Just This Once by Lena Hendrix

Whip King cannot be the man for me. Cocky, pierced firefighters are perfect for late-night rom-coms, but in real life they’re nothing but trouble. Especially when you find out they work for your dad—after you’ve already slept with them. Moving to my parents’ small town was supposed to be the fresh start I was looking for. When a disastrous Valentine’s Day leads to an unexpected encounter with a sexy stranger, and ends with the hottest night of my life, I didn’t think I would ever see Whip again. Imagine my surprise when one of my sixth-grade students has a medical emergency and it’s Whip who shows up, looking hot as hell, to save… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Death of a parent mentioned (off-page)

Just My Luck by Lena Hendrix

You might think it’s reckless for a single mom to enter into a marriage of convenience with her boss… You would be correct. To make matters worse, Abel King is a grumpy local brewer with a criminal past. He also happens to be my boss and a total stick-in-the-mud. Every time I come to work with a smile and wave, I’m lucky if I can get a grunt in response. When I accidentally-on-purpose overhear that he’s having trouble securing a business loan due to his criminal record, I hatch a plan to help the both of us. The arrangement is perfect—a business transaction and nothing more. Like having a roommate… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment mentioned
  • Abusive relationship recounted
  • Death of a child in a car accident discussed
  • Incarceration recounted

Finding You by Lena Hendrix

After eight years in the Marines, I’m still looking for the mysterious woman I’ve obsessed over since her first letter. When she shows up in my small town, I’m thrilled. But when she turns out to be my brother’s best friend–and the girl he’s always loved–I’m caught between the two people who matter to me the most. I’m a Marine, which means honor and duty run deep. Joanna is off-limits. That would be a whole lot easier if she hadn’t already agreed to help run my brother’s fishing guide business for the summer, forcing me to work side-by-side with the woman I’ve fantasized about for years. I try to keep her at a distance, push her… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted rape
  • Military-Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Military service recounted

Keeping You by Lena Hendrix

I never should have slept with Colin McCoy. When I moved to my sister’s small town, I was looking for a fresh start—no more shallow relationships, no snotty fake friends, and definitely no charming, dirty-talking musicians. We had a fun, red-hot night together and we agreed that hooking up was a mistake, a one-time thing. But when my dream bakery location happens to be right next door to his bar, every day I’m forced to see that chiseled jawline and remember the feel of his incredible body on mine. No. I’m starting over. I have rules. No more bad habits, definitely no falling in love. No matter how hard he tries, hooking up… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicide mentioned

The Badge by Lena Hendrix

One wrong turn down a dark alley and my career as one of Chicago’s most decorated female officers is at risk. Working on a remote Montana ranch designed to protect federal witnesses is easy. Not falling for the criminal who saved my life proves to be nearly impossible. Evan Walker is determined to start over––be a better man. When we’re forced to work together, I find that he is so much more than I ever expected. He’s strong. Kind-hearted. Irresistible. We’re drawn to each other in ways that are completely reckless. I shouldn’t let my touch linger or focus on how real… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Panic attacks
  • Overdose mentioned
  • Death of a friend
  • Organised crime
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping recounted

Ankle Snatcher by Grady Hendrix

Obey the rules. It’s the only way to survive the night in a short story about what hides in the dark by the New York Times bestselling author of The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. Marcus grew up believing his father killed his mother—then blamed it on the boogeyman under the bed. Always leave the lights on, his father warned, or the boogeyman will get you. Marcus still heeds the superstition, especially when he invites his new girlfriend over. Is Marcus haunted by a creature or has he just inherited his father’s murderous delusions? The night will tell.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Imprisonment

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened. Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Traumatic pregnancy & childbirth (theme)

To Catch A Suitor by Sarah Adams

She needs to move on. He wants to let her go. Will they finally be able to go their separate ways even though their hearts seem to have other plans? Elizabeth Ashburn is madly, deeply, irrefutably in love with her best friend. They know each other better than their own minds. There is only one problem: To him, she is Little Lizzie, and nothing she does seems to replace the idea in his mind. No matter. It is her first Season and she is determined to make a match with a gentleman—any gentleman—who will help her steal her heart back from Oliver Turner and… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse recounted
  • Childbirth
  • Miscarriage mentioned (secondary character)
  • Death of a parent

Beg, Borrow, or Steal by Sarah Adams

Emily Walker hates having her carefully crafted world disrupted by anyone, most of all her legendary nemesis, Jack Bennett. He’s the opposite of the wonderful heroes she dreams up in her double life as a romance writer, which is why Emily was perfectly happy when Jack left Rome, Kentucky, mid-school year, with his fiancée. The last thing Emily saw coming was Jack’s return at the start of the summer after calling off the wedding and ending his relationship, but he’s here to stay—as her colleague and her neighbor. Jackson Bennett is glad to be back, eager to renovate his house and work on the next mystery novel under… Read more.

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Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parent with alcoholism

Do You Remember? by Freida McFadden

Tess Strebel can’t recognize her own face. She can’t recognize her home. Her bedroom is unfamiliar. And she can’t remember the handsome stranger lying next to her in bed. A stranger who claims he’s her husband. Tess reads a letter in her own handwriting, composed during a rare lucid day, explaining her life as it now exists: She was in a terrible car accident one year ago. Every morning, she wakes up unable to remember most of the last decade. Including her own wedding. Tess has no choice but to accept her new life and hope her memory will return. After all, why should she doubt the letter she wrote to herself? Or the kind… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Cancer & medical treatment (injections)
  • Hospitalisation recounted
  • Confinement