Category Archives: Representation

All of Us Murderers by KJ Charles

When Zeb Wyckham is summoned to a wealthy relative’s remote Gothic manor, he is horrified to find all the people he least wants to see in the world: his estranged brother, his sneering cousin, and his bitter ex-lover Gideon Grey. Things couldn’t possibly get worse. Then the master of the house announces the true purpose of the gathering: he intends to leave the vast family fortune to whoever marries his young ward, setting off a violent scramble for her hand. Zeb wants no part of his greedy family―but when he tries to leave, the way is barred. The walls of Lackaday… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical homophobia & ableism
  • Rape & incest recounted
  • Murder

Read Between the Lies by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Fern’s dream of becoming a published author is finally coming true. After years of rejection, her debut novel has sold, and she’s ready to join the supportive online community of fellow debuts. But when she discovers her high school bully, Haven, has landed a major book deal and will be debuting alongside her, old wounds reopen. As the pandemic forces everyone online, tensions escalate in their writing community. While Haven seems to succeed effortlessly, Fern watches her own career crumble. Yet beneath their polished personas lies a darker truth about their… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Panic attacks
  • Suicide
  • COVID pandemic
  • Stalking
  • Bullying

Next Time Will Be Our Turn by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Izzy Chen is dreading her family’s annual Chinese New Year celebration, where they all come together at a Michelin-starred restaurant to flaunt their status and successes in hopes to one up each other. So when her seventy-three-year-old glamorous and formidable grandmother walks in with a stunning woman on her arm and kisses her in front of everyone, it shakes Izzy to her core. She’d always considered herself the black sheep of the family for harboring similar feelings to the ones her Nainai just displayed. Seeing herself in her teenage granddaughter’s struggles with… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & coming out themes
  • Domestic abuse
  • Death of a grandfather recounted
  • Car accident mentioned

Bloom by Robbie Couch

Morris Warner is withering away. After the sudden death of his husband, Fred, he has shut himself off from the world. No more going to movies with friends, or swims in Lake Michigan, instead preferring the quiet loneliness of his history books and Jeopardy episodes with only the cat to hear his answers. Morris’s stepdaughter, Sloan, feels like she has nowhere to grow. She’s about to get married to the man of her dreams, if only her mother will let her actually plan her own wedding and trust her to build her own life after her father’s death. Jade is drying out. Literally. As a plant in… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction (theme)
  • Death of a husband & father

That’s What Friends Are For by Wade Rouse

Theodore Copeland has created a fabulous life in the desert oasis of Palm Springs, where he shares a fabulous pink mid-century home with three fabulous friends: Barry, a former actor still clinging to his youth, his hair, and the memory of the dream role that killed his career; Ron, an uprooted Christian from the Midwest with a big heart but no one to give it to; Sid, who, after coming out late in life, has never found love. Teddy is the caustic, unspoken leader of “The Golden Gays”—the foursome’s monthly drag tribute to The Golden Girls. Despite their foibles and bickering, they… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & coming out recounted
  • Death of a husband from suicide

The Duke by Anna Cowan

Kate, Duke of Howard, is known throughout Europe as a merciless autocrat not to be crossed. Consumed by a bitter rivalry, she avoids society and has vowed never to trap a woman into marriage with a monster like herself. The beautiful, ambitious courtesan Celine Genet once threw herself on the mercy of the visiting Duke of Howard. She was desperate to escape the guillotine. But after a night of searing passion, the duke left her to the ravages of Revolutionary Paris and didn’t look back. Now Celine is in London and in possession of a dangerous letter that proves the Duke… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misgendering & sex worker-shaming
  • Sexual assault (unwanted kiss)
  • Nightmare
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of relatives in a fire
  • Death of an ex-partner in the French Revolution
  • Physical assault
  • Blackmail

On Sundays She Picked Flowers by Yah-Yah Scholfield

When Judith Rice fled her childhood home, she thought she’d severed her abusive mother’s hold on her. She didn’t have a plan or destination, just a desperate need to escape. Drawn to the forests of southern Georgia, Jude finds shelter in a house as haunted by its violent history as she is by her own. Jude embraces the eccentricities of the dilapidated house, soothing its ghosts and haints, honoring its blood-soaked land. And over the next thirteen years, Jude blossoms from her bitter beginnings into a wisewoman, a… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical racism
  • Rape
  • Physical child abuse (on-page)
  • Emesis
  • Death of a parent

Sorry, Bro by Taleen Voskuni

When Nar’s non-Armenian boyfriend gets down on one knee and proposes to her in front of a room full of drunk San Francisco tech boys, she realizes it’s time to find someone who shares her idea of romance. Enter her mother: armed with plenty of mom-guilt and a spreadsheet of Facebook-stalked Armenian men, she convinces Nar to attend Explore Armenia, a month-long series of events in the city. But it’s not the mom-approved playboy doctor or wealthy engineer who catches her eye—it’s Erebuni, a woman as equally immersed in the witchy arts as she is in… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & biphobia and coming out themes
  • Alcoholism
  • Death of a parent in a car accident recounted

Our Ex’s Wedding by Taleen Voskuni

Ani Avakian was supposed to be the Bay Area’s premier Armenian wedding planner by now. But after a huge blow to her business, she’s determined to redeem herself by taking on the biggest job of her career: a wedding for an indie movie star. The wedding is set at a stunning Armenian-owned winery, and Ani is eager to connect with the owner, who she’ll be working closely with. But then she actually meets him. Sure, Raffi is ridiculously hot and charming, but he’s also insufferably smug. Though the real gut punch comes when Ani meets the happy couple—because the act… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Financial difficulties discussed (credit card debt)

Thirty Love by Tom Vellner

American tennis star Leo Chambers is determined to win the US Open by 30, the age when many players feel retirement looming. He’s just a year away from that dreaded birthday, but he can’t find his focus—considering he hasn’t told anyone he’s gay, he’s clashing with his strict coach (who also happens to be his dad), and he still can’t figure out how to beat his longtime nemesis on tour, Gabe Montoya, who, well, hits different. Gabe is playing better than ever, and Leo can’t seem to escape him—and maybe he doesn’t want to escape him. Leo’s other obstacle is… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & outing