April Book Options | Chapters & Chai Book Club

April's theme is Sci-Fi & Fantasy, and there are so many good options here! Have a read of the five book synopses and cast your vote via the Google Form.

I can't wait to see what you choose!

The Tarot Reader of Versailles by Anya Bergman
She can see the future, but can she change it?

It is the early days of the French Revolution and, on the streets of Paris, terror reigns.
Marie Anne Adelaide Lenormand is a young woman with an extraordinary power - through her tarot cards, she can commune with the dead. Her reputation is such that revolutionaries and the aristocracy alike seek her out to divine their fortunes, though she is loyal to Marie Antoinette and the dauphin of France. But Lenormand has seen the queen's fate in the cards, and must take care that it doesn't become her own.

Then, one fateful day, she comes across Cait, a scullery maid from Ireland who has travelled to Paris for love. Cait has powers too - she can read people's pasts as Lenormand reads their futures. The two young women have an instant connection, drawn to each other's abilities. But Cait is hiding something from her new as much as she loves Lenormand, she loves freedom and her country more. What will she do - and who will she betray - to bring revolution to the shores of Ireland?

Set against the background of the French Revolution and the Great Rebellion in Ireland and entwining dark folklore with tarot mysticism, this is a novel of fate and free will, where allegiances and romances can be forged or broken by the turn of a card.

Genre: Historical, Fantasy
Average Rating (Goodreads): 3.84
Pages: 480

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor [First in a series]
Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Readers' Favorite Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction (2017)

The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around—and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old he’s been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the person of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance or lose his dream forever.

What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? What exactly did the Godslayer slay that went by the name of god? And what is the mysterious problem he now seeks help in solving?

The answers await in Weep, but so do more mysteries—including the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo’s dreams. How did he dream her before he knew she existed? And if all the gods are dead, why does she seem so real?

Welcome to Weep.

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Average Rating (Goodreads): 4.28
Pages: 544

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Readers' Favorite Fantasy (2022)

After years of seeing her sisters suffer at the hands of an abusive prince, Marra—the shy, convent-raised, third-born daughter—has finally realized that no one is coming to their rescue. No one, except for Marra herself.

Seeking help from a powerful gravewitch, Marra is offered the tools to kill a prince—if she can complete three impossible tasks. But, as is the way in tales of princes, witches, and daughters, the impossible is only the beginning.

On her quest, Marra is joined by the gravewitch, a reluctant fairy godmother, a strapping former knight, and a chicken possessed by a demon. Together, the five of them intend to be the hand that closes around the throat of the prince and frees Marra's family and their kingdom from its tyrannous ruler at last.

Genre: Fantasy, Witches, Magic
Average Rating (Goodreads): 4.07
Pages: 243

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Readers' Favorite Science Fiction (2019)

Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.

Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There's still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war.

Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, LGBTQ, Time Travel
Average Rating (Goodreads): 3.84
Pages: 209

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir [In cinemas March 2026]
Goodreads Choice Award Winner for Readers' Favorite Science Fiction (2021)

A LONE ASTRONAUT. AN IMPOSSIBLE MISSION. AN ALLY HE NEVER IMAGINED.

RYLAND GRACE is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and Earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crew-mates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realises that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?

Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian—while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.

Genre: Sci-Fi, Space, Thriller
Average Rating (Goodreads): 4.50
Pages: 476

As always, please vote via the Google Form if you didn't get a chance on the night! 

Remember to join our Chapters & Chai Reading Challenge this year too - I'd love to see you follow along on Instagram