Contemporary – Page 74 – Trigger Warning Database

Looking for a Cowboy by Donna Grant

Looking for a Cowboy by Donna Grant

A beautiful stranger has come to Clearview, asking questions that are nobody’s business. Cooper Owens also wasn’t born yesterday. He knows that this out-of-towner is hiding a dark secret of her own. Much as he knows he should head in the other direction, he can’t make himself turn away. P.I. Marlee Frampton always wanted to lead a nice quiet life, working as a cop in her local police department. But that dream came to an end when her sister was murdered―and her baby kidnapped. Now Marlee’s come to Texas to investigate the Harpers, who may be linked to shady adoption agencies. Cooper can’t believe that his… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Infertility
Murder of a pregnant woman mentioned

Boys of Alabama by Genevieve Hudson

Boys of Alabama by Genevieve Hudson

Max already expects some of the raucous behaviour of his new, American friends—like their insatiable hunger for the fried and cheesy, and their locker room talk about girls. But he doesn’t expect the comradery—or how quickly he would be welcomed into their world of basement beer drinking. In his new canvas pants and thickening muscles, Max feels like he’s “playing dress-up.” That is until he meets Pan, the school “witch,” in Physics class: “Pan in his all black. Pan with his goth choker and the gel that made his hair go straight up.” Suddenly, Max feels seen, and the pair… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Transmisia
Homomisia
Rape
Poisoning
Graphic animal death
Animal abuse

Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter

Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter

Liz Buxbaum has always known that Wes Bennett was not boyfriend material. You would think that her next-door neighbour would be a prince candidate for her romantic comedy fantasies, but Wes has only proven himself to be a pain in the butt, ever since they were little. Wes was the kid who put a frog in her Barbie Dreamhouse, the monster who hid a lawn gnome’s severed head in her little homemade neighbourhood book exchange. Flash forward ten years from the Great Gnome Decapitation. It’s Liz’s senior year… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Alcohol consumption
Smoking
Emesis
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a mother in a car accident mentioned
Bullying

Alone with You in the Ether by Olivie Blake

Alone with You in the Ether by Olivie Blake

Two people meet in the Art Institute by chance. Prior to their encounter, he is a doctoral student who manages his destructive thoughts with compulsive calculations about time travel; she is a bipolar counterfeit artist, undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy. By the end of the story, these things will still be true. But this is not a story about endings. For Regan, people are predictable and tedious, including and perhaps especially herself. She copes with the dreariness of existence by living impulsively, imagining a new, alternate timeline being created in the wake of every rash decision… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Bipolar Disorder
Substance addiction
Drug use & abuse
Overdose recounted

Starcrossed by Barbara Dee

Star-Crossed by Barbara Dee

Mattie, a star student and passionate reader, is delighted when her English teacher announces the eighth grade will be staging Romeo and Juliet. And she is even more excited when, after a series of events, she finds herself playing Romeo, opposite Gemma Braithwaite’s Juliet. Gemma, the new girl at school, is brilliant, pretty, outgoing—and if all that wasn’t enough: British. As the cast prepares for opening night, Mattie finds herself growing increasingly attracted to Gemma and confused, since, just days before, she had found herself crushing on a boy named Elijah… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Queerphobia
Emesis
Bullying

The Accidental Pinup by Danielle Jackson

The Accidental Pinup by Danielle Jackson

Photographer Cassie Harris loves her job—her company Buxom Boudoir makes people look beautiful and feel empowered with her modern twist on classic pinup photography. Cassie’s best friend, Dana, is about to launch her own dangerously dreamy lingerie line and wants Cassie to shoot and direct the career-changing national campaign. But company politics and Dana’s complicated pregnancy interfere, and Cassie finds herself—a proud plus-size Black woman—not behind the camera but in front of it… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Racism, fatphobia & sexism
Parental abandonment recounted
Gambling addiction (secondary character)
Alcohol consumption
High-risk pregnancy mentioned (secondary character)

The Accidental Bad Girl by Maxine Kaplan

The Accidental Bad Girl by Maxine Kaplan

After getting caught hooking up with her best friend’s ex on the last day of junior year, Kendall starts senior year friendless and ostracized. She plans to keep her head down until she graduates. But after discovering her online identity has been hacked and she’s being framed for stealing from a dealer, Kendall is drawn into a tenuous partnership with the mastermind of a drug ring lurking in the shadows of her Brooklyn private school. If she wants to repair her tattered reputation and save her neck, she’ll have to decide who she really is—and own it. The longer she plays the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Sexism
Rape
Drugging
Stalking

Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff

Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff

Albie has never been the smartest kid in his class. He has never been the tallest. Or the best at gym. Or the greatest artist. Or the most musical. In fact, Albie has a long list of the things he’s not very good at. But then Albie gets a new babysitter, Calista, who helps him figure out all of the things he is good at and how he can take pride in himself.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism
Animal death

About Tomorrow by Abbi Glines

About Tomorrow by Abbi Glines

I close my eyes as I hear him speak. I take one very long and deep breath hoping to calm the immediate butterflies that take flight in my stomach and hope to slow down the racing of my heart. The voice was slightly deeper but the timbre was one that was achingly familiar. My actions did little to help, but then who was I kidding? A deep breath wasn’t going to fix the effect he had on me and my body’s inevitable reaction. Even the memories that would forever haunt me couldn’t keep my emotions from triggering at the nearness of him once again… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Cheating
Suicide
Drug overdose
Cancer mentioned
Car accident

About a Boy by Nick Hornby

About a Boy by Nick Hornby

Too cool! At thirty-six, he’s as hip as a teenager. He’s single, child-free, goes to the right clubs and knows which trainers to wear. He’s also found a great way to score with women: attend single parents’ groups full of available (and grateful) mothers, all hoping to meet a Nice Guy. Which is how Will meets Marcus, the oldest twelve-year-old on the planet. Marcus is a bit strange: he listens to Joni Mitchell and Mozart, looks after his mum and has never owned a pair of trainers. But Marcus latches on to Will – and won’t let go. Can Will teach Marcus how to grow up cool? And can Marcus help Will just to grow up?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Suicide
Recreational drug use
Bullying