The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

They did the impossible – deposing the godlike being whose brutal rule had lasted a thousand years. Now Vin, the street urchin who has grown into the most powerful Mistborn in the land, and Elend Venture, the idealistic young nobleman who loves her, must build a healthy new society in the ashes of an empire.

They have barely begun when three separate armies attack. As the siege tightens, an ancient legend seems to offer a glimmer of hope. But even if it really exists, no one knows where to find the Well of Ascension, or what manner of power it bestows.

It may just be that killing the Lord Ruler was the easy part. Surviving the aftermath of his fall is going to be the real challenge.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Knife violence

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sword violence
  • War themes & battle scenes

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

For a thousand years the ash fell. For a thousand years, the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years, the Lord Ruler reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Every attempted revolt has failed miserably.

Yet somehow hope survives. A new kind of uprising is being planned, one that depends on the cunning of a brilliant criminal mastermind and the courage of an unlikely heroine, a Skaa street urchin, who must learn to master Allomancy, the power of a mistborn.

What if the prophesied hero had failed to defeat the Dark Lord?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slavery
  • Physical & emotional abuse
  • Death of a child
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Graphic murder
  • Torture

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

Elantris was a place of glory. The capital of Arelon, the home to people transformed into magic-using demigods by the Shaod. But then the magic failed, Elantris started to rot, and its inhabitants turned into powerless wrecks.

And in the new capital, Kae, close enough to Elantris for everyone to be reminded of what they have lost, a princess arrives. Sarene is to be married to unite Teod and Arelon against the religious imperialists of Fjordell. But she is told that Raoden, her husband to be, is dead.

Determined to carry on the fight for Teod and Arelon’s freedom, Sarene clashes with the high priest Hrathen. If Hrathen can persuade the populace to convert, Fjordell will reign supreme. But there are secrets in Elantris, the dead and the ruined may yet have a role to play in this new world. Magic lives. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slavery
  • Torture
  • Sword violence
  • Poisoning

The Book of Koli by MR Carey

The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey

Beyond the walls of the small village of Mythen Rood lies an unrecognizable world. A world where overgrown forests are filled with choker trees and deadly vines and seeds that will kill you where you stand. And if they don’t get you, one of the dangerous shunned men will.

Koli has lived in Mythen Rood his entire life. He knows the first rule of survival is that you don’t venture beyond the walls.

What he doesn’t know is – what happens when you aren’t given a choice?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Transmisia
  • Self-immolation
  • Body horror & eyeball trauma
  • Death of children

The Girl with All the Gifts by MR Carey

The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey

Melanie is a very special girl. Dr. Caldwell calls her “our little genius.”

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don’t like her. She jokes that she won’t bite, but they don’t laugh.

Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children’s cells. She tells her favourite teacher all the things she’ll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn’t know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Global pandemic
  • Gun violence
  • Animal death

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan 

When their village is attacked by terrifying creatures, Rand al’Thor and his friends are forced to flee for their lives. An ancient evil is stirring, and its servants are scouring the land for the Dragon Reborn – the prophesied hero who can deliver the world from darkness.

In this Age of myth and legend, the Wheel of Time turns. What was, what may be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Torture
  • Animal injury

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas 

Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantès is confined to the grim fortress of the Château d’If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and becomes determined not only to escape but to unearth the treasure and use it to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. A huge popular success when it was first serialized in the 1840s, Dumas was inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment when writing his epic tale of suffering and retribution.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical racial slurs & antiziganism (g slur)
  • Slavery
  • Rape
  • Domestic abuse
  • Alcoholism
  • Miscarriage
  • Death by starvation
  • Cannibalism mentioned
  • Death of a child & attempted infanticide
  • Torture
  • Wrongful imprisonment

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood 

As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn’t believe in lasting romantic relationships–but her best friend does, and that’s what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.

That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor–and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford’s reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive’s career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexism
  • Sexual harassment
  • Death of a parent from pancreatic cancer recounted

Wait for You by Jennifer Armentrout

Wait for You by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Travelling thousands of miles from home to enter college is the only way nineteen-year-old Avery Morgansten can escape what happened at the Halloween party five years ago—an event that forever changed her life. All she needs to do is make it to her classes on time, make sure the bracelet on her left wrist stays in place, not draw any attention to herself, and maybe—please God—make a few friends, because surely that would be a nice change of pace. The one thing she didn’t need and never planned on was capturing the attention of the one guy who could shatter the precarious future she’s building for herself.

Cameron Hamilton is six feet and three inches of swoon-worthy hotness, complete with a pair of striking blue eyes… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape of a minor recounted
  • Sexual assault
  • Domestic violence, off-page