rachel @ typed truths

Friends Without Benefits by Penny Reid

Friends Without Benefits by Penny Reid

There are three things you need to know about Elizabeth Finney: 1) She suffers from severe sarcastic syndrome, especially when she’s unnerved, 2) No one unnerves her like Nico Manganiello, and 3) She knows how to knit. Elizabeth Finney is almost always right about everything: the musical merits of boy bands are undervalued by society, “benefits” with human Ken dolls are better without friendship, and the sun has set on her once-in-a-lifetime chance for true love. But when Elizabeth’s plans for benefits without friendship are disarmed by the irritatingly charismatic and chauvinistic Nico Manganiello—her former… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Slut shaming
Blood depiction
Death of a friend recounted
Death of a parent recounted
Gun violence
Stalking

Neanderthal Seeks Human by Penny Reid

Neanderthal Seeks Human by Penny Reid

There are three things you need to know about Janie Morris: 1) She is incapable of engaging in a conversation without volunteering Too Much Trivial Information, especially when she is unnerved, 2) No one unnerves her more than Quinn Sullivan, and 3) She doesn’t know how to knit. After losing her boyfriend, apartment, and job in the same day, Janie Morris can’t help wondering what new torment fate has in store. To her utter mortification, Quinn Sullivan witnesses it all then keeps turning up like a pair of shoes you lust after but can’t afford. The last thing she expects is for Quinn to make her an offer she can’t refuse.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Cheating
Boss-employee relationship
Drugging

Totally Folked by Penny Reid

Totally Folked by Penny Reid

Jackson James follows the rules. He has to. He’s a sheriff’s deputy in a super small town with a super big personality. However, strict adherence to the law during the day has been enjoyably balanced by rakish rules at night. Jackson, typically happy to protect and serve (and serve, and serve), starts questioning the value of wayward evenings when getting laid starts to feel more like being waylaid. Could it be that Green Valley’s most eligible—and notorious—bachelor longs for something (and someone) real? Mega movie star Raquel Ezra follows only one rule: always leave them wanting more. Studio execs, reporters, audiences, fans… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Overdose mentioned
Car accident mentioned
Stalking

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon is on trial for murder. A Harlem drugstore owner was shot and killed in his store, and the word is that Steve served as the lookout. Guilty or innocent, Steve becomes a pawn in the hands of “the system,” cluttered with cynical authority figures and unscrupulous inmates, who will turn in anyone to shorten their own sentences. For the first time, Steve is forced to think about who he is as he faces prison, where he may spend all the tomorrows of his life. As a way of coping with the horrific events that entangle him, Steve, an amateur filmmaker, decides… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Rape
Drug use
Dead body mentioned
Murder

Tags by Walter Dean Myers

Tags by Walter Dean Myers

Four New York City teens are shot down in the prime of life. They move through limbo, re-creating their distinctive tags in a Harlem walk-up so that they can “live” forever. But what’s the point? How can you think of living forever if you’re already dead? From Walter Dean Myers, the New York Times bestselling author of Monster, comes an all-new 20-page one-act play. Tags is a look at life and death in New York City, complete with a shocking end.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism & racial slurs

Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden

Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden

Escaping Exodus is a story of a young woman named Seske Kaleigh, heir to the command of a biological, city-size starship carved up from the insides of a spacefaring beast. Her clan has just now culled their latest ship and the workers are busy stripping down the bone work for building materials, rerouting the circulatory system for mass transit, and preparing the cavernous creature for the onslaught of the general populous still in stasis. It’s all a part of the cycle her clan had instituted centuries ago—excavate the new beast, expand into its barely-living car… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Slavery
Body horror

The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan

The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan

As an Emperor’s Justice, Sir Konrad Vonvalt always has the last word. His duty is to uphold the law of the empire using whatever tools he has at his disposal: whether it’s his blade, the arcane secrets passed down from Justice to Justice, or his wealth of knowledge of the laws of the empire. But usually his reputation as one of the most revered—and hated—Justices is enough to get most any job done. When Vonvalt investigates the murder of a noblewoman, he finds his authority being challenged like never before. As the simple case becomes more complex and convoluted, he begins to pull… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Amputation
Immolation

The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas

The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas

As each new decade begins, the Sun’s power must be replenished so that Sol can keep traveling along the sky and keep the evil Obsidian gods at bay. Ten semidioses between the ages of thirteen and eighteen are selected by Sol himself as the most worthy to compete in The Sunbearer Trials. The winner carries light and life to all the temples of Reino del Sol, but the loser has the greatest honor of all―they will be sacrificed to Sol, their body used to fuel the Sun Stones that will protect the people of Reino del Sol for the next ten years. Teo, a 17-year-old Jade semidiós and the trans son of Quetzal, goddess of birds, has never worried about… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Blood & injury depiction
Death of a parent
House fire
Bullying

The Strangers by Jacqueline West

The Strangers by Jacqueline West

Olive thought she’d uncovered all the house’s secrets. She was wrong. It’s Halloween night when strangers come to Linden Street…and something dear to Olive goes missing. To what lengths will she go to get it back? Can she trust the strangers? Will she turn to a new and dangerous magic within the paintings of Elsewhere? Or will she put her faith in her own worst enemies to save the people and home she loves? The stakes grow higher, the secrets more dangerous, and mystery and magic abound as Olive, the boys, and the cats uncover the true nature of the house on Linden Street.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Knife violence & stabbing recounted
Kidnapping of a parent
Immolation

Edge of the Woods by Jules Kelley

Edge of the Woods by Jules Kelley

There’s something wrong in Pine Grove, Montana, and its bite is vicious. Haley Fern has been the alpha of her local werewolf pack for less than a year when their law enforcement liaison retires, and Leland Sommers, a man who knows nothing about werewolves or their world, is hired in his place. What could be an awkward situation turns complicated when the man shows up his first day on the job with an injured teenage boy he found on the road–a boy Haley knows has just been bitten. But discovering who bit the kid isn’t as easy as it seems, especially with Leland asking que… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Child abuse recounted