Category Archives: Kidlit

Return to You by Julie Cross

Return to You by Julie Cross

Even with bad boy, TJ, disrupting their morning workouts, Karen and Stevie’s daily battles with each other are sure to bring both of them closer to a national title at next month’s championships. It’s the kind of feud that creates winning results. Until a fall from the uneven bars shakes Karen’s rock-solid confidence. Not only does she balk every time she so much as attempts a routine, she’s also facing all this without much support from Jordan. After receiving some bad news, Jordan’s reluctance to listen to reason causes Karen so much frustration she begins to avoid him, need… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Nightmares
  • Physical illness
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Car accident

On Thin Ice by Julie Cross

On Thin Ice by Julie Cross

Brooke Parker never expected to find herself in the tiny town of Juniper Falls, Minnesota. Of course, she also never expected to lose her dad. Or for her mom to lose herself. Brooke feels like she’s losing it…until she finds Juniper Falls hockey. Juniper Falls girls’ hockey, that is. Jake Hammond, current prince of Juniper Falls, captain of the hockey team, and player with the best chance of scoring it big, is on top of the world. Until one hazing ritual gone wrong lands him injured, sitting on the sidelines, and―shocking even to him―finding himself enjoying his “punishment” as assistant… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Incarceration of a parent
  • Hazing

Off the Ice by Julie Cross

Off the Ice by Julie Cross

Claire O’Connor is back in Juniper Falls, but that doesn’t mean she wants to be. One semester off, that’s what she promised herself. Just long enough to take care of her father and keep the family business—a hockey bar beside the ice rink—afloat. After that, she’s getting the hell out. Again. Enter Tate Tanley. What happened between them the night before she left town resurfaces the second they lay eyes on each other. But the guy she remembers has been replaced by a total hottie. When Tate is unexpectedly called in to take over for the hockey team’s star goalie, suddenly he’s… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse

Letters to Nowhere by Julie Cross

Letters to Nowhere by Julie Cross

I’ve gotten used to the dead parents’ face. I’ve gotten used to living with my gymnastics coach. I’ve even adjusted to sharing a bathroom with his way-too-hot son. Dealing with boys is not something that’s made it onto my list of experiences as of yet. But here I am, doing it. And something about Jordan–being around him, talking to him, thinking about him–makes me feel like I can finally breathe again. That’s something I haven’t been able to do lately. He knows what it feels like to be me right now. He knows what it’s like to wonder–what now? I think about it constantly. I need answers. I need to know how to get…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of parents recounted

Breaking the Ice by Julie Cross

Breaking the Ice by Julie Cross

Haley Stevenson seems like she’s got it all together: cheer captain, “Princess” of Juniper Falls, and voted Most Likely to Get Things Done. But below the surface, she’s struggling with a less-than-stellar GPA and still reeling from the loss of her first love. Repeating her Civics class during summer school is her chance to Get Things Done, not angst over boys. In fact, she’s sworn them off completely until college. Fletcher Scott is happy to keep a low profile around Juniper Falls. He’s always been the invisible guy, warming… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption

Return to Sender by Julie Cross

Return to Sender by Julie Cross

Karen and Jordan might be out in the open with their relationship, but that doesn’t make it any easier for them to face events looming in the future. Like Jordan leaving for college halfway across the country. Or Karen’s win at a big international gymnastics competition setting the bar high for her future and adding pressure like she’s never experienced before. But when Nina Jones (aka-US Gymnastics Dictator), makes plans for Karen and teammate Stevie to train at a gymnastics camp for a month—the same… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Death of a parent recounted

Dead Time by Anne Cassidy

Dead Time by Anne Cassidy

Rose and Joshua first met when Joshua and his dad came to live with Rose and her mum. Then their world turns upside down when their mother and father go out for dinner one evening and never return. With police inquiries going nowhere, Rose is dispatched to live with her chilly, unfriendly grandmother and Joshua is sent to live with his uncle.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Murder
  • Death of a parent

Some Girls Bite by Chloe Neill

Some Girls Bite by Chloe Neill

Sure, the life of a graduate student wasn’t exactly glamorous, but it was Merit’s. She was doing fine until a rogue vampire attacked her. But he only got a sip before he was scared away by another bloodsucker–and this one decided the best way to save her life was to make her the walking undead.. Turns out her saviour was the master vampire of Cadogan House. Now she’s traded sweating over her thesis for learning to fit in at a Hyde Park mansion full of vamps loyal to Ethan Sullivan. Of course, as a tall, green-eyed, four-hundred-year-old vampire, he has centuries’ worth of charm, but unfortunately, he expects her… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Blood depiction
  • Murder

The Princess and the Fangirl by Ashley Poston

The Princess and the Fangirl by Ashley Poston

Imogen Lovelace is an ordinary fangirl on an impossible mission: save her favourite character, Princess Amara, from being killed off from her favourite franchise, Starfield. The problem is, Jessica Stone—the actress who plays Princess Amara—wants nothing more than to leave the intense scrutiny of the fandom behind. If this year’s ExcelsiCon isn’t her last, she’ll consider her career derailed. When a case of mistaken identity throws look-a-likes Imogen and Jess together, they quickly become enemies. But when the script for the Starfield sequel leaks, and all signs point… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Fatmisia & body-shaming discussed
  • Slut shaming mentioned
  • Coming out mentioned
  • Sexual assault, on-page
  • Sexual harassment
  • Toxic relationship recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Bullying
  • Cyberbully & cyberharassment

Heart of Iron by Ashley Poston

Heart of Iron by Ashley Poston

Seventeen-year-old Ana is a scoundrel by nurture and an outlaw by nature. Found as a child drifting through space with a sentient android called D09, Ana was saved by a fearsome space captain and the grizzled crew she now calls family. But D09—one of the last remaining illegal Metals—has been glitching, and Ana will stop at nothing to find a way to fix him. Ana’s desperate effort to save D09 leads her on a quest to steal the coordinates to a lost ship that could offer all the answers. But at the last moment, a spoiled Ironblood boy beats Ana to her prize. He has his own reasons for taking the coordinates, and he… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Burn scars
  • Medical experimentation
  • Death of a grandmother
  • Death of a mother, father & brother in a fire
  • Graphic murder & attempted murder
  • Torture
  • Explosion
  • Arson