+ First book in a series with the same protag throughout

Academia

• Pages For You by Sylvia Brownrigg
• My Education by Susan Choi
• If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

AIDS Crisis

• The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara

Crime/Mystery/Detectives

• The Blue Place by Nicola Griffith +
• Bury Me When I’m Dead by Cheryl A. Head +
• The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka +
• Murder on the Rocks by J.S. Strange

Espionage/Spy Fiction

• Who is Vera Kelly? by Rosalie Knecht

Rural/Mountains

• Cottonmouths by Kelly J. Ford (Ozarks)
• Sugar Run by Mesha Maren (Appalachia)

Wartime

• Regeneration by Pat Barker
• The Charioteer by Mary Renault
• The Night Watch by Sarah Waters