Historical Fiction – Page 39 – Trigger Warning Database

As Dawn Breaks by Kate Breslin

As Dawn Breaks by Kate Breslin

Amid the Great War in 1918 England, munitions worker Rosalind Graham is desperate to escape the arranged marriage being forced on her by her ruthless guardian and instead follow her own course. When the Chilwell factory explodes, killing hundreds of unidentified workers, Rose realizes the world believes she perished in the disaster. Seizing the chance to escape, she risks all and assumes a new identity, taking a supervisory position in Gretna, Scotland, as Miss Tilly Lockhart… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Factory explosions

Last Dance on the Starlight Pier by Sarah Bird

Last Dance on the Starlight Pier by Sarah Bird

July 3. 1932. Shivering and in shock, Evie Grace Devlin watches the Starlite Palace burn into the sea and wonders how she became a person who would cause a man to kill himself. She’d come to Galveston to escape a dark past in vaudeville and become a good person, a nurse. When that dream is cruelly thwarted, Evie is swept into the alien world of dance marathons. All that she has been denied—a family, a purpose, even love—waits for her there in the place she dreads most: the spotlight… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Child abuse recounted
Death of a father recounted

Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen by Sarah Bird

Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen by Sarah Bird

Though born into bondage on a “miserable tobacco farm” in Little Dixie, Missouri, Cathy Williams was never allowed to consider herself a slave. According to her mother, she was a captive, bound by her noble warrior blood to escape the enemy. Her means of deliverance is Union general Phillip Henry “Smash ‘em Up” Sheridan, the outcast of West Point who takes the rawboned, prideful young woman into service. At war’s end, having tasted freedom, Cathy refuses to return to servitude and makes the monumental decision to disguise herself as a man and join the Army’s legendary Buffalo Soldiers… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Slavery recounted

Spellmaker by Charlie Holmberg

Spellmaker by Charlie N. Holmberg

England, 1895. An unsolved series of magician murders and opus thefts isn’t a puzzle to Elsie Camden. But to reveal a master spellcaster as the culprit means incriminating herself as an unregistered spellbreaker. When Elsie refuses to join forces with the charming assassin, her secret is exposed, she’s thrown in jail, and the murderer disappears. But Elsie’s hope hasn’t vanished… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Misogyny
Terrorism

Spellbreaker by Charlie Holmberg

Spellbreaker by Charlie N. Holmberg

The orphaned Elsie Camden learned as a girl that there were two kinds of wizards in the world: those who pay for the power to cast spells and those, like her, born with the ability to break them. But as an unlicensed magic user, her gift is a crime. Commissioned by an underground group known as the Cowls, Elsie uses her spellbreaking to push back against the aristocrats and help the common man. She always did love the tale of Robin Hood… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Murder
Terrorism

Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas

Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas

Desperate to escape her scheming relatives, Evangeline Jenner has sought the help of the most infamous scoundrel in London. A marriage of convenience is the only solution. No one would have ever paired the shy, stammering wallflower with the sinfully handsome viscount. It quickly becomes clear, however, that Evie is a woman of hidden strength—and Sebastian desires her more than any woman he’s ever known. Determined to win her husband’s elusive heart, Evie dares to strike a bargain with the devil: If Sebastian can stay celibate for three months, she will allow him into her… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Domestic violence
Death of a parent
Death of a sibling
Attempted murder

Where the Lost Wander by Amy Harmon

Where the Lost Wander by Amy Harmon

The Overland Trail, 1853: Naomi May never expected to be widowed at twenty. Eager to leave her grief behind, she sets off with her family for a life out West. On the trail, she forms an instant connection with John Lowry, a half-Pawnee man straddling two worlds and a stranger in both. But life in a wagon train is fraught with hardship, fear, and death. Even as John and Naomi are drawn to each other, the trials of the journey and their disparate pasts work to keep them apart. John’s heritage gains them safe passage through… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism, on-page
Rape
Gun violence
Scalping
Animal death

What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon

What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon

Anne Gallagher grew up enchanted by her grandfather’s stories of Ireland. Heartbroken at his death, she travels to his childhood home to spread his ashes. There, overcome with memories of the man she adored and consumed by a history she never knew, she is pulled into another time.

The Ireland of 1921, teetering on the edge of war, is a dangerous place in which to awaken. But there Anne finds herself, hurt, disoriented, and under…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Grief & loss depiction
Death of a grandfather
Murder
Gun violence
Fire
War themes

Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain

Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain

Kacey Cleary’s whole life imploded four years ago in a drunk-driving accident. Now she’s working hard to bury the pieces left behind—all but one. Her little sister, Livie. Kacey can swallow the constant disapproval from her born-again aunt Darla over her self-destructive lifestyle; she can stop herself from going kick-boxer crazy on Uncle Raymond when he loses the girls’ college funds at a blackjack table. She just needs to keep it together until Livie is no longer a minor, and then they can get the hell out of Grand Rapids, Michigan… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Sexism
Rape
Alcoholism
Manic-depressive episode
Murder

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

On a dark midwinter night in an ancient inn on the river Thames, an extraordinary event takes place. The regulars are telling stories to while away the dark hours when the door bursts open on a grievously wounded stranger. In his arms is the lifeless body of a small child. Hours later, the girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life. Is it a miracle? Is it magic? Or can science provide an explanation? These questions have many answers, some of them quite dark indeed… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Rape
Domestic violence
Suicide
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a child
Kidnapping