Maybe Once, Maybe Twice by Alison Rose Greenberg

You know that old saying, “if we are still single when we’re 35, we should get married?” Well, Maggie Vine made that vow with two different people, at two very different stages of her life. And they both showed up. Maggie Vine’s life is going extra-medium. At 35 she’s pursuing her dreams of being a singer and being a mother—though neither is successfully panning out. So when Garrett Scholl—stifled hedge fund manager by day but electrifying aspiring rock singer by night—comes to her 35th birthday party with the intention to kiss Maggie senseless, it feels like one piece might click into place. Except he’s engaged to someone… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault, off-page
  • Depression
  • Infertility due to Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)

Hate Crush by Angelina M. Lopez

Ten years ago, wild child Princesa Sofia Maria Isabel de Esperanza y Santos fell in fast crazy love with heartbreaker Aish Salinger during one California harvest season. Now, all grown up and with the future of her kingdom on her shoulders, she hates him as passionately as she once loved him. Even if her body hasn’t gotten the hate memo. Faking a relationship with the now-famous rock star for the press and public will ensure the success of her new winery and the prosperity of her kingdom. All she has to do is grit her teeth and bear his tattooed presence in her village and winery—her home—for a month…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Statutory rape
  • Suicide recounted
  • Infertility
  • Miscarriage

Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body by Rebekah Taussig

Growing up as a paralyzed girl during the 90s and early 2000s, Rebekah Taussig only saw disability depicted as something monstrous (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), inspirational (Helen Keller), or angelic (Forrest Gump). None of this felt right; and as she got older, she longed for more stories that allowed disability to be complex and ordinary, uncomfortable and fine, painful and fulfilling.

Writing about the rhythms and textures of what it means to live in a body that doesn’t fit… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & internalised ableism
  • Workplace discrimination
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Pregnancy & fertility discussed
  • Parent with chronic kidney disease
  • Paralysis
  • Childhood cancer

The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei

They left Earth to save humanity. They’ll have to save themselves first. It is the eve of Earth’s environmental collapse. A single ship carries humanity’s last hope: eighty elite graduates of a competitive program, who will give birth to a generation of children in deep space. But halfway to a distant but livable planet, a lethal bomb kills three of the crew and knocks The Phoenix off course. Asuka, the only surviving witness, is an immediate suspect. Asuka already felt like an impostor before the explosion. She was the last picked for the mission, she struggled during training back on Earth, and she was chosen to represent Japan…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Miscarriage & fertility issues
  • Death of a child
  • Terrorism

Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See

From a young age, Yunxian learns about women’s illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose—despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it—and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other’s joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus, they tell themselves: from adversity beauty can bloom.

But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Pregnancy
  • Childbirth
  • Miscarriage
  • Infertility
  • Foot binding
  • Death of a mother
  • Grief depiction

The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane

Malcolm Gephardt, handsome and gregarious longtime bartender at the Half Moon, has always dreamed of owning a bar. When his boss finally retires, Malcolm stretches to buy the place. He sees unquantifiable magic and potential in the Half Moon and hopes to transform it into a bigger success, but struggles to stay afloat. His smart and confident wife, Jess, has devoted herself to her law career. After years of trying for a baby, she is facing the idea that motherhood may not be in the cards for her. Like Malcolm, she feels her youth beginning to slip away and wonders how to reshape her future.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Cheating
  • Miscarriage
  • Infertility
  • Pregnancy
  • Grief & loss depiction

Bone China by Laura Purcell

Consumption has ravaged Louise Pinecroft’s family, leaving her and her father alone and heartbroken. But Dr Pinecroft has plans for a revolutionary experiment: convinced that sea air will prove to be the cure his wife and children needed, he arranges to house a group of prisoners suffering from the same disease in the cliffs beneath his new Cornish home. While he devotes himself to his controversial medical trials, Louise finds herself increasingly discomfited by the strange tales her new maid tells of the fairies that hunt the land, searching for those they can steal away to their realm. Forty years later, Hester Why arrives at… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Ableism
  • Classism
  • Alcoholism
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Pregnancy
  • Miscarriage
  • Infertility
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood depiction
  • Emesis
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
  • Drowning
  • Kidnapping

American King by Sierra Simone

American King by Sierra Simone

They say that every tragic hero has a fatal flaw, a secret sin, a tiny stitch sewn into his future since birth. And here I am. My sins are no longer secret. My flaws have never been more fatal. And I’ve never been closer to tragedy than I am now. I am a man who loves, a man whose love demands much in return. I am a king, a king who was foolish enough to build a kingdom on the bones of the past. I am a husband and a lover and a soldier and a father and a president. And I will survive this. Long live the king.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape recounted & threats of rape
  • Suicide by drowning, on-page
  • Pregnancy
  • Infertility discussed
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a grandparent recounted
  • Stabbing
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping recouned
  • Blackmail
  • Fire

Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal

Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal

Alys Binat has sworn never to marry–until an encounter with one Mr Darsee at a wedding makes her reconsider. A scandal and vicious rumour concerning the Binat family have destroyed their fortune and prospects for desirable marriages, but Alys, the second and most practical of the five Binat daughters, has found happiness teaching English literature to schoolgirls. Knowing that many of her students won’t make it to graduation before dropping out to marry and have children, Alys teaches them about Jane Austen and her other literary heroes and hopes to inspire the girls to dream of more. When an invitation… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Classism
  • Sexism
  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Slut-shaming
  • Adult-minor relationships mentioned
  • Infertility
  • Abortion recounted

The Right Move by Liz Tomforde

The Right Move by Liz Tomforde

Ryan. She’s a distraction, that’s what she is. I’m the newest Captain of the Devils, Chicago’s NBA team, and the last thing I needed this year was for Indy Ivers, my sister’s best friend, to move into my apartment. She’s messy, emotional, and way too tempting. But when the team’s General Manager vocalizes his blatant disapproval of my promotion to Captain, referring to me as an unapproachable lone wolf with no work-life balance, I can’t think of a better way to convince him otherwise than pretending to date my outgoing roommate. The only problem? Faking it… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Cheating recounted, off-page
  • Infertility mentioned