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The Shrike and the Shadows by Chantal Gadoury and AM Wright

The Shrike & the Shadows by Chantal Gadoury and A.M. Wright

Men have gone missing before. The village of Krume is plagued by a haunted wood and a hungry witch. It’s been that way for as long as Hans and Greta can remember, though they have never seen the witch themselves; no one has. When men start to disappear once again in the cover of night – their bloody hearts turning up on doorsteps – the village falls into frenzied madness.

Hans and Greta, two outcast orphans, find themselves facing accusations of witchcraft and are met with an ultimatum: burn at the stake, or leave the village forever. With nowhere else to go, they abandon their only home. As they venture into the strange forest, their path is fraught with horrific creatures, wild and vivid hallucinations, and a mysterious man tied to the witch’s past. The Shrike is watching, just beyond the deep darkness of the woods.

Goo d reads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Sexual assault

Essence by Hayley Gabrielle

Essence by Hayley Gabrielle

When Abbey Shader is summoned to Ethra, a land where human qualities roam free in flesh known as Essences, her life and the universe as she knows it splits open before her.

With the expansive secrets of humanity at her fingertips, Abbey’s strength of will and heart are put to a test no amount of time or meticulous study could have prepared her for.

Left to decide between the comfort of the familiar and the potential enlightenment of the strange, Abbey is thrust into a journey that demands more of her at every turn. She must learn to trust what she sees, and trust what she can’t.

Goo d reads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Knife violence
Animal attack

Reasonable Doubt by Whitney G.

Reasonable Doubt, Vol. 1 by Whitney G.

My cock has an appetite. A huge and very particular appetite: Blonde, curvy, and preferably not a fucking liar… (Although, that’s a story for another day.) As a high profile lawyer, I don’t have time to waste on relationships, so I fulfill my needs by anonymously chatting and sleeping with women I meet online. My rules are simple: One dinner. One night. No repeats. This is only casual sex. Nothing more. Nothing less. At least it was , until “Alyssa”…

She was supposed to be a 27 year old lawyer, a book hoarder, and completely unattractive. She was supposed to be someone I shared law advice with late at night, someone I could trust with details of my weekly escapades. But then she came into my firm for an interview—a college-intern interview, and everything fucking changed…

Goo d reads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Boss-intern relationship

Turbulence by Whitney G.

Turbulence by Whitney G.

He and I met under a cloud of clichés:Boy meets girl. Boy charms girl. Boy fucks girl. Our story was supposed to end right after the orgasms, right after we went our separate ways. But then we saw each other again… and neither of us could walk away.

Our rules were simple. Our passion was scandalous. Our hearts were supposed to be safe… but when you find something so all-consuming–something so intoxicating and inescapable, you’ll risk everything you’ve ever had, even if you’re destined to crash and burn.

This is us. This is our messed up love. This is turbulence.

Goo d reads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Cheating recounted
Familial estrangement
Plane crash

Dalliances and Devotion by Felicia Grossman

Dalliances & Devotion by Felicia Grossman

After two disastrous marriages, beauty columnist Amalia Truitt’s life is finally her own—well, it will be if she can get herself back to Delaware and demand access to her share of the Truitt family fortune. After all, the charity she’s organized for women who can’t afford their own divorces won’t fund itself.

However, not everyone wants her to reach her destination. When her family learns she’s been receiving anonymous death threats, a solo journey is out of the question.

Enter David Zisskind, the ragtag-peddler-turned-soldier whose heart Amalia broke years ago. He’s a Pinkerton now, and the promotion he craves depends on protecting his long-lost love on the unexpectedly treacherous journey across Pennsylvania… Read more.

Goo d reads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Antisemitism
Racism
Ableism
Sex work shaming
Abusive relationship
Domestic violence
Cheating
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Panic attack
Pregnancy
Physical injury
Emesis
Death of a parent
Stalking
Fire
Animal death

Appetites and Vices by Felicia Grossman

Appetites & Vices by Felicia Grossman

Banking heiress Ursula Nunes has lived her life on the fringes of Philadelphia’s upper class. Her Jewish heritage means she’s never quite been welcomed by society’s elite…and her quick temper has never helped, either.

A faux engagement to the scion of the mid-Atlantic’s most storied family might work to repair her rumpled reputation and gain her entrée to the life she thinks she wants…if she can ignore the way her “betrothed” makes her feel warm all over and stay focused on her goal.

Former libertine John Thaddeus “Jay” Truitt is hardly the man to teach innocent women about propriety. Luckily, high society has little to do with being proper and everything to do with identifying your foe’s temptation—an art form Jay mastered long ago. A broken engagement will give him the perfect excuse to run off to Europe and a life of indulgence.

Goo d reads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism
Misogyny
Antisemitism
Slut shaming
Substance addiction
Alcohol consumption
Emesis mentioned
Death of a parent from cancer recounted
Death of a spouse & child from illness
Bullying recounted

The Silver Arrow by Lev Grossman

The Silver Arrow by Lev Grossman

Kate and her younger brother Tom lead desperately uninteresting lives. If only life was like it is in books, where you have adventures! Even Kate’s 11th birthday is shaping up to be mundane — that is, until her mysterious Uncle Herbert surprises her with the most exhilarating birthday present of all time: a real-life steam locomotive called The Silver Arrow.

Kate and Tom’s parents quite sensibly tell him to take it back, but Kate and Tom have other ideas and very soon they’re off on a mysterious journey along magical rails. On their way, they pick up a pack of talking animals and with only curiosity and the thrill of the unknown to guide them, Kate and Tom are on the adventure of a lifetime — and they just might save the world after all.

Goo d reads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Near-drowning incident
Animal death mentioned

The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman

The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman

Quentin Coldwater has been cast out of Fillory, the secret magical land of his childhood dreams. With nothing left to lose, he returns to where his story began, the Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic, but he can’t hide from his past, and it’s not long before it comes looking for him.

Along with Plum, a brilliant young undergraduate with a dark secret of her own, Quentin sets out on a crooked path through a magical demimonde of gray magic and desperate characters. But all roads lead back to Fillory, and his new life takes him to old haunts, like Antarctica, and to buried secrets and old friends he thought were lost forever. He uncovers the key to a sorcery masterwork, a spell that could create magical utopia, and a new Fillory–but casting it will set in motion a chain of events that will bring Earth and Fillory crashing together. To save them he will have to risk sacrificing everything.

Goo d reads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Child sexual abuse mentioned
Suicidal ideation
Dead bodies

The Magician King by Lev Grossman

The Magician King by Lev Grossman

Quentin and his friends are now the kings and queens of Fillory, but the days and nights of royal luxury are starting to pall. After a morning hunt takes a sinister turn, Quentin and his old friend Julia charter a magical sailing ship and set out on an errand to the wild outer reaches of their kingdom. Their pleasure cruise becomes an adventure when the two are unceremoniously dumped back into the last place Quentin ever wants to see: his parent’s house in Chesterton, Massachusetts. And only the black, twisted magic that Julia learned on the streets can save them.

Goo d reads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Fatmisia
Graphic rape, on-page
Suicidal ideation
Self harm
Blood-letting

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A senior in high school, he’s still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery.

He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. Something is missing, though. Magic doesn’t bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he dreamed it would. After graduation he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real. But the land of Quentin’s fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he could have imagined. His childhood dream becomes a nightmare with a shocking truth at its heart.

Goo d reads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableist language
Sexual assault
Alcohol consumption & abuse
Drug abuse