Leather & Lark by Brynne Weaver

Contract killer Lachlan Kane wants a quiet life working in his leather studio and forgetting all about his traumatic past. But when he botches a job for his boss’s biggest client, Lachlan knows he’ll never claw his way out of the underworld. At least, not until songbird Lark Montague offers him a deal: use his skills to hunt down a killer and she’ll find a way to secure his freedom. The catch? He has to marry her first.  And they can’t stand each other. Indie singer-songwriter Lark is the sunshine and glitter that burns through every cloud and clings to every crevice that Lachlan Kane tries to… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child sexual abuse recounted
  • Physical child abuse & parental neglect recounted
  • Infidelty recounted
  • Panic attack, insomnia & claustrophobia
  • Blood, injury & gore depiction including concussion, gunshot wounds, the use of needles to sew mouths shut, and the removal of fingers and eyes from dead bodies
  • Death of a mother & father mentioned
  • Murder of a father in a home invasion
  • Murder of a terminally ill great-aunt from injection
  • Murder (theme) including the use of a car accident to kill someone
  • Torture
  • Home invasion, stalking & kidnapping discussed
  • Animal attack & injury

*Context : The female protagonist’s ex-partner cheated on her and messaged underage girls. A secondary character is also cheating on his partner with his children’s nanny. The female protagonist is a serial killer her targets rapists and paedophilias; the male protagonist is a contract killer. A dog bites the antagonist and recovers from an injury sustained when the antagonist kicks it in retaliation.

James by Percival Everett

When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Enslavement & human trafficking (protagonist)
  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Child abuse
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Murder
  • Animal death & attack (snake)

Midnight Train by Angie Sage

Alex is pursued by the fiendish Twilight Hauntings, monstrous Enchantments created because a prophecy foretold the king’s death at the hands of an Enchanter’s Child. The Twilight Hauntings are designed to rid the land of all Enchanters and their children, but Alex has other ideas. Why should she be forced to leave the place where she belongs? So now Alex is on a mission to destroy the Twilight Hauntings. And to do so she must find the very thing that created them—a magical talisman called the Tau. But where is it? In her search for the Tau, Alex enlists the reluctant help… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Death of a mother mentioned
  • Death from a fall off a cliff
  • Poisoning
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Animal attack (crow, spider)
  • Animal death

Twilight Hauntings by Angie Sage

Alex has a set of Enchanted cards. When she flutters her fingers above them, something magical happens: the cards come alive and create moving pictures of what is now and what is yet to come. But Enchantment is illegal in the city of Luma, and those who practice it are imprisoned forever in the Vaults—dark dungeons deep below the city. When Alex is betrayed by her foster sister Zerra, she knows she is in great danger. With the help of her little foster brother, Louie, she makes a daring escape. But Alex is betrayed by her… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Death of a mother in incarceration
  • Attempted murder by strangulation
  • Near-drowning incident
  • Animal death by gunshot (bird)
  • Animal attack (hawk, eel)

Bones of the Sun God by Peter Vegas

Sam heads to Belize to continue his investigation into his parents’ mysterious disappearance and to learn more about secret of the pyramids. But after being kidnapped by crocodile cultists, will he ever be able to find the answers he’s looking for?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping
  • Imprisonment
  • Animal attack

Burn the Dark by S.A. Hunt

Robin is a YouTube celebrity gone-viral with her intensely-realistic witch hunter series. But even her millions of followers don’t know the truth: her series isn’t fiction. Her ultimate goal is to seek revenge against the coven of witches who wronged her mother long ago. Returning home to the rural town of Blackfield, Robin meets friends new and old on her quest for justice. But then, a mysterious threat known as the Red Lord interferes with her plans…

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & homophobia
  • Domestic violence
  • Hallucinations
  • Suicide
  • Prescription drug abuse & alcohol abuse
  • Institutionalisation
  • Blood & gore depiction including body horror & emesis
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
  • Animal death
  • Animal attack (snake)

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time. She is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as “1847” or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & homophobia mentioned
  • Anxiety & depression
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman

Catherine feels trapped. Her father is determined to marry her off to a rich man–any rich man, no matter how awful. But by wit, trickery, and luck, Catherine manages to send several would-be husbands packing. Then a shaggy-bearded suitor from the north comes to call–by far the oldest, ugliest, most revolting suitor of them all. Unfortunately, he is also the richest. Can a sharp-tongued, clever young maiden with a mind of her own actually lose the battle against an ill-mannered, piglike lord and a greedy toad of a father? Not if Catherine has anything to say about it!

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Alcohol consumption mentioned (secondary characters)
  • Miscarriage & death during childbirth
  • Hanging mentioned
  • Death from a knife wound mentioned
  • Animal attack (secondary character, dog)

Wandi by Favel Parrett

A young cub is snatched from his family and home by a giant eagle, then dropped, injured and alone, in a suburban garden. This is where he meets his first Human, and begins his long journey to becoming the most famous dingo in the world. He will never see his mountain home again, or his family. But it is his destiny to save alpine dingoes from extinction, and he dreams of a time when all cubs like him can live in the wild in safety, instead of facing poison and bullets and hatred.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Animal cruelty
  • Animal death & injury
  • Animal attack (eagle)

Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo

It begins, as the best superhero stories do, with a tragic accident that has unexpected consequences. The squirrel never saw the vacuum cleaner coming, but self-described cynic Flora Belle Buckman, who has read every issue of the comic book Terrible Things Can Happen to You!, is the just the right person to step in and save him. What neither can predict is that Ulysses (the squirrel) has been born anew, with powers of strength, flight, and misspelled poetry—and that Flora will be changed too, as she discovers the possibility of hope and the promise of a capacious heart.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted animal death
  • Animal attack
  • Animal illness & injury