Author Archives: rachel @ typed truths

a tired aussie reader with a love of cats, libraries & sunflowers • she/her

Artifice by Sharon Cameron

Isa de Smit was raised in the vibrant, glittering world of her parents’ small art gallery in Amsterdam, a hub of beauty, creativity, and expression, until the Nazi occupation wiped the color from her city’s palette.
The “degenerate” art of the Gallery de Smit is confiscated, the artists in hiding or deported, her best friend, Truus, fled to join the shadowy Dutch resistance.
And masterpiece by masterpiece, the Nazis are buying and stealing her country’s heritage, feeding the Third Reich’s ravenous appetite for culture and art. So when the unpaid taxes threaten her beloved… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical antisemitism & homophobia
  • Child sexual assault (groping) & mentions of underage sex work
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use
  • Secondary character with a substance addition (morphine)
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a friend & child at the hands of Nazis
  • Torture
  • Murder by gun violence
  • World War Two (theme), including depiction of the Holocaust & mentions of concentration camps

The Night Guests by Marina Scott

Once a prominent fixture in Omaha’s high society, Nina Wilson is now drowning in debt and disgrace following the untimely death of her father. Her engagement has been broken off, her family’s grand estate has fallen into disrepair, and her mother, consumed by grief, is incapable of running the household. Attempting to bring closure to her grieving mother, Nina invites a mysterious medium, Leroy Marshall, into their home. But Leroy Marshall’s brand of charisma—equal parts alluring and repellent—leaves Nina feeling deeply unsettled. The man’s presence seems to have awakened something otherworldly in the house itself, and now it’s stepping out of the shadows, refusing to leave,

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father

Life, and Death, and Giants by Ron Rindo

Gabriel Fisher was born an orphan, weighing eighteen pounds and measuring twenty-seven inches long. No one in Lakota, Wisconsin, knows what to make of him. He walks at eight months, communicates with animals, and seems to possess extraordinary athletic talent. But when the older brother who has been caring for him dies, Gabriel is taken in by his devout Amish grandparents who disapprove of all the attention and hide him away from the English world. But it’s hard to hide forever when you’re nearly eight feet tall. At seventeen, Gabriel is spotted working in a hay field by the local football coach. What happens… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Incest & child sexual abuse
  • Suicide
  • Miscarriage mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother in childbirth recounted
  • Bullying
  • Animal death

Beasts of War by Ayana Gray

Once a prisoner to Fedu, the vengeful god of death, Koffi has regained her freedom, but she is far from safe. Fedu will stop at nothing to hunt her down and use her power to decimate the mortal world. Koffi knows when Fedu will during the next Bonding, a once-in-a-lifetime celestial event. To survive, Koffi will have to find powerful new allies quickly, and convince them to help her in the terrible battle to come. Once a warrior-turned-runaway, Ekon has carved out a new life for himself outside Lkossa, but the shadows of his past still haunt him. Now, alongside unexpected friends, Ekon tries to focus on getting Koffi to the… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Battle scenes with bow & arrow and sword violence

Beasts of Ruin by Ayana Gray

Koffi has saved her city and the boy she loves, but at a terrible price. Now a servant to the cunning god of death, she must use her newfound power to further his continental conquest, or risk the safety of her home and loved ones. As she reluctantly learns to survive amidst unexpected friends and foes, she will also have to choose between the life—and love—she once had, or the one she could have, if she truly embraces her dangerous gifts. Cast out from the only home he’s ever known, Ekon is forced to strike new and unconventional alliances to find and rescue Koffi before it… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Indentured servitude mentioned
  • Caning mentioned
  • Fire
  • Animal attacks (fantastical)

I, Medusa by Ayana Gray

Meddy has spent her whole life as a footnote in someone else’s story. Out of place next to her beautiful, immortal sisters and her parents—both gods, albeit minor ones—she dreams of leaving her family’s island for a life of adventure. So when she catches the eye of the goddess Athena, who invites her to train as an esteemed priestess in her temple, Meddy leaps at the chance to see the world beyond her home. In the colorful market streets of Athens and the clandestine chambers of the temple, Meddy flourishes in her role as Athena’s favored acolyte, getting her first… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & misogyny
  • Colonisation
  • Rape, grooming & child sexual assault (on-page)
  • Domestic abuse

Where He Left Me by Nicole Baart

College professors Sadie Sheridan and Felix Graham are on sabbatical at Hemlock House, located on a remote mountain homestead established years ago by Felix’s family. When Felix leaves on a work trip but doesn’t return, effectively stranding Sadie on the mountain, her world collapses. Alone at Hemlock House, frantic Sadie struggles to make sense of what her missing astronomer husband left behind. Forced to confront two mysterious trespassers just as a powerful storm bears down, Sadie and the strangers have no choice but to ride it out together. As conditions worsen and shocking secrets are revealed, Sadie must face… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Familial estrangement
  • Domestic abuse
  • Dementia
  • Death of a mother mentioned
  • Disspearance
  • Gun violence

Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore by Emily Krempholtz

Guy Shadowfade is dead, and after a lifetime as the dark sorcerer’s right-hand, Violet Thistlewaite is determined to start over—not as the fearsome Thornwitch, but as someone kind. Someone better. Someone good. The quaint town of Dragon’s Rest, Violet decides, will be her second chance—she’ll set down roots, open a flower shop, keep her sentient (mildly homicidal) houseplant in check, and prune dark magic from the twisted boughs of her life. Violet’s vibrant bouquets and cheerful enchantments soon charm the welcoming townsfolk, though nothing seems to impress the prickly yet dashingly handsome… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of parents recounted
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping & imprisonment

The Arc by Tory Henwood Hoen

35-year-old Ursula Byrne, VP of Strategic Audacity at a branding agency in Manhattan, is successful, witty, whip-smart, and single. She’s tried all the dating apps, and let’s just say: she’s underwhelmed by her options. You’d think that by now someone would have come up with something more bespoke; a way for users to be more tailored about who and what they want in a life partner–how hard could that be? Enter The Arc: a highly secretive, super-sophisticated matchmaking service that uses a complex series of emotional, psychological and physiological assessments to architect partnerships that will go… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity mentioned
  • Death of a parent from cancer

Before I Forget by Tory Henwood Hoen

Call it inertia. Call it a quarter-life crisis. Whatever you call it, Cricket Campbell is stuck. Despite working at a zeitgeist-y wellness company, the twenty-six-year-old feels anything but well. Still adrift after a tragedy that upended her world a decade ago, she has entered early adulthood under the weight of a new burden: her father’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis. When Cricket’s older sister Nina announces it is time to move Arthur from his beloved Adirondack lake house into a memory-care facility, Cricket has a better idea. In returning home to become her father’s caretaker, she hope… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parent with Alzheimer’s Disease