The 33 best new books to read this spring, according to Goodreads

Debut author Meryl Wilsner delivers a queer romance that's sure to get you talking. When the media misinterprets a picture of famous screenwriter Jo and her assistant Emma, the two women must explore their undeniable chemistry and work out the power imbalance between them, all while trying not to fan the flames of Hollywood gossip.

Release date: May 26

January Andrews is a disillusioned romance writer. Augustus Everett is That Guy in your MFA program. They have nothing in common, except for a bad case of writer's block, book deadlines, and—for three months—a shared property line between borrowed beach houses. Shenanigans ensue.

Release date: May 18

"Friend Zone" phenom Abby Jimenez is back with this love story that will tug on your heartstrings. A stray pup kicks off a long-distance flirtation between two strangers, but will her past losses and his future as a touring musician keep Sloan and Jason from finding lasting harmony? Warning: contains one extremely cute dog.

Release date: April 14

"Set It Up" meets HGTV in this newest offering by romance powerhouse duo Christina Lauren. Carey and James work for the Tripps, a husband-and-wife team about to catapult into home remodeling/design/lifestyle superstardom, if they can just manage to stay married to each other. To save their own jobs, Carey and James must keep their warring bosses together, all while sparks of their own start flying.

Release date: March 24

Jamie needs a steady girlfriend to impress the partners at his firm. Laurie needs to redirect office gossip away from her humiliating breakup and her ex's pregnant new girlfriend. So these two lawyers draw up a deal—they'll pretend to date when they're with their bosses and coworkers. What could possibly go wrong?

Release date: March 24

Yadriel has two problems. One, his family is having trouble accepting that he's a boy. Two, he accidentally summoned a ghost. Well, he meant to summon a ghost, to prove that he's a real brujo, but he ended up with the wrong one. Now he's stuck with Julian Diaz, his school's resident bad boy, who's determined not to pass into death until he solves his own murder. A celebration of brash boys, queer love, and Latinx culture.

Release date: September 1

Billed as "Moulin Rouge" meets "The Phantom of the Opera," this much-anticipated debut introduces an opulent world of competitive magicians engaged in a deadly game. As the stakes keep climbing and each act grows more dangerous than the last, showgirl Kallia is determined to prove herself no matter the cost. Sure to delight fans of "The Night Circus."

Release date: August 25

"Hunger Games" author Suzanne Collins sure knows how to create a spectacle. For a long time, the only thing fans knew about this prequel was that it took place on the morning of the reaping of the Tenth Hunger Games. That didn't slow down the book's momentum one bit. And now we're told that the main character is none other than Coriolanus Snow himself. Well played, Ms. Collins. Well played indeed.

Release date: May 19

Writer, poet, and National Book Award winner Elizabeth Acevedo ("The Poet X") returns with a unique novel-in-verse about love, loss, and finding family. Camino Rios and Yahaira Rios have spent their lives separated by distance, circumstance, and their father's secrets—one in New York City, one in the Dominican Republic. But when Papi dies in a plane crash, they must navigate their new shared world together.

Release date: May 5

From the author of "Labyrinth Lost" comes a sweeping story set in a world inspired by Inquisition Spain. A memory thief must return to the court that used her magic against her own people. Spies, revenge, magic, mistrust, betrayal, political intrigue, and love—this book has it all and more. Perfect for readers craving magical alternative histories, suspenseful plots, and girls who can save themselves.

Release date: April 28

From a lost moment of American history comes Jill Watts' account of FDR's unofficial "Black Cabinet," a group of African American thinkers and activists who helped shape the policies of the New Deal. A compelling and moving account of their struggle to secure civil rights for black Americans, "The Black Cabinet" brings to life hidden figures whose contributions were systematically erased from the record.

Release date: May 12

Robert Kolker takes us into the midcentury home of the Galvin family, idyllic from the outside and a nightmare within. In the mid-1970s, six of the Galvins' 12 children were diagnosed with schizophrenia in quick succession. What followed is a heartbreaking story of institutionalization, scientific discovery, and a reckoning with the promises of the American dream.

Release date: April 7

Comedian, author, and alpha blogger Samantha Irby checks back in with her latest collection of essays and hilarious observations on this weird American life. This time, Irby's dispatches come from white, small-town Michigan, where she's settled into a middle-class existence as a homeowner, book club hostess, and "cheese fry–eating slightly damp Midwest person." This is going to be good.

Release date: March 31

In this harrowing memoir, Sarah Ramey brings readers along into countless hospital rooms as doctors try and fail to diagnose the chronic illness that all but destroyed her health over the span of a decade. Told with dark humor and unflinching candor, Ramey's story is vital reading for the multitudes of women who've been told their pain is all in their heads. It's also prescription-worthy for just about everyone else.

Release date: March 17

Author Max Brooks essentially invented a whole new template for the apocalypse story with "World War Z." Now he brings his signature madcap blending of disparate forms to the Bigfoot legend, as discovered through a set of found journals and an extensive original investigation. Part horror story, part survival tale, part science writing, "Devolution" promises maximum fun immediately.

Release date: June 16

The year is 2049. Humanity's survival depends on genetically engineered children, incubated and raised by robots who were each programmed with a unique "mother code." But as these children grow up, their mothers begin to change, potentially endangering the entire population. With film rights already sold to Steven Spielberg, Stiver's debut asks: What makes a mother? How deep do the bonds between parents and children go?

Release date: August 25

On the harsh ice plains of Abeth the air itself sometimes freezes and survival is the only law. Yaz has always known she's destined for the Pit of the Missing, where the tribe discards those they deem too Broken to endure, but the secrets she finds there might just change everything. Sharing a world with the "Book of the Ancestor" series, "The Girl and the Stars" inaugurates an exciting new trilogy from Mark Lawrence.

Release date: April 21

So you're a teenage Chosen One and you fulfill the prophecy, defeat the Dark One, and...go home? In her first adult novel, the author of the "Divergent" series blends sci-fi and fantasy to explore everything that comes after the tidy endings of chosen-hero narratives: PTSD, identity crises, unwanted fame. And, oh yeah, getting asked to save the world. Again.

Release date: April 7

It's said that every city has a soul. As with so many things, New York City is an exception: It has five. Now Gotham's protectors must come together to stop an ancient evil. Equal parts love letter to NYC, rollicking urban fantasy, and updated Lovecraftian horror, this new submission from three-time Hugo award winner N.K. Jemisin, author of the "Broken Earth" series, is destination reading.

Release date: March 24

Described as the Jordan Peele of horror literature, Stephen Graham Jones delivers a book that blends social commentary with nightmarish scenes as four American Indian men are stalked by a vengeful entity from their past. This book will have horror fans and literary fiction readers alike peeking through their fingers and afraid to turn out the light.

Release date: July 14

In this inventive novel from the author of "My Best Friend's Exorcism," a group of suburban housewives united by their shared love of thrilling fiction must save their community from dark forces. Grady Hendrix says he wrote this book to "pit Dracula against my mom." We're betting on the moms.

Release date: April 7

In this creepy debut, Molly, Mae, and Elise gather to celebrate the return of their friend Julie, who's mysteriously reappeared on the second anniversary of the day she went missing. But maybe choosing a remote inn for their girls' weekend wasn't the best idea. Because whatever came back, it sure wasn't Julie.

Release date: March 24

From the author of "My Year of Rest and Relaxation" comes this twisty and twisted novel about a woman who becomes obsessed with a note she finds in the woods. It reads: "Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn't me. Here is her dead body." Except there is no body. Is there an innocent explanation? Or are we in the mind of a narrator more unreliable than we can possibly imagine?

Release date: June 23

Marin's life was shattered when someone kidnapped her son from right under her nose. When she hires a PI to find him, she discovers instead that her husband is having an affair—with a woman who may have a sinister interest in their family. But uncovering these secrets gives Marin something to live for: revenge.

Release date: April 21

When Wilde is recruited to help solve the case of a missing teenage girl, he must leave his self-imposed isolation in the woods and reenter a community he's always shunned: a community full of secrets that the powerful will do anything to hide. This thrilling ride will keep you turning the pages until the very end.

Release date: March 17

Rose Gold Watts was a terribly sick child. Confined to a wheelchair and susceptible to every illness, she spent much of her childhood in hospitals and surgical centers. It turns out she didn't have to. Five years later, Rose's mom, Patty Watts, has just been released from prison for her unconscionable deceptions. Everyone is surprised when Rose takes her mom in. Not Rose, though. She's waited a long time for this.

Release date: March 17

From the pseudonymous Italian author of the "Neapolitan Novels" comes a new story set in the city of Naples—or, more accurately, the two cities of Naples. Follow adolescent Giovanna as she looks for answers and identity in the refined and moneyed heights of the city as well as in its rough and vulgar depths.

Release date: September 1

In the sleepy village of Chawton, just after World War II, an odd collection of people (doctor, widow, laborer, movie star) gather to mark the sesquicentennial of Jane Austen's death. This disparate group strives to preserve Austen's home and legacy, united only by their mutual love for her novels. Now that's a project we can get behind. Recommended for fans of "The Chilbury Ladies' Choir."

Release date: May 26

A story about the things that follow us into adulthood, like it or not, "All Adults Here" tracks the lives of three grown children and the mother who raised them. Overachievers and underachievers both have their burdens to bear. Now a third generation of children has arrived to perpetuate—or break—old family cycles. From the author of "The Vacationers."

Release date: May 4

Maggie, Eliza, and Tricia Sweeney gather to mourn and celebrate the life of their beloved father, famous author and respected professor Bill Sweeney. But when a fourth woman shows up at Bill's wake and reveals that she, too, is a Sweeney sister, the three women must question everything they thought they knew about their father's legacy and the bonds of family.

Release date: April 28

College professor Antonia Vega is looking forward to a quiet retirement, but it seems the universe has something different in mind. Her husband has died, her sister has gone missing, and a pregnant and undocumented teenager has appeared on her doorstep. The first adult novel in nearly 15 years from the acclaimed author of "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents," "Afterlife" examines the obligations we owe to our human family.

Release date: April 7

Based on the real-life story of the daring spy who killed a Nazi with her bare hands during World War II, "Code Name Hélène" chronicles Nancy Wake's transformation from socialite to fearsome espionage agent with a 5 million franc bounty on her well-coiffed head. Organized by the code names associated with Wake—Lucienne Carlier, the White Mouse, Hélène, and Madame André—this novel recounts the remarkable tale of a woman who resisted and persisted.

Release date: March 31

From the author of the wildly inventive post-apocalypse tale "Station Eleven," "The Glass Hotel" swerves between three locations—downtown Manhattan, the wilderness of Vancouver, and a massive container ship off the coast of Mauritania. A woman disappears, money changes hands, and ghosts rise up from the past and points beyond. One thing's for sure: When Emily St. John Mandel takes us on a journey, we're always along for the ride.

Release date: March 24