{"id":125789,"date":"2025-03-11T06:36:06","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T06:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/entertainment\/books\/books-to-look-out-for-in-april-2025-part-two\/"},"modified":"2025-03-11T06:36:06","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T06:36:06","slug":"books-to-look-out-for-in-april-2025-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=125789","title":{"rendered":"Books to Look Out For in April 2025: Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"CoverThere\u2019s a coming-of-age theme running through the first few titles in April\u2019s second fiction preview beginning with Se\u00e1n Hewitt\u2019s Open, Heaven<\/strong><\/a> which sees a deep bond form between two teenage boys. James is eager to begin his life away from the expectations of his family and the small village in which he lives. Luke has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle on a nearby farm, his reputation for danger masking his anxieties and hopes. \u2018James falls deeply for Luke, yet he is never sure of Luke\u2019s true feelings. And as the end of summer nears, he has a choice to make \u2013 will he risk everything for the possibility of love?\u2019 asks the blurb. Very much like the sound of that particularly as Hewitt is both a poet and Irish.\"Cover<\/p>\n

Set in the summer of 2009, John Patrick McHugh\u2019s Fun and Games<\/em><\/strong><\/a> is another Irish male coming-of-age novel which follows seventeen-year-old John and his footballing mates, all determined to play for their club in the Championship while waiting for the exam results that will decide their future. John spends much of his time consumed with a self-absorbed social anxiety, oblivious to the troubles of those around him not least his parents who are splitting up. I wasn\u2019t sure if I would stick with McHugh\u2019s novel at first \u2013 there are some lengthy football passages, not something I\u2019m interested in \u2013 but John\u2019s character drew me in to this funny, poignant story which smartly nails late adolescence with all its excruciating discomforts, and the ending is a masterstroke. Review shortly\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Cover\"CoverWe\u2019re moving on to Oslo with Oliver Lovrenski\u2019s Back in the Day<\/em><\/strong><\/a> about four boys growing up in a rough part of the city. Ivor and Marco have been involved with drugs since they were thirteen, carrying knives by the time they\u2019re fifteen and careening from one fight to the next at sixteen. Ivor dreams of a settled future but has taken too many wrong turnings in the opposite direction. \u2018In flashes of firecracker prose, shot through with rare empathy, irrepressible wit and gut-punch pathos, Oliver Lovrenski gives voice to young men growing up in a brutal and chaotic world\u2019 according to the blurb which sounds tough but well worth reading to me.<\/p>\n

I took a punt on Jenny Mustard\u2019s Okay Days<\/em><\/a> back in 2023 and thoroughly enjoyed it, snapping up What a Time to Be Alive<\/em><\/strong><\/a> \"Cover\"Coveras soon as it popped up on NetGalley. The child of benign neglect, Sickan is eighteen months into her course, still friendless and living in spartan student accommodation, constantly anxious that her peers are laughing at her. With her cultivated slovenliness, Hanna\u2019s seemingly impervious to what others think of her and unaware of her wealth. An odd sort of friendship begins between these two until Sickan begins a relationship pushing Hanna to the fringes of her life. Mustard uses the same understated, gently witty style that worked so well in Okay Days<\/em>, conveying Sickan\u2019s painful awareness of her social ineptitude with a tenderness that made me want to cheer her small triumphs and ache for her setbacks. Review to come\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Cover\"CoverI loved both The End We Start From<\/a><\/em> and The Harpy<\/em><\/a> making me keen to read Megan Hunter\u2019s Days of Light.<\/em><\/strong><\/a> It tells the story of Ivy, the daughter of a bohemian family, through six pivotal days in her life beginning with Easter Sunday in 1938 which ends in tragedy. On the sixth day, decades later, Ivy remembers the many Easters she\u2019s lived through and the course her life has taken. Throughout it all, she\u2019s haunted by the tragedy of 1938, unsure to the end if she might have played a part in it. Hunter\u2019s writing is luminously beautiful at times and there\u2019s an elegiac quality to the early part of the novel which lends it a gentle melancholy. Review to follow\u2026\"Cover\"Cover<\/p>\n

In KatIe Kitamura\u2019s Audition<\/em> <\/strong><\/a>two people meet for lunch at a Manhattan restaurant, one an accomplished actress, the other young enough to be her son. The question is what are these two to each other? \u2018In this compulsively readable, brilliantly constructed novel, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day \u2013 partner, parent, creator, muse \u2013 and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us most intimately\u2019 according to the blurb, whetting my appetite. I read A<\/em> Separation<\/em><\/a> some time ago and found it quite unsettling but it\u2019s stayed with me which is more than I can say for many novels.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s it for April\u2019s new fiction. As ever, a click on a title will take you to a more detailed synopsis should you want to know more, and if you\u2019d like to catch up with part one it\u2019s here<\/strong><\/a>. Paperbacks soon\u2026<\/p>\n

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There\u2019s a coming-of-age theme running through the first few titles in April\u2019s second fiction preview beginning with Se\u00e1n Hewitt\u2019s Open, Heaven which sees a deep bond form between two teenage boys. James is eager to begin his life away from the expectations of his family and the small village in which he lives. Luke has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":125790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[4759,19750,55100,1752,55101,55102,55103,55104,55105,55106,55107,55108,55109,55110,3341,55111,55112],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-125789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-april","tag-audition","tag-back-in-the-day","tag-books","tag-days-of-light","tag-fiction-published-in-april-2025","tag-fun-and-games","tag-jenny-mustard","tag-john-patrick-mchugh","tag-katie-kitamura","tag-megan-hunter","tag-nichola-smalley","tag-oliver-lovrenski","tag-open-heaven","tag-part","tag-sean-hewitt","tag-what-a-time-to-be-alive"],"yoast_head":"\nBooks to Look Out For in April 2025: Part Two - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=125789\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Books to Look Out For in April 2025: Part Two - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There\u2019s a coming-of-age theme running through the first few titles in April\u2019s second fiction preview beginning with Se\u00e1n Hewitt\u2019s Open, Heaven which sees a deep bond form between two teenage boys. 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