APRIL TEXAS BOOK PREVIEW
Preview of Texas-connected books publishing in April, 2026
A KALEIDOSCOPE OF NEW TITLES GROWING IN OUR GARDEN
Lone Star Lit is cultivating an April book bouquet to please the eye and delight the mind. New titles are springing up in genres from fantasy to literary fiction, mystery to romance. Pick your favorites from this month’s list of new Texas-connected books and head to your local independent bookstore to pluck a new gem for your TBR. Read on to explore these highlights.
A riveting, quirky, and authentic tale of a disgraced former Texas Sheriff who takes it upon himself to investigate the murder of a hog trapper, and in doing so tries to atone for the sins of his past.
A vivid, episodic frontier memoir that trades tidy plot for lived detail—wry barracks life, improvised post culture, and flashes of violence—made richer (and more complex) by its modern annotated edition.
Freedom has been promised. Now it must be armed.
The Moon remains enslaved—its people bound by ancient power and ruled by a tyrant who has endured for centuries. Diplomacy has won allies on Earth, but speeches cannot shatter chains forged in blood and fear.
To liberate Selene, its champions must attempt the impossible: turn a steam-age world into the industrial engine of rebellion. Factories must rise. Technologies must leap forward. Fortunes must be risked amid political intrigue, commercial ambition, and unseen forces determined to keep the Moon silent.
As inventors race against time and nations weigh profit against principle, one truth is clear: The weapons of revolution must be forged—before the enemy realizes the war has begun.
by Rex Ogle; illustrated by Dave Valeza
A pitch-perfect middle-grade graphic memoir about crushes, coming out, and finding the courage to be yourself.
Eighth grade isn’t off to a great start. Everyone but Rex seems to be coupling up, and he’s starting to feel like an outsider… until he meets Charlotte. She’s fearless, smart, pretty, and she likes him back. But as great as Charlotte is, there’s someone else Rex can’t stop thinking about.
Drew is Rex’s childhood best friend, so when he kisses Rex, all kinds of new feelings begin to stir. Though at school, Drew acts like he doesn’t even know Rex, making those feelings turn really confusing really fast. And with all the strong opinions Rex hears from friends and at church, he questions his own worth and what his affections actually mean. Rex wants to be more like his new friend, Nina, and not care what others think, but being himself seems impossible. When did middle school get so confusing?!
In this debut collection, celebrated journalist Patrick Strickland’s vivid and character-driven stories are as true to life as his award-winning reportage.
In A History of Heartache, boys grow up fast in the blazing heat of North Texas, and men grow old before their time. A wayward son rides shotgun into a night he can’t take back. A janitor at an abortion clinic can’t outrun a ghost—or a camera. Strickland writes with clear-eyed realism and unsparing craftsmanship about common people—fathers and sons; widowers and junkies—poised on the knife-edge of hope.
With taut sentences and a wicked sense of humor, these 14 stories chart the small mercies and big mistakes that make a life: the songs we inherit, the bottles we empty, the tools we fashion from whatever’s at hand. Gritty and tender in the same breath, this debut fiction collection asks what it costs to stay, what it takes to leave, and who we become when we do. Readers of Denis Johnson and Ron Rash will recognize the hard light, bruised humor, and sudden grace that burn through these pages.
Hymn of the Hollow God is a literary dark fantasy about memory, erasure, and the cost of survival in a world that maintains stability through silence.
Set in Varosia, a city built atop the ruins of the first divine temple, the novel follows Ariyah, a scholar attuned to residual divine resonance who survives the collapse of a buried god and becomes dangerous simply by remembering.
As her closest companion is drawn into a resurgence of erased divinity, Ariyah is forced to confront a system that would rather forget its catastrophes than reckon with them, and must ultimately choose between disappearance or usefulness. Quiet, intimate, and devastating, the novel prioritizes emotional consequence and moral tension over spectacle.
Hannah Heronstone has a loving husband, a bright child, and a thriving herbal business—until whispers of a dark coven near Wentworth Manor shatter her peace. A journey to Ireland plunges her into ancient magic and a monstrous force rising from legend. A fairy offers help, but trust can be deadly. To save her family, Hannah must find the fabled Last Fairy Witch before time runs out.
Centuries earlier, Eithne, a gifted young healer, is sent to Rathcroghan to train as a Bandrui when her power awakens. Desired by a bard and a prince, she instead draws the attention of a ruthless witch determined to claim her magic.
Separated by time but bound by fate, Hannah and Eithne must risk everything—or lose all they love to the coming darkness.
When PI Fen Maguire boards an Alaskan cruise as the ship’s art instructor, he carries a secret assignment: solve a two-month-old murder that’s sparked a war between two stubborn sheriffs. Each has a prime suspect onboard. Both are convinced the other is wrong.
As a former sheriff, Fen knows how territorial lawmen can be. But teaching watercolors between ports, he discovers both sheriffs may be chasing the wrong lead. Alibis crumble. Secrets spill over cocktails and shore excursions. The more Fen digs, the more suspects emerge—each with motive, means, and something to hide.
The cruise is ending. A killer is about to walk free. In a floating locked room where no one tells the truth, Fen must unmask the murderer before the ship docks.
Every year, thousands of women disappear—and too many are never found.
Dallas TV journalist Vicky Robeson is determined to find her missing sister, separated during a childhood tragedy that killed their parents. A possible clue in a long-hidden journal draws her to the rugged California foothills.
There, a woman flees through dense forest, a body is discovered, and a strange symbol carved into a tree matches one in the journal. Vicky pries secrets from wary locals that lead her to an isolated colony ruled by a ruthless despot who keeps women captive for sinister purposes.
Vicky is captured and must fight to survive, free the captives, and confront the chilling possibility that one of them may be the sister she blames herself for losing.
A group of disinherited people join a club to learn how to steal back from their families what they have lost.
The Unfavored Children’s Club is a disturbingly delightful romp through the morally gray mental acrobatics of the slighted, perfect for fans of the dark comedy of the Coen Brothers.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
There are so many Texas-connected books publishing this month that we couldn’t feature all of them. The following books also publish in April:
CHILDREN'S, MIDDLE GRADE, & YOUNG ADULT BOOKS
The Case of the Willow Creek Mystery by Parker Kelly
Forever and Always by Kacy Burke
Ghosts Aboard Starlight by Gume Laurel III
Girl Reflected in Knife by Anica Mrose Rissi
Gym Junky by Brentom Jackson
Napako, Our Journey by María F. Rocha
Pray With Me by Shannon L. Mokry
Soulquest by Scott A.. Meehan
They Want Us Dead by CL Montblanc
To Catch a Ghost by Parker Kelly
The Traveling Tuxedo: Adventures in Poteet, TX by Melissa Coyle
FANTASY / SCI-FI
The Calypso Enigma by Skyler Ramirez
Cost of Attainment by Alex Lane
Daughter Seven by Jaxon Reed
Dream in the Ash by Jacquelyn Gilmore
Feral Justice by Renée Jaggér & Michael Anderle
Forged in Shadow and Flame by Sarah Primiano
The Immortal’s Mark by Samantha Britt
The Mandilian by Tim Bryant
Rift Slayer by Adrienne Renick
Scatterjump by Myunique C. Green
The Soul-Sung by Daniel Sheley
Strike Range by Michael Anderle
Tentacles and Tides Anthology (Melissa McShane, J.T. Evans, Carol Hightshoe, et al)
Terrestrial by Ryan McGinnis
Triple Strike: Starfarer’s Dream by G.M. Gray
Waterkeeper by Martha Carr & Michael Anderle
Wolf Hunt by L.J. Breedlove
MYSTERY / HORROR
Alive by Proxy by Manning Wolfe
Braised Betrayal by Erica J. Whelton
Bridget Flynn and the Silver Mail Conspiracy by Sidney St. James
Bywater by Tim Bryant
Cinco de Mayhem by L.B. Dayton
Crystal Clear Claims by Leanne Leeds
Darkness Consumes You by Nicole Byrd
Dating Can Be Deadly by Ryan Rivers
Death by Southpaw by Brittany E. Brinegar
Doesn’t Play Well With Others by Carolyn L. Dean
The Drowned Truth by Erica J. Whelton
El Macho by Kathryn Dodson
The Firefall: A Murder in Yosemite by Mark Thielman
Ghost Inn by Bev Vincent
Heard Proper by Tim Bryant
The House on Bleakmoor Hill by Cheryl Bradshaw
Iced Tea and Intrigue by Erica J. Whelton
J. Tabasco’s Do-It-Yourself Detective Agency by Carl Martin Johnson
Kansas City Breakdown by M.E. Proctor and Russell Thayer
Kill for a Million by Janet Dailey
The Last Campsite by Shelby Shaw
Lies to Forever by Marlene M. Bell
Marsh Mystics by Jana DeLeon
Misguided Patriots by John Gonyea
Pants on Fire by Denise Diana Huddle
The Phantom of Black Rock Cove by Sidney St. James
The Pianist by Eva Pohler
A Prince of their Own by Sidney St. James
The Purr-Loined Letter by Erica J. Whelton
Revenge Waits by Pamela Dunnam
Signed, Spelled, Delivered by Sarah Noffke
Silhouette of Suspicion by Erica J. Whelton
Some Like It Fudgy by Nancy Coco
Stalked by Campus Security 2 by Lady Lissa
This Old House by Sidney St. James
Tiramisu and Trouble by Nova Walsh
Too Close to Home by Seraphina Nova Glass
Wrangled by Peril by Jenna Brandt
You. Again. by Harper Dale
NONFICTION
All I Could Be by Scott Meehan
Boomtown: The True Story of the Wickedest Town in Texas by Joe Pappalardo
Caminos edited by Zita Arocha
Capturing Labor edited by Jessica R. Pliley and John Mckiernan-González
Choreographing a House by Dan Phillips
Dreams and Ideas by Myra Walker
Duty, Honor, Country & Life: A Tribute to the American Spirit by Admiral William H. McRaven
Fallen Angels by Rita Lorena Link
The Front Porch by Vincent T. Davis
Houston and the Permanence of Segregation by David Ponton III
How to Style a Hat by Brittany Cobb
I CAN! DREAM: Five Simple Steps to Your Success, Happiness, and Freedom by Ron Carstens
Justice on “The Hill” edited by Will Guzmán and William T. Hoston
Killing Your Best Friend by Michael Mullen and Kate O’Neill
The Land of Sand and Cotton: Texas, Workingmen, and Professional Baseball in 1888 by William H. Brewster
Listen: Twenty-Four Songs That Transport by Tim Bryant
Lone Star by Alison Fields
Love Keeps Showing Up: Music, Messes, and Miracles by Adassa
Maybe a Note Would Help by Kristen Tremonti Reiter
The Myth of Red Texas: Cowboys, Populism, and Class War in the Radical South by David Griscom
Nature and Place in Texas edited by Char Miller, Kenna Lang Archer and Jason Pierce
Outcry Witness by JoDee Neil
Patience for the Ride by John Krajicek
Quiet Valor Moments: When Responsibility Meets the Ordinary by Larry Nouvel
Quiet Valor: Teachers and Paraprofessionals Who Changed Lives by Larry Nouvel, Lara Jacobs & Colleen White
Remembering the Light by Laura Leigh Dunworth
The Seasons of Rick Roderick by Thomas Zigal
Selling Opportunity: The Story of Mary Kay by Mary Lisa Gavenas
Undead: A Memoir of My Suicide by Madeline Vosch
Whistle Stop: Kenny Dorham, Jazz, and the Journey of a Texas Family by Robert M. Pallitto, John A. Melendez
Why Write by Tim Bryant
Worst Tits Ever by Angela Harger Thompson
OTHER FICTION
Abraham – The Man Who Walked with God by Sidney St. James
Amos Flagg Bushwhacked by Clay Randall
The Arrival of the Redeemer by Sidney St. James
At World’s End by C.K. McAdam
Bejeweled: Jezebel’s Story by Amy W. Vogel
Bury My Name by Erica Goros
The Devil’s Target by D.R. Maddox
The Divining Season by Gwendolyn Paradice
The Dogfighter by D Grant Smith
Don’t Stop by Bonnie Friedman
Faith – Seventy Times Seven by Sidney St. James
Fringes, Heartstrings and Lyrics by Jan Sikes
Ghetto Dreamz by D.R. Maddox
Hard Country Anthology
Hold On to Tomorrow by M.B. Henry
Isaac – The Promised Child by Sidney St. James
It Is Well With My Soul by Sidney St. James
The Last Gypsy Queen by Linda Paul
The Last Prayer of Mason Creek by Sidney St. James
Letters from the House of David by Sidney St. James
The Monkey on Frida’s Shoulder by Catherine Barrera
My Badge – My Town by Larry A. Jones
Paul the Apostle – The Man With Two Names by Sidney St. James
Rough Country Anthology
Second Chances by Kellie Coates Gilbert
The Shabby Old Cottage by B.E. Baker
The Shadow Grows by Burt Tyson
Silverleaf by Kellie Coates Gilbert
The Third Day by Sidney St. James
Three Horizons by Tim Bryant
TIMBER AND COLDIRON: Crucible on the Llano Estacado by Robert Hanlon
Timber: U.S. Marshal: Black Warrant by Robert Hanlon
Timber: U.S. Marshal: Dead Don’t Talk by Robert Hanlon
Timber: U.S. Marshal: Texan Blood by Robert Hanlon
Timber: U.S. Marshal: Texan Justice by Robert Hanlon
To See Blossom by D.C. Bloom
The War for Heaven and Earth by Sidney St. James
Wyoming Destiny by Mark Greathouse
POETRY
I’ll Take My Body To-Go by Kindall Fredricks
ROMANCE
An Unforgettable Kiss by Alexa Aston
The Antiquarian Order by Beth Richards
April’s Cowboy Tanner by Eve London
Bailey Bangs Her Brother’s Best Friend by Liz Alden
Beauty From the Pain by R Sullins
Bluebonnet Fields by Kara O’Neal
A Bride for the Scarred Duke by Dorothy Sheldon
The Bride Who Shoots Arrows by Linda Carroll-Bradd
Calico Canyon by Mary Connealy
Capturing the Cowboy by Annee Jones
A Charming Kiss by Ginny Sterling
Claiming the Cowboy by Lexi Hayes
Conjuration & Crones by Cait Alvarez
A Cowboy Kind of Love by J.L. Jarvis
The Cowboy’s Baby Promise by Stella Bagwell
The Cowboy’s Kiss by Hayley James
The Cowboy’s Redemption by Hope August
Crossfire Creek Ambush by Delores Fossen
Crossroads by Carrie Ann Ryan
The Eight Pranks of April by Effy Bloom
Emerge by Sage St. Claire
Ethan by Kathy Ivan
Falling For the Cowboy by Joann Baker & Patricia Mason
Fated Alpha Bride by Kayla Wolf
Fighting With the Cowboy by Theresa Lambe
Finding Our Frequency by Kat Fallons
Flirting With the Cowboy by Aubrey Kent
Foolishly Yours by Rachel Lewis
For Saints and Outlaws by Landyn Hill
Fortune’s Found Family by Michelle Lindo-Rice
Glittering Skies by Jenna Avery
Guarding His Sunshine by Erin Rose
Halligan by Nat Logan
Healing With the Cowboy by Tiffany Bloom
Into Her Own by Quinn Rose
Iron and Lace by Skye Turner
Just Another Summer Crush by Lyra Parish
Kiss From a Rose by Skye Turner & Sloane Nicole
Knotty in Vegas by Elizabeth Dunlap
The Last Labyrinth by Gwendolyn Womack
Learning the Cowboy by T L Russ
Legend by Kris Jayne
Loving the Cowboy by Shana Gray
Made for Mayhem by Aimee Vance
The Magical Library by Aimee O’Brian
Marrying the Cowboy by Lainey Winters
The Midwife of Promise Creek by Ann Smith
Moonlight by Lynessa Lane
One More Round by Amber Palmer
Onora by Linda Carroll-Bradd
Our Extraordinary Summer by Lori Wilde
Pretty Poison by Matilda Martel
Property of Death by Sapphire Knight
Protected by the Ex-Military Mountain Man by Macy West
The Rancher’s Unlikely Match by Jill Kemerer
Remington’s Reckoning by Cree Nations
Riding With the Cowboy by Celia Skye
Romancing the Cowboy by Wynter Ryan
Ryder by Jessica Peterson
SEAL of Bravery by Jessica Ashley
The Shadow Syndicate by Simone Sumner
Shadows of Ink by Stephanie Morris
Siren’s Last Song by Ashleigh Martin
Someday is Our Horizon by Margie Seaman
Stanley Ranch by Kimberly Smith
Stormstruck by Janalyn Knight
Sweet Devotion by Chris Keniston
Swing and Miss by Nicole Lenz
Tempting the Seal by Shaw Hart
Texas Heat by Irene Lawless
Their Secret Playbook by Teri Wilson
Throne of Ashes by Stephanie Pass
A Time to Survive by Karen Kelley
Together: Where Love Meets Forever by Julie Grayson
Trusting the Veterinarian by Jolene Navarro
Unbreakable by Erin Rose
Until You by Kat Baxter
A Very Grumpy Lumberjack by Shaw Hart
The Way Home by Jill Sanders
Where Promises Stay by Liz Isaacson
Wilder’s Kitten by Erin Rose
Works Like a Lavender Charm by Dann Hazel
Wrangling the Cowboy by Engrid Eaves