Ready or Not by Cara Bastone

Eve Hatch is pretty content with her life. Her apartment in Brooklyn is cozy and close to her childhood best friend Willa, but far from her midwestern, traditional family who never really understood her. While her job is only dream- adjacent , she’s hoping her passion and hard work will soon help her land a more glamorous role. And sure, her most recent romantic history has consisted of not one but two disappointing men named Derek. At least she always knows what to expect… until she finds herself expecting after an uncharacteristic one-night stand. The unplanned… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Unplanned pregnancy & on-page childbirth (protagonist)
  • Infertility & abortion mentioned
  • Miscarriage (off-page, secondary character)
  • Emesis
  • Death of a parent from cancer & a car accident mentioned

Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult

After Zoe Baxter loses her baby, the only way she can find of coping is to try again. But her husband Max disagrees – more than that, he wants a divorce. When they separate, there is no mention of the unborn children they created together, still waiting at the clinic. The Zoe falls in love again, out of the blue, and finds herself with an unexpected second chance to have a family. But Max has found a new life too – one with no place in it for people like Zoe. And he will stand up in court to say that her new choice of partner makes her an unfit mother.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia (theme)
  • Divorce
  • Panic attack
  • Secondary character with dementia
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Self-harm mentioned
  • Stillbirth, miscarriage & abortion
  • Infertility

By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult

Young playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. But seeing it performed is unlikely, in a theatre world where the playing field isn’t level for women. As Melina wonders if she dares risk failure again, her best friend takes the decision out of her hands and submits the play to a festival under a male pseudonym. In 1581, young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Her lessons on languages, history, and writing have endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but like most women… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Sexual assault
  • Domestic violence
  • Abortion & miscarriage

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time. She is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as “1847” or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & homophobia mentioned
  • Anxiety & depression
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman

Catherine feels trapped. Her father is determined to marry her off to a rich man–any rich man, no matter how awful. But by wit, trickery, and luck, Catherine manages to send several would-be husbands packing. Then a shaggy-bearded suitor from the north comes to call–by far the oldest, ugliest, most revolting suitor of them all. Unfortunately, he is also the richest. Can a sharp-tongued, clever young maiden with a mind of her own actually lose the battle against an ill-mannered, piglike lord and a greedy toad of a father? Not if Catherine has anything to say about it!

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Alcohol consumption mentioned (secondary characters)
  • Miscarriage & death during childbirth
  • Hanging mentioned
  • Death from a knife wound mentioned
  • Animal attack (secondary character, dog)

Control by Lydia Kang

When a crash kills their father and leaves them orphaned, Zel knows she needs to protect her sister, Dyl. But before Zel has a plan, Dyl is taken by strangers using bizarre sensory weapons, and Zel finds herself in a safe house for teens who aren’t like any she’s ever seen before—teens who shouldn’t even exist. Using broken-down technology, her new friends’ peculiar gifts, and her own grit, Zel must find a way to get her sister back from the kidnappers who think a powerful secret is encoded in Dyl’s DNA. Set in 2150—in a world of automatic cars, nightclubs with auditory ecstasy drugs, and guys with four arms—this is… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misogyny & slut-shaming
  • Miscarriage
  • Death of a father in a car accident

The New Couple in 5B by Lisa Unger

Rosie and Chad Lowan are barely making ends meet in New York City when they receive life-changing news: Chad’s late uncle has left them his luxury apartment at the historic Windermere in glamorous Murray Hill. With its prewar elegance and impeccably uniformed doorman, the building is the epitome of old New York charm. One would almost never suspect the dark history lurking behind its perfectly maintained facade. At first, the building and its eclectic tenants couldn’t feel more welcoming. But as the Lowans settle into their new home, Rosie starts to suspect that there’s more to the Windermere than meets the eye… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Suicide
  • Infertility & miscarriage (protagonist)
  • Death of an uncle recounted

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

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams

Ricki Wilde has many talents, but being a Wilde isn’t one of them. As the impulsive, artistic daughter of a powerful Atlanta dynasty, she’s the opposite of her famous socialite sisters. Where they’re long-stemmed roses, she’s a dandelion: an adorable bloom that’s actually a weed, born to float wherever the wind blows. In her bones, Ricki knows that somewhere, a different, more exciting life awaits her.When regal nonagenarian, Ms. Della, invites her to rent the bottom floor of her Harlem brownstone, Ricki jumps at the chance for a fresh beginning. She leaves behind her… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & mentions of lynching
  • Miscarriage
  • Terminal cancer

One Two Three by Laurie Frankel

Everyone knows everyone in the tiny town of Bourne, but the Mitchell triplets are especially beloved. Mirabel is the smartest person anyone knows, and no one doubts it just because she can’t speak. Monday is the town’s purveyor of books now that the library’s closed―tell her the book you think you want, and she’ll pull the one you actually do from the microwave or her sock drawer. Mab’s job is hardest of all: get good grades, get into college, get out of Bourne. For a few weeks seventeen years ago, Bourne was national news when its water turned green. The girls have come of age watching their mother’s endless fight for.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism discussed
  • Disability from factory pollution (theme)