Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury

After years of waiting for her Calling—a trial every witch must pass in order to come into their powers—the one thing Voya Thomas didn’t expect was to fail. When Voya’s ancestor gives her an unprecedented second chance to complete her Calling, she agrees—and then is horrified when her task is to kill her first love. And this time, failure means every Thomas witch will be stripped of their magic.

Voya is determined to save her family’s magic no matter the cost. The problem is, Voya has never been in love, so for her to succeed, she’ll first have to find the perfect guy—and fast. Fortunately, a genetic matchmaking program has just hit the market. Her plan is to join the program, fall in love, and complete her task before the deadline. What she doesn’t count on is being paired with the infuriating Luc—how can she fall in love with a guy who seemingly wants nothing to do with her?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism mentioned
  • Slavery
  • Child neglect mentioned
  • Substance abuse mentioned
  • Eating disorder
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Police brutality
  • Gun violence
  • Whipping
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

A Curse of Ash and Embers by Jo Spurrier

A Curse of Ash & Embers by Jo Spurrier

Some people knit socks by the fire at night. Gyssha Blackbone made monsters. But the old witch is dead now, and somehow it’s Elodie’s job to clean up the mess. When she was hired at Black Oak Cottage, Elodie had no idea she’d find herself working for a witch; and her acid-tongued new mistress, Aleida, was not expecting a housemaid to turn up on her doorstep.

Gyssha’s final curse left Aleida practically dead on her feet, and now, with huge monsters roaming the woods, a demonic tree lurking in the orchard and an angry warlock demanding repayment of a debt, Aleida needs Elodie’s help, whether she likes it or not. And no matter what the old witch throws at her, to Elodie it’s still better than going back home.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Graphic verbal & emotional child abuse
  • Physical child abuse mentioned
  • Domestic violence mentioned
  • Misogyny
  • Dissociation
  • Suicide
  • Blood depiction
  • Physical injuries
  • Emesis
  • Death of a father
  • Death of a child mentioned
  • Death of a friend recounted
  • Murder mentioned
  • Kidnapping mentioned
  • Strangulation
  • Poisoning
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Yellow Jessamine by Caitlin Starling

Yellow Jessamine by Caitlin Starling

Powerful shipping magnate Evelyn Perdanu lives a tight, contained life, holding herself at a distance from all who would get close to her. Her family is dead, her country is dying, and when something foul comes to the city of Delphinium, the brittle, perilous existence she’s built for herself is strained to breaking.

When one of her ships arrives in dock, she counts herself lucky that it made it through the military blockades slowly strangling her city. But one by one, the crew fall ill with a mysterious sickness: an intense light in their eyes and obsessive behavior, followed by a catatonic stupor… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Body horror
  • Emesis
  • Plague
  • Drug abuse
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)
  • Poisoning
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

When My Heart Joins the Thousand by AJ Steiger

When My Heart Joins the Thousand by A.J. Steiger

Alvie Fitz doesn’t fit in, and she doesn’t care. She’s spent years swallowing meds and bad advice from doctors and social workers. Adjust, adapt. Pretend to be normal. It sounds so easy. If she can make it to her eighteenth birthday without any major mishaps, she’ll be legally emancipated. Free. But if she fails, she’ll become a ward of the state and be sent back to the group home.

All she wants is to be left alone to spend time with her friend, Chance, the one-winged hawk at the zoo where she works. She can bide her time with him until her emancipation. Humans are overrated anyway… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist slurs
  • Homomisia & homomisic slurs
  • Parental abuse
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Depression
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Suicide mentioned & recounted
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood depiction & physical injuries
  • Surgery
  • Emesis
  • Hospitalisation
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Police brutality
  • Drowning recounted
  • Bullying
  • Attempted murder of an autistic child by a parent
  • Poverty themes & homelessness
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner

Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner

Mid-December, and Cambridgeshire is blanketed with snow. Detective Sergeant Manon Bradshaw tries to sleep after yet another soul-destroying Internet date – the low murmuring of her police radio her only solace.

Over the airwaves come reports of a missing woman – door ajar, keys and phone left behind, a spatter of blood on the kitchen floor. Manon knows the first 72 hours are critical: you find her, or you look for a body. And as soon as she sees a picture of Edith Hind, a Cambridge post-graduate from a well-connected family, she knows this case will be big… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Blood depiction
  • Dead body
  • Disappearance
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner

Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner

Manon has settled back into life in Cambridgeshire with her adopted son Fly. She’s perfectly happy working on cold cases until a man is stabbed to death just yards from the police station, and both the victim and the prime suspect turn out to be much closer to home than she would like. How well does Manon know her loved ones, and are they capable of murder?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racial profiling
  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Death of a sex worker
  • Cheating
  • Self-harm
  • Drug overdose
  • Blood depiction
  • Heart attack
  • Murder
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

The Stone Knife by Anna Stephens

The Stone Knife by Anna Stephens

For generations, the forests of Ixachipan have echoed with the clash of weapons, as nation after nation has fallen to the Empire of Songs – and to the unending, magical music that binds its people together. Now, only two free tribes remain. The Empire is not their only enemy. Monstrous, scaled predators lurk in rivers and streams, with a deadly music of their own.

As battle looms, fighters on both sides must decide how far they will go for their beliefs and for the ones they love – a veteran general seeks peace through war, a warrior and a shaman set out to understand their enemies, and an ambitious noble tries to bend ancient magic to her will

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slavery
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Cannibalism
  • Death of a child
  • Torture
  • Animal death
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens

Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens

Also known as Murder is Bad Manners.

1934. When Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong set up a secret detective agency at Deepdean School for Girls, they struggle to find a truly exciting mystery to investigate. (Unless you count the case of Lavinia’s missing tie. Which they don’t.)

But then Hazel discovers the body of the Science Mistress, Miss Bell – but when she and Daisy return five minutes later, the body has disappeared. Now the girls have to solve a murder, and prove a murder has happened in the first place before the killer strikes again (and before the police can get there first, naturally), but will they succeed?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Emesis
  • Blood depiction
  • Graphic dead bodies
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Drowning mentioned
  • Bullying
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Lumberjanes, Vol 1: Beware the Kitten Holy by Noelle Stevenson

Lumberjanes, Vol. 1 by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Shannon Watters & illustrated by Brooklyn Allen

At Miss Qiunzilla Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s camp for hard-core lady-types, things are not what they seem. Three-eyed foxes. Secret caves. Anagrams. Luckily, Jo, April, Mal, Molly, and Ripley are five rad, butt-kicking best pals determined to have an awesome summer together… And they’re not gonna let a magical quest or an array of supernatural critters get in their way!

Collects Lumberjanes No. 1-4.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Minor blood depiction & physical injury
  • Drowning
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

Now that the ley lines around Cabeswater have been woken, nothing for Ronan, Gansey, Blue, and Adam will be the same. Ronan, for one, is falling more and more deeply into his dreams, and his dreams are intruding more and more into waking life. Meanwhile, some very sinister people are looking for some of the same pieces of the Cabeswater puzzle that Gansey is after…

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Classism
  • Ableist language
  • Homomisia
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Attempted suicide mentioned
  • Blood depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father recounted
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com