Category Archives: Entries

The Queens of New York by EL Shen

The Queens of New York by E.L. Shen

Best friends Jia Lee, Ariel Kim, and Everett Hoang are inseparable. But this summer, they won’t be together. Everett, aspiring Broadway star, hopes to nab the lead role in an Ohio theater production, but soon realizes that talent and drive can only get her so far. Brainy Ariel is flying to San Francisco for a prestigious STEM scholarship, even though her heart is in South Korea, where her sister died last year. And stable, solid Jia will be home in Flushing, juggling her parents’ Chinatown restaurant, a cute new neighbor, and dreams for an uncertain future.

Goodreads • The Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use (weed) mentioned
  • Hospitalisation of a grandparent from a fall
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a sister in a boating accident recounted

Bright Raven Skies by Kristina Pérez

Bright Raven Skies by Kristina Pérez

To save the kingdom, Branwen embraced the darkest aspects of her magic. But she may have lost herself––and the two people she loves most. Tristan and Eseult are missing. As Branwen searches for them, she must hide the truth surrounding their disappearance from both the king and her lover. Above all, she must find the Queen and her Champion first. New and old enemies circle Branwen, clamoring for power and revenge, and threatening to destroy the fragile peace that she has sacrificed everything to secure.

Goodreads • The Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Murder
  • Sword violence
  • Poisoning

Wild Savage Stars by Kristina Pérez

Wild Savage Stars by Kristina Pérez

Branwen has a secret powerful enough to destroy two kingdoms. Her ancient magic led to a terrible betrayal by both her best friend, the princess Essy, and her first love, Tristan. Now this same magic is changing Branwen. Adrift in a rival court, Branwen must hide the truth from the enemy king by protecting the lovers who broke her heart―and finds herself considering a darker path. Not everyone wants the alliance with Branwen’s kingdom to succeed―peace is balanced on a knife’s edge, and her only chance may be to embrace the darkness within…

Goodreads • The Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Self-harm (cutting)
  • Miscarriage
  • Murder
  • Knife & sword violence
  • Poisoning

Sweet Black Waves by Kristina Pérez

Sweet Black Waves by Kristina Pérez

Two proud kingdoms stand on opposite shores, with only a bloody history between them. As best friend and lady-in-waiting to the princess, Branwen is guided by two principles: devotion to her homeland and hatred for the raiders who killed her parents. When she unknowingly saves the life of her enemy, he awakens her ancient healing magic and opens her heart. Branwen begins to dream of peace, but the princess she serves is not so easily convinced. Fighting for what’s right, even as her powers grow beyond her control, will set Branwen against both her best friend and the only man she’s ever loved.

Goodreads • The Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Self-harm (cutting)

Rise Up from the Embers by Sara Raasch and Kristen Simmons

Rise Up from the Embers by Sara Raasch and Kristen Simmons

Two gods are dead. The Mother Goddess has returned. War is rising. Fleeing war-ravaged Deimos, Ash and Madoc sail across the ocean to their only possible allies: the water and plant gods. But when Anathrasa attacks on the way, Ash leaps to the defense—by using a power she didn’t know she had. When Madoc made the fire and earth gods mortal, he inadvertently transferred their magic to Ash. Now, if Ash can get energeias from the other four gods, she would be powerful enough to end Anathrasa once and for all. But not all the gods want the Mother Goddess defeated. To stop…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Adult-minor relationship*
  • Murder
  • Torture mentioned

*Context : A relationship between a teenager and a god that’s implied to be hundreds of years old.

Set Fire to the Gods by Sara Raasch and Kristen Simmons

Set Fire to the Gods by Sara Raasch and Kristen Simmons

Ash is descended from a long line of gladiators, and she knows the brutal nature of war firsthand. But after her mother dies in an arena, she vows to avenge her by overthrowing her fire god, whose temper has stripped her country of its resources. Madoc grew up fighting on the streets to pay his family’s taxes. But he hides a dangerous secret: he doesn’t have the earth god’s powers like his opponents. His elemental gift is something else—something that hasn’t been seen in centuries. When an attempted revenge plot goes dangerously wrong, Ash inadvertently throws the fire and earth gods into a conflict that can… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Child homelessness recounted
  • Indentured servitude mentioned
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother, on-page
  • Death of a son mentioned
  • Kidnapping
  • Physical assault
  • Attempted regicide
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Murder & attempted murder

Road of Bones by Christopher Golden

Road of Bones by Christopher Golden

Kolyma Highway, otherwise known as the Road of Bones, is a 1200 mile stretch of Siberian road where winter temperatures can drop as low as sixty degrees below zero. Under Stalin, at least eighty Soviet gulags were built along the route to supply the USSR with a readily available workforce, and over time hundreds of thousands of prisoners died in the midst of their labors. Their bodies were buried where they fell, plowed under the permafrost, underneath the road. Felix Teigland, or ‘Teig’, is a documentary producer and when he learns about the Road of Bones, he realizes he’s… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Suicide
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Gun violence
  • Gulags

A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

In Oak Knoll, a verdant, tight-knit North Carolina neighborhood, professor of forestry and ecology Valerie Alston-Holt is raising her bright and talented biracial son. Xavier is headed to college in the fall, and after years of single parenting, Valerie is facing the prospect of an empty nest. All is well until the Whitmans move in next door – an apparently traditional family with new money, ambition, and a secretly troubled teenaged daughter. Thanks to his thriving local business, Brad Whitman is something of a celebrity around town, and he’s made a small fortune on his customer… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racial slurs
  • Rape
  • Incest (step-parent/step-child)
  • Suicide
  • Death of a husband from a brain injury
  • Murder by gun violence (dream sequence)

Stung by Bethany Wiggins

Stung by Bethany Wiggins

There is no cure for being stung. Fiona doesn’t remember going to sleep. But when she awakens, her world no longer exists. Her house is abandoned and broken. Her neighborhood is barren and dead. And there is a tattoo on her right hand. A tattoo Fiona doesn’t remember getting…but somehow she must conceal at any cost. Because humanity has been divided. Those bearing the tattoo have turned into mindless, violent beasts that roam the streets and sewers, preying upon the unbranded, while a select few live protected inside a fortresslike wall… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sex slavery
  • Rape
  • Starvation

Not Your Villain by CB Lee

Not Your Villain by C.B. Lee

Bells Broussard thought he had it made when his superpowers manifested early. Being a shapeshifter is awesome. He can change his hair whenever he wants, and if putting on a binder for the day is too much, he’s got it covered. But that was before he became the country’s most-wanted villain. After discovering a massive cover-up by the Heroes’ League of Heroes, Bells and his friends Jess, Emma, and Abby set off on a secret mission to find the Resistance. Meanwhile, power-hungry former hero Captain Orion is on the loose with a dangerous serum that renders… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Gender dysphoria
  • Blood depiction
  • Needles mentioned
  • Hormone Replacement Therapy
  • Medical experimentation
  • Explosion
  • Physical assault
  • Fire
  • Kidnapping
  • Imprisonment
  • Disappearance of a loved one