Author Archives: Bec @ bec&books

Bec @ bec&books A late-20s student & librarian who reads, games, drinks coffee, cuddles cats and tells the world about stories.

The Unspoken Name by A. K. Larkwood

What if you knew how and when you will die?

Csorwe does. She will climb the mountain, enter the Shrine of the Unspoken, and gain the most honored title: sacrifice. On the day of her foretold death, however, a powerful mage offers her a new fate.

Csorwe leaves her home, her destiny, and her god to become the wizard’s loyal sword-hand – stealing, spying, and killing to help him reclaim his seat of power in the homeland from which he was exiled… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Self mutilation
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Physical injuries
  • Torture
  • Animal sacrifice

Business or Pleasure by Rachel Lynn Solomon

Chandler Cohen has never felt more like the ghost in “ghostwriter” until she attends a signing for a book she wrote—and the author doesn’t even recognize her. The evening turns more promising when she meets a charming man at the bar and immediately connects with him. But when all their sexual tension culminates in a spectacularly awkward hookup, she decides this is one night better off forgotten… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Antisemitism mentioned
  • Emotional child abuse recounted
  • Anxiety
  • Panic attack, on-page
  • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
  • Abortion recounted
  • Bullying recounted

The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu

Born with a gift for music, Nannerl Mozart has just one wish: to be remembered forever. But even as she delights audiences with her masterful playing, she has little hope she’ll ever become the acclaimed composer she longs to be. She is a young woman in eighteenth-century Europe, and that means composing is forbidden to her. She will perform only until she reaches a marriageable age—her tyrannical father has made that much clear… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misogyny (central theme)
  • Child abuse
  • Fire
  • Murder
  • Smallpox

The Electric Heir by Victoria Lee

In the sequel to The Fever King , Noam Álvaro seeks to end tyranny before he becomes a tyrant himself. Six months after Noam Álvaro helped overthrow the despotic government of Carolinia, the Atlantians have gained citizenship, and Lehrer is chancellor. But despite Lehrer’s image as a progressive humanitarian leader, Noam has finally remembered the truth that Lehrer forced him to forget—that Lehrer is responsible for the deadly magic infection that ravaged Carolinia. Now that Noam remembers the full extent of Lehrer’s crimes, he’s determined to use his influence with Lehrer to bring him down for good… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Internalised victim blaming
  • Slut shaming
  • Statutory rape
  • Sexual assault & attempted rape
  • Adult-minor relationship
  • Child abuse
  • Domestic violence
  • Suicide & attempted suicide
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Drug abuse
  • Medical experimentation
  • Emesis
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
  • Torture

The Fever King by Victoria Lee

In the former United States, sixteen-year-old Noam Álvaro wakes up in a hospital bed, the sole survivor of the viral magic that killed his family and made him a technopath. His ability to control technology attracts the attention of the minister of defense and thrusts him into the magical elite of the nation of Carolinia.

The son of undocumented immigrants, Noam has spent his life fighting for the rights of refugees fleeing magical outbreaks—refugees Carolinia routinely deports with vicious efficiency. Sensing a way to make change, Noam accepts the minister’s offer… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slut shaming
  • Child sexual abuse
  • Statutory rape
  • Physical abuse
  • Suicide, off-page
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Drug abuse
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Murder
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a parent

Kiss and Repeat by Heather Truett

Stephen Luckie isn’t so lucky in love. He’s completely inexperienced when it comes to girls, and wonders if his tics – caused by Tourette’s Syndrome – are the reason.

Then a game at a party reveals that his body goes still while kissing. Using the scientific method drilled into him by his scientist father, Steven begins the best experiment ever–one that involves kissing as many girls as possible. Who knew science could be so fun?.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Bullying

You May Now Kill the Bride by R. L. Stine

NEW Fear Street stories with a retro look, perfect for fans of Stranger Things! Two sisters, divided by time. Each with a terrible resentment she can barely contain. Two Fear family weddings, decades apart… Each bride will find that the ancient curse that haunts the Fears LIVES ON. It feeds off the evil that courses through their blood. It takes its toll in unexpected ways, and allows dark history to repeat itself. In this all-new Fear Street story, family ties bind sisters together – till DEATH do they part… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Blood depiction
  • Murder
  • Serious physical injury
  • Disappearance of a sibling

Truelife by Jay Kristoff

Best friends have become enemies. Lovers have become strangers. And deciding whose side you’re on could be the difference between life and death. For Eve and Lemon, discovering the truth about themselves–and each other–was too much for their friendship to take. But with the country on the brink of a new world war–this time between the BioMaas swarm at CityHive and Daedalus’s army at Megopolis, loyalties will be pushed to the brink, unlikely alliances will form and with them, betrayals. But the threat doesn’t stop there, because the lifelikes are determined to access the program that will set every robot free… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicide
  • Poisoning
  • Explosion
  • Gun violence

If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang

Alice Sun has always felt invisible at her elite Beijing international boarding school, where she’s the only scholarship student among China’s most rich and influential teens. But then she starts uncontrollably turning invisible—actually invisible.

When her parents drop the news that they can no longer afford her tuition, even with the scholarship, Alice hatches a plan to monetize her strange new power—she’ll discover the scandalous secrets her classmates want to know, for a price… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Hate crime mentioned
  • Parental infidelity mentioned
  • Threats of revenge porn
  • Child abuse, off-page
  • Knife violence
  • Kidnapping

See You Yesterday by Rachel Lynn Solomon

Barrett Bloom is hoping college will be a fresh start after a messy high school experience. But when school begins on September 21st, everything goes wrong. She’s humiliated by the know-it-all in her physics class, she botches her interview for the college paper, and at a party that night, she accidentally sets a frat on fire. She panics and flees, and when she realizes her roommate locked her out of their dorm, she falls asleep in the common room… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual harassment recounted
  • Panic attack
  • Car accident
  • Bullying recounted