The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin

The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin

It begins in a big yellow house, with a funeral, an iron poker, and a brief variation forever known as the Pause: a free and feral summer in a middle-class Connecticut town. Caught between the predictable life they once led and an uncertain future that stretches before them, the Skinner siblings—fierce Renee, sensitive Caroline, golden-boy Joe and watchful Fiona—emerge from the Pause staunchly loyal and deeply connected.  Two decades later, the siblings find themselves once again confronted with a family crisis that tests the strength of these bonds and forces them to question the life choices they’ve made and to ask what, exactly, they are willing to do for love. 

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Substance addiction
  • Drug use & abuse
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
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House of Secrets by Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini

House of Secrets by Chris Columbus & Ned Vizzini

When Brendan, Cordelia and Nell move to Kristoff House they have no idea that they are about to unleash the dark magic locked within. For the house once belonged to a crazed writer, whose stories have come to life. Literally. Now the Walker kids must battle against deadly pirates, bloodthirsty warriors and a bone-crunching giant. If they fail they will never see their parents again and a power-mad Witch will take over the world. No pressure then . . .

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & injury depiction, including eye trauma
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Sword violence & stabbing
  • Explosion
  • Fire
  • Plane crash
  • Vivisection discussed
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The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins 

The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins

All of London is abuzz with the scandalous case of Frannie Langton, accused of the brutal double murder of her employers, renowned scientist George Benham and his eccentric French wife, Marguerite. Crowds pack the courtroom, eagerly following every twist, while the newspapers print lurid theories about the killings and the mysterious woman being held in the Old Bailey.

The testimonies against Frannie are damning. She is a seductress, a witch, a master manipulator… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Slavery
  • Racism
  • Misogyny
  • Lesbomisia
  • Rape
  • Incest
  • Emotional & physical abuse
  • Alcoholism
  • Pregnancy
  • Miscarriage
  • Abortion
  • Torture
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The Winter Sister by Megan Collins 

The Winter Sister by Megan Collins

Sixteen years ago, Sylvie’s sister Persephone never came home. Out too late with the boyfriend she was forbidden to see, Persephone was missing for three days before her body was found—and years later, her murder remains unsolved.

In the present day, Sylvie returns home to care for her estranged mother, Annie, as she undergoes treatment for cancer. Prone to unexplained “Dark Days” even before Persephone’s death, Annie’s once-close… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Familial estrangement
  • Parent with alcoholism
  • Parent with cancer
  • Disappearance & murder of a sister recounted
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The Family Plot by Megan Collins 

The Family Plot by Megan Collins

At twenty-six, Dahlia Lighthouse has a lot to learn when it comes to the real world. Raised in a secluded island mansion deep in the woods and kept isolated by her true crime-obsessed parents, she has spent the last several years living on her own, but unable to move beyond her past—especially the disappearance of her twin brother Andy when they were sixteen.

With her father’s death, Dahlia returns to the house she has avoided for years. But as the rest of the Lighthouse family arrives for the memorial… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Cancer mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a brother
  • Death of a father
  • Disappearance of a sibling recounted
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The Betrayals by Bridget Collins

The Betrayals by Bridget Collins

At Montverre, an exclusive academy tucked away in the mountains, the best and brightest are trained for excellence in the grand jeu: an arcane and mysterious contest. Léo Martin was once a student there, but lost his passion for the grand jeu following a violent tragedy. Now he returns in disgrace, exiled to his old place of learning with his political career in tatters.

Montverre has changed since he… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Suicide
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The Haunting Season by Various

The Haunting Season: Ghostly Tales for Long Winter Nights with contributions from Bridget Collins, Natasha Pulley, Imogen Hermes Gowar, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Andrew Michael Hurley, Jess Kidd, Elizabeth Macneal and Laura Purcell

Winter, with its unsettling blend of the cosy and the sinister, has long been a popular time for gathering by the bright flame of a candle, or the warm crackling of a fire, and swapping stories.

From a bustling Covent Garden Christmas market to the frosty moors of Yorkshire, from a country estate with a dreadful secret, to a London mansion where a beautiful girl lies frozen in death, these are stories to make your hair stand on end, send shivers down your spine and to serve as your indispensable companion to the long nights of winter.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Suicide
  • Post-partum depression
  • Drug abuse
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a child
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The Binding by Bridget Collins 

The Binding by Bridget Collins

Books are dangerous things in Collins’s alternate universe, a place vaguely reminiscent of 19th-century England. It’s a world in which people visit book binders to rid themselves of painful or treacherous memories. Once their stories have been told and are bound between the pages of a book, the slate is wiped clean and their memories lose the power to hurt or haunt them.

After having suffered some sort of mental collapse and no longer able to keep up with his farm… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Paedophilia & child sexual abuse
  • Rape & rape of a minor
  • Incest mentioned
  • Suicide
  • Animal cruelty
  • Animal death
  • Fire
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Get What They Deserve by Eoin Colfer

Get What They Deserve by Eoin Colfer

For almost two years, Lord Teddy Bleedham-Drye, the Duke of Scilly, has been plotting revenge against the Fowl Twins, who humiliated him in Book One. Teddy plans to give them exactly what they deserve: permanent death.

He threatens Myles with his weaponized jet and Beckett and Specialist Lazuli succeed in disarming the aircraft and causing an accident that kills the duke. But does it really?

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Loss of autonomy (possession)
  • Bullying
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Things We Couldn’t Say by Jay Coles

Things We Couldn’t Say by Jay Coles

There’s always been a hole in Gio’s life. Not because he’s into both guys and girls. Not because his father has some drinking issues. Not because his friends are always bringing him their drama. No, the hole in Gio’s life takes the shape of his birth mom, who left Gio, his brother, and his father when Gio was nine years old. For eight years, he never heard a word from her . . . and now, just as he’s started to get his life together, she’s back.

It’s hard for Gio to know what to do. Can he forgive her like she wants to be forgiven? Or should… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Bimisia
  • Racism & racial profiling
  • Child verbal and emotional abuse
  • Parental abandonment
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Death of a sibling
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