Category Archives: Contemporary

The Ashleys by Melissa de la Cruz

Meet The Ashleys. Ashley Spencer, Ashley “Lili” Li and Ashley “A. A.” Alioto are the queen bees of Miss Gambles Preparatory School for Girls. They have it they’re rich, gorgeous, impeccably fashion forward, and everyone wants to be them. And then there’s Lauren Page. Former loser, she’s changed her ways now that her father’s company went public last month. Lauren’s upgraded to a mansion in Pacific Heights with a view of the marina and a Bentley with a driver named Thomas. Last year she was a nobody, but this year is going to be totally different. Lauren’s gone from geek… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Allergic reaction (secondary character)
  • Bullying

Whisky Business by Elliot Fletcher

As a child, April Sinclair dreamt of escaping her quiet island life to become a world-famous actress. Now fully grown and with her once-flourishing career at an all-time low, what better way to figure out where it all went wrong than to go back to the beginning? April has her sights set on a new challenge, and that is saving her family’s distillery on the idyllic Scottish Isle of Skye. What she doesn’t expect to find is Malcolm Macabe, short-tempered and exceedingly attractive, living in the home she has just inherited. He may be a million miles away from the shy teenager she knew growing up, but one thing is for certain: he doesn’t… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Anxiety (on-page)
  • Parent with Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Death of a grandparent from cancer complications
  • Cyberbullying, specifically sexual harassment & body-shaming

Booked by Kwame Alexander

In this follow-up to the Newbery-winning novel THE CROSSOVER, soccer, family, love, and friendship, take center stage as twelve-year-old Nick learns the power of words as he wrestles with problems at home, stands up to a bully, and tries to impress the girl of his dreams. Helping him along are his best friend and sometimes teammate Coby, and The Mac, a rapping librarian who gives Nick inspiring books to read. This electric and heartfelt novel-in-verse by poet Kwame Alexander bends and breaks as it captures all the thrills and setbacks, action and emotion of a World Cup match!

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Hospitalisation and surgery for a ruptured appendix
  • Physical assault
  • Bullying

The Player in New Zealand by Liz Alden

That surly ex-rugby player making a ruckus in the dark corner of the bar I work at? Yeah, I try to avoid him. Too bad he’s my boss. I thought I was grumpy AF but I’ve met my match. Tane Parata has two moods when I see him in the bar he co-owns with his sister: grouchy in a dark corner or reliving his rugby days with a rowdy group that likes to cause trouble. I try to avoid him at all costs—the last thing I need is more male drama in my life after my stalker ex. He’s why I came to New Zealand—to escape. When my closest friend in the country—who happens to be Tane’s sister—asks me for… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Stalking

Mrs. Nash’s Ashes by Sarah Adler

Millicent Watts-Cohen is on a mission. When she promised her elderly best friend that she’d reunite her with the woman she fell in love with nearly eighty years ago, she never imagined that would mean traveling from D.C. to Key West with three tablespoons of Mrs. Nash’s remains in her backpack. But Millie’s determined to give her friend a symbolic happily-ever-after, before it’s (really) too late—and hopefully reassure herself of love’s lasting power in the process. She just didn’t expect to have a living travel companion. After a computer glitch grounds flights, Millie is… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Lesbophobia discussed
  • Sexism & sexual harassment
  • Familial estrangement
  • Parental infidelity
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a parent recounted (off-page)
  • Animal death in a car accident (deer)

A Very Merry Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams

Country music’s golden boy Colton Wheeler felt the most perfect harmony when he was with Gretchen Winthrop. But for her, it was a love him and leave him situation. A year later, Colton is struggling to push his music forward in a new direction. If it weren’t about to be the most magical time of year and the support of the Bromance Book Club, he’d be wallowing in self-pity. It’s hard for immigration attorney Gretchen not to feel a little Scrooge-ish about the excess of Christmas when her clients are scrambling to afford their rent. So when her estranged, wealthy family reaches out… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity mentioned (secondary character)
  • Emotional & physical sibling and parental abuse (on-page, recounted)
  • Familial estrangement
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blackmail
  • Deportation discussed

Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood

Maya Killgore is twenty-three and still in the process of figuring out her life. Conor Harkness is thirty-eight, and Maya cannot stop thinking about him. It’s such a cliché, it almost makes her heart implode: older man and younger woman; successful biotech guy and struggling grad student; brother’s best friend and the girl he never even knew existed. As Conor loves to remind her, the power dynamic is too imbalanced. Any relationship between them would be problematic in too many ways to count, and Maya should just get over him. After all, he has made it clear that he wants her… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misogyny & sexism
  • Infidelity
  • Toxic friendship
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent recounted

Cruel Winter with You by Ali Hazelwood

All newly minted pediatrician Jamie Malek wants is to borrow a roasting pan for Christmas dinner. Unfortunately, that requires her to interact with Marc—her best friend’s troublemaking brother, who’s now a tech billionaire. He’s the one who got away. She’s the one who broke his heart. Outside, a howling blizzard. Inside, a crackling fire. Suddenly, being snowbound with the man she never expected to see again might not be such a bad way to spend a winter’s night.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment recounted
  • Panic attack (on-page)
  • Death of a child mentioned

Runaway Road by Devney Perry

Londyn McCormack didn’t have a typical childhood. She ran away from home at sixteen, escaping parents more interested in drugs than their daughter. She doesn’t have loving siblings or an adorable pet. Her only family is the five other runaway kids who shared her junkyard home. Life pulled them all in separate directions, taking her to Boston. For a short time, she thought she’d found something permanent. But after a devastating divorce, she’s running away again, this time to find a lost friend. She’s driving across the country in her convertible. As a teenager, the rusty car was her shelter… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Miscarriage mentioned

Rally by Devney Perry

Pregnant. Homeless. Broke. Not what I’d expected for my senior year in college. Neither was Rush Ramsey. We met the day I went camping and got stranded on the side of a gravel road. I didn’t believe in white knights who freed damsels in distress. Life had taught me that if something bad could happen, it probably would. The only person who would save me was me. But Rush Ramsey rescued me that day. He was sweet and kind and charming. He made a dark, starry night a little less lonely. I should have realized it was too good to be true. That an incredible night of passion would… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parent with terminal illness
  • Unplanned pregnancy