The Falling in Love Montage by Ciara Smyth

The Falling in Love Montage by Ciara Smyth

Saoirse doesn’t believe in love at first sight or happy endings. If they were real, her mother would still be able to remember her name and not in a care home with early onset dementia. A condition that Saoirse may one day turn out to have inherited. So she’s not looking for a relationship. She doesn’t see the point in igniting any romantic sparks if she’s bound to burn out.

But after a chance encounter at an end-of-term house party, Saoirse is about to break her own rules. For a girl with one blue freckle, an irresistible sense of mischief, and a passion for rom-coms.

Unbothered by Saoirse’s no-relationships rulebook, Ruby proposes a loophole: They don’t need true love to have one summer of fun, complete with every cliché, rom-com montage-worthy date they can dream up—and a binding agreement to end their romance come fall. It would be the perfect plan, if they weren’t forgetting one thing about the Falling in Love Montage: when it’s over, the characters actually fall in love… for real.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Parent with Early Onset Dementia
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Bullying mentioned
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Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

Vern – seven months pregnant and desperate to escape the strict religious compound where she was raised – flees for the shelter of the woods. There, she gives birth to twins, and plans to raise them far from the influence of the outside world.

But even in the forest, Vern is a hunted woman. Forced to fight back against the community that refuses to let her go, she unleashes incredible brutality far beyond what a person should be capable of, her body wracked by inexplicable and uncanny changes. To understand her metamorphosis and to protect her small family, Vern has to face the past, and more troublingly, the future – outside the woods.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Misogyny
  • Ableism
  • Homomisia
  • Transmisia
  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Adult-minor relationship
  • Hallucinations
  • Suicide
  • Self harm
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Nonconsensual drugging
  • Forced sterilization
  • Teen pregnancy
  • Graphic childbirth
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Burns
  • Death of a child & infant
  • Torture
  • Gun violence
  • Fire
  • Drowning
  • Poisoning
  • Cult
  • Graphic animal death
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The Opposite of Innocent by Sonya Sones

The Opposite of Innocent by Sonya Sones

Luke has been away for two endless years, but he’s finally returning today. Lily was only twelve when he left. But now, at fourteen, she feels transformed. She can’t wait to see how Luke will react when he sees the new her. And when her mother tells her that Luke will be staying with them for a while, in the bedroom right next to hers, her heart nearly stops.

Having Luke back is better than Lily could have ever dreamed. His lingering looks set Lily on fire. Is she just imagining them? But then, when they’re alone, he kisses her. Then he kisses her again. Lily’s friends think anyone his age who wants to be with a fourteen-year-old must be really messed up. Maybe even dangerous. But Luke would never do anything to hurt her…would he?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Victim blaming
  • Paedophilia, grooming & child sexual abuse
  • Graphic rape by coercion (on-page)
  • Child abuse
  • Abusive relationship
  • Dissociation
  • Alcohol consumption, including forced alcohol consumption
  • Emesis
  • Death of a mother & father recounted
  • Death of a brother recounted
  • Stalking
  • Car accident recounted
  • Animal attack & death mentioned
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If the Birds Fly Back by Carlie Sorosiak

If the Birds Fly Back by Carlie Sorosiak

Linny has been fascinated by disappearances, ever since her sister Grace ran away in the middle of the night without saying goodbye.

Sebastian can tell you how many galaxies there are, and knows how much plutonium weighs. But the one thing he can’t figure out is the identity of his birth father.

They’ve never met, but Linny and Sebastian have one thing in common: an obsession with famous novelist and filmmaker Alvaro Herrera, who went missing three years ago and has just reappeared. As they learn more about the mystery of Alvaro, Linny and Sebastian uncover the answers they’ve been searching for.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Parental abandonment
  • Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Physical injury (fall)
  • Hospitalisation
  • Grief depiction
  • Death of a father
  • Disappearance of a sister
  • Death of a pet
  • Animal illness
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Bowerbirds by Ada Maria Soto

Bowerbirds by Ada Maria Soto

After spending his teens and twenties raising his son, James Maron is now dating Gabriel Juarez, the wealthy and sophisticated CFO of the TechPrim technology empire. But after a life of proudly holding his head above the poverty line with the ethos of work, priorities, responsibility, and thrift, he is not looking for a Sugar Daddy, he does not need to be rescued, and Gabe’s wealth is as terrifying as feeling love for the first time.

Gabe has never been good at balancing his high-pressure job with his relationships. Money usually clears most of the bumps, and when a boyfriend walks away, Gabe figures it’s for a good reason. But James isn’t like other boyfriends. He doesn’t want Gabe’s money for one, and if Gabe wants to keep his relationship together, he will have to finally face the ghosts of his own past and reconsider his priorities.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Abusive relationship mentioned
  • Disownment
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Car accident recounted
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Empty Nests by Ada Maria Soto

Empty Nests by Ada Maria Soto

At age fourteen, James Maron decided to prove he wasn’t gay despite vast evidence to the contrary. Now at thirty-two, he’s getting ready to send his son to college and wondering what he’s supposed to do next. Outside his son, his life consists of an IT job he hates and watching telenovelas with the women in his apartment building.

Gabriel Juarez is the CFO of a technology giant. He has looks, charm, fantastic wealth, a workaholic personality, and a string of boyfriends who only stick around because he’s too busy to tell them to leave.

A bad laptop/projector interface causes James and Gabe’s paths to cross. Friends, family, and coworkers jump to match Gabe with a nice guy, and James with anyone. But are they too different? Everyone will have to tread very carefully to keep things from ending before they start.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Abusive relationship mentioned
  • Disownment
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Car accident recounted
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His Quiet Agent by Ada Maria Soto

His Quiet Agent by Ada Maria Soto

Arthur Drams works for a secret government security agency, but all he really does is spend his days in a cubicle writing reports no one reads. After getting another “lateral promotion” by a supervisor who barely remembers his name, it’s suggested that Arthur try to ‘make friends’ and ‘get noticed’ in order to move up the ladder. In a last-ditch attempt to be seen as friendly and outgoing, he decides to make friends with The Alien, aka Agent Martin Grove, known for the fact that no one has spoken to him in three years.

Starting with a short, surprisingly interesting conversation on sociology books, Arthur slowly begins to chip away at The Alien’s walls using home-cooked meals to lure the secretive agent out of his abrasive shell. Except Martin just might be something closer to an actual secret agent than paper-pusher Arthur is, and it might be more than hearts at risk when something more than friendship begins to develop.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Physical injuries
  • Hospitalisation
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father
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The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

Maia, the youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three sons in line for the throne are killed in an “accident,” he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir.

Entirely unschooled in the art of court politics, he has no friends, no advisors, and the sure knowledge that whoever assassinated his father and brothers could make an attempt on his life at any moment.

Surrounded by sycophants eager to curry favour with the naïve new emperor, and overwhelmed by the burdens of his new life, he can trust nobody. Amid the swirl of plots to depose him, offers of arranged marriages, and the spectre of the unknown conspirators who lurk in the shadows, he must quickly adjust to life as the Goblin Emperor.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Racism
  • Physical & verbal abuse mentioned
  • Attempted sexual assault
  • Arranged marriage
  • Suicide
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father
  • Death of a brother
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Wild Swans by Jessica Spotswood

Wild Swans by Jessica Spotswood

The summer before Ivy’s senior year is going to be golden; all bonfires, barbeques, and spending time with her best friends. For once, she will just get to be. No summer classes, none of Granddad’s intense expectations to live up to the family name. For generations, the Milbourn women have lead extraordinary lives—and died young and tragically. Granddad calls it a legacy, but Ivy considers it a curse. Why else would her mother have run off and abandoned her as a child?

But when her mother unexpectedly returns home with two young daughters in tow, all of the stories Ivy wove to protect her heart start to unravel. The very people she once trusted now speak in lies. And all of Ivy’s ambition and determination cannot defend her against the secrets of the Milbourn past….

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Alcoholism
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Heat Wave by Elyse Springer

Heat Wave by Elyse Springer

Sara Walker’s life is going nowhere fast. Then a phone call on a lonely Friday night changes everything, and suddenly she’s spending her weekends with Laura. Newly single and openly bisexual, Laura makes Sara think decidedly not-straight thoughts. Laura Murphy, with her red hair, freckles, and killer curves, is any guy’s wet dream. But Laura’s done with guys for now, and it’s Sara who can’t stop dreaming about her.

But Laura makes it very clear that she’s still planning to move to California. She’s more than happy to tie Sara up, but she’s not ready to be tied down. If Sara wants to keep her, she’s going to have to work hard to convince Laura that New York is worth staying for . . . and so is she. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Bimisia
  • Transmisia
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
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