Category Archives: Genres

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler

Davi has done this all before. She’s tried to be the hero and take down the all-powerful Dark Lord. A hundred times she’s rallied humanity and made the final charge. But the time loop always gets her in the end. Sometimes she’s killed quickly. Sometimes it takes a while. But she’s been defeated every time. This time? She’s done being the hero and done being stuck in this endless time loop. If the Dark Lord always wins, then maybe that’s who she needs to be. It’s Davi’s turn to play on the winning side.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault mentioned
  • Suicide & self-harm

Cross the Line by Simone Soltani

Formula 1 driver Dev Anderson’s career is on the line. After a social media disaster leaves him with an angry team and sponsors threatening to jump ship, he needs someone to help save his image. At a party in Monaco, he bumps into the woman who can fix it all. There’s just one problem: she’s his best friend’s little sister. And, okay, maybe there’s another problem—he kissed her last year and hasn’t been able to stop thinking about it since. Recent college grad Willow Williams needs a job. She may have a talent for seeing the bright side of any bad situation, but it’s hard to stay positive when she’s struggling to get hired. So when Dev… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Chronic joint illness & pain (protagonist)

Gay the Pray Away by Natalie Naudus

Valerie Danners is in a cult. She just doesn’t know it yet. When she finds a queer book at the library and smuggles it home, her conservative Christian home-schooling world begins to crack. And when the cutest girl she’s ever met shows up to Bible class, she starts to question everything. Riley is so confident and kind, and she and Valerie bond quickly over existing as multiracial teens in a very white Christian community. As Valerie explores her feelings for Riley, she begins to see that the world she knows is a carefully crafted narrative. Publicly, the girls are close friends… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Religious trauma & homophobia (theme)
  • Physical child abuse mentioned
  • Self-harm (self-flagellation)
  • Emesis

Triple Sec by T.J. Alexander

As a bartender at Terror & Virtue, a swanky New York City cocktail lounge known for its romantic atmosphere and Insta-worthy drinks, Mel has witnessed plenty of disastrous dates. That, coupled with her own romantic life being in shambles, has Mel convinced love doesn’t exist. Everything changes when Bebe walks into the bar. She’s beautiful, funny, knows her whiskeys—and is happily married to her partner, Kade. Mel’s resigned to forget the whole thing, but Bebe makes her a unique since she and Kade have an open marriage, she’s interested in taking Mel on a date. What… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Transphobia
  • Divorce recounted (protagonist)
  • Alcohol consumption

Swift River by Essie J. Chambers

It’s the summer of 1987 in Swift River, and Diamond Newberry is learning how to drive. Ever since her Pop disappeared seven years ago, she and her mother hitchhike everywhere. But that’s not the only reason Diamond stands out: She’s teased relentlessly about her weight, and the fact that since Pop’s been gone, she is the only Black person in all of Swift River. This summer, Ma is determined to declare Pop legally dead so they can collect his life insurance money, get their house back from the bank, and finally move on. But when Diamond receives a letter from a… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Adult-minor relationship
  • Death of a parent
  • Bullying

Icon and Inferno by Marie Lu

A year has passed since superstar Winter Young last saw secret agent Sydney Cossette. After barely surviving their first assignment together in London — and their intense chemistry – the two haven’t spoken at all. Though they’re never far from the other’s thoughts, or fantasies. So when Syndey shows up at Winter’s studio one day with a new mission from Panacea, he has no choice but to accept. With the clock ticking, the duo prepares to head to Singapore to rescue an operative in danger — only to learn he’s none other than Sydney’s ex, a rogue agent known as the Arsonist… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse & domestic violence recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Parent with alcoholism recounted
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a brother recounted
  • Murder by poisoning
  • Car bombing
  • Knife & gun violence

Four Weekends and a Funeral by Ellie Palmer

When thirty-year-old post-double-mastectomy BRCA 1 carrier and reluctant thrill-seeker Alison Mullally arrives at her ex-boyfriend Sam’s funeral to find that no one knows he dumped her, she agrees to play the grieving girlfriend for the sake of the family and pack up Sam’s apartment with his prickly best friend, Adam Berg. After all, it’ll only take four weekends. But Adam doesn’t want Alison anywhere near him. Forced to spend long hours with the grump, and his monosyllabic demeanor, Alison decides she must put her people-pleasing abilities to the test. She will make him like her. And after awkward family affairs and packing up dilemmas… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Cancer*
  • Surgery (double mastectomy)

Context : The protagonist has a mastectomy to mitigate the risk of breast cancer as she has the BRCA1 gene mutation.

Powerful by Lauren Roberts

Adena and Paedyn have always been inseparable. Fate brought them together when they were young, but friendship ensured they would always protect each other and the home they built in the slums of Loot. But now Paedyn—an Ordinary—has been selected for the Purging Trials, which means almost certain death. Now alone in Loot, Adena must fend for herself. After attempting to steal, she’s rescued by a mysterious man from the market. Mak’s shadowy past and secretive power set him apart from the other low…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Physical child abuse recounted
  • Graphic blood & injury depiction
  • Murder
  • Knife, sword & weapons violence

Reckless by Lauren Roberts

The kingdom of Ilya is in turmoil… After surviving the Purging Trials, Ordinary-born Paedyn Gray has killed the King, and kickstarted a Resistance throughout the land. Now she’s running from the one person she had wanted to run to. Kai Azer is now Ilya’s Enforcer, loyal to his brother Kitt, the new King. He has vowed to find Paedyn and bring her to justice. Across the deadly Scorches, and deep into the hostile city of Dor, Kai pursues the one person he wishes he didn’t have to. But in a city without Elites, the balance between the hunter and hunted shifts, and the battle between… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Physical child abuse recounted
  • Gambling & smoking mentioned
  • Graphic blood & injury depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a sister & friend recounted
  • Murder
  • Knife, sword, spear & weapons violence
  • Physical assault (fistfights, cage fighting)
  • Near-drowning incident

Powerless by Lauren Roberts

She is the very thing he’s spent his whole life hunting. He is the very thing she’s spent her whole life pretending to be. Only the extraordinary belong in the kingdom of Ilya—the exceptional, the empowered, the Elites. The powers these Elites have possessed for decades were graciously gifted to them by the Plague, though not all were fortunate enough to both survive the sickness and reap the reward. Those born Ordinary are just that—ordinary. And when the king decreed that all Ordinaries be banished in order to preserve his Elite society, lacking an ability suddenly became a crime—making Paedyn Gray a felon by fate and… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic abuse
  • Panic attack
  • Suicide
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Graphic blood & injury depiction
  • Plague recounted
  • Death of a mother from a fever recounted
  • Death of a father from sword violence recounted
  • Genocide
  • Explosions & fire
  • Knife, sword, spear & weapons violence
  • Whipping
  • Animal death
  • Rockslide