Beautiful Graves (2022) by L. J. Shen is a new adult contemporary romance that follows Everlynne Lawson, a tragedy-stricken young woman who unwittingly falls in love with Dominic, whom she soon learns is the brother of a mysterious stranger named Joe that she once fell in love with. Beautiful Graves is an introspective first-person romance that explores the complexities of grief, the paralyzing impact of fear, and the detrimental effects of avoidance due to shame and guilt.

This guide refers to the Kindle Unlimited e-book edition published by Amazon in 2022.

Plot Summary

Six years ago, Everlynne “Ever” Lawson took a trip to Spain with her best friend, Pippa, where she met a mysterious man named Joe, with whom she shared a passionate night. She and Joe agreed to date each other, and she returned to the United States in a giddy, love-induced haze. However, a few days after her return, disaster struck Ever and her family at a train platform in San Francisco. While traveling with her mom, Ever became distracted by a text from Joe and stumbled, falling onto the tracks. Ever’s mother rushed to save her and was hit by the train, dying instantly. Since then, Ever has blamed herself for her mother’s death. After the tragedy, she stopped replying to Joe and removed his contact information from her phone entirely. She then relocated to Salem to escape her father, brother, and Pippa, whom she is certain blames her for her mother’s death, too.

Now, Everlynne lives in Salem with her cat, Loki, and her new friend Nora; she has lived there for six years. Ever begins working at a tour company, but she makes no attempt to create a healthy social life for herself, instead choosing to wallow in guilt, grief, and shame. Meanwhile, Nora falls in love with Colt—a long-term boyfriend who becomes increasingly insistent that she move in with him. However, Nora refuses to leave Ever until she is socially and emotionally stable enough to endure living alone.

When Loki goes missing, Ever’s Craigslist ad leads her to Dominic “Dom” Graves, who finds and returns her cat, and Ever and Dom have a slow-burn connection. Despite Dom’s immediate interest in her, Ever takes a few weeks to warm up to the idea of romance because she is still preoccupied with the memory of Joe, even though she has not spoken to him in the six years since her mother’s death. After Ever and Dom date each other for a few weeks, Dom invites Ever to his family’s Christmas gathering, where she learns that his brother, “Seph,” is actually Joe. Ever continues to pursue her relationship with Dom out of loyalty, all the while unable to keep her mind off Joe. Despite many signs that Dom is cheating on her with someone else—including his frequent double shifts, his insistence on taking her on out-of-the-way dates, and Ever’s discovery of the woman’s necklace beneath his bed—Ever continues to blissfully believe in their blossoming romance.

During a visit to Dom’s parents’ house to celebrate his mom’s birthday, Ever becomes concerned with how tired and overworked he seems. At the gathering, Dom proposes to Ever. Though her initial answer would have likely been no, Ever feels pressured in the moment to accept the proposal, much to Joe’s anger and frustration. Afterward, she drives herself and Dom back to her apartment. While she packs to stay at Dom’s apartment for the night, Dom offers to buy the tampons she needs.

Due to his exhaustion, Dom collapses while walking across the road and is hit by a truck. He is rushed to the hospital with severe brain injuries. When Ever arrives, she discovers that one of the doctors, Dom’s colleague Sarah, is actually his girlfriend of three years; he has been cheating on Sarah with Ever, and vice versa. However, the two women have no time to process Dom’s infidelity before hearing the news of his sudden death in the operating room. The betrayal initiates a complicated period of grief for Sarah, Ever, and Dom’s family.

Ever calls her father for comfort, and he and her brother, Renn, fly to Salem to accompany her to Dom’s funeral. Ever grieves for three weeks and then sleeps with Joe one night after they give in to their feelings for each other. Ever immediately flees her latest mistakes by booking a one-way flight to San Francisco, earning Joe’s ire once again.

In San Francisco for the first time in years, Ever temporarily lives with her father and brother. She learns that her father has recently began seeing a woman named Donna, who has moved into the home. Though Ever is reluctant to accept Donna, feeling as though the woman’s presence is a betrayal of her late mother, she eventually warms up to her. After multiple attempts to stay in contact with Joe, who seems intent on cutting ties with Ever after her latest abandonment, Ever manages to facilitate a friendship between herself and Joe.

Joe visits San Francisco for a week, where he successfully convinces Ever to overcome her lingering grief over her mother’s death by boarding the train at the station where her mother died. Facing her fear allows Ever the freedom to move on. Joe also finishes the novel that he has been working on while in San Francisco; his writing was inspired by Ever’s renewed presence in his life.

When Joe returns to Salem, Ever follows him to tie up her loose ends in Salem. As they become sexually intimate, Joe hopes that Ever will finally stay with him, but she is afraid of committing to a relationship and hurting him once again, so she books a flight back to San Francisco in the middle of the night. However, she realizes the error of her ways in the middle of the flight. Upon arrival in San Francisco, she immediately books a return flight. Back in Salem, Ever tracks Joe down at his workplace and delivers a grand, public declaration of love. They recouple.

One year later, Joe’s book is published, and he and Ever move to San Francisco, where Ever attends Berkeley to study art and design and opens an Etsy shop for custom sketches. When Joe asks her to be his wife and his forever, she accepts.