The Will to Battle by Ada Palmer

The Will to Battle by Ada Palmer

The long years of near-utopia have come to an abrupt end. Peace and order are now figments of the past. Corruption, deception, and insurgency hum within the once steadfast leadership of the Hives, nations without fixed location. The heartbreaking truth is that for decades, even centuries, the leaders of the great Hives bought the world’s stability with a trickle of secret murders, mathematically planned. So that no faction could ever dominate. So that the balance held. The Hives’ façade of solidity is the only hope… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Bombing
  • Kidnapping
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Seven Surrenders by Ada Palmer

Seven Surrenders by Ada Palmer

In which automation now provides for everybody’s basic needs. In which nobody living can remember an actual war. In which it is illegal for three or more people to gather for the practice of religion—but ecumenical “sensayers” minister in private, one-on-one. In which gendered language is archaic, and to dress as strongly male or female is, if not exactly illegal, deeply taboo. In which nationality is a fading memory, and most people identify instead with their choice of the seven global Hives, distinguished from one another by their different approaches to the big questions of life… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Graphic rape
  • Domestic abuse
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The Rose & the Dagger by Renée Ahdieh

The Rose & the Dagger by Renée Ahdieh

In a land on the brink of war, Shahrzad is forced from the arms of her beloved husband, the Caliph of Khorasan. She once thought Khalid a monster—a merciless killer of wives, responsible for immeasurable heartache and pain—but as she unravelled his secrets, she found instead an extraordinary man and a love she could not deny. Still, a curse threatens to keep Shazi and Khalid apart forever. Now she’s reunited with her family, who have found refuge in the desert  where a deadly force is gathering against Khalid—a force set on destroying his empire… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drugging
  • Blood & injury depiction including scars
  • Emesis
  • Death of a mother from illness
  • Sword & arrow violence
  • Kidnapping
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Love Radio by Ebony LaDelle

Love Radio by Ebony LaDelle

Prince Jones is the guy with all the answers—or so it seems. After all, at seventeen, he has his own segment on Detroit’s popular hip-hop show, Love Radio, where he dishes out advice to the brokenhearted. Prince has always dreamed of becoming a DJ and falling in love. But being the main caretaker for his mother, who has multiple sclerosis, and his little brother means his dreams will stay just that and the only romances in his life are the ones he hears about from his listeners. Until he meets Dani Ford… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Sexual assault, on-page
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House Rules by Ruby Lang

House Rules by Ruby Lang

Seventeen years ago, different dreams pulled Simon Mizrahi and Lana Kuo apart. But when Lana takes a position as a chef back in Manhattan, her apartment search puts her right in her ex-husband’s path. Music teacher Simon is also hunting for a new place to live, and when Lana proposes they be platonic roomies, well…it’s not the worst idea he’s ever heard. A sunny uptown two-bedroom sounds far more appealing than the cramped, noisy space where he’s currently struggling to work. Still, Simon has seen firsthand that Lana’s a flight risk, so he agrees on a… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Chronic pain
  • Endometriosis
  • Infertility discussed
  • Animal injury
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Playing House by Ruby Lang

Playing House by Ruby Lang

The last thing Oliver Huang expects to see on the historic Mount Morris home tour is longtime acquaintance Fay Liu bustling up and kissing him hello. He’s happy to playact being a couple to save her from a pushy admirer. Fay’s beautiful, successful and smart, and if he’s being honest, Oliver has always had a bit of a thing for her. Maybe more than a bit. Geeking out over architectural details is Oliver and Fay’s shared love language, and soon they’re touring pricey real estate across Upper Manhattan as the terribly faux but terribly charming couple Darling and Olly…. Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
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Acute Reactions by Ruby Lang

Acute Reactions by Ruby Lang

The man with allergies never gets the girl, at least according to the movies—and Portland restaurateur Ian Zamora wants to be the guy who gets the girl. So to rid himself of the sensitivities brought on by his sometimes-girlfriend’s cat, he makes an appointment with allergist Petra Lale. But he suddenly finds himself acutely attracted to the very woman who is supposed to be helping him take care of his problem. Petra’s intrigued by Ian’s quiet strength… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Cheating recounted
  • Anxiety
  • Anaphylactic shock
  • Death of a father from melanoma
  • Death of a mother from a pulmonary embolism
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Open House by Ruby Lang

Open House by Ruby Lang

Tyson Yang never imagined that one day he’d be the de facto spokesperson for an illegal community garden. But when the once-rat-infested-but-now-thriving Harlem lot goes up for sale, Ty can’t just let all their hard work get plowed under. Even if he is irresistibly drawn to the lovely but infuriatingly stubborn real estate associate. Magda Ferrer’s family is already convinced this new job will be yet another flop in her small but growing list of career path failures. But her student debt isn’t going anywhere, and… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Death of a mother from cancer recounted
  • Death of an aunt recounted
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Helium by Rudy Francisco

Helium by Rudy Francisco

Helium is the debut poetry collection by internet phenom Rudy Francisco, whose work has defined poetry for a generation of new readers. Rudy’s poems and quotes have been viewed and shared millions of times as he has traveled the country and the world performing for sell-out crowds. Helium is filled with work that is simultaneously personal and political, blending love poems, self-reflection, and biting cultural critique on class, race and gender into an unforgettable whole.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Depression
  • Bullying
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Luster by Raven Leilani

Luster by Raven Leilani

Edie is just trying to survive. She’s messing up in her dead-end admin job in her all-white office, is sleeping with all the wrong men, and has failed at the only thing that meant anything to her, painting. No one seems to care that she doesn’t really know what she’s doing with her life beyond looking for her next hook-up. And then she meets Eric, a white middle-aged archivist with a suburban family, including a wife who has sort-of-agreed to an open marriage and an adopted black daughter who doesn’t have a single person in her life who can show her how to do her hair… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Toxic relationship
  • Suicide discussed
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