The Only Light Left Burning by Erik J. Brown

Against the backdrop of a ravaged world, Andrew and Jamie have settled in a new community, more in love than ever. Finally they’ve reached safety and have each taken on roles and responsibilities in this new life. But it’s soon clear they want different things: Jamie is ready to move on and take to the road, just the two of them. Andrew wants to remain in the safety of numbers. With a storm brewing up the coast they have no choice to head back into the wilderness where old enemies roam and they don’t know who to trust. Can they find their way back to safety and each other?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & religious bigotry
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping

Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehrig

Flynn’s girlfriend has disappeared. How can he uncover her secrets without revealing his own? Flynn’s girlfriend, January, is missing. The cops are asking questions he can’t answer, and her friends are telling stories that don’t add up. All eyes are on Flynn—as January’s boyfriend, he must know something. But Flynn has a secret of his own. And as he struggles to uncover the truth about January’s disappearance, he must also face the truth about himself.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Rape & sexual assault
  • Suicide
  • Murder

The Fell of Dark by Caleb Roehrig

The only thing August Pfeiffer hates more than algebra is living in a vampire town. Located at a nexus of mystical energy fields, Fulton Heights is practically an electromagnet for supernatural drama. And when a mysterious (and annoyingly hot) vampire boy arrives with a cryptic warning, Auggie suddenly finds himself at the center of it. An ancient and terrible power is returning to the earthly realm, and somehow Auggie seems to be the only one who can stop it.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Murder
  • Kidnapping & captivity

Teach the Torches to Burn by Caleb Roehrig

Verona, Italy. Seventeen-year-old aspiring artist Romeo dreams of a quiet life with someone who loves him just as he is. But as the heir to the Montague family, he is expected to give up his womanly artistic pursuits and uphold the family honor–particularly in their centuries-old blood feud with a rival family, the Capulets. Worse still, he is also expected to marry a well-bred girl approved by his parents and produce heirs. But the more Romeo is forced to mingle with eligible maidens, the harder it is to keep his deepest secret: He only feels attracted to other boys. In an attempt to… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Poisoning

Foster by Claire Keegan

It is a hot summer in rural Ireland. A child is taken by her father to live with relatives on a farm, not knowing when or if she will be brought home again. In the Kinsellas’ house, she finds an affection and warmth she has not known and slowly, in there care, begins to blossom. But there is something unspoken in this new household – where everything is so well tended to – and the summer must come to an end.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcoholism
  • Poverty

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Religious bigotry
  • Suicidal ideation & mentions of suicide

So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan

After an uneventful Friday at the Dublin office, Cathal faces into the long weekend and takes the bus home. There, his mind agitates over a woman named Sabine with whom he could have spent his life, had he acted differently. All evening, with only the television and a bottle of champagne for company, thoughts of this woman and others intrude – and the true significance of this particular date is revealed.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misogyny discussed

Wandi by Favel Parrett

A young cub is snatched from his family and home by a giant eagle, then dropped, injured and alone, in a suburban garden. This is where he meets his first Human, and begins his long journey to becoming the most famous dingo in the world. He will never see his mountain home again, or his family. But it is his destiny to save alpine dingoes from extinction, and he dreams of a time when all cubs like him can live in the wild in safety, instead of facing poison and bullets and hatred.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Animal cruelty
  • Animal death & injury
  • Animal attack (eagle)

Kimmi: Queen of the Dingoes by Favel Parrett

Kimmi sleeps with her mama at her back, her aunty at her front and her three brothers squeezed in beside her. They are a family. But when the farmer who took her father returns to threaten the rest of them, Kimmi is separated from her mama. In an incredible act of determination, Kimmi’s mama runs over mountain tops and dusty red earth to spend one last day with her cub and share with her the knowledge that will one day make her a queen. This is Kimmi’s story, the story of how she became Queen of the Dingoes in a sanctuary that saves them from extinction. It is her mama’s story, too. But mostly it is a story that goes… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Murder of a brother/dingo cub by a hunter (on-page)
  • Animal death & hunting (on-page)
  • Animal injury including loss of ear (on-page)

Akata Woman by Nnedi Okorafor

From the moment Sunny Nwazue discovered she had mystical energy flowing in her blood, she sought to understand and control her powers. Throughout her adventures in Akata Witch and Akata Warrior , she had to navigate the balance between nearly everything in her life—America and Nigeria, the “normal” world and the one infused with juju, human and spirit, good daughter and powerful Leopard Person. Now, those hard lessons and abilities are put to the test in a quest so dangerous and fantastical, it would be madness to go but it may destroy the world if she does… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Physical child abuse