Category Archives: Contemporary

Giving Chase by Lauren Dane

Giving Chase by Lauren Dane

When landscaper Kyle Chase takes notice of Maggie Wright, all of Petal, Georgia, wonders what the quiet schoolteacher is hiding underneath her tight bun and boring blouses. Even Maggie doesn’t quite get it, but after a failed relationship and a disastrous attempt to get back out there, she’s no match against the famous Chase charm, and Kyle has it in spades. Kyle wants Maggie in his life—and in his bed—and he doesn’t mind getting down and dirty to prove it. For years he’s avoided the kind of trouble that comes with “good girls” like her, but Maggie’s the best trouble he’s ever been in. He craves more of it. And more of her…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Abusive relationship recounted
  • Attempted rape
  • Physical assault
  • Stalking

The Hitman’s Guide to Tying the Knot Without Getting Shot by Alice Winters

The Hitman’s Guide to Tying the Knot Without Getting Shot by Alice Winters

Is a nice little wedding with Blow-up Randy and Jackson My Love too much to ask for? Clearly, because someone’s trying to kill one of us… again. Generally, this would be my thing and I would jump right in singing my murder song, but they want Jackson dead and I will do anything (and I mean anything) to keep him alive—including and not limited to: ten Dobermans, bulletproof glass, and dragging Cassel in with the promise of more Jerebear. These people have no idea what they’ve done targeting the man I love because I’m coming after them. But when it feels like everything might be lost, I start to understand that I have a family now who… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Murder mentioned

Intercepted by Alexa Martin

Intercepted by Alexa Martin

Marlee thought she scored the man of her dreams only to be scorched by a bad breakup. But there’s a new player on the horizon, and he’s in a league of his own. Marlee Harper is the perfect girlfriend. She’s definitely had enough practice by dating her NFL-star boyfriend for the last ten years. But when she discovers he has been tackling other women on the sly, she vows to never date an athlete again. There’s just one problem: Gavin Pope, the new hotshot quarterback and a fling from the past, has Marlee in his sights. Gavin fights to show Marlee he’s nothing like her ex. Unfortunately, not everyone is ready to let her escape her… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Sexism
  • Slut-shaming
  • Threats of sexual assault
  • Cheating
  • Dieting mentioned
  • Physical assault
  • Bullying

Dirty Sexy Saint by Carly Phillips and Erika Wilde

Dirty Sexy Saint by Carly Phillips & Erika Wilde

Clay Kincaid knows he’s more a sinner than a saint. Especially when it comes to women. With a rough and damaged past that has left him jaded, he doesn’t do committed relationships. But he does like sex — the hotter and harder, the better. He likes it fast and filthy, which is why he refuses to even touch someone as sweet and guileless as Samantha Jamieson. Until he discovers that she likes it just as down and dirty as he does. Let the sinning begin…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Human trafficking
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Smoking & drug use mentioned

Metal Fish, Falling Snow by Cath Moore

Metal Fish, Falling Snow by Cath Moore

Dylan and her adored French mother dream of one day sailing across the ocean to France. Paris, Dylan imagines, is a place where her black skin won’t stand out, a place she might feel she belongs. But when she loses her mother in a freak accident, Dylan finds herself on a very different journey: a road trip across outback Australia in the care of her mother’s grieving boyfriend, Pat. As they travel through remote towns further and further from the water Dylan longs for, she and Pat form an unlikely bond. One that will be broken when he leaves her with the family she has never… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Internalised racism & racial slurs
  • Domestic violence recounted
  • Hospitalisation
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent

Brown-Eyed Girl by Lisa Kleypas

Brown-Eyed Girl by Lisa Kleypas

Wedding planner Avery Crosslin may be a rising star in Houston society, but she doesn’t believe in love—at least not for herself. When she meets wealthy bachelor Joe Travis and mistakes him for a wedding photographer, she has no intention of letting him sweep her off her feet. But Joe is a man who goes after what he wants, and Avery can’t resist the temptation of a sexy southern charmer and a hot summer evening. After a one night stand, however, Avery is determined to keep it from happening again. A man like Joe can only mean trouble for a woman like her, and she can’t afford… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • High-risk pregnancy
  • Childbirth

See Me After Class by Meghan Quinn

See Me After Class by Meghan Quinn

Good question. I’d like to preface this by saying it was never my intention to ever get involved in a workplace romance, let alone get involved with the most surly, agitating, and pompous man I’ve ever met who just so happens to be my new friend’s brother. My intentions were to show students how English and reading books could actually be fun and make a new life for myself in the suburbs of Chicago. But so far, I’ve managed to be called into the principal’s office. Coerced into participating in the teacher’s badminton league. And instigated into passionate fights with Arlo Turner over education and decorum while losing my underwear at the same time.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Attempted suicide mentioned
  • Self-harm (cutting)

Find Me by Ashley Rostek

Find Me by Ashley N. Rostek

One year ago. My family is gone. My parents. My twin sister. All of them murdered by the man who has stalked me for years. He nearly killed me, too. But I got away and he’s still out there, searching for me. He won’t find me. At least, I hope not. Thanks to WITSEC, I’ve been given a new life with a new identity. The present. My uncle, my only living relative, has helped me glue myself back together and given me the tools I’ll need to survive. I’m not fixed and my grief is heavy, but I’m at a point where I can put one foot in front of the other to try to move on. I know my future will be hard… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • PTSD & trauma
  • Nightmares
  • Smoking
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Murder of both parents & twin sisters recounted
  • Stalking
  • Bullying

Conviction by Kelly Loy Gilbert

Conviction by Kelly Loy Gilbert

Ten years ago, God gave Braden a sign, a promise that his family wouldn’t fall apart the way he feared. But Braden got it wrong: his older brother, Trey, has been estranged from the family for almost as long, and his father, the only parent Braden has ever known, has been accused of murder. The arrest of Braden’s father, a well-known Christian radio host, has sparked national media attention. His fate lies in his son’s hands; Braden is the key witness in the upcoming trial. Braden has always measured himself through baseball. He is the star pitcher in his small town of Ornette, and his ninety-four-mile-per-hour pitch already has min… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Emotional abuse
  • Domestic violence

If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say by Leila Sales

If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say by Leila Sales

Winter, a one-time National Spelling Bee Champ, has a bright future ahead of her. That all changes after she haphazardly writes an offensive tweet that she thought was a harmless joke. What unfolds is a barrage of Internet shaming and rejection from her community and closest friends. Winter seeks to redeem herself but first must come to terms with what she wrote and understand why there was so much backlash.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial profiling
  • Homomisia
  • Slut shaming
  • Outing
  • Suicide
  • Panic attacks
  • Attempted suicide
  • Animal death
  • Animal abuse & cruelty