Tag Archives: Cheating

What the Neighbors Saw by Melissa Adelman

When Alexis and her husband Sam buy a neglected Cape Cod house in an exclusive DC suburb, they are ecstatic. Sam is on the cusp of making partner at his law firm, Alexis is pregnant with their second child, and their glamorous neighbours welcome the couple with open arms. Things are looking up, and Alexis believes she can finally leave her troubled past behind. But the neighbourhood’s picture-perfect image is shattered when their neighbour Teddy – a handsome, successful father of three – is found dead on the steep banks of the Potomac River. The community is shaken… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Pregnancy from rape mentioned
  • Infidelity
  • Incest (half-siblings)
  • Disordered eating
  • Murder

Context : The protagonist has her husband murdered because she finds out they’re half-siblings and she can’t deal with the public humiliation. She also learns she is the product of rape.

The Perfect Neighborhood by Liz Alterman

When actress and model Allison Langley leaves her former rockstar husband, Christopher, in the middle of the night, it’s all her Oak Hill neighbours can talk about. The gossip comes to an abrupt halt when five-year-old Billy Barnes goes missing on his walk home from kindergarten. Billy’s mother, Rachel, blames herself for being at work and letting her only child walk alone. Cassidy, Billy’s teenage babysitter, was also late to arrive on the afternoon he disappeared and blames herself for his disappearance. As the clock ticks down, police are unable to find any trace of Billy.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Teacher-student relationship
  • Infertility & miscarriage
  • Kidnapping & drugging of children

Moment in Time by Suzanne Redfearn

It’s been eight years since a tragic accident changed Mo Kaminski’s and Chloe Miller’s lives forever. Now in their midtwenties, they’re sharing an apartment in San Francisco and navigating the normal challenges of early adulthood. Along with their roommate, Hazel, they are making their marks on the world—Mo revolutionizing the news with her media start-up, Hazel using her big brain to anticipate the future, and Chloe rescuing abandoned strays in the city. But when Hazel disappears after being sexually assaulted, Mo’s and Chloe’s lives are again suddenly ripped apart. And when the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape (secondary character)
  • Drugging (secondary character)
  • Physical assault resulting in a coma
  • Disappearance of a friend

Context : The protagonists’ roommate was drugged and raped. The mystery revolves around how her rapist is found beaten and comatose while the roommate remains missing.

Hush Little Baby by Suzanne Redfearn

Jillian Kane appears to have it all – a successful career, a gorgeous home, a loving husband, and two wonderful children. The reality behind closed doors is something else entirely. For nine years, she has hid the bruises and the truth of her abusive marriage in order to protect Addie and Drew, knowing, if she left, Gordon would destroy her-destroy them. When, in an act of desperation, she flees, her worst nightmare is realized, and she finds herself on the run with her two young children, no money, and no plan. With Gordon in hot pursuit, there is only one inescapable… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Domestic violence & abuse

If We Were Perfect by Ana Huang

Olivia had a plan: MBA, Wall Street VP by thirty-two, marriage and two children (preferably twins because #efficiency). Not in her plan? Losing half her belongings in an apartment flood and being forced to turn to her ex for help. Definitely not in her plan? Moving into said ex’s house and watching him walk around shirtless, bake her cupcakes, and look at her with those smoldering— Wait, what was she talking about again? Between his bakery and meddling family, Sammy had enough on his plate without bringing the ex he’d never been able to forget into the mix… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity (secondary character, recounted)
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Emesis

The Hollywood Assistant by May Cobb

Cassidy Foster is heartbroken, stuck in life, and getting a little too obsessed with plants. Then when a well-connected friend becomes sick of Cassidy’s moping and gets her a gig with famous Hollywood couple, Marisol and Nate Sterling, Cassidy jumps at the chance to move to sunny L.A. The Sterlings are warm and welcoming. A perfect couple. All Cassidy has to do is be available a few hours a week for errands. In return, she has access to luxury. Designer clothes. A sparkling pool. Great pay. When Nate takes interest in her, asking her to read scripts he’s written, Cassidy thinks this could be the key to kickstarting her writing dreams. As… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • COVID-19 pandemic mentioned

The Hunting Wives by May Cobb

Sophie O’Neill left behind an envy-inspiring career and the stressful, competitive life of big-city Chicago to settle down with her husband and young son in a small Texas town. It seems like the perfect life with a beautiful home in an idyllic rural community. But Sophie soon realizes that life is now too quiet, and she’s feeling bored and restless. Then she meets Margot Banks, an alluring socialite who is part of an elite clique secretly known as the Hunting Wives. Sophie finds herself completely drawn to Margot and swept into her mysterious world of late-night target… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Adult-minor relationship & paedophilia
  • Rape
  • Cheating
  • Alcohol abuse & drugging
  • Pregnancy & abortion mentioned
  • Death of a child
  • Gun violence

My Summer Darlings by May Cobb

Jen Hansen, Kittie Spears, and Cynthia Nichols have been friends since childhood. They are now approaching forty and their lives have changed, but their insular East Texas town has not. They stay sane by drinking wine in the afternoons, dishing about other women in the neighbourhood, and bonding over the heartache of their own encroaching middle age and raising ungrateful teens. Then Will Harding comes to town, moving into one of the neighbourhood’s grandest homes. Mysterious and charming, he seems like the answer to each woman’s prayers. He’s a… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Adult-minor relationship & paedophilia
  • Divorce recounted
  • Infidelity
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Physical assault
  • Kidnapping & captivity

Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun

One year ago, recent Portland transplant Ellie Oliver had her dream job in animation and a Christmas Eve meet-cute with a woman at a bookstore that led her to fall in love over the course of a single night. But after a betrayal the next morning and the loss of her job soon after, she finds herself adrift, alone, and desperate for money. Finding work at a local coffee shop, she’s just getting through the days—until Andrew, the shop’s landlord, proposes a shocking, drunken plan: a marriage of convenience that will give him his recent inheritance and alleviate Ellie’s financial woes and isolation. They make a plan to spend the holidays… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia, biphobia & transphobia
  • Familial estrangement & emotional parental abuse
  • Infidelity (secondary character)
  • Divorce
  • Anxiety & panic attacks (protagonist)
  • Emesis
  • Alcohol consumption

Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin

Enid is obsessed with space. She can tell you all about black holes and their ability to spaghettify you without batting an eye in fear. Her one major phobia? Bald men. But she tries to keep that one under wraps. When she’s not listening to her favourite true crime podcasts on a loop, she’s serially dating a rotation of women from dating apps. At the same time, she’s trying to forge a new relationship with her estranged half-sisters after the death of her absent father. When she unwittingly plunges into her first serious romantic entanglement, Enid starts to believe that someone is following her As her paranoia spirals out of control, Enid… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Infidelity recounted
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Anxiety & panic attacks including nightmare & peladophobia
  • Parent with depression
  • Self-harm & attempted suicide of a parent recounted

Context : The protagonist’s high school boyfriend cheated on his girlfriend with her. She also did not realise some of her previous lovers were married. A secondary character is divorcing his wife for infidelity