The Road to Rose Bend by Naima Simone

The Road to Rose Bend by Naima Simone

Sydney Collins left the small Berkshires town of Rose Bend eight years ago, grieving her sister’s death—and heartbroken over her parents’ rejection. But now the rebel is back—newly divorced and pregnant—ready to face her fears and make a home for her child in the caring community she once knew. The last thing she needs is trouble. But trouble just set her body on fire with one hot, hot smile. Widower and Rose Bend mayor Coltrane Dennison hasn’t smiled in ages. Until a chance run-in with Sydney Collins, who’s all grown-up and making him want what he knows he can’t… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Custody issues
  • Death of a wife recounted
  • Death of a child (baby) recounted
  • Death of a sister from cancer
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Troy by Stephen Fry

Troy by Stephen Fry

The story of Troy speaks to all of us – the kidnapping of Helen, a queen celebrated for her beauty, sees the Greeks launch a thousand ships against the city of Troy, to which they will lay siege for ten whole years. It is a terrible war with casualties on all sides as well as strained relations between allies, whose consequences become tragedies. In Troy you will find heroism and hatred, love and loss, revenge and regret, desire and despair. It is these human passions, written bloodily in the sands of a distant shore, that still speak to us today. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Blood depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • War themes
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

This Close to Okay by Leesa Cross-Smith

This Close to Okay by Leesa Cross-Smith

On a rainy October night in Kentucky, recently divorced therapist Tallie Clark is on her way home from work when she spots a man precariously standing on the side of a bridge. Without a second thought, Tallie pulls over and jumps out of the car into the pouring rain. She convinces the man to join her for a cup of coffee, and he eventually agrees to come back to her house, where he finally shares his name: Emmett. On a rainy October night in Kentucky, recently divorced therapist Tallie Clark is on her way home from work when she spots a man precariously standing on the side of a bridge. Without a second thought, Tallie pulls…. Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Divorce
  • Depression
  • Infertility
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Accidental infanticide
  • Death of a wife from suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning
  • False incarceration
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn

Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn

In his fortress at Inuyama, the murderous warlord Iida Sadamu surveys his famous nightingale floor. Constructed with exquisite skill, it sings at the tread of each human foot. No assassin can cross it unheard. Brought up in a remote village among the Hidden, a reclusive and spiritual people, Takeo has learned only the ways of peace. Why, then, does he possess the deadly skills that make him so valuable to the sinister Tribe? These supernatural powers will lead him to his violent destiny within the walls of Inuyama – and to an impossible longing for a girl who can never be his.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Attempted rape
  • Child abuse
  • Death of a child
  • Genocide
  • Torture
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Hell Bay by Kate Rhodes

Hell Bay by Kate Rhodes

DI Ben Kitto needs a second chance. After ten years working for the murder squad in London, a traumatic event has left him grief-stricken. He’s tried to resign from his job, but his boss has persuaded him to take three months to reconsider. Ben plans to work in his uncle Ray’s boatyard, on the tiny Scilly island of Bryher where he was born, hoping to mend his shattered nerves. His plans go awry when the body of sixteen year old Laura Trescothick is found on the beach at Hell Bay. Her attacker must still be on the island because no ferries have sailed during a two-day storm.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Drug use & abuse
  • Overdose
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Knife violence
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

The Boy from the Woods by Harlan Coben

The Boy from the Woods by Harlan Coben

Thirty years ago, Wilde was found as a boy living feral in the woods, with no memory of his past. Now an adult, he still doesn’t know where he comes from, and another child has gone missing. No one seems to take Naomi Pine’s disappearance seriously, not even her father-with one exception. Hester Crimstein, a television criminal attorney, knows through her grandson that Naomi was relentlessly bullied at school. Hester asks Wilde-with whom she shares a tragic connection-to use his unique skills to help find Naomi… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape recounted
  • Sexual assault
  • Workplace sexual harassment of a minor
  • Parental abandonment mentioned
  • Physical child abuse recounted
  • Postpartum depression mention
  • Involuntary amputation of a finger
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father, son, & husband in a car accident recounted
  • Threats of gun violence
  • Kidnapping
  • Disappearance of a child (theme)
  • Wrongful imprisonment mentioned
  • Military service recounted
  • Bullying
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen

Wealthy Washington suburbanites Marissa and Matthew Bishop seem to have it all—until Marissa is unfaithful. Beneath their veneer of perfection is a relationship driven by work and a lack of intimacy. She wants to repair things for the sake of their eight-year-old son and because she loves her husband. Enter Avery Chambers. Avery is a therapist who lost her professional license. Still, it doesn’t stop her from counselling those in crisis, though they have to adhere to her unorthodox methods. And the Bishops are desperate… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Cheating
  • Suicide (euthanasia)
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Cancer
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a spouse
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Gun violence
  • Stalking
  • Homelessness
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

A tragic accident. It all happened so quickly. She couldn’t have prevented it. Could she? In a split second, Jenna Gray’s world descends into a nightmare. Her only hope of moving on is to walk away from everything she knows to start afresh. Desperate to escape, Jenna moves to a remote cottage on the Welsh coast, but she is haunted by her fears, her grief and her memories of a cruel November night that changed her life forever. Slowly, Jenna begins to glimpse the potential for happiness in her future. But her past is about to catch up with her, and the consequences will be devastating…

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Death of a child in a hit-and-run accident
  • Animal abuse
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

All That Remains by Sue Black

All That Remains by Sue Black

Sue Black confronts death every day. As Professor of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology, she focuses on mortal remains in her lab, at burial sites, at scenes of violence, murder and criminal dismemberment, and when investigating mass fatalities due to war, accident or natural disaster. In All That Remains she reveals the many faces of death she has come to know, using key cases to explore how forensic science has developed, and what her work has taught her. Do we expect a book about death to be sad? Macabre? Sue’s book is neither. There is tragedy, but there is also humour… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Graphic dead bodies
  • Murder & genocide
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a parent
  • Natural disasters

The Miraculous by Jess Redman

The Miraculous by Jess Redman

Eleven-year-old Wunder Ellis is a miracologist. In a journal he calls The Miraculous, he records stories of the inexplicable and the extraordinary. These miracles fill Wunder with the feeling that he is not alone, that the world is magical, that he is part of something brighter than he can imagine. But then his newborn sister dies, at only eight days old. If that can happen, then miracles don’t exist. So Wunder gets rid of The Miraculous. And he stops believing. Then Wunder meets Faye—a cape-wearing, outspoken girl with losses of her own. Together, they find an abandoned house… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a newborn sister