Hi! We’re really excited Cardinal will be out in the world soon (August 28, 2018), but as this has always been a series about imperfect people dealing imperfectly with trauma we wanted to provide you some content information about this book.
As ever, if you need more details (specific question, chapter numbers, etc) we’re happy to provide once we have the final formatted file.
Cardinal contains the following content you may wish to be aware of in advance of reading:
Discussion of intense dietary choices to look a certain way for an acting role (being bulkier/more muscular for what’s basically a super hero movie) and then intense dietary choices to reverse that. There is no discussion of eating disorders but these choices aren’t entirely non-toxic. This is a minor thread that shows up for maybe four sentences about four times in the course of the novel. It’s a background thread, not a plot line.
Discussion of past family violence, which has been mentioned earlier in the series, is mentioned again. Alex’s sister, Delilah is a character in this book. She’s out of prison and Alex is not emotionally prepared for this, in part because of two times she threatened him when they were both children.
Discussion of a male character being threatened with sexual assault in his past. Assault threat is not descriptive. Assault did not take place. Character was not touched in any way during the threat. The person making the threat, however had a gun. This scene is brief and not graphic but is emotionally very hard. It’s in the Indiana section of the book, and it’s telegraphed pretty clearly that it’s coming, but we can let you know chapter or page numbers once formatting is done.
Repeated reference to a childhood incident in which one of the characters almost drowned in a lake on his family’s property. Incident is not described with any detail.
Discussion of Catholicism as the subject of a TV show in the narrative. This discussion is neither pro- nor anti- faith, nor does it address any church scandals.
There is other content in this book that doesn’t need a warning, but may cause some readers to worry something bad is going to happen. We would like to assure you of the following:
The trans woman introduced in this book experiences no transphobia or sexism or violence; the fact that she is trans is not framed as a secret anyone discovers, and she gets a happy, romantic enemies-to-lovers narrative in which the fact that she is trans is not an issue in the relationship progression.
In fact, no one experiences any violence whatsoever in the present timeline of the book.
There are several children in this book. Nothing bad happens to any of them.
All animals in this book are happy and healthy for the entire book.
We would also like to remind you of the following:
This series includes both monogamish and polyamorous characters some of whom are still figuring their deal out. While there is no cheating in this book, there is consensual non-monogamy.
Characters use harsh, and sometimes cruel, language, often as regards the mental health issues they themselves are navigating.
All of that said:
Cardinal is a hopeful book about finally putting the past to rest and finding out your future is much better — and fuller and richer and stranger — than you ever thought it could be. It is book 4 in a series that needs to be read in order.
The Love in Los Angeles series will contain two more full-length novels, book 5 Kinglet and a book 6, which is not yet titled.
Any questions, you can email us at erin.and.racheline@gmail.com or ping us on Twitter and we will answer confidentially and to the best our abilities
erincmcrae
Racheline Maltese
Avian30 