The Marlow Murder Club, by Robert Thorogood

Please look at that cover. As a mystery reader, there was no way I would not check out the book based on that alone; the heroine was just so much icing, so of course I requested an ARC.

Beware: alcoholism; depression; fatphobia; copaganda; domestic abuse as backstory.

Not Here to Make Friends, by Jodi McAlister

This is not a terrible cover, as cartoon covers go, but I requested an ARC of this because of the author, whom I knew slightly, and whose work has been recommended to me more than once.

Full disclosure: back when I was on twitter (see footnote ¹), I was friendly with the author. We weren’t particularly friendly, mostly we both followed several of the same people, from back when blogs were much more of a thing.

Beware: enough swearing to make me proud; sex on page; disordered eating; racism; alcoholism; death of a spouse; grief; guilt; mental health issues.

Death on Board, by Pauline Rowson

Look at that cover. Of course I had to check out the blurb, and from there to requesting an ARC it was but a very short step.

Beware: phonetic spelling to indicate accents; PTSD, copaganda; miscarriages; death of an infant; depression; mental health issues; suicide on page; sexual coercion/rape; xenophobia; antisemitism.

A Duke Makes a Deal, by Matilda Madison

I love the blue of the cover, and was intrigued by the blurb, so I requested an ARC, without knowing anything else about the author.

Beware: acute social anxiety; gambling addiction; kink shaming; instalust; dominance play; evil other woman; explicit vanilla sex.