Category Archives: Young Adult

Exactly Where You Need to Be by Amelia Diane Coombs 

Exactly Where You Need to Be by Amelia Diane Coombs

Florie’s OCD and her mother’s worrying have kept her from a lot of things, like having an after-school job and getting her driver’s license. And now that she’s graduated high school, while her best friend Kacey is headed off to Portland in the fall, Florie’s taking a parent-sanctioned gap year off before starting college. When the decision was made, Florie was on board, but now she can’t ignore the growing itch to become the person she wants to be and venture outside the quaint, boring Washington town she grew up in… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
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Keep My Heart in San Francisco by Amelia Diane Coombs 

Keep My Heart in San Francisco by Amelia Diane Coombs

Caroline “Chuck” Wilson has big plans for spring break—hit up estate sales to score vintage fashion finds and tour the fashion school she dreams of attending. But her dad wrecks those plans when he asks her to spend vacation working the counter at Bigmouth’s Bowl, her family’s failing bowling alley. Making things astronomically worse, Chuck finds out her dad is way behind on back rent—meaning they might be losing Bigmouth’s, the only thing keeping Chuck’s family in San Francisco. And the one person other… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Depression
  • Bipolar Disorder
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a mother from suicide
  • Financial difficulties
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Between You, Me, and the Honeybees by Amelia Diane Coombs 

Between You, Me, and the Honeybees by Amelia Diane Coombs

Josie Hazeldine has just graduated from high school, and she’s ready for a summer full of sunshine, beekeeping, and…lying to her mom. Josie’s mom couldn’t be more proud of her daughter going to college, something she never got to do. But Josie wants to stay in her California hometown and take over the family business, Hazeldine Honey. So that college acceptance her mom is thrilled about? Yeah, Josie turned it down. But she’s going to come clean—just not yet… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Anxiety
  • Panic attack
  • Parkinson’s Disease
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You Owe Me a Murder by Eileen Cook 

You Owe Me a Murder by Eileen Cook

17-year-old Kim never expected to plot a murder. But that was before her boyfriend dumped her for another girl. Now, Kim’s stuck on a class trip to London with him and his new soulmate and she can’t help wishing he was a little bit dead, even if she’d never really do that. But when Kim meets Nicki, a stranger on the plane who’s more than willing to listen to Kim’s woes, things start to look up. Nicki’s got a great sense of humour, and when she jokes about swapping murders, Kim… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abuse
  • Alcoholism
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Blackmail
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Suggested Reading by David Connis

Suggested Reading by David Connis

Clara Evans is horrified when she discovers her principal’s “prohibited media” hit list. The iconic books on the list have been pulled from the library and aren’t allowed anywhere on the school’s premises. Students caught with the contraband will be sternly punished.

Many of these stories have changed Clara’s life, so she’s not going to sit back and watch while her draconian principal abuses his power… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Attempted suicide
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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.

Goodreads • The 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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Tyler Johnson Was Here by Jay Coles

Tyler Johnson Was Here by Jay Coles

When Marvin Johnson’s twin, Tyler, goes to a party, Marvin decides to tag along to keep an eye on his brother. But what starts as harmless fun turns into a shooting, followed by a police raid.

The next day, Tyler has gone missing, and it’s up to Marvin to find him. But when Tyler is found dead, a video leaked online tells an even more chilling story: Tyler has been shot and killed by a police officer. Terrified as his mother unravels and mourning a brother who is now a hashtag, Marvin must learn what justice and freedom really mean.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Blood depiction
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a brother
  • Gun violence
  • Police brutality & violence
  • Incarceration of a parent
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The Truth About White Lies by Olivia Cole 

The Truth About White Lies by Olivia A. Cole

Shania never thinks much about being white. But after her beloved grandmother passes, she moves to the gentrifying town of Blue Rock and is thrust into Bard, the city’s wealthiest private school. At Bard, race is both invisible and hypervisible, and Shania’s new friends are split on what they see. There’s Catherine, the school’s queen bee, who unexpectedly takes Shania under her wing. Then there’s Prescott, the golden boy who seems perfect…except for the disturbing rumours about an altercation he had with a Black student who left the school… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Islamomisia
  • Queermisia
  • Fatmisia
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A Conspiracy of Stars by Olivia Cole 

Octavia has only ever had one goal: to follow in the footsteps of her parents and become a prestigious whitecoat, one of the scientists who study the natural wonders of Faloiv. The secrets of the jungle’s exotic plants and animals are protected fiercely in the labs by the Council of N’Terra, so when the rules suddenly change, allowing students inside, Octavia should be overjoyed. But something isn’t right. The newly elected leader of the Council has some extremist views about the way he believes N’Terra should be run and he’s influencing others to follow him. When Octavia witnesses one of the Faloii—the indigenous… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Blood and injury depiction
  • Grief and loss depiction (minor)
  • Death of a friend, off-page
  • Death of a grandmother recounted
  • Death of a mother, on-page
  • Imprisonment
  • Animal death, cruelty and experimentation (theme)
  • Animal attack.

Finding Yvonne by Brandy Colbert

Finding Yvonne by Brandy Colbert

Since she was seven years old, Yvonne has had her trusted violin to keep her company, especially in those lonely days after her mother walked out on their family. But with graduation just around the corner, she is forced to face the hard truth that she just might not be good enough to attend a conservatory after high school.

Full of doubt about her future, and increasingly frustrated by her strained relationship with her successful but emotionally closed-off father… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racist microaggressions discussed
  • Adult-minor relationship*
  • Parental abandonment & child neglect (theme)
  • Cheating
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Unplanned teen pregnancy
  • Abortion discussed, off-page
  • Homelessness mentioned
  • Financial struggles & poverty mentioned

* Note : Yvonne, the main character, turns eighteen during the story and her love interests are both adult men; one is a 21-year-old man and the sous chef at her father’s restaurant. She does not have penetrative sex with either of them until after her birthday but she was dating one of them when she was seventeen at the beginning of the book.

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