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 Cabin by Natasha Preston

There may only be one killer, but no one is innocent.

When Mackenzie treks to a secluded cabin in the woods with six friends, she expects a fun weekend of partying, drinking, and hookups. But when they wake to find two of their own dead and covered in blood, it’s clear there’s a killer among them.

As the police try to unravel the case, Mackenzie launches her own investigation. Before long secrets start to emerge, revealing a sinister web of sins among the original seven friends… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drug abuse
  • Abortion
  • Blood depiction
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Stabbing
  • Blackmail
  • Fatal car accident recounted

The Marvels by Brian Selznick

The journey begins at sea in 1766, with a boy named Billy Marvel. After surviving a shipwreck, he finds work in a London theatre. There, his family flourishes for generations as brilliant actors until 1900, when young Leontes Marvel is banished from the stage.

Nearly a century later, runaway Joseph Jervis seeks refuge with an uncle in London. Albert Nightingale’s strange, beautiful house, with its mysterious portraits and ghostly presences, captivates Joseph and leads him on a search for clues about the house, his family, and the past… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Child abuse
  • Parental abandonment
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drug use
  • HIV & AIDs
  • Terminal illness
  • Attempted murder
  • Drowning
  • Fire (theme)
  • Car accident
  • Shipwreck
  • Poverty
  • Animal death
  • Bullying

Where We Used to Roam by Jenn Bishop

When Emma starts sixth grade, things finally begin to change. She may still be in the shadow of her older brother, Austin, the popular high school quarterback, but she’s made artsy new friends who get her way more than her bookish best friend, Becca.

But things are changing for Austin, too. After undergoing surgery for a football injury, Austin has become addicted to opioid painkillers. By the end of the school year, everything blows up with Austin—and Becca. When their parents decide to send Austin to rehab and Emma to stay… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sibling with substance addiction

Master’s Schiavo by Laura Lascarso

Patience, humility, subservience, gratitude… these are the virtues of a schiavo.

For three years, Giovanni has followed his Master’s rules with love and devotion. But when Master, a New York City crime lord, must tie up loose ends with the family business, Giovanni is sent away to embark upon a life no one could have prepared him for.

Forced to stay with Signore, Master’s younger brother, Giovanni realizes Signore is everything his Master is not – brash, boisterous, impulsive… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Substance addiction
  • Drug use
  • Grandparent with terminal cancer
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Blackmail

Land of Horrors by Chelsii Klein

My destiny is to save the human race, but there’s more to this destiny then I might be willing to accept.

The day before we are set to leave on this journey a seer foretells my future, I think she aims to surprise me. However, the King of Horrors has been gracing my nightmares for sometime now, so I’m well prepared. Maybe not for him, but I am ready to defeat this land and all it throws at me.

 just have to get myself and my team out alive… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape

All Hours by Andie J. Christopher

A RESTLESS ROMANTIC
Felix Pascual misses being someone’s boyfriend, which is why he’s willing to get set up by the only Hernandez he’ll admit to liking (out loud)—Lola. But when he gets to the restaurant he finds that Lola has matched him up with none other than Joaquin Delgado, a man who has never shown one iota of interest in him.. And Joaquin doesn’t seem any more open to Felix’s unique charms this time around.

A SKEPTICAL SUITOR
Joaquin will do anything for his grandmother… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Queermisia mentioned
  • Emotionally abusive relationship recounted
  • Childbirth recounted

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao

Eighteen-year-old Xifeng is beautiful. The stars say she is destined for greatness, that she is meant to be Empress of Feng Lu. But only if she embraces the darkness within her. Growing up as a peasant in a forgotten village on the edge of the map, Xifeng longs to fulfill the destiny promised to her by her cruel aunt, the witch Guma, who has read the cards and seen glimmers of Xifeng’s majestic future. But is the price of the throne too high?.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Murder
  • Animal death (sacrifice)

Djinn City by Saad Z. Hossain

Indelbed is a lonely kid living in a crumbling mansion in the super dense, super chaotic third world capital of Bangladesh. When he learns that his dead mother was a djinn — more commonly known as a genie — and that his drunken loutish father is a sitting emissary to the djinns (i.e. a magician), his whole world is turned inside out. Suddenly, and for reasons that totally escape him, his father is found in a supernatural coma, and Indelbed is kidnapped by the djinn and delivered to a subterranean prison. Back in the city, his cousin Rais and his family struggle to make sense of it all, as an impending catastrophe threatens to destroy… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Classism
  • Rape
  • Revenge porn
  • Child abuse
  • Drug use
  • Torture

Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin

Rose Howard has Asperger’s syndrome, and an obsession with homonyms (even her name is a homonym). She gave her dog Rain a name with two homonyms (Reign, Rein), which, according to Rose’s rules of homonyms, is very special. Rain was a lost dog Rose’s father brought home. Rose and Rain are practically inseparable. And they are often home alone, as Rose’s father spends most evenings at a bar, and doesn’t have much patience for his special-needs daughter… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment recounted
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Smoking mentioned
  • Physical injury, including a broken arm
  • Death of a mother from a heart attack mentioned
  • Hurricane
  • Animal abuse

The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi

Sylah dreams of days growing up in the resistance, being told she would spark a revolution that would free the empire from the red-blooded ruling classes’ tyranny. That spark was extinguished the day she watched her family murdered before her eyes.

Anoor has been told she’s nothing, no one, a disappointment, by the only person who matters: her mother, the most powerful ruler in the empire. But when Sylah and Anoor meet a fire burns between them … Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Classism
  • Slavery
  • Child abuse
  • Nightmares
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drug use
  • Emesis
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Torture