Category Archives: Contemporary

Milo and Marcos at the End of the World by Kevin Christopher Snipes

Milo Connolly has managed to survive the first three years of high school without any major disasters, so by his calculations, he’s well past due for some sort of Epic Teenage Catastrophe. Even so, all he wants his senior year is to keep his head down and fly under the radar like the quiet, well-behaved, churchgoing boy that everyone thinks he is. Everything is going exactly as planned until the dreamy and charismatic Marcos Price saunters back into his life after a three-year absence and turns his world upside-down. Suddenly Milo is forced to confront the long-buried feelings that he’s kept hidden not only from himself but… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Hate crime
  • Racism
  • Internalised religious homophobia & threats of conversion therapy
  • Fire
  • Hurricane
  • Sinkhole
  • Bullying

Bloom by Kevin Panetta and Savanna Ganucheau

Though he loved working there as a kid, Ari cannot fathom a life wasting away over rising dough and hot ovens. But while interviewing candidates for his replacement, Ari meets Hector, an easy going guy who loves baking as much as Ari wants to escape it. As they become closer over batches of bread, love is ready to bloom . . . that is, if Ari doesn’t ruin everything.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Death of a grandmother mentioned
  • Fire & related loss of property and business

Tiny by Kim Hooper

Nate and Annie Forester are faced with every parent’s worst nightmare when their three-year-old daughter, Penelope, is hit by a car right before their eyes. In the aftermath of her death, the distance between them grows. Josh, twenty-two years old–third party to the nightmare–was behind the wheel on the fateful day Penny ran into the middle of the street. Unable to stop thinking about Nate and Annie, Josh has started to stalk them, thinking up ways to approach them and apologize. One morning, he is sitting in his car, in front of their house, when he sees Annie leave, suitcase in tow. Hours later, he witnesses Nate in a frenzy of worry. His wife has disappeared and he is left… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction (theme)
  • Death of a daughter in a hit-and-run accident
  • Stalking

Ways the World Could End by Kim Hooper

Dave is a Dad with Asperger’s. He sees the world differently than most, and he feels like he has no idea what he’s doing when it comes to raising his 15-year-old daughter, Cleo. She also feels like he has no idea what he’s doing, especially now that her mom is gone. They were both better off when Jana was around—Dave’s wife, Cleo’s mother. But now she’s not, and they are left to figure out life on their own. Dave dedicates his attention to his newfound hobby of doomsday prepping, researching the various ways the world could end. Cleo feels like her world already has. Every… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother & wife

No Hiding in Boise by Kim Hooper

When Angie is awakened by a midnight call from an officer with the Boise Police Department, she thinks there must be a misunderstanding. The officer tells her that her husband was involved in a shooting at a local bar, but how can that be possible when her husband is sleeping right next to her? Except when she turns to wake him, he isn’t there. Tessa is the twenty-three-year-old bartender who escapes to a backroom storage closet during the shooting. When it comes to light that five people were killed, she is burdened with the question of why she survived. Joyce… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Eating disorder
  • Death of a husband and son from suicide
  • Mass shooting (theme) including the death of the perpetrator to suicide

One Day by David Nicholls

15th July 1988: Emma and Dexter meet for the first time on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways. So where will they be on this one day next year? And the year after that? And every year that follows?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Drug use & smoking (on-page)
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse (on-page)
  • Alcoholism (protagonist)
  • Minor injury & emesis
  • Car accident
  • Physical assault

Summerland by Elin Hilderbrand

A warm June evening, a local tradition: the students of Nantucket High have gathered for a bonfire on the beach. What begins as a graduation night celebration ends in tragedy after a horrible car crash leaves the driver, Penny Alistair, dead, and her twin brother in a coma. The other passengers, Penny’s boyfriend, Jake, and her friend Demeter, are physically unhurt–but the emotional damage is overwhelming. Questions linger about what happened before Penny took the wheel. As summer unfolds, startling truths are revealed-secrets kept, promises broken, hearts betrayed.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Hospitalisation for a coma
  • Car accident

Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand

The Carmichaels and Grahams have gathered on Nantucket for a wedding. Plans are being made according to the wishes of the bride s late mother, who left behind the notebook: specific instructions for every detail of her youngest daughter s future nuptials. Everything should be falling into place for the beautiful event but in reality, things are far from perfect. While the couple-to-be are quite happy, their loved ones find their own lives crumbling. In the days leading up to the wedding, love will be questioned, scandals will arise, and hearts will be broken and healed.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Divorce
  • Death of a mother from cancer recounted

A Summer Affair by Elin Hilderbrand

Claire Danner Crispin, mother of four young children and nationally renowned glassblower, bites off more than she can chew when she agrees to co-chair a huge benefit concert on Nantucket. Claire is asked to chair the Nantucket Children Summer Gala, at least in part, because she is the former high school sweetheart of world famous rock star, Max West. Max agrees to play the benefit and it looks like smooth sailing for Claire—until she agrees to create a “museum-quality” piece of glass for the auction, pre-emptorily offers her best friend the catering job, goes nose-to-nose with her Manhattan socialite co-chair, and begins a “good-hearted” affair with the charity’s… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity