Category Archives: Contemporary

The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley

Adela Woods is sixteen years old and pregnant. Her parents banish her from her comfortable upbringing in Indiana to her grandmother’s home in the small town of Padua Beach, Florida. When she arrives, Adela meets Emory, who brings her newborn to high school, determined to graduate despite the odds; Simone, mother of four-year-old twins, weighs her options when she finds herself pregnant again; and the rest of the Girls, a group of outcast young moms who raise their growing brood in the back of Simone’s red truck. The town thinks the Girls have lost their way… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Adult-minor relationships discussed
  • Familial estrangement due to teen pregnancy
  • Racism
  • Pregnancy & childbirth (theme, on-page), including discussion of the stigma around teen pregnancy & parenthood
  • Abortion discussed

Context: One protagonist became pregnant and gave birth to her first daughter at age 16 when her boyfriend was 22. The other protagonists were sixteen & seventeen when they gave birth.

The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan

Cate Kay knows how to craft a story. As the creator of a bestselling book trilogy that struck box office gold as a film series, she’s one of the most successful authors of her generation. The thing is, Cate Kay doesn’t really exist. She’s never attended author events or granted any interviews. Her real identity had been a closely guarded secret, until now. As a young adult, she and her best friend Amanda dreamed of escaping their difficult homes and moving to California to become movie stars. But the day before their grand adventure, a tragedy shattered their dreams and Cate has been on the run ever since, taking on different names and.… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Physical & verbal child abuse
  • Child abandonment & neglect
  • Infidelity
  • Alcoholism
  • Grief & loss depiction

We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes

Lila Kennedy has a lot on her plate. A broken marriage, two wayward daughters, a house that is falling apart, and an elderly stepfather who seems to have quietly moved in. Her career is in freefall, and her love life is . . . complicated. So when her real dad—a man she has barely seen since he ran off to Hollywood thirty-five years ago—suddenly appears on her doorstep, it feels like the final straw. But it turns out even the family you thought you could never forgive might have something to teach you: about love, and what it actually means to be family.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Death of a mother mentioned
  • Bullying mentioned

A Duke Worth Falling For by Sarah MacLean

Her career in tatters, celebrity photographer Lilah Rose needs somewhere to regroup and start fresh, outside of the spotlight. There’s nowhere better to hide than the English countryside, complete with fluffy sheep, rolling hills… and Max, the stern, sexy farmer who tends to them. But the lazy days and lush nights with Max aren’t as far from the spotlight as Lilah thinks. He isn’t simply a farmer—he’s also a duke: young, handsome and powerful… and too aware of how a title can dazzle, making the man inside invisible. What’s the harm in playing the farmer for a while? After all, Lilah isn’t staying… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Divorce recounted

These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean

Alice isn’t like the other Storm siblings. While the rest stayed to battle for their parents’ approval, attention, and untold billions, she left, building her own life beyond the family’s name and influence. Nothing could induce her to come back, except the shocking death of her larger-than-life father. Now back on the family’s private island off the Rhode Island coast, she plans to keep her head down, pay the last of her respects, and leave the minute the funeral is over. Unfortunately, her father had other plans. The eccentric, manipulative patriarch left his widow and their grown children a final challenge–an inheritance game desi… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction (theme)
  • Death of a father

The Academy by Elin Hilderbrand and Shelby Cunningham

It’s move-in day at Tiffin Academy and amidst the happy chaos of friends reuniting, selfies uploading, and cars unloading, shocking news: America Today just ranked Tiffin the number two boarding school in the country. It’s a seventeen-spot jump – was there a typo? The dorms need to be renovated, their sports teams always come in last place, and let’s just say Tiffin students are known for being more social than academic. On the other hand, the campus is exquisite, class sizes are small, and the dining hall is run by an acclaimed New York chef. And they do have fun—lots of parties and school dances, and a piano man plays in the student lounge every Monday night… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Fatphobia
  • Eating disorder (builmia)
  • Suicide
  • Alcohol abuse & alcoholism
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent

The Names by Florence Knapp

In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register the birth of her son. Her husband, Gordon, respected in the community but a controlling presence at home, intends for her to follow a long-standing family tradition and name the baby after him. But when faced with the decision, Cora hesitates. Spanning thirty-five years, what follows are three alternate and alternating versions of their lives, shaped by Cora’s last-minute choice of name. In richly layered prose, The Names explores the painful ripple effects of… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence & child abuse (theme)
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Alcoholism

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

Throughout her life Sybil Van Antwerp has used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings around half past ten Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter. Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has. A mother, grandmother, wife, divorcée, distinguished… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicide mentioned
  • Miscarriage
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a child recounted & discussed

The Winners by Fredrik Backman

Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures. Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobic slurs
  • Child abuse & neglect mentioned
  • Infidelity mentioned
  • Abusive relationship recounted
  • Rape mentioned & recounted
  • Suicide, suicidal ideation & self-harm mentioned
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use including overdose
  • Death of a child (off-page)
  • Murder by gun violence
  • Fatal car acciedne tmentioned
  • Animal death (dog)

My Friends by Fredrik Backman

Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures. Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Foster care discussed
  • Rape & sexual assault mentioned
  • Domestic abuse
  • Attempted suicide, suicidal ideation & self-harm
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Depression
  • Alcoholism
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Bullying