6 Times We Almost Kissed [and One Time We Did] by Tess Sharpe

Penny and Tate have always clashed. Unfortunately, their mothers are lifelong best friends, so the girls’ bickering has carried them through playdates, tragedy, and more than one rom-com marathon with the Moms. When Penny’s mother decides to become a living donor to Tate’s mom, ending her wait for a liver transplant, things go from clashing to cataclysmic. Because in order to help their families recover physically, emotionally, and financially, the Moms combine their households the summer before senior year. So Penny and Tate make a… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Anxiety
  • Emotional child abuse & neglect
  • Cheating recounted*
  • Sexual assault mentioned*
  • Suicidal ideation mentioned
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Physical illness & injury*
  • Ovarian cancer mentioned including discussions of the original diagnosis, remission, and death
  • Surgery recounted, including organ donation and an oophorectomy
  • Death of a father, on-page

*Context : The protagonist’s ex cheated on her in the past. Mentions of an interrupted assault that happened twenty-five years earlier. Mentions of dealing with Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency and surgery required for a tug o’ war injury that nearly severed fingers.

23:27 by HL Roberts

Fame. Money. Glory. These were all the things that you would expect from being famous. The bait that the producers of the industry would tempt you with to get you on their side. These were all the things that you would expect from being famous. The bait that the producers of the industry would tempt you with to get you on their side. They don’t tell you about the pressure that’s always on the verge of crushing you when you’re forced to do everything that the public demands for and not what you truly desire. They don’t tell you about the self-hatred that would soon take over your entire being at the thought that you will never be good enough. No – they don’t tell you these things at all… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Depression
  • Suicide
  • Self-harm
  • Alcohol consumption

Midnight Duet by Jen Comfort

Self-professed diva Erika Greene has it a starring role on Broadway, legions of fans, spectacular natural talent. But after an accident on stage leaves her face scarred and her career in shambles, Erika retreats to Paris, Nevada, where she’s inherited a ramshackle opera house in desperate need of some TLC. Erika pours her savings into the building, but it’s not enough to stave off casino developer Raoul Decomte’s avaricious gaze. With foreclosure imminent, she leases the space to some unexpected a German hair metal band, fronted by glam rock god Christof Daae… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity mentioned (sc)
  • Hospitalisation for a disfiguring injury
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Fire

Lying in the Deep by Diana Urban

After being jilted by her ex-boyfriend and best friend, Jade couldn’t be more ready to embark on the adventure of a lifetime—11 countries in 4 months, all from the luxurious Campus on Board ship—and to wedge an entire globe between her and the people who broke her heart. But when Jade discovers the backstabbing couple are also setting sail, her obsession with them grows and festers, leading to a shocking murder. And as their friends begin to drop like flies, Jade and her new crush must race to clear her name and find the killer they’re trapped at sea with….before anyone else winds up in body bags.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Infidelity
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Overdose mentioned (opiates)
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Murder
  • Death from hanging
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Car accident

Heartless Heathens by Santana Knox

Hey, Over here. No, look up. Yeah, I’m the one they talk about. The headmaster’s prized possession, locked away in the bell tower of NotreDame Parochial College. To most of the students I was just a myth. An urban legend. The girl who rings the bells up in the tower, the one who talks to gargoyles. Frollo’s secret. Then they showed up, those heartless heathens. Outcasts, just like me. But these men aren’t just dangerous, they’re heartless. They won’t abide or bend to the rules of this deranged school and the secrets it keeps from the world. But now that they’ve found me, they may never let me go. And maybe I wouldn’t want.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Physical, psychological & emotional child abuse
  • Nightmares & flashbacks
  • Epilepsy
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Starvation
  • Emesis
  • Death of a mother in childbirth recounted
  • Execution of a mother for being an abortion provider
  • Disappearance of a parent recounted
  • Captivity

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward

In a lonely cottage overlooking the windswept Maine coast, Wilder Harlow begins the last book he will ever write. It is the story of his childhood summer companions and the killer that stalked the small New England town. Of the body they found, and the horror of that discovery echoing down the decades. And of Sky, Wilder’s one-time best friend, who stole his unfinished memoir and turned it into a lurid bestselling novel, Looking Glass Sound. But as Wilder writes, the lines between memory and fiction blur. He fears he’s losing his grip on reality when he finds notes hidden around the cottage written in Sky’s… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Cheating mentioned
  • Conversion therapy mentioned
  • Depression
  • Panic attack
  • Self-harm
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drug use mentioned
  • Abortion
  • Emesis
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Poisoning
  • Kindapping of a child
  • Drowning mentioned
  • Stalking

Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison

Rory Morris isn’t thrilled to be moving back to her hometown, even if it is temporary. There are bad memories there. But her twin sister, Scarlett, is pregnant, estranged from the baby’s father, and needs support, so Rory returns to the place she thought she’d put in her rearview. After a night out at a bar where she runs into an old almost-flame, she hits a large animal with her car. And when she gets out to investigate, she’s attacked. Rory survives, miraculously, but life begins to look and feel different. She’s unnaturally strong, with an aversion to silver–and suddenly the moon has her in its thrall. She’s changing into someone else… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault mentioned
  • Physical child abuse & neglect recounted
  • Infidelity recounted
  • Smoking
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Pregnancy & childbirth mentioned (secondary character)
  • Emesis
  • Hospitalisation
  • Blood, gore & injury depiction
  • Animal death & attack

Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro

An ancient majestic oak stands beneath the stars on Division Street. And under the tree sits Ben Wilf, a retired doctor, and ten-year-old Waldo Shenkman, a brilliant, lonely boy who is pointing out his favourite constellations. Waldo doesn’t realize it but he and Ben have met before. And they will again, and again. Across time and space, and shared destiny. Division Street is full of secrets. An impulsive lie begets a secret—one which will forever haunt the Wilf family. And the Shenkmans, who move into the neighbourhood many years later, bring secrets of their own. Spanning fifty kaleidoscopic years, on a street, and in a… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Death of a friend in a drunk driving accident

Lore Olympus, Volume 5 by Rachel Smythe

An ingenious take on the Greek Pantheon, Lore Olympus is a modern update on the story of Hades and Persephone. Follow the propulsive love story of two Greek gods, told with lavish artwork and contemporary sensibilities.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking
  • Anxiety & depression
  • Murder
  • Blackmail

Better Hate than Never by Chloe Liese

Katerina Wilmot and Christopher Petruchio shared backyards as kids, but as adults they won’t even share the same hemisphere. That is, until Kate makes a rare visit home, and their fiery animosity rekindles into a raging inferno. Despite their friends’ and families’ pleas for peace, Christopher is unconvinced Kate would willingly douse the flames of their enmity. But when a drunken Kate confesses she’s only been hostile because she thought he hated her, Christopher vows to make peace with Kate once and for all. Tempting as it is to be swept away by her nemesis-turned-gentleman, Kate isn’t sure she can trust his charming good… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Chronic migraines
  • Death of parents recounted, off-page