How has your reading in April? If I had to choose one word to define my reading month, it would be cozy. Even when the stories turned dark or strange, there was something deeply immersive and comforting about disappearing into richly imagined worlds this month.
I read at every opportunity as I escaped into a big, juicy book that itched my brain in the best way, cozy fantasies and a novella with friends who you can call on to come questing with you.
What I Read in April
I leaned hard into speculative fiction as I mentioned I wanted to do in my previous recap. It’s a genre I always return to when I want books that completely take over my brain in the best possible way.
I finished 6 books, beginning with A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar, winner of the 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. This near-future dystopian novel packs an incredible amount into a relatively short book: family obligation, class and wealth disparity, scarcity, grief, and the complicated choices people make when survival and love collide. Quietly devastating in places.
I then spent many glorious days and nights listening to the audiobook of King Sorrow by Joe Hill – an absolute chunkster at 896 pages and 26 hours of listening time. After that I caught up with 2 series – the 11th novella in the Wayward Children series, Through Gates of Garnet and Gold by Seanan McGuire, and my first paranormal fantasy read in a long time, Mate (Bride #2) by Ali Hazelwood – which had some very steamy sex sessions (they were like marathons)!
I ended the month with 2 cozy fantasy novels, The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst and How to Lose a Goblin in 10 Days by Jessie Sylva. Definitely happy with the quality of books I read this month.
⭐ My April Ratings at a Glance
- A Guardian and a Thief, Megha Majumdar ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- King Sorrow, Joe Hill ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Through Gates of Garnet and Gold, Seanan McGuire ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Mate (Bride #2), Ali Hazelwood ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- The Spellshop, Sarah Beth Durst ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- How to Lose a Goblin in 10 Days, Jessie Sylva ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Favorite Book of April
I rated 2 books 5 stars (the rest were 4) – King Sorrow and The Spellshop. Of the two, my favorite is King Sorrow.
The author took his time with this book, giving us a story that starts with a group of teenagers, but continues with them through adulthood into middle age. Yes – there be dragons, … or a dragon, King Sorrow to be exact, but this story is ultimately about friendship, choices, guilt, ambition, love, and the lingering consequences of the things we summon into our lives.
Arthur Oakes is a reader, a dreamer, and a student at Rackham College, Maine. But his idyll – and burgeoning romance with Gwen Underfoot – is shattered when a local drug dealer and her partner corner him into one of the worst crimes he can imagine: stealing rare books from the college library. Trapped and desperate, Arthur turns to his closest friends for comfort and help. Together they dream up a wild, fantastical scheme to free Arthur from the cruel trap in which he finds himself … to summon a dragon to do their bidding. But there’s nothing simple about dealing with dragons, and their pact to save Arthur becomes a terrifying bargain in which the six must choose a new sacrifice for King Sorrow every year or become his next meal.
Reading Challenges Update
The April prompts for the 2 reading challenges we host and the books I read for them are:
✅ 2026 Key Word Reading Challenge (April key words: Mirror, Mist, Party, Stray, Light, People, Everlasting, Spell) ⮕
✅ 2026 Motif Reading Challenge (theme: Alliteration Appreciation) ⮕
✅ Reading 5 4 3 2 … 1 in 2026 (personal reading challenges which I’m tracking on our FREE 2026 Reading Challenge Tracker Spreadsheet). I read 1 book from LitHub’s The Ultimate Best Books of 2025 List ⮕
April on Chapter Adventure
While April was a quiet month for my writing here on Chapter Adventure, the 2026 Major Literary and Genre Fiction Book Awards Calendar is updated with links to the 2026 Edgar Award and Pulitzer Prize announcements.
Both winners went straight onto my TBR:
- The Big Empty by Robert Crais – Edgar Award for Best Novel
- Angel Down by Daniel Kraus – Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Also worth noting: the Hugo Award finalists have been announced and voting is now open. If you’re a fan of speculative fiction, now is a great time to get familiar with the shortlist.
It’s already May as thos goes live, and my reading mood is still very much leaning towards magical, whimsical and immersive stories, but I’m going to let the books take me where they will this month.
I’d love to know: What was your favorite book read in April and what’s your reading mood heading into May. 🌿 Drop it in the comments!
