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The Cursed Sea by Lauren DeStefano

The Cursed Sea by Lauren DeStefano

Wilhemina Heidle, the exiled princess of Northern Arrod, the girl thought dead by her family and friends, must return home. The only way to save Loom, the cursed prince of the Southern Isles, is to revisit the castle and discover the origins of her own curse.

But home is very different from how she left it—Wil’s unstable elder brother is now king, leading a war against the Southern Isles. And the rest of her family…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Grief & loss depiction
Gun violence

Sever by Lauren DeStefano

Sever by Lauren DeStefano

With the clock ticking until the virus takes its toll, Rhine is desperate for answers. After enduring Vaughn’s worst, Rhine finds an unlikely ally in his brother, an eccentric inventor named Reed. She takes refuge in his dilapidated house, though the people she left behind refuse to stay in the past. While Gabriel haunts Rhine’s memories, Cecily is determined to be at Rhine’s side, even if Linden’s feelings are still caught between them. Meanwhile, Rowan’s growing involvement in an underground resistance compels Rhine to reach him before he does something that cannot be undone. But what she discovers… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Adult-minor relationships included forced polygamy
Hospitalisation
Medical experimentation

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Adult-minor relationships included forced polygamy
Rape of a minor, off-page
Child pregnancy
Kidnapping

Summer of ’69 by Elin Hilderbrand

Summer of ’69 by Elin Hilderbrand

Welcome to the most tumultuous summer of the twentieth century. It’s 1969, and for the Levin family, the times are a-changing. Every year the children have looked forward to spending the summer at their grandmother’s historic home in downtown Nantucket. But like so much else in America, nothing is the same: Blair, the oldest sister, is marooned in Boston, pregnant with twins and unable to travel. Middle sister Kirby, caught up in the thrilling vortex of civil rights protests and determined to be independent, takes a summer job on Martha’s Vineyard. Only-son Tiger is an infantry soldier, recently… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Sexual assault

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

For more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in their Massachusetts town. Gillian and Sally have endured that fate as well: as children, the sisters were forever outsiders, taunted, talked about, pointed at. Their elderly aunts almost seemed to encourage the whispers of witchery, with their musty house and their exotic concoctions and their crowd of black cats. But all Gillian and Sally wanted was to escape. One will do so by marrying, the other by running away. But the bonds they share will bring them back—almost as if by magic… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Attempted sexual assault
Domestic abuse
Murder

The Bone Doll’s Twin by Lynn Flewelling

The Bone Doll’s Twin by Lynn Flewelling

Long ago, during the dark days of the Great War with Pleinmar, King Thelatimos journeyed to the Oracle of the God Illior at Afra to save his warn-torn kingdom. Here he was presented with a prophecy ‘So long as a daughter of Thelatimos’s line defends and rules, Skala shall never be subjugated.’ And that is how the line of queens ruling over Skala was established… However, as generations went by the male heirs to the throne became intensely resentful of the prophecy that emasculated their claim to power. Finally Queen Agnalain took the throne and the people of Skala suffered under her erratic and selfish… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Misogyny
Queermisia
Transmisia
Rape
Death of a parent
Murder of children
Torture

Stalking Darkness by Lynn Flewelling

Stalking Darkness by Lynn Flewelling

With the Leran threat laid to rest, Alec and Seregil are now able to turn their attention to the ancient evil which threatens their land. The Plenimarans, at war with Skalans, have decided to defeat their ancient enemy by raising up the Dead God, Seriamaius. The early attempts at this reincarnation—masterminded by the sinister Duke Mardus and his sorcerous minion Vargul Ashnazai—once left Seregil in a sorcerous coma. Now, an ancient prophecy points to his continuing role in the quest to stop Mardus in his dread purpose… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Sexual assault
Body horror
Torture
Animal injury

Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling

Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling

When young Alec of Kerry is taken prisoner for a crime he didn’t commit, he is certain that his life is at an end. But one thing he never expected was his cellmate. Spy, rogue, thief, and noble, Seregil of Rhiminee is many things–none of them predictable. And when he offers to take on Alec as his apprentice, things may never be the same for either of them. Soon Alec is travelling roads he never knew existed, toward a war he never suspected was brewing. Before long he and Seregil are embroiled in a sinister plot that runs deeper than either can imagine, and that… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Sexual assault
Torture

Ausländer by Paul Dowswell

Ausländer by Paul Dowswell

When Peter’s parents are killed, he is sent to an orphanage in Warsaw. Then German soldiers take him away to be measured and assessed. They decide that Peter is racially valuable. He is Volksdeutscher: of German blood. With his blond hair, blue eyes, and acceptably proportioned head, he looks just like the boy on the Hitler-Jugend poster. Someone important will want to adopt Peter. They do. Professor Kaltenbach is very pleased to welcome such a fine Aryan specimen to his household. People will be envious. But Peter is not quite the specimen… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Antisemitism
Racism
Death of a parent recounted
Car accident

Beasts of the Frozen Sun by Cressida Cowell

Beasts of the Frozen Sun by Cressida Cowell

Every child of Glasnith learns the last words of Aillira, the god-gifted mortal whose doomed love affair sparked a war of gods and men, and Lira of clan Stone knows the story better than most. As a descendant of Aillira and god-gifted in her own right, she has the power to read people’s souls, to see someone’s true essence with only a touch of her hand.

When a golden-haired warrior washes up on the shores of her homeland–one of the fearful marauders… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Attempted rape & sexual assault