The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

Clare Cassidy is no stranger to murder. As a literature teacher specialising in the Gothic writer RM Holland, she teaches a short course on it every year. Then Clare’s life and work collide tragically when one of her colleagues is found dead, a line from an RM Holland story by her body. The investigating police detective is convinced the writer’s works somehow hold the key to the case. Not knowing who to trust, and afraid that the killer is someone she knows, Clare confides her darkest suspicions and fears about the case to her journal. Then one day she notices some other writing in the diary. Writing that isn’t hers…

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Adult-minor relationship
  • Blood depiction
  • Murder
  • Physical injury to a dog

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

Sit, Stay, Love by Debbie Burns

Sit, Stay, Love by Debbie Burns

For devoted no-kill shelter worker Kelsey Sutton, rehabbing a group of rescue dogs is a welcome challenge. Working with a sexy ex-military dog handler who needs some TLC himself? That’s a different story. Kurt Crawford keeps his heart locked away from everyone. Well, everyone except the dogs who need his help…and always have his back. But as Kurt gets to know the compassionate, beautiful woman he’s been assigned to work with, he can’t help but feel a little puppy love…

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from military service
  • Dogfighting recounted
  • Animal injury & surgery mentioned

The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo

The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo

What if? Why not? Could it be? When a fortuneteller’s tent appears in the market square of the city of Baltese, orphan Peter Augustus Duchene knows the questions that he needs to ask: Does his sister still live? And if so, how can he find her? The fortuneteller’s mysterious answer (an elephant! An elephant will lead him there!) sets off a chain of events so remarkable, so impossible, that you will hardly dare to believe it’s true.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Physical injury
  • Death of a mother in childbirth recounted
  • Death of a father during military service recounted
  • Explosion mentioned
  • Animal illness & injury
  • Animal attack

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

Andie had it all planned out. When you are a politician’s daughter who’s pretty much raised yourself, you learn everything can be planned or spun, or both. Especially your future. Important internship? Check. Amazing friends? Check. Guys? Check (as long as we’re talking no more than three weeks). But that was before the scandal. Before having to be in the same house with her dad. Before walking an insane number of dogs. That was before Clark and those few months that might change her whole life. Because here’s the thing—if everything’s planned out, you can never find the unexpected. And where’s the fun in that?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Cancer recounted
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Animal illness

Trade Deadline by Avon Gale and Piper Vaughn 

Trade Deadline by Avon Gale & Piper Vaughn 

Daniel “Bellzie” Bellamy should be on top of the world—a Stanley Cup is the perfect topper to his fourteen-year NHL career. But despite the post-win high, something’s missing. When the chance to play for his hometown team, the Miami Thunder, comes along, he’s open to it. And when he runs into an old friend from his past soon after he makes the move, he wonders if it might be kismet. Micah Kelly never thought he’d see his childhood crush—and first kiss—again. Danny Bellamy moved on to bigger and better things when they were teenagers, and the idea that Micah’s relationship with the professional hockey player could be anything more than one-sided Instagram thirst seems… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia recounted
  • Familial disownment recounted
  • Animal injury mentioned
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Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

For more than a decade, Jenna Metcalf has never stopped thinking about her mother, Alice, who mysteriously disappeared in the wake of a tragic accident. Refusing to believe she was abandoned, Jenna searches for her mother regularly online and pores over the pages of Alice’s old journals. A scientist who studied grief among elephants, Alice wrote mostly of her research among the animals she loved, yet Jenna hopes the entries will provide a clue to her mother’s whereabouts. As Jenna’s memories dovetail with the events in her mother’s journals, the story… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Alcoholism
  • Animal death & injury (elephant)

Larger Than Life by Jodi Picoult

Larger Than Life by Jodi Picoult

A researcher studying memory in elephants, Alice is fascinated by the bonds between mother and calf—the mother’s powerful protective instincts and her newborn’s unwavering loyalty. Living on a game reserve in Botswana, Alice is able to view the animals in their natural habitat—while following an important rule: She must only observe and never interfere. Then she finds an orphaned young elephant in the bush and cannot bear to leave the helpless baby behind. Thinking back on her own childhood, and on her shifting relationship with her mother, Alice risks her career to… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Animal death & injury (elephant)

In the Middle of Somewhere by Roan Parrish

In the Middle of Somewhere by Roan Parrish

Daniel Mulligan is tough, snarky, and tattooed, hiding his self-consciousness behind sarcasm. Daniel has never fit in—not at home in Philadelphia with his auto mechanic father and brothers, and not at school where his Ivy League classmates looked down on him. Now, Daniel’s relieved to have a job at a small college in Holiday, Northern Michigan, but he’s a city boy through and through, and it’s clear that this small town is one more place he won’t fit in. Rex Vale clings to routine to keep loneliness at bay: honing his muscular body, perfecting his recipes, and making custom furniture. Rex has lived in Holiday for years, but his… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Outing
  • Cheating mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father from heart attack
  • Death of a mother from pancreatic cancer mentioned
  • Gun violence
  • Car accident
  • Animal injury
  • Hunting
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Restless Slumber by KJ Sutton

Restless Slumber by K.J. Sutton

Fortuna’s entire life has changed. She has no idea how to balance her new responsibilities and who she used to be. There are hundreds of faeries in her head, her brother seems to have lost touch with reality, and a werewolf won’t leave her side. Maybe the utter lack of control is why her abilities seem to be changing, as well. Then there’s Collith. Enigmatic, beautiful, and infuriating. Not only a king of the faeries she despises so much, but also her mate. His gentle pursuit causes confusion in her normally unwavering relationship with Oliver. As a result of it all, Fortuna now finds herself surrounded by new enemies and ones… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Slavery
  • Sexual assault
  • Sexual harassment
  • Intimate partner abuse
  • Forced marriage
  • Panic attack
  • Nightmares
  • Dead bodies & body parents
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Bpdy horror
  • Scars
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife violence
  • Poisoning
  • Whipping
  • Disappearance of a loved one
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Imprisonment
  • Loss of autonomy (mind control)
  • Drowning
  • Animal attack
  • Animal cruelty & abuse
  • Animal injury
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