Category Archives: Contemporary

Misfit by Elle Kennedy

Finding out your mom is marrying some rich guy you’ve never met is enough to make any eighteen-year-old’s head spin. And for RJ Shaw, it gets worse: he’s being sent to Sandover Prep for senior year. If there’s one place a misfit hacker like RJ doesn’t belong, it’s an ivy-covered all-boys boarding school for rich delinquents. There’s no point trying to get along with anyone. That is, until he meets Sloane Tresscott in the woods on the outskirts of campus. Gorgeous and sharp-tongued, Sloane is pure temptation. Except Sloane is the one girl he’s forbidden from touching. The head… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Teacher-student relationship
  • Bullying

The Graham Effect by Elle Kennedy

Gigi Graham has exactly three goals: qualify for the women’s national hockey team, win Olympic gold, and step out of her famous father’s shadow. So far, so good, except for two little things. Fine–a little thing and a big, grumpy thing. She needs to improve her game behind the net, and she needs help from Luke Ryder. Ryder is six-foot five, built, opinionated, rude… and sexy as hell. But he’s still the enemy. Briar’s new hockey co-captain has his reasons, though. The men’s team just merged with a rival program, leaving Ryder with an angry roster where everyone hates one another’s guts. To make matters worse, the summer coaching… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity recounted
  • Murder of a mother by a father (off-page)
  • Abusive foster care experiences recounted

Good Girl Complex by Elle Kennedy

Mackenzie “Mac” Cabot is a people pleaser. Her demanding parents. Her prep school friends. Her long-time boyfriend. It’s exhausting, really, always following the rules. Unlike most twenty-year-olds, all she really wants to do is focus on growing her internet business, but first she must get a college degree at her parents’ insistence. That means moving to the beachside town of Avalon Bay, a community made up of locals and the wealthy students of Garnet College. Mac’s had plenty of practice suppressing her wilder impulses, but when she meets local bad boy Cooper Hartley, that ability is suddenly tested. Cooper is rough around… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abandonment
  • Cheating ( recounted & on-page)
  • Death of a parent (off-page)

Bad Girl Reputation by Elle Kennedy

When former bad girl Genevieve West returns home for her mother’s funeral, she’s prepared to keep her distance from her ex-boyfriend, Evan Hartley. Their history is rife with turbulence. And passion. A heck of a lot of passion… which she’s trying desperately to forget. But it’s impossible not to run into Evan in the small coastal town where they once ran wild. And the moment she sees her gorgeous ex again, it’s clear to Gen that Evan is still as unruly, sexy, and irresistible as ever. This time around, however, she’s resolved to walk a new path. No more partying. No more foolish mistakes. Her plan is to temporarily remain in town to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Alcoholism
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Drug abuse
  • Death of a parent

The Charlie Method by Elle Kennedy

College senior Charlotte Kingston is living two lives―and she’s nailing both of them. By day, she’s the perfect sorority girl, a STEM student in biomedical engineering, and the adopted daughter of an overachiever family. At night, she’s Charlie: a risk-taking daredevil looking for fun who finds herself chatting on a dating app with two anonymous hotties. Will Larsen may seem like the breezy boy next door, but his congressman father is a constant thorn in his side. After a scandal hits another Division 1 hockey program, Will’s dad is determined to distance his son from it, hiring a journalist to prove how squeaky-clean… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Terminal cancer

Four Aunties and a Wedding by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Meddy Chan has been to countless weddings, but she never imagined how her own would turn out. Now the day has arrived, and she can’t wait to marry her college sweetheart, Nathan. Instead of having Ma and the aunts cater to her wedding, Meddy wants them to enjoy the day as guests. As a compromise, they find the perfect wedding vendors: a Chinese-Indonesian family-run company just like theirs. Meddy is hesitant at first, but she hits it off right away with the wedding photographer, Staphanie, who reminds Meddy of herself, down to the unfortunately… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted sexual assault recounted
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use
  • Attempted murder
  • Kidnapping

The Good, the Bad, and the Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto

After an ultra-romantic honeymoon across Europe, Meddy Chan and her husband Nathan have landed in Jakarta to spend Chinese New Year with her entire extended family. Chinese New Year, already the biggest celebration of the Lunar calendar, gets even more festive when a former beau of Second Aunt’s shows up at the Chan residence bearing extravagant gifts—he’s determined to rekindle his romance with Second Aunt and the gifts are his way of announcing his courtship. His grand gesture goes awry however, when it’s discovered that not all the gifts were meant for Second Aunt and the Chans—one particular…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Drugging
  • Kidnapping

Well, That Was Unexpected by Jesse Q. Sutanto

After Sharlot Citra’s mother catches her in a compromising position, she finds herself whisked away from LA to her mother’s native Indonesia. It’ll be exactly what they both need. Or so her mother thinks. When George Clooney Tanuwijaya’s father (who is obsessed with American celebrities) fears he no longer understands how to get through to his son, he decides to take matters into his own hands. To ensure that their children find the right kind of romantic partner, Sharlot’s mother and George’s father do what any good parent would do: they strike up a conversation online, pretending to be their children….. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Slut-shaming
  • Teen pregnancy mentioned
  • Death of a parent mentioned

This Might Get Awkward by Kara McDowell

Seventeen-year-old Gemma’s favorite kind of beach is an empty one. Social interactions are too much for her to handle. She always says the wrong thing—if she manages to say anything at all. She can’t even bring herself to speak to her longtime crush, Beau Booker, without losing sleep over her own awkwardness. During a solo outing to her favorite beach, Gemma realizes—to her horror—that the popular kids from school have shown up to throw a party. Before she can sneak away (and possibly puke behind her car) Gemma is pulled into the action and ends up talking to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Social Anxiety Disorder (protagonist)

One Way or Another by Kara McDowell

The average person makes 35,000 decisions every single day. That’s about 34,999 too many for Paige Collins who lives in debilitating fear of making the wrong choice. The simple act of picking an art elective is enough to send her into a spiral of what ifs. What if she’s destined to be a famous ceramicist but wastes her talent in drama club? What if there’s a carbon monoxide leak in the ceramics studio and everyone drops dead? (Grim, but possible!) That’s why when Paige is presented with two last-minute options for Christmas vacation, she’s paralyzed by indecision… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Sclerosis & hypothyroidism mentioned
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Hospitalisation
  • Car accident