The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat

The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat

As assistant to Mangkon’s most celebrated mapmaker, twelve-year-old Sai plays the part of a well-bred young lady with a glittering future. In reality, her father is a conman—and in a kingdom where the status of one’s ancestors dictates their social position, the truth could ruin her. Sai seizes the chance to join an expedition to chart the southern seas, but she isn’t the only one aboard with secrets. When Sai learns that the ship might be heading for the fabled Sunderlands—a land of dragons, dangers, and riches beyond imagining—she must weigh the cost of her dreams.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parent with alcohol abuse issues, implied
  • Blood & injury depiction including a broken leg and scars
  • Physical assault
  • Whipping
  • Animal injury
  • Whaling

Flawless by Elsie Silver

Flawless by Elsie Silver

The rules were simple. Keep my hands off his daughter and stay out of trouble. But now I’m stuck with her. There’s only one bed. And well, rules are made to be broken. I’m the face of professional bull riding—the golden boy. Or at least I was, until it all blew up in my face. Now my agent says I have to clean up my image, so I’m stuck with his ball-busting daughter for the rest of the season as my “full-time supervision.” But I don’t need a goddamn babysitter, especially one with skin-tight jeans, a sexy smirk, and a mouth she can’t stop running. A mouth I can’t stop thinking… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Parental infidelity recounted
  • Toxic relationship & grooming*
  • Child abuse
  • Divorce
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Congenital heart defect recovery including heart surgery mentioned
  • Heart attack of a parent
  • A bull-riding accident resulting in broken ribs and a severe concussion
  • Dieting & food shaming mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother in childbirth recounted
  • Stalking*

*Context : The heroine was in a secret relationship with her surgeon, at age eighteen, for two years until he became engaged to her sister. There were elements of grooming and manipulation that advance to stalkerish behaviour in the current plotline. The protagonist is also her love interest’s sports agent

Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar

Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar

If the night sky holds many secrets, it holds Sheetal Mistry’s secret the closest. A secret that explains why her hair is the silver of starlight, or why some nights the stars call Sheetal by name. Stars like her mother, who returned to her place in the constellation Pushya years ago. Since that day, Sheetal has been forced to hide. But as her seventeenth birthday draws near, the pull from the sky is growing stronger. So strong that Sheetal loses control, and a flare of starfire burns her human father—an injury only a full star’s blood can heal. Sheetal has no choice but to answer the… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Panic attacks
  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Hospitalisation
  • Kidnaping & Captivity
  • Torture

The Flipside of Perfect by Liz Reinhardt

The Flipside of Perfect by Liz Reinhardt

What happens when her two worlds collide? AJ is a buttoned-up, responsible student attending a high-achieving high school in Michigan. She lives with her mother, stepfather, and two younger half sisters. Della spends every summer with her father in Florida. A free-spirited wild child, she spends as much time as possible on the beach with her friends and older siblings. But there’s a catch: AJ and Della are the same person. Adelaide Beloise Jepsen to be exact, and she does everything she can to keep her school and summer lives separate. When her middle sister… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexual harassment
  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Alcoholism
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Unplanned pregnancy

Charge by Cate Wells

Charge by Cate C. Wells

Sometimes the things you shouldn’t want are exactly what you need. Kayla. Life hasn’t been easy. I had my son Jimmy too young, and I want the world for him. But the world? It’s not cooperating. I’m fighting to stay afloat, and my family is waiting for me to fail. I don’t need to be crushing on the criminally hot biker next door. He’s a little too old for me, and he makes me want to take risks I can’t afford. Charge. I used to be the fall guy. I took the heat for my club, and with my charm, my pretty face, and my ex—the MC’s lawyer—I mostly got away with it. But now the club’s gone legit—more or less—and I’m sittin’ on a porch, drinkin’ beers… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Slut-shaming
  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Date rape recounted
  • Cheating mentioned
  • Anxiety
  • Post-partum depression
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Teen pregnancy from rape
  • Dieting
  • Death of a mother recounted
  • Bullying

Snotgirl, Volume Two by Bryan Lee O’Malley and Leslie Hung

Snotgirl, Vol. 2: California Screaming by Bryan Lee O’Malley and illustrated by Leslie Hung

From the creator of SCOTT PILGRIM! Lottie Person is a glamorous fashion blogger living her best life in L.A. — at least that’s what she wants you to think. CALIFORNIA SCREAMING finds Lottie putting the past behind her and trying to make the best of a bad situation — her life! Lottie’s new bestie is an emotional roller coaster: first she died, and then she killed someone. Who will Caroline hurt next, and what is her brother Virgil doing here? What secret is Detective John Cho seeking in the desert? Why did Cutegirl ghost her sister? Is Normgirl really going to marry Ashley? And what in god’s name did Sunny ever see in Charlene?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Coming out themes
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drugging
  • Blood depiction
  • Coma
  • Hospital
  • Murder
  • Stalking
  • Death of a pet

How to Excavate a Heart by Jake Maia Arlow

How to Excavate a Heart by Jake Maia Arlow

It all starts when Shani runs into May. Like, literally. With her mom’s Subaru. Attempted vehicular manslaughter was not part of Shani’s plan. She was supposed to be focusing on her monthlong paleoichthyology internship. She was going to spend all her time thinking about dead fish and not at all about how she was unceremoniously dumped days before winter break. It could be going better. It could be going better. Then they’re snowed in together on Christmas Eve. As things start to feel more serious, though, Shani’s hurt over her ex-girlfriend’s rejection comes rushing… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Antisemitism
  • Sexual assault recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Hospitalisation of an elderly relative for a fall

From Scratch by Katrina Jackson

From Scratch by Katrina Jackson

Sea Port is a tiny southern town on the verge of collapse looking to entice people to move to the middle of nowhere and start life anew. Mary Woods, stinging from her life as a failed academic, takes the opportunity by the reins and resettles in Sea Port to try her hand as a small-town baker. A few days before the opening of her shop, Confections by Mary, she runs into small-town cop, Miguel Santos, and small-town fire chief, Billy Knox and there’s a whole lot of chemistry to go around. Welcome to Sea Port, where the town baker, cop and fire chief fall heavily in lust.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Queermisia
  • Child sexual abuse recounted
  • Physical child abuse mentioned
  • Domestic abuse mentioned
  • Parent with alcoholism & alcohol abuse mentioned
  • Physical assault mentioned

How Sweet It Is by Dylan Newton

How Sweet It Is by Dylan Newton

Event planner Kate Sweet is famous for creating the perfect happily-ever-after moment for her clients’ dream weddings. So how is it that her best friend has roped her into planning a bestselling horror writer’s book launch extravaganza? But the second Kate meets—or rather, accidentally maims—the drop-dead-hot Drake Matthews, her well-ordered life quickly transforms into an absolute nightmare. Drake Matthews is tired of the spotlight and tired of his reputation as the Knight of Nightmares. He’s really a nice guy! But he’s not prepared for Kate, a fearless agent of chaos in steel-tipped stilettos, or for that sweet sting of… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Cheating recounted
  • Domestic abuse mentioned
  • Military-Related PTSD
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Amputation
  • Terminal cancer mentioned
  • Death of a mother in a house fire mentioned

This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub

This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub

On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice’s life isn’t terrible. She likes her job, even if it isn’t exactly the one she expected. She’s happy with her apartment, her romantic status, and she adores her lifelong best friend. But her father is ailing, and it feels to her as if something is missing. When she wakes up the next morning she finds herself back in 1996, reliving her 16th birthday. But it isn’t just her adolescent body that shocks her, it’s her dad: the vital, 40-something version of her father with whom she is reunited. Now armed with a new perspective on her own life… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Miscarriage mentioned
  • Abortion mentioned
  • Parent with terminal cancer
  • Death of a parent