The Lost Ticket by Freya Sampson

When Libby Nicholls arrives in London, brokenhearted and with her life in tatters, the first person she meets on the bus is elderly Frank. He tells her about the time in 1962 that he met a girl on the number 88 bus with beautiful red hair just like hers. They made plans for a date at the National Gallery art museum, but Frank lost the bus ticket with her number on it. For the past sixty years, he’s ridden the same bus trying to find her, but with no luck. Libby is inspired to action and, with the help of an unlikely companion, she papers the bus route with posters advertising their search. Libby begins to open her guarded heart to new friendship… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity mentioned (secondary character)
  • Emotionally abusive relationship recounted
  • Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Drug withdrawal mentioned
  • Infertility mentioned (secondary character)
  • Unplanned pregnancy & childbirth (on-page) as well as mentions of pregnancy complications
  • Injury and hospitalisation from physical assault
  • Financial & house insecurity

The Butterfly Box by Santa Montefiore

Federica Campione adores her father. No matter that Ramon, a distinguished traveller and writer, spends months away from their home on the exotic Chilean coast; as soon as he’s back, his daughter has eyes for no one but him. When he gives her a magical box from Peru she believes he will always be there for her. As she grows to womanhood, Federica attempts to recapture that long-forgotten sense of security in the arms of the debonair Torquil Jensen. From the sanctuary of a seemingly perfect marriage, she embarks on a painful journey of self-discovery. But can Federica ever truly escape her gilded cage and learn the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child neglect
  • Divorce
  • Infidelity
  • Toxic friendship

Songbirds by Christy Lefteri

Yiannis is a poacher, trapping the tiny protected songbirds that stop in Cyprus as they migrate each year from Africa to Europe and selling them on the black market. He dreams of finding a new way of life, and of marrying Nisha, who works on the island as a nanny and maid–having left her native Sri Lanka to try to earn enough to support her daughter, left behind and raised by relatives. But Nisha has vanished; one evening, she steps out on a mysterious errand and doesn’t return. The police write off her disappearance as just another runaway domestic worker, so her employer, Petra, undertakes the investigation. Petra’s… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Animal hunting & poaching

This Must Be the Place by Maggie O’Farrell

Meet Daniel Sullivan, a man with a complicated life. A New Yorker living in the wilds of Ireland, he has children he never sees in California, a father he loathes in Brooklyn, and a wife, Claudette, who is a reclusive ex–film star given to pulling a gun on anyone who ventures up their driveway. Claudette was once the most glamorous and infamous woman in cinema before she staged her own disappearance and retreated to blissful seclusion in an Irish farmhouse. But the life Daniel and Claudette have so carefully constructed is about to be disrupted by an unexpected discovery about a woman Daniel lost touch with twenty years ago… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Physical child abuse recounted
  • Infidelity
  • Divorce
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use
  • Alcoholism
  • Infertility & miscarriage mentioned
  • Abortion (discussed, on-page)
  • Death of an ex-partner from anorexia
  • Death of a grandfather from a brain haemorrhage mentioned
  • Murder of a daughter by gun violence during a robbery (off-page)

The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout

Haunted by the freak accident that killed their father when they were children, Jim and Bob Burgess escaped from their Maine hometown of Shirley Falls for New York City as soon as they possibly could. Jim, a sleek, successful corporate lawyer, has belittled his bighearted brother their whole lives, and Bob, a Legal Aid attorney who idolizes Jim, has always taken it in stride. But their long-standing dynamic is upended when their sister, Susan—the Burgess sibling who stayed behind—urgently calls them home. Her lonely teenage son, Zach, has gotten himself into a world of trouble, and Susan desperately needs… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Death of a father recounted

Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout

Lucy Barton is a writer, but her ex-husband, William, remains a hard man to read. William, she confesses, has always been a mystery to me. Another mystery is why the two have remained connected after all these years. They just are. So Lucy is both surprised and not surprised when William asks her to join him on a trip to investigate a recently uncovered family secret—one of those secrets that rearrange everything we think we know about the people closest to us.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity recounted
  • Death of a husband

Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout

As a panicked world goes into lockdown, Lucy Barton is uprooted from her life in Manhattan and bundled away to a small town in Maine by her ex-husband and on-again, off-again friend, William. For the next several months, it’s just Lucy, William, and their complex past together in a little house nestled against the moody, swirling sea. At the heart of this story are the deep human connections that unite us even when we’re apart–the pain of a beloved daughter’s suffering, the emptiness that comes from the death of a loved one, the promise of a new friendship, and the comfort of an old, enduring love.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Infertility & loss of pregnancy
  • COVID-19 pandemic including death from COVID (theme)

The Long Way Home by Jessa Hastings

Daisy Haites thought she’d left everything about her old life in the past: the crime, her family and the man she loves. But when her safety is threatened once again, she finds herself back under the watchful eye of her gang-lord brother Julian and her ex-boyfriend Christian, both desperate to keep her safe. Everything gets more complicated when beautiful, broken-hearted socialite Magnolia Parks enters the scene and Julian finds himself entangled with her. Because for Julian, falling in love isn’t just unwelcome – it could be deadly for everyone involved…

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Alcohol & drug use
  • Death of a sibling recounted
  • Car accident
  • Kidnapping

The Great Undoing by Jessa Hastings

Daisy Haites thought she’d left everything about her old life in the past: the crime, her family and the man she loves. But when her safety is threatened once again, she finds herself back under the watchful eye of her gang-lord brother Julian and her ex-boyfriend Christian, both desperate to keep her safe. Everything gets more complicated when beautiful, broken-hearted socialite Magnolia Parks enters the scene and Julian finds himself entangled with her. Because for Julian, falling in love isn’t just unwelcome – it could be deadly for everyone involved…

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Alcohol & drug use
  • Death of a sibling recounted
  • Car accident
  • Kidnapping

Daisy Haites by Jessa Hastings

All 20 year old Daisy Haites has ever wanted is a normal life, but it’s just not on the cards for her. Raised by her older brother Julian since their parents were murdered in front of them 12 years ago, Daisy hasn’t ever lived beyond the watchful gaze of her gang lord brother. But Julian’s line of work means that Daisy’s life is… complicated. And things don’t become any less complex when she falls hard for Christian Hemmes, the beautiful and emotionally unavailable boy she’s been involved with for the last few months, who also happens to be one of the few men in London who doesn’t answer to Julian. Christian’s life is no walk in the park either, being in love with his best friend’s girlfriend and… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Infidelity
  • Death of a sibling recounted
  • Death of parents recounted (on-page)
  • Murder
  • Gun violence