Book of the Found: AESLI-01 (The JAK2 Cycle #4)

Wanted: Governess. Remote location. Isolated conditions. Room and board included, food plentiful, wages adequate. Must speak Polish.

The job title was archaic.
The description was unappealing.

The ad had been running online for at least six months before Mouse found it, and she was looking for an excuse to run. She had to get out before Vernita Fox refused to wait any longer, and contacted her sons to let them know Mouse had turned up.

Turned up. Delivered to the local post office, naked and beaten, with “Mama Chandler, Hopi Rez, AZ” scrawled across her belly, stamps stuck wherever there was a strip of unbroken skin.

A doctor had patched up her body, splinted her fingers, but the damage went deeper.

Mouse needed time and distance. She needed a remote location, isolated conditions, and a reason to get up in the morning. She’d return to Salem eventually, keep to the bunker. She could still see Azzie, even if she couldn’t be seen on the base ever again. But she needed time.

She needed to get over what had happened to her in Illinois.

What happened recently, and what happened before.

...
This is a reverse harem romance involving a female main character developing relationships with multiple male characters (#whychoose?). It contains graphic sexual content and excessive foul language. No one under 18 should read this book.

Although fourth in a series, you do not have to have read the previous books (although it's helpful!). These are different main characters and a different setting.

This book is much, much darker than previous books in a series about a post-apocalyptic/post-pandemic world, with themes of government conspiracies, chronic disease, and trauma. The following trigger/content warnings are an abbreviated list — the full list can be found on the author's Facebook page. If any of the following topics offend or cause distress, PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS BOOK.

References: physical and sexual assault (both adult and of a minor, including coerced sex); depression, anxiety, and suicide; pandemics and pandemic deaths (in more detail than previous books); incarceration; medical violations (pharmaceutical and physical); human trafficking

Descriptions (sometimes graphic, sometimes implied): grooming (specifically a child) and sexual predation; emotional abuse and neglect of a child; sexual exposure to a minor; physical violence, and dealing with injuries received, including burns and manual strangulation; the aftermath of sexual assault of a child (not the act itself); PTSD and trauma; gun violence and character death.