her husband of forty years leaving her for their private chef. Not to worry, Mebel has a plan. She's going to win him back by going to cooking school. In France, the most romantic country in the world.
Except she's accidentally enrolled in a culinary school not in glamorous Paris but in a small village outside of Oxford. Despite the less-than-warm welcome from her much younger classmates, Mebel befriends Gemma, the breakout star of the program. And this unlikely friendship starts to show Mebel that maybe there's more to her than being the perfect trophy wife.
Tropes: second act reinvention, unlikely friendship, fish out of water, culinary setting, found family
Read if you love: Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, Dial A for Aunties, Lessons in Chemistry
Boring Asian Female by Canwen Xu Book Cover
Boring Asian Female by Canwen Xu
📖 Buy on Amazon | Buy on Bookshop.org | 🎧 Listen on Audible
Elizabeth Zhang is in the ninety-ninth percentile for academics and the tenth percentile for likability. She knows she has the intelligence and ambition to achieve her greatest dream: Harvard Law School. But when Harvard rejects her for not standing out enough, which she knows means she's just another boring Asian female, her carefully constructed life falls apart.
What shocks her even more is that Laura Kim, a classmate at Columbia, got in. Elizabeth can't figure out how. At first she follows Laura because she's just curious. What Laura orders for lunch. Where Laura shops. What Laura's hobbies are. But Elizabeth just can't see what makes Laura so special. The only thing she sees is that Laura has taken her spot. A spot that she deserves after working so hard. A spot she'll simply have to take back.
Read if you love: Yellowface, Such a Fun Age, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, sharp literary fiction about ambition and identity
We Burned So Bright by TJ Klune Book Cover
We Burned So Bright by TJ Klune
📖 Buy on Amazon | Buy on Bookshop.org | 🎧 Listen on Audible
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The House in the Cerulean Sea. Husbands Don and Rodney have lived a good long life together. Forty years of the highest highs and lows so low they felt like the end of the world. Now the world is ending for real. A rogue black hole is coming for Earth and in a month everything and everyone they've ever known will be gone.
Suddenly, after four decades together, Don and Rodney are out of time. They're in a race against the clock to make it from Maine to Washington State to take care of some unfinished business before it's all over. On the road they meet those who refuse to believe death is coming and those who rush to meet it. But there are also people living their final days as best they know how. Impromptu weddings, bright burning bonfires, shared meals, and new friends.
As the black hole draws near, under a cracked moon in a kaleidoscope sky, Don and Rodney will look back on their lives and ask if their best was good enough. Is it enough to burn bright if nothing comes from the ashes?
Read if you love: The House in the Cerulean Sea, The Midnight Library, Station Eleven, stories about what matters when nothing else does
📚 Looking for your next read? Join Book of the Month and get your first book for just $1. It's one of the easiest ways to discover new releases across every genre. I've found some of my favorite recent reads through BOTM picks.
A Murder Most Camp by Alexander Massie Book Cover
A Murder Most Camp by Alexander Massie
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If The Guncle met a murder mystery at summer camp, this is the book. Mikey Hartford IV is a spoiled nepo baby whose father changes the terms of his trust: make a positive contribution to the world before thirty or lose everything. His sentence? Working as the oldest, least-qualified staffer at Camp Lore, a struggling summer camp in upstate New York alongside his twelve-year-old aunt. When his campers become obsessed with a local legend at an abandoned cabin, Mikey discovers there's a real murder buried beneath Camp Lore. And someone will stop at nothing to keep it that way.
Tropes: fish out of water, cold case mystery, found family, summer camp setting, reluctant hero
Read if you love: The Guncle, Every Time I Go On Vacation Someone Dies, cozy mysteries with heart.
Nonfiction
Dogs, Boys & Other Things I Have Cried About by Isabel Klee Book Cover
Dogs, Boys & Other Things I Have Cried About by Isabel Klee
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If you know @SimonSits on social media, you already love Isabel Klee. This memoir follows a twenty something dog rescuer navigating New York City. The fickle boyfriends, the grand romances, the grungy basement apartments, all while rehabilitating rescue dogs and building a community of dog-lovers along the way. Simon, a fluffy puppy saved from the meat trade, is the there through all of it. It's honest, tender, and sometimes devastating.
Read if you love: dog memoirs, NYC coming-of-age stories, social media creators with actual depth
The Story of Birds by Steve Brusatte Book Cover
The Story of Birds by Steve Brusatte
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From the bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, a sweeping evolutionary history of birds from their dinosaur origins to the 10,000+ extraordinary species alive today. Brusatte explores how dinosaurs gradually developed feathers, wings, beaks, big brains, and warm-blooded metabolisms; why birds were the only dinosaurs to survive the asteroid 66 million years ago; and how survivors rapidly proliferated into the extraordinary diversity we see today.
Along the way, we meet ten-foot-tall terror birds, elephant birds from Madagascar, penguins that fly underwater, parrots that mimic human speech, and crows smarter than most mammals. Named a New Scientist most anticipated book of 2026. My oldest and I loved listening to The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs and have been waiting for this one!
Read if you love: The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, popular science, natural history
Mrs. Benedict Arnold by Allison Pataki Book Cover
Mrs. Benedict Arnold by Allison Pataki
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A reimagining of Peggy Shippen, the young woman behind the most famous act of treason in American history. Set in 1770s Philadelphia, Peggy moves between Loyalist balls and Patriot salons, navigating the lethal political currents of the Revolution. When she marries General Benedict Arnold, she conceives an audacious scheme to achieve peace and her family's survival, unleashing what would become the most notorious betrayal in American history. How far will one woman go for safety?
Read if you love: historical fiction with real women at the center, the American Revolution from the other side, Bridgerton-era political drama
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best new book releases for April 28, 2026?
The biggest releases for April 28, 2026 include Blood Bound by Ellis Hunter (a dark romance/fantasy debut with a 150K print run from Atria), We Burned So Bright by TJ Klune, The Sea Spinner by Julie Johnson, Break Room by Miye Lee, Project V by Park Seolyeon, Sanctuary by James Claverly, Ms. Mebel Goes Back to the Chopping Block by Jesse Q. Sutanto, Boring Asian Female by Canwen Xu, and The Story of Birds by Steve Brusatte.
What new romantasy books come out April 28, 2026?
The biggest romantasy release for April 28 is The Sea Spinner by Julie Johnson, the sequel to the #1 Sunday Times bestseller The Wind Weaver. Blood Bound by Ellis Hunter is also positioned as dark romance/fantasy with a massive 150K print run from Atria.
Is Blood Bound by Ellis Hunter worth reading?
Yes, Blood Bound by Ellis Hunter is worth reading. Blood Bound features two compelling leads — Skylar and Astrid — who are both easy to root for. A debut high-stakes fantasy romance trilogy set against a once-in-a-generation duel to the death between rival witches and dragon riders as they battle to control the source of all magic in their kingdoms.
