April is an exciting month for the literary world. We have amazing books from debut authors, esteemed authors releasing a new kind of book, and books that maybe make you want to make out with fictional characters.

In any case, what is abundantly clear right about now is that we always need books. We need books that make us think, books that take us out of our loud brains, and books that make us laugh. It bares repeating: we really need books.

Amid the world's current situation, whether you’re working on the front lines and both need and deserve some self-care in the form of words, or you’re looking for a way to break up hours spent alone in your home, these books won’t disappoint. Here are five brilliant books for April and, hopefully, brighter days ahead.

Riverhead Books How Much of These Hills Is Gold: A Novel amazon.com $26.00 $19.14 (26% off) SHOP NOW

Set during the backdrop of the American West during the Gold Rush, this is a novel about family, grief, race, racism, and home. Lucy and Sam are pre-teen siblings, andith their mother already gone, they set out on a journey to bury their father after his untimely death. Constantly told they don’t look like anyone else, Lucy and Sam — the former thoughtful and soft, the latter, always looking for conflict — have to fight to be alive and for what they want, which is not always the same. This rich, electric novel dissects our claims and connections to home while also examining the ways we grieve the people we have lost but who have also hurt us.

John Joseph Adams/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Chosen Ones John Joseph Adams/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt amazon.com $26.99 $16.99 (37% off) SHOP NOW

With her YA book Divergent, Veronica Roth delivered one of the ten highest selling novels of the past decade. Now, the author is set to release her first novel geared toward adults, Chosen Ones, which centers on a group of special young people who, as teenagers, saved the world from a horrific and otherworldly villain called the Dark One. Readers are taken into the mind of Sloane, one of the five chosen ones who, in the new world, does not want to live in the glory of having saved the human race. She grapples with depression, PTSD, and the societal expectations of being one of the world's few saviors. This existentialism is thrown further into chaos when, after one of their own is killed, the chosen ones are asked to determine if they ever really defeated the Dark One in the first place. Both a sci-fi adventure and a look into the psyche of what makes a hero, Chosen Ones finds Roth in familiar, yet more mature — and more engaging — territory.

Avon Girl Gone Viral: A Novel amazon.com $15.99 $12.99 (19% off) SHOP NOW

The second book in Rai’s Modern Love series, this is a romance novel you need in your life. Katrina King is a former model who is just trying to enjoy a book at her local cafe when a stunning stranger asks if he can share her table. A nosy woman sitting next to them decides to take their picture, live tweet their short conversation, and ask the Internet to find and identify who #CuteCafeGirl is. After growing up with a horrific father, losing her mother at a young age, and experiencing additional trauma, this is not attention Katrina welcomes — nor is she even really interested in #CafeBae. Katrina has long been pining for her bodyguard, Jas, who offers to take her to his family farm for some much needed space and peace from the situation. A secluded retreat? One-on-one time between two people with mutual feelings? Farm animals? Indeed, things really start to get good. But the true takeaway from this novel is Rai's artful depiction of how, with the right communication and care, two people can work through mental health issues to find meaningful love.

Berkley The Big Finish amazon.com $26.00 $17.96 (31% off) SHOP NOW

In Brooke Fossey's funny, moving debut novel, we meet Duffy Sinclair, who is trying to maintain a low profile with his beloved roommate, Carl, at their assisted living home — lest they get kicked out and forced into the derelict nursing home down the road. Duffy is your typical curmudgeonly old man, but he loves Carl dearly and they have a solid bond. One night a woman named Josie crawls through Duffy and Carl's window — literally — claiming to be Carl’s granddaughter. She wreaks of booze, has a black eye thanks to her boyfriend, and needs all the help she can get to escape her toxic life. Carl is overjoyed, but Duffy is highly skeptical of hiding the young woman, who could get both of the elderly men evicted from the home. Eventually though, Duffy is willing to bend for his best friend and is even quite surprised when, first, Josie starts to chip away at the walls around his heart and then leads him on a series of adventures that prove it's never too late for a new lease on life.

Minotaur Books Little Secrets: A Novel amazon.com $13.99 SHOP NOW

Need a good thriller in your life? Look no further than Little Secrets. Told from two different, but connected perspectives, this true crime inspired novel comes at the disappearance of a young boy from two sides. First, there's Marin, who had a son and a good marriage. A year later, she has neither. After the media frenzy and attention has died surrounding her young son’s disappearance, Marin hired a private investigator and finds out her husband is having an affair. When she lost her son, Marin rightfully felt powerless — but when she feels her husband is being stolen from her, something almost sinister awakens in her. Second, there's Kenzie — a tall beautiful barista who has no qualms about shaking down the married men she often finds herself involved with. And one of those men is Marin's husband. As the truth starts to unfold, these two women and their seemingly separate worlds start to dangerously come together, revealing not only secrets nut also the danger as they build and evolve.

Katie Tamola is a freelance writer who grew up in Manhattan. Find her on Twitter @ktammm.

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