Tag Archives: Alcohol Consumption & Abuse

Pretty When She Cries by A Zavarelli 

Pretty When She Cries by A. Zavarelli

Your first kiss is supposed to be sweet. Ours was baptized in fire. I was the new girl trying to find her place. Landon was the brooding neighbour I tutored over the summer. I didn’t know he was a legend at Black Mountain Academy. I didn’t know they worshipped him like a religion. But I fell for him before I knew those things. To me, he was just the tortured soul who drew me in like a magnet. And then he did something so unspeakable, so unforgivable, it shattered me. I ran away then because I was weak, but I’ve shed my tears. He stole my heart and my dignity, and I’m here to take it back. The only problem is… he’s not giving it up without a fight.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Drugging
  • Drug abuse
  • Alcohol abuse

Play With Me by Alisha Rai

Play With Me by Alisha Rai

Jewellery designer Tatiana Belikov may have matured enough to curb her impulsive nature, but wickedness is still her best accessory. When family troubles bring her to Las Vegas and face-to-face with the man who knows all her darkest desires, resisting temptation is futile. A night of no-holds-barred sin? Jackpot.

Once billionaire Wyatt Caine had nothing to offer Tatiana except his heart, but time has changed his fortunes. Now he’s the king of vice, and the king always gets what he wants. Especially when all he wants is her, all grown up and ready to play every dirty game he can devise… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Fatmisia
  • Sex worker shaming
  • Parental estrangement
  • Child emotional abuse recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Parent with alcoholism recounted
  • Death of a mother recounted

Wrong to Need You by Alisha Rai

Wrong to Need You by Alisha Rai

Accused of a crime he didn’t commit, Jackson Kane fled his home, his name, and his family. Ten years later, he’s come back to town: older, wiser, richer, tougher—and still helpless to turn away the one woman he could never stop loving, even after she married his brother.

Sadia Ahmed can’t deal with the feelings her mysterious former brother-in-law stirs, but she also can’t turn down his offer of help with the cafe she’s inherited. While he heats up her kitchen, she slowly discovers that the boy she adored has grown into a man she’s simply unable to resist.

An affair is unthinkable, but their desire is undeniable. As secrets and lies are stripped away, Sadia and Jackson must decide if they’re strong enough to face the past…and step into a future together.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Suicide mentioned
  • Anxiety
  • Panic attack
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a spouse recounted
  • Death of a sibling recounted
  • Fire recounted
  • Incarceration recounted

Girl Gone Viral by Alisha Rai

Girl Gone Viral by Alisha Rai

One minute, Katrina King’s enjoying an innocent conversation with a hot guy at a coffee shop; the next, a stranger has live-tweeted the entire episode with a romantic meet-cute spin and #CafeBae is the new hashtag-du-jour. The problem? Katrina craves a low-profile life, and going viral threatens the peaceful world she’s painstakingly built. Besides, #CafeBae isn’t the man she’s hungry for…

With the internet on the hunt for the identity of #CuteCafeGirl, Jas Singh, bodyguard, friend, and possessor of the most beautiful eyebrows Katrina’s ever seen, comes to the rescue and whisks her away to his family’s home. Alone in a remote setting with the object of her affections? It’s a recipe for romance. But after a long dating dry spell, Katrina isn’t sure she can trust her instincts when it comes to love—even if Jas’ every look says he wants to be more than just her bodyguard…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Sexual assault (groping) recounted
  • Emotional parental abuse
  • Anxiety
  • Panic attack, on-page
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Nightmares
  • Dissociation
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a parent
  • Torture recounted
  • Explosion recounted
  • Kidnapping recounted
  • Blackmail
  • Military service recounted
  • Doxing

The Year of the Crocodile by Courtney Milan

The Year of the Crocodile by Courtney Milan

Tina Chen and Blake Reynolds have been together for almost a year. In that time, they’ve grown closer on just about every front. The one exception? Blake’s father has never let anything stop him. Tina’s parents have never let anyone push them around. And they’ve never met.

That’s about to change. But don’t worry—fireworks are traditional at Chinese New Years.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Religious persecution & refugee experiences
  • Chinese education camps
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Eating disorder recovery
  • Substance addiction recovery
  • Heart attack recounted

Bluebird by Sharon Cameron

Bluebird by Sharon Cameron

In 1946, Eva leaves behind the rubble of Berlin for the streets of New York City, stepping from the fiery aftermath of one war into another, far colder one, where power is more important than principles, and lies are more plentiful than the truth. Eva holds the key to a deadly secret: Project Bluebird — a horrific experiment of the concentration camps, capable of tipping the balance of world power. Both the Americans and the Soviets want Bluebird, and it is something that neither should ever be allowed to possess.

But Eva hasn’t come to America for secrets or power. She hasn’t even come for a new life. She has come to America for one thing: justice. And the Nazi that has escaped its net.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Antisemitism & Nazism
  • Rape, off-page
  • Suicide by cyanide pill
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking
  • Death of children
  • Murder & mass murder
  • Torture
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Concentration camps
  • Human medical experimentation
  • Animal death (bird) recounted
  • Animal cruelty

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

Frances is twenty-one years old, cool-headed, and darkly observant. A college student and aspiring writer, she devotes herself to a life of the mind–and to the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi, her best friend and comrade-in-arms. Lovers at school, the two young women now perform spoken-word poetry together in Dublin, where a journalist named Melissa spots their potential. Drawn into Melissa’s orbit, Frances is reluctantly impressed by the older woman’s sophisticated home and tall, handsome husband. Private property, Frances believes, is a cultural evil–and Nick, a bored actor who never quite lived up to his potential, looks like patriarchy made flesh. But however amusing their flirtation seems at first, it gives way to a strange intimacy neither of them expects. As Frances tries to keep her life in check, her relationships increasingly resist her control: with Nick, with her difficult and unhappy father, and finally even with Bobbi.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Domestic abuse recounted
  • Self harm
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Miscarriage mentioned
  • Endometriosis

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Child abuse
  • Suicide
  • Blood depciton
  • Death of a parent
  • Animal death

The Glass Castle by James Dashner

The Glass Castle by James Dashner

Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity was both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children’s imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn’t stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an “excitement addict.” Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexual assault of a child
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Alcohol abuse

Side Character by Emma Alcott

Side Character by Emma Alcott

Sawyer Jonathan Aston has an extremely suckable… ahem. We’re talking eight inches of girthy perfection. Two-thirds of a foot of succulent man-meat. A true cornucopia of carnal delights.

And tonight, that ahem is going to make my mouth feel like a Tokyo subway car at rush hour. We’re talking crowded. Crammed. Absolutely stuffed. And if I’m lucky, a few stops later we’ll both get off at the same time and head home together to see what kind of trouble we can get up to when bed is our final destination. But you know what they say about the best-laid plans…

It’s a good thing I’m resourceful, because come what may, I’m not going to stop until I make Sawyer mine.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Emesis