Beautiful Broken Things by Sara Barnard

Best friends Caddy and Rosie are inseparable. Their differences have brought them closer, but as she turns sixteen Caddy begins to wish she could be a bit more like Rosie – confident, funny and interesting. Then Suzanne comes into their lives: beautiful, damaged, exciting and mysterious, and things get a whole lot more complicated. As Suzanne’s past is revealed and her present begins to unravel, Caddy begins to see how much fun a little trouble can be. But the course of both friendship and recovery is rougher than either girl realises, and Caddy is about to learn that downward spirals have a momentum of their own. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Bipolar Disorder
  • Attempted suicide & self-harm
  • Hospitalisation
  • Death of an infant

Babayaga by Toby Barlow

Babayaga by Toby Barlow

Will is a young American ad executive in Paris. Except his agency is a front for the CIA. It’s 1959 and the cold war is going strong. But Will doesn’t think he’s a warrior—he’s just a good-hearted Detroit ad guy who can’t seem to figure out Parisian girls.

Zoya is a beautiful young woman wandering “les boulevards, “sad-eyed, coming off a bad breakup. In fact, she impaled her ex on a spike. Zoya, it turns out, has been a beautiful young woman for hundreds of years; she and her far more traditionally witchy-looking companion, Elga, have been thriving unnoticed in the bloody froth of Europe’s wars… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Antiziganism (g slur)
  • Slut shaming
  • Rape
  • Cheating
  • Recreational drug use
  • Overdose
  • Murder
  • Infantcide
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Against the Rules by AR Barley

Against the Rules by A.R. Barley

Kelly O’Connor’s out of control. An RA at Halton University, he spends his off nights at a club, hoping to find what he’s looking for in rough sex with strangers. Until one night the play gets a little too rough. An isolated room, a dangerous situation… and an unexpected rescue.

Ian Rankin knows what Kelly wants—a true Dom, someone who will protect him instead of using him, someone who can take him to the edge without pushing him into unsafe territory. Ian knows just what Kelly needs, and he’s the only man who can give it to him.

There’s only one problem: Kelly is a student, and Ian is a teacher.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Teacher-student relationship
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Out of Bounds by AR Barley

Out of Bounds by A.R. Barley

Beaten and heartbroken, Jesse Cole is placed in a new dorm room after his last roommate attacked him. Just wanting to be left alone to heal in peace, he’s shocked when tall, dark and dangerous-looking Nick Moretti walks in.

Nick doesn’t have time to tiptoe around his new roommate—he’s too busy working in order to pay for school. But something about Jesse brings out his protective instincts. As their cautious friendship grows and becomes loaded with sexual tension, he wants to make Jesse comfortable… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Child homelessness recounted
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

The Bone Ships by RJ Barker

The Bone Ships by R.J. Barker

Two nations at war. A prize beyond compare.

For generations, the Hundred Isles have built their ships from the bones of ancient dragons to fight an endless war.

The dragons disappeared, but the battles for supremacy persisted.

Now the first dragon in centuries has been spotted in far-off waters, and both sides see a chance to shift the balance of power in their favour. Because whoever catches it will win not only glory, but the war.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Alcoholism
  • Suicide mentioned
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

The ancient city of Troy has withstood a decade under siege of the powerful Greek army, which continues to wage bloody war over a stolen woman—Helen. In the Greek camp, another woman—Briseis—watches and waits for the war’s outcome. She was queen of one of Troy’s neighboring kingdoms, until Achilles, Greece’s greatest warrior, sacked her city and murdered her husband and brothers. Briseis becomes Achilles’s concubine, a prize of battle, and must adjust quickly in order to survive a radically different life, as one of the many conquered women who serve the Greek army.

When Agamemnon, the brutal political leader of the Greek forces, demands Briseis for himself, she finds herself caught between the two most powerful of the Greeks… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Victim blaming
  • Slavery
  • Graphic rape
  • Paedophilia
  • Cheating
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Suicide
  • Self harm
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Death of a baby
  • Graphic murder
  • War themes & battle scenes
  • Animal death
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

A Plague upon Humanity by Daniel Barenblatt

A Plague upon Humanity by Daniel Barenblatt

From 1932 to 1945, in a headlong quest to develop germ warfare capability for the military of Imperial Japan, hundreds of Japanese doctors, nurses and research scientists willingly participated in what was referred to at the time as ‘the secret of secrets’ – horrifying experiments conducted on live human beings, in this case innocent Chinese men, women, and children. This was the work of an elite group known as Unit 731, led by Japan’s answer to Joseph Mengele, Dr Shiro Ishii.

Under their initiative, thousands of individuals were held captive and infected with virulent strains of anthrax, plague, cholera, and other epidemic and viral diseases. Soon entire Chinese villages were being hit with biological bombs. Even American POWs were targeted. All told, more than 250,000 people were infected, and the vast majority died.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape
  • Medical experimentation
  • Cannibalism mentioned
  • War & biological warfare themes
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Missing Molly by Natalie Barelli

Everyone has secrets, and Rachel Holloway is no exception. She’s worked hard to keep the past where it belongs: dead and buried. And so far, she’s been very successful. But now the small newspaper where she works wants to produce a podcast on a cold case: the disappearance twelve years ago of little Molly Forster. Some secrets should never see the light of day, and as far as Rachel is concerned, whatever happened to little Molly is one of them. Rachel has a life now, a boyfriend she loves and a three-year-old daughter she adores, and she will do anything to protect them. But to do that, no one can ever know that she is Molly Forster.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault
  • Domestic violence
  • Murder
  • Disappearance of a loved one

A Noise Downstairs by Linwood Barclay

A Noise Downstairs by Linwood Barclay

College professor Paul Davis is a normal guy with a normal life. Until, driving along a deserted road late one night, he surprises a murderer disposing of a couple of bodies. That’s when Paul’s “normal” existence is turned upside down. After nearly losing his own life in that encounter, he finds himself battling PTSD, depression, and severe problems at work. His wife, Charlotte, desperate to cheer him up, brings home a vintage typewriter—complete with ink ribbons and heavy round keys—to encourage him to get started on that novel he’s always intended to write.

However, the typewriter itself is a problem. Paul swears it’s possessed and types by itself at night. But only Paul can hear the noise coming from downstairs; Charlotte doesn’t hear a thing. And she worries he’s going off the rails… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Cheating
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Blood depiction
  • Murder
  • Drowning
  • Animal death
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Follow Me by Kathleen Barber

Follow Me by Kathleen Barber

Everyone wants new followers…until they follow you home.

Audrey Miller has an enviable new job at the Smithsonian, a body by reformer Pilates, an apartment door with a broken lock, and hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers to bear witness to it all. Having just moved to Washington, DC, Audrey busies herself impressing her new boss, interacting with her online fan base, and staving off a creepy upstairs neighbor with the help of the only two people she knows in town: an ex-boyfriend she can’t stay away from and a sorority sister with a high-powered job and a mysterious past… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Stalking
  • Bullying
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com