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.

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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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The Professional by Kresley Cole

The Professional by Kresley Cole

Mafiya enforcer Aleksei “The Siberian” Sevastyan’s loyalty to his boss knows no bounds, until he meets the boss’s long-lost daughter, a curvy, feisty redhead who haunts his mind and heats his blood like no other. Ordered to protect her, Aleksei will do anything to possess her as well—on his own wicked terms. Grad student Natalie Porter had barely recovered from her first sight of the dark and breathtaking Sevastyan before the professional enforcer whisks her away to Russia, thrusting… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Abandonment
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Stalking
  • Kidnapping

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.

GoodreadsThe 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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Bright Ruined Things by Samantha Cohoe 

Bright Ruined Things by Samantha Cohoe

The only life Mae has ever known is on the island, living on the charity of the wealthy Prosper family who control the magic on the island and the spirits who inhabit it. Mae longs for magic of her own and to have a place among the Prosper family, where her best friend, Coco, will see her as an equal, and her crush, Miles, will finally see her. Now that she’s eighteen, Mae knows her time with the Prospers may soon come to an end.

But tonight is First Night, when the Prospers and their high-society friends return to… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Outing
  • Parental abandonment
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drug abuse mentioned
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)
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Hang the Moon by Alexandria Bellefleur 

Hang the Moon by Alexandria Bellefleur

Brendon Lowell loves love. It’s why he created a dating app to help people find their one true pairing and why he’s convinced “the one” is out there, even if he hasn’t met her yet. Or… has he? When his sister’s best friend turns up in Seattle unexpectedly, Brendon jumps at the chance to hang out with her. He’s crushed on Annie since they were kids, and the stars have finally aligned, putting them in the same city at the same time.

Annie booked a spur-of-the-moment trip to Seattle to spend time with friends before moving… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Bullying
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Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur 

Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur

After a disastrous blind date, Darcy Lowell is desperate to stop her well-meaning brother from playing matchmaker ever again. Love—and the inevitable heartbreak—is the last thing she wants. So she fibs and says her latest set up was a success. Darcy doesn’t expect her lie to bite her in the ass.

Elle Jones, one of the astrologers behind the popular Twitter account, Oh My Stars, dreams of finding her soul mate. But she knows it is most assuredly not Darcy. A no-nonsense stick-in-the-mud .Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment recounted
  • Cheating recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a grandmother mentioned
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Sunshine by Marion Dane Bauer 

Sunshine by Marion Dane Bauer

 Since as far back as Ben can remember, it’s been him, his devoted dad, and Sunshine–Ben’s little dog, who rarely leaves Ben’s side. It was Mom who did the leaving, and Ben’s about to spend a whole week with his suddenly present mother in the wilds of northern Minnesota. On the remote island she calls home, Ben will learn to camp, canoe, weather the elements, and weigh a burning question: when will she come back to where she belongs?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Physical child abuse recounted
  • Forest fire
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When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill 

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours. But this version of 1950’s America is characterized by a significant event: The Mass Dragoning of 1955, when hundreds of thousands of ordinary wives and mothers sprouted wings, scales and talons, left a trail of fiery destruction in their path, and took to the skies. Seemingly for good. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex’s beloved Aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn’t know. It’s taboo to speak of, even more so than her crush on Sonja, her schoolmate… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Misogyny (theme)
  • Parental abandonment
  • Emotional & physical child abuse
  • ALcoholism
  • Panic attack
  • Death of a father, off-page
  • Death of a mother from cancer, on-page
  • Fire mentioned
  • Animal cruelty & death
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The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill 

The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill

Stone-in-the-Glen, once a lovely town, has fallen on hard times. Fires, floods, and other calamities have caused the people to lose their library, their school, their park, and even their neighbourliness. The people put their faith in the Mayor, a dazzling fellow who promises he alone can help. After all, he is a famous dragon slayer. (At least, no one has seen a dragon in his presence.) Only the clever children of the Orphan House and the kindly Ogress at the edge of town can see how dire the town’s problems are… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Disappearance of a child
  • Fire
  • Animal attack (birds)
  • Animal abuse & injury*

*Explanation : A dog is blinded by his previous abusive owner.

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The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill 

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

Every year, the people of the Protectorate leave a baby as an offering to the witch who lives in the forest. They hope this sacrifice will keep her from terrorizing their town. But the witch in the forest, Xan, is kind and gentle. She shares her home with a wise Swamp Monster named Glerk and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon, Fyrian. Xan rescues the abandoned children and deliver them to welcoming families on the other side of the forest, nourishing the babies with starlight on the journey. 

One year, Xan accidentally feeds a baby moonlight instead of starlight, filling the ordinary… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Abandonment
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a grandmother
  • Infanticide
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Animal injury
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