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 Hounding by Xenobe Purvis

Even before the rumors about the Mansfield girls begin, Little Nettlebed is a village steeped in the uncanny, from strange creatures that wash up on the riverbed to portentous ravens gathering on the roofs of people about to die. But when the villagers start to hear barking, and one claims to see the Mansfield sisters transform before his very eyes, the allegations spark fascination and fear like nothing has before. The truth is that though the inhabitants of Little Nettlebed have never much liked the Mansfield girls—a little odd, think some; a little high on themselves, perhaps—they’ve always had plenty to say about them. As,… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misogyny & toxic masculinity
  • Sexual harassment
  • Alcoholism
  • Infertility
  • Murder
  • Animal death & cruelty

Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine

Sixteen years old and enslaved since she was born, Junie has spent her life on Bellereine Plantation in Alabama, cooking and cleaning alongside her family, and tending to the white master’s daughter, Violet. Her daydreams are filled with poetry and faraway worlds, while she spends her nights secretly roaming through the forest, consumed with grief over the sudden death of her older sister, Minnie. When wealthy guests arrive from New Orleans, hinting at marriage for Violet and upending Junie’s life, she commits a desperate act—one that rouses Minnie’s spirit from the grave,… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical racism & racial slurs (on-page)
  • Slavery of a child on a plantation (protagonist, on-page)
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a sister

The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick

By early 1960s standards, Margaret Ryan, Viv Buschetti, and Bitsy Cobb, suburban housewives in a brand-new “planned community” in Northern Virginia, appear to have it all. The fact that “all” doesn’t feel like enough leaves them feeling confused and guilty, certain the fault must lie with them. Things begin to change when they form a book club with Charlotte Gustafson–the eccentric and artsy “new neighbor” from Manhattan–and read Betty Friedan’s just-released book, The Feminine Mystique. Controversial and ground-breaking, the book struck a chord with an….. Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical sexism discussed (theme)
  • Fertility issues recounted

The Secret Book Society by Madeline Martin

London, 1895: Trapped by oppressive marriages and societal expectations, three women receive a mysterious invitation to an afternoon tea at the home of the reclusive Lady Duxbury. Beneath the genteel facade of the gathering lies a secret book club—a sanctuary where they can discover freedom, sisterhood, and the courage to rewrite their stories. Eleanor Clarke, a devoted mother suffocating under the tyranny of her husband. Rose Wharton, a transplanted American dollar princess struggling to fit the mold of an aristocratic wife. Lavinia Cavendish, an artistic young woman haunted by a dangerous family secret…. Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical misogyny & ableism, including forced institutionalisation of women
  • Domestic abuse

The First Witch of Boston by Andrea Catalano

Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1646. Thomas and Margaret Jones arrive from England to build a life in the New World. Though of differing temperaments, cautious Thomas and fiery Margaret, a healer, are bound by a love that has lasted decades. With a child on the way, their new beginning promises only blessings. But in this austere Puritan community, comely faces hide malicious intent. Wrong moves or words are met with suspicion, and Margaret’s bold and unguarded nature draws scorn. Soon, Margaret is mistrusted as more cunning woman than kind caregiver. And when personal tragedies, religious hysteria, and wariness…. Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape (on-page)

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

“Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches”: That was how Nana Alba always began the stories she told her great-granddaughter Minerva—stories that have stayed with Minerva all her life. Perhaps that’s why Minerva has become a graduate student focused on the history of horror literature and is researching the life of Beatrice Tremblay, an obscure author of macabre tales. In the course of assembling her thesis, Minerva uncovers information that reveals that Tremblay’s most famous novel, The Vanishing, was inspired by a true story: Decades earlier, during the Great Depression, Tremblay attended the…. Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Grooming & incest (uncle-niece)
  • Dubious consent (‘dubcon’)
  • Murder
  • Animal death

The Kill Clause by Lisa Unger

A hit woman’s work doesn’t stop for the holidays. As the advent calendar winds down, Paige slips into a palatial house, ignoring a blizzard of texts from her ex-husband. No surprise—Julian always gets maudlin this time of year. The real shock comes when the target is not alone. His young daughter is there too. Risking the wrath of her organization, Paige retreats. There are some lines that, for personal reasons, she just won’t cross. But when she returns on Christmas Eve to finish the job, the girl is still there…along with someone even more startling. As the ghosts of her past gather,… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic abuse
  • Overdose
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder by gun violence
  • Home invasion
  • Animal death

The Fix by Mia Sheridan

Eleven years ago, Cami Cortlandt’s mother and sister died cruelly in a violent home invasion. The trauma and notoriety still linger, but Cami has managed to build a life in her hometown despite everything she’s lost. Then one day it all comes rushing back. A distorted voice on the phone: Would you like a do-over? A disturbing video of a room with bars on the window, trapping a young boy inside who looks achingly, impossibly familiar. Four days to find him. With the help of Rex Lowe, an old classmate whose past is inextricably tied to her own, Cami races to uncover everything she can about the boy—where he is, who he is, and why… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape (multiple by captor, on-page & discussed)
  • Teen pregnancy & adoption
  • Drugging
  • Murder of a mother & sister in a home invasion (on-page)
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping & captivity

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,

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father