The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose

Sarah Morgan is a successful and powerful defense attorney in Washington D.C. At 33 years old, she is a named partner at her firm and life is going exactly how she planned. The same cannot be said for her husband, Adam. He is a struggling writer who has had little success in his career. He begins to tire of his and Sarah’s relationship as she is constantly working. Out in the secluded woods, at Adam and Sarah’s second home, Adam engages in a passionate affair with Kelly Summers. Then, one morning everything changes. Adam is arrested for Kelly’s murder… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobic slur
  • Infidelity
  • Substance addiction mentioned (secondary character)
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Murder of a pregnant woman by stabbing

Context : The protagonist is a lawyer defending her husband from the murder of his mistress.

Across the Desert by Dusti Bowling

Twelve-year-old Jolene spends every day she can at the library watching her favorite livestream: The Desert Aviator, where twelve-year-old “Addie Earhart” shares her adventures flying an ultralight plane over the desert. While watching this daring girl fly through the sky, Jolene can dream of what it would be like to fly with her, far away from her own troubled home life where her mother struggles with a narcotic addiction. And Addie, who is grieving the loss of her father, finds solace in her online conversations with Jolene, her biggest—and only—fan. Then, one day, it all goes wrong… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parent with substance addiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father
  • Plane crash

    Accidental Romeo by Nicole Snow

    A perfect stranger just kissed away the worst day of my life. Emphasis on perfect. Hunter Forsythe is so far out of my league I can’t even buy tickets. And now he’s insta-date to my stuck up sister’s wedding?! Brace for everything to go hilariously wrong. But my mysterious new hero is no flipping joke. Rich as sin. Knockout eyes. A snarlypants single dad. Muscle, muscle everywhere .Too good for the quiet baker girl no one ever noticed. Then I find out what—and who—put him up to this insanity. I’m so mad I could spit nails. Imagine my surprise when Romeo keeps coming. Hear my door slamming in his face. Witness my jaw… Read more.

    Goodreads

    Trigger and Content Warnings

    • Cheating recounted
    • Gambling addiction mentioned
    • Death of a brother recounted
    • House fire recounted
    • Animal death (fish)

    One by One by Freida McFadden

    One by one, they will get what they deserve… A night spent sleeping on dirt and leaves is not how Claire Matchett expected to spend her vacation. She thought this would be a break from the stresses of work and raising her young children. A chance to repair her damaged marriage. A week of hiking and hot tubs with two other couple friends. It sounded like heaven. Then Claire’s minivan breaks down on a lonely dirt road. With no cell reception, the group has no choice but to hike the rest of the way to their hotel. But it turns out the woods aren’t as easy to navigate as they… Read more.

    Goodreads

    Trigger and Content Warnings

    • Infidelity
    • Murder

    The Perfect Son by Freida McFadden

    Erika Cass has a perfect family and a perfect life. Until the evening when two detectives show up at her front door A high school girl has vanished from Erika’s quiet suburban neighbourhood. The police suspect the worst–murder. And Erika’s teenage son, Liam, was the last person to see the girl alive. Erika has always sensed something dark and disturbed in her seemingly perfect older child. She wants to believe he’s innocent, but as the evidence mounts, she can’t deny the truth–Liam may have done the unthinkable. Now she must ask herself: How far will she go to protect her son?

    Goodreads

    Trigger and Content Warnings

    • Infidelity
    • Hospitalisation
    • Starvation & dehydration
    • Death of parents
    • Murder
    • Kidnapping
    • Incarceration
    • Fire
    • Animal death & cruelty

    The Coworker by Freida McFadden

    Dawn Schiff is strange. At least, everyone thinks so at Vixed, the nutritional supplement company where Dawn works as an accountant. She never says the right thing. She has no friends. And she is always at her desk at precisely 8:45 a.m. So when Dawn doesn’t show up to the office one morning, her coworker Natalie Farrell—beautiful, popular, top sales rep five years running—is surprised. Then she receives an unsettling, anonymous phone call that changes everything…. It turns out Dawn wasn’t just an awkward outsider—she was being targeted by someone close. And now Natalie is irrevocably tied to Dawn as she finds her… Read more.

    Goodreads

    Trigger and Content Warnings

    • Infidelity
    • Suicide & suicidal ideation
    • Death of a friend
    • Murder
    • Bullying & discussions of a toxic work environment

    The Locked Door by Freida McFadden

    While eleven-year-old Nora Davis was up in her bedroom doing homework, she had no idea her father was killing women in the basement. Until the day the police arrived at their front door. Decades later, Nora’s father is spending his life behind bars, and Nora is a successful surgeon with a quiet, solitary existence. Nobody knows her father was a notorious serial killer. And she intends to keep it that way. Then Nora discovers one of her young female patients has been murdered. In the same unique and horrific manner that her father used to kill his victims. Somebody knows who Nora is. Somebody wants her to take… Read more.

    Goodreads

    Trigger and Content Warnings

    • Alcohol consumption
    • Blood & injury depiction including loss of limb
    • Hospitalisation
    • Murder
    • Torture
    • Animal death (pet mouse)

    The Inmate by Freida McFadden

    There are three rules Brooke Sullivan must follow as a new nurse practitioner at a men’s maximum-security 1) Treat all prisoners with respect. 2) Never reveal any personal information. 3) Never EVER become too friendly with the inmates. But none of the staff at the prison knows Brooke has already broken the rules. Nobody knows about her intimate connection to Shane Nelson, one of the penitentiary’s most notorious and dangerous inmates. And they certainly don’t know that Shane was Brooke’s high school sweetheart―the star quarterback who is now spending the rest of his life in prison for a series of grisly murders. Or… Read more.

    Goodreads

    Trigger and Content Warnings

    • Foster care experiences mentioned
    • Murder of a friend & attempted murder by an ex-boyfriend recounted
    • Incarceration (theme)
    • Car accident

    Never Lie by Freida McFadden

    Newlyweds Tricia and Ethan are searching for the house of their dreams. But when they visit the remote manor that once belonged to Dr. Adrienne Hale, a renowned psychiatrist who vanished without a trace four years earlier, a violent winter storm traps them at the estate… with no chance of escape until the blizzard comes to an end. In search of a book to keep her entertained until the snow abates, Tricia happens upon a secret room. One that contains audio transcripts from every single patient Dr. Hale has ever interviewed. As Tricia listens to the cassette tapes, she learns about the terrifying chain of events leading up to Dr. Hale’s mysterious disappearance. Tricia plays the tapes one… Read more.

    Goodreads

    Trigger and Content Warnings

    • Alcohol consumption
    • Emesis
    • Death of a parent
    • Murder
    • Blackmail
    • Snowstorm (theme)

    The Housemaid’s Secret by Freida McFadden

    Freddie Makin is a spy for hire. For a year he’s been watching Jiang Cheng, an academic whose life seems suspiciously normal. To Freddie it’s just a job: he never asks who’s paying him and why—until the day someone is sent to kill him, and suddenly the watcher becomes the watched. On the run from whoever wants him dead, Freddie knows he must have seen something incriminating. The only trouble is, he has no idea what. Is the CIA behind all this—or does it go higher than that? Have his trackers uncovered his own murky past? As he’s forced into a lethal dance across… Read more.

    Goodreads

    Trigger and Content Warnings

    • Fatmisia and body-shaming
    • Classism
    • Attempted rape
    • Infidelity (on-page)
    • Discussions of domestic abuse and violence
    • Disordered eating & food thoughts including calorie counting and food shaming
    • Suicidal ideation
    • Alcohol consumption
    • Infertility mentioned
    • Blood depiction
    • Emesis
    • Death of a mother from a stroke mentioned
    • Murder by gun & knife violence
    • Physical assault
    • Stalking
    • Incarceration for physical assault mentioned
    • Poverty & financial difficulties discussed

    Context : The protagonist’s employee has her gigolo pretend to be an abusive, violent husband. This includes physical abuse, attempted strangulation, electronic monitoring, and food deprivation. Mentions of the protagonist working to free previous clients from domestic abuse situations, including murdering the abuser when necessary. Her neighbour attempts to rape her and she pushes him down the stairs. The police do not believe her and victim-blame. Her ex-boyfriend hides illegal drugs in his apartment in revenge, and her neighbour goes to jail for drug possession. The protagonist was in jail for assaulting her friend’s rapist because he died from his injuries. Wendy, the protagonist’s employer, also didn’t tell her real husband that she was could not get pregnant, even though he believed they were trying to have a child.