Seven for a Secret by Lyndsay Faye

Seven for a Secret by Lyndsay Faye

Timothy and Valentine Wilde must once again delve into the darkest underbelly of old New York. When the beautiful and terrified Mrs Lucy Adams stumbles into the Tombs, headquarters of New York’s newly formed police force, it’s the beginning of a dense, thorny maze of crime for copper star Timothy Wilde. He’s hardened to the injustices of life in the unforgiving city he’s grown up in, but that doesn’t mean he accepts them. With immigrants flooding into the docks every day, each community is both adapting and fighting for its place in the new world, and there are many who… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Slavery
  • Suicide & self-harm
  • Burn scars mentioned
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Fire mentioned

The Paragon Hotel by Lyndsay Faye

The Paragon Hotel by Lyndsay Faye

The year is 1921, and “Nobody” Alice James is on a cross-country train, carrying a bullet wound and fleeing for her life following an illicit drug and liquor deal gone horribly wrong. Desperate to get as far away as possible from New York City and those who want her dead, she has her sights set on Oregon: a distant frontier that seems the end of the line. She befriends Max, a black Pullman porter who reminds her achingly of Harlem, who leads Alice to the Paragon Hotel upon arrival in Portland. Her unlikely sanctuary turns out to be the only all-black hotel in the city, and its lodgers seem unduly terrified of a white woman on the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism, racial slurs & white supremacy
  • Misgendering
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Murder & gun violence
  • Lynching
  • Organised crime
  • Animal death & cruelty

The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye

The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye

August 1845 in New York; enter the dark, unforgiving city underworld of the legendary Five Points. After a fire decimates a swathe of lower Manhattan, and following years of passionate political dispute, New York City at long last forms an official Police Department. That same summer, the great potato famine hits Ireland. These events will change the city of New York for ever. Timothy Wilde hadn’t wanted to be a copper star. On the night of August 21st, on his way home from the Tombs defeated and disgusted, he is plotting his resignation, when a young girl who has escaped from a nearby brothel, crashes into him; she… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Religious discrimination (anti-Catholic rhetoric in relation to anti-Irish sentiment)
  • Underage sex work (implied)
  • Burn scars mentioned

Unearthed by Lilliam Rivera

Unearthed: A Jessica Cruz Story by Lilliam Rivera and illustrated by Steph C.

Jessica Cruz has done everything right. She’s a dedicated student, popular among her classmates, and has a loving family that has done everything they can to give her a better life in the United States. While Jessica is a part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, allowing her to go to school and live in the U.S., her parents are undocumented. Jessica usually worries for her parents, but her fears and anxiety escalate as a mayoral candidate with a strong anti-immigration stance runs for office… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Deportation
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Never Look Back by Lilliam Rivera

Never Look Back by Lilliam Rivera

Eury comes to the Bronx as a girl haunted. Haunted by losing everything in Hurricane Maria–and by an evil spirit, Ato. She fully expects the tragedy that befell her and her family in Puerto Rico to catch up with her in New York. Yet, for a time, she can almost set this fear aside, because there’s this boy. Pheus is a golden-voiced, bachata-singing charmer, ready to spend the summer on the beach with his friends, serenading his on-again, off-again flame. That changes… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Sexual harassment
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Animal death
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

A Treacherous Curse byDeanna Raybourn

A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourn

London, 1888. As colourful and unfettered as the butterflies she collects, Victorian adventuress Veronica Speedwell can’t resist the allure of an exotic mystery—particularly one involving her enigmatic colleague, Stoker. His former expedition partner has vanished from an archaeological dig with a priceless diadem unearthed from the newly discovered tomb of an Egyptian princess. This disappearance is just the latest in a string of unfortunate events that have plagued the controversial expedition, and rumours abound that the curse of the vengeful princess has been… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Racism
  • Antiziganism
  • Misogyny
  • Slut-shaming
  • Cheating recounted
  • Suicide, on-page
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Mild blood depiction & serious physical injuries
  • Death of a husband & father
  • Murder by poison
  • Attempted murder by fire
  • Gun violence
  • Disappearance
  • Hostage situation
  • Bullying
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn

Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn

These ominous words are the last threat that Sir Edward Grey receives from his killer. Before he can show them to Nicholas Brisbane, the private inquiry agent he has retained for his protection, he collapses and dies at his London home, in the presence of his wife, Julia, and a roomful of dinner guests. Prepared to accept that Edward’s death was due to a long-standing physical infirmity, Julia is outraged when Brisbane visits and suggests that her husband was murdered. It is a reaction she comes to regret when she discovers damning evidence for herself and realizes… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Antisemitism
  • Homomisia
  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Antiziganism
  • Cheating
  • Attempted suicide mentioned
  • Abortion mentioned
  • Murder
  • Arson
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn

A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn

London, 1887. At the Curiosity Club, a ladies-only establishment for daring and intrepid women, Victorian adventuress Veronica Speedwell meets the mysterious Lady Sundridge, who begs her to take on an impossible task–saving society art patron Miles Ramsforth from execution. Ramsforth, accused of the brutal murder of his mistress, Artemisia, will face the hangman’s noose in a week’s time if the real killer is not found. But Lady Sundridge is not all that she seems, and unmasking her true identity is only the first of many secrets Veronica must uncover. Together with her natural… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Racism mentioned
  • Homomisia mentioned
  • Cheating discussed
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Infertility & miscarriage mentioned
  • Death of a sister in childbirth mentioned
  • Mild blood & injury depiction
  • Exsanguination
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Gun violence
  • Knife violence
  • False incarceration
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Ain’t Never Not Been Black by Javon Johnson

Ain’t Never Not Been Black by Javon Johnson

Engaging with themes of masculinity, racism, love, and joy, Johnson is at once critical and creative. His spoken word performance transfers effortlessly to the page, with poems that will encompass you. This is a book about blackness and survival, and how in American these are inseparable. In a world of individualism, who can you hold close? In a world of danger, what makes you feel safe? From a poem written in the form of a syllabus, to another about the time his grandmother literally saved his life, Johnson’s creative expression is constantly enacting the feminist mantra, “the personal is political.”

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slur
  • Cancer
  • Murder
  • Police brutality & violence
  • Gun violence
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Vanished by EE Cooper

Vanished by E.E. Cooper

Kalah knows better than to fall for Beth Taylor . . . but that doesn’t stop her from falling hard and falling fast, heart first into a sea of complications. Then Beth vanishes. She skips town on her eighteenth birthday, leaving behind a flurry of rumours and a string of broken hearts. Not even Beth’s best friend, Britney, knows where she went. Beth didn’t even tell Kalah goodbye. One of the rumours links Beth to Britney’s boyfriend, and Kalah doesn’t want to believe the betrayal. But Brit clearly believes it—and before Kalah can sort out the truth, Britney is dead… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Ableism
  • Suicide
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com