The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel

After being stolen from her wealthy German parents and raised in the unforgiving wilderness of eastern Europe, a young woman finds herself alone in 1941 after her kidnapper dies. Her solitary existence is interrupted, however, when she happens upon a group of Jews fleeing the Nazi terror. Stunned to learn what’s happening in the outside world, she vows to teach the group all she can about surviving in the forest—and in turn, they teach her some surprising lessons about opening her heart after years of isolation. But when she is betrayed and escapes into a German… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical Nazism & antisemitism
  • Eugenics
  • Infidelity
  • Death of an infant
  • Murder mentioned
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping
  • World War II (theme)

When We Meet Again by Kristin Harmel

Emily Emerson is used to being alone; her dad walked out on the family when she was a just a kid, her mom died when she was eighteen, and her beloved grandmother has just passed away as well. But when she’s laid off from her reporting job, she finds herself completely adrift…until the day she receives a beautiful painting of a young woman standing at the edge of a sugarcane field under a violet sky. She recognizes the woman as her grandmother, but the painting arrived with no identification other than a handwritten note saying, “He never stopped loving her…” Curious, Emily begins to do some digging and uncovers… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Cancer
  • Death of a mother
  • Death of a grandmother & grandfather
  • Lynching
  • World War II & internment camps (theme)

The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel

Eva Traube Abrams, a semi-retired librarian in Florida, is shelving books one morning when her eyes lock on a photograph in a magazine lying open nearby. She freezes; it’s an image of a book she hasn’t seen in sixty-five years—a book she recognizes as The Book of Lost Names. The accompanying article discusses the looting of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II—an experience Eva remembers well—and the search to reunite people with the texts taken from them so long ago. The book in the photograph, an eighteenth-century religious text thought to have be… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical antisemitism
  • Suicide mentioned
  • World War II (theme)

The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau by Kristin Harmel

Colette Marceau has been stealing jewels for nearly as long as she can remember, following the centuries-old code of honor instilled in her by her mother, take only from the cruel and unkind, and give to those in need. Never was their family tradition more important than seven decades earlier, during the Second World War, when Annabel and Colette worked side by side in Paris to fund the French Resistance. But one night in 1942, it all went wrong. Annabel was arrested by the Germans, and Colette’s four-year-old sister, Liliane, disappeared in the chaos of the raid, along with an… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical racism & antisemitism
  • Hate crime
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a sister/child
  • Kidnapping
  • World War II (theme)

Strangers in Time by David Baldacci

Charlie Matters’ life has always been a fight for survival. Orphaned with no prospects, Charlie steals what he needs, living day-to-day until he can enlist in the battle against the Germans. He miraculously emerges unscathed from the Blitz, but there’s no telling when the next bomb will fall, and whether it will be the one to end his life. Molly Wakefield’s dreams of a joyful homecoming are all she’s had to hold on to after being evacuated to the countryside via ‘Operation Pied Piper’ five years before. But when she finally returns to the city, Molly faces a London changed… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction (secondary character)
  • Death of a wife (secondary character)
  • World War II (theme)

Marrow by Brynne Weaver and Trisha Wolfe

Forensic anthropologist Dr. Jack Sorensen is the perfect serial killer. In the bright lights of his public persona he’s a respected scientist, a leader in the field of human decomposition. But in his shadowed secret life he’s a ruthless and elusive killer, unseen by the authorities who have failed to follow his faint trail of destruction. Beautifully cold, brilliant and cruel, Jack wants nothing more than to keep his life captured in his vise-like grip of control. And Jack Sorensen never makes mistakes… until he underestimates Dr. Kyrie Roth. Wildlife biologist Kyrie is the enemy… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Consensual non-consent scene (‘CNC’)
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction, including discussions of the decomposition of dead bodies (theme)
  • Murder & attempted murder (theme)
  • Murder of a mother & father recounted (protagonist)

Love & Other Killers by Brynne Weaver

It’s the annual hunt for Sloane and her vigilante family of serial killers. Track the most cold-blooded psychos imaginable and take them down. This summer’s prey is Allan Munster, a churchgoing chicken farmer who slaughters more than fowl. The rules of the hunt: divide into teams, devise a strategy, and make a move—the more cutthroat the better. May the best team win. The players are closing in. All eyes are on Munster. But there’s a hitch in the family sport this year. Someone might be watching them.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Murder & attempted murder (theme)

Tourist Season by Brynne Weaver

Welcome to Cape Carnage! Visit Once, Stay Forever. Cape Carnage is a seaside town of colourful houses, quirky shops, and an unusually high body count. But with tourists comes trouble, and Harper Starling won’t let anyone ruin her picture-perfect home. A skilled gardener with killer instincts, Harper protects her sanctuary at any cost—especially for her aging mentor with a fading memory. Troublesome tourists don’t check out of Carnage. They compost beneath Harper’s award-winning flowerbeds. But Nolan Rhodes isn’t your average tourist. Devilishly handsome… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault recounted (secondary character), including mentions of image-based sexual abuse and attempted paedophilia
  • Nonconsensual voyeurism of protagonist by secondary character
  • Self-harm (secondary character)
  • Panic attack, nightmares, and survivor’s guilt
  • Alzheimer’s Disease (secondary character)
  • Alcohol consumption & drugging
  • Blood & gore depiction including emesis, decapitation, body parts, and dead bodies
  • Physical injury, including scars, burns, and previous rehabilitation after severe injuries sustained in a car accident (protagonist)
  • Needles (piercing)
  • Death of a brother in a hit-and-run car accident recounted
  • Death of a mother & father in a car accident
  • Murder of a boyfriend recounted
  • Murder & attempted murder (theme)
  • Torture recounted, including food deprivation
  • Physical assault
  • Near-drowning incident
  • Kidnapping & captivity recounted
  • Golf cart and go-cart accidents (secondary characters)
  • Stalking & home invasion
  • Animal injury & death (horse)

The Alpha of Grave Hills by Kathryn Moon

Broken hearted and rejected by her beta, Brigid Grant has spent the last five years in self-imposed exile. When her former lover comes sniffing at her door, demanding she take her place back in his bed or lose her sanctuary, Brigid knows it would break more than her heart to agree. There’s only one person powerful enough to keep her out of another man’s reach. A new alpha has risen. With the death of his father, it’s time for Torion to step into his rightful place, as Alpha of Grave Hills. Young, determined to do better for his home and his people, Torion needs to focus on the work ahead… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Adult-minor relationship mentioned
  • Infidelity recounted
  • Pregnancy & childbirth
  • Miscarriage recounted
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Fire
  • Imprisonment (secondary character)

The Alpha of Bleake Isle by Kathryn Moon

Lord Ronson Cadogan can stall no longer. He needs an omega and he needs an heir. Settled on the obvious perfect choice, and determined to see his fate through, Ronson can’t afford to wait for the next ceremony to claim what he is owed. If only he was more excited about the match. Mairwen Posy knows precisely who the Alpha of Bleake Isle will choose, and it certainly isn’t her. In fact, it’s so predictable it’s almost boring. Resigned to her fate of disappearing into the background, Mairwen takes the role of observer, distracting the ache of being left out with… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Indentured servitude discussed
  • Fatphobia & body-shaming
  • Sexual assault (forced kiss, on-page)
  • Pregnancy & death during childbirth mentioned (secondary characters)
  • Emesis (on-page)
  • Death of a father recounted
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Physical assault
  • Fire
  • Bullying