Twice Shy by Sarah Hogle

Twice Shy by Sarah Hogle

Maybell Parish has always been a dreamer and a hopeless romantic. But living in her own world has long been preferable to dealing with the disappointments of real life. So when Maybell inherits a charming house in the Smokies from her Great-Aunt Violet, she seizes the opportunity to make a fresh start.

Yet when she arrives, it seems her troubles have only just begun. Not only is the house falling apart around her, but she isn’t the only inheritor: she has to share everything with Wesley Koehler, the groundskeeper who’s as grouchy as he is gorgeous—and it turns out he has very different vision for the property’s future… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Parental abandonment
  • Anxiety & social anxiety
  • Panic attacks
  • Car accident mentioned
  • Catfishing
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Well Played by Jen DeLuca

Well Played by Jen DeLuca

Stacey is jolted when her friends Simon and Emily get engaged. She knew she was putting her life on hold when she stayed in Willow Creek to care for her sick mother, but it’s been years now, and even though Stacey loves spending her summers pouring drinks and flirting with patrons at the local Renaissance Faire, she wants more out of life. Stacey vows to have her life figured out by the time her friends get hitched at Faire next summer. Maybe she’ll even find The One.

When Stacey imagined “The One,” it never occurred to her that her summertime Faire fling, Dex MacLean, might fit the bill.. Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Internalised fatmisia & body shaming
  • Anxiety
  • Infertility mentioned
  • Hospitalization of a parent
  • Heart attacks mentioned
  • Death of a loved one to cancer recounted
  • Catfishing
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The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman

The only child of a single mother, Nina has her life just as she wants it: a job in a bookstore, a kick-butt trivia team, a world-class planner and a cat named Phil. If she sometimes suspects there might be more to life than reading, she just shrugs and picks up a new book.

When the father Nina never knew existed suddenly dies, leaving behind innumerable sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews, Nina is horrified. They all live close by! They’re all—or mostly all—excited to meet her! She’ll have to Speak. To. Strangers. It’s a disaster! And as if that wasn’t enough, Tom, her trivia nemesis, has turned out to be cute, funny, and deeply interested in getting to know her… Read more

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Anxiety
  • Death of a parent
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One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. She can’t imagine how waiting tables at a 24-hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that. And there’s certainly no chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures.

But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train.

Jane. Dazzling, charming, mysterious, impossible Jane. Jane with her rough edges and swoopy hair and soft smile, showing up in a leather jacket to save August’s day when she needed it most. August’s subway crush becomes the best part of her day, but pretty soon, she discovers there’s one big problem: Jane doesn’t just look like an old school punk rocker. She’s literally displaced in time from the 1970s, and August is going to have to use everything she tried to leave in her own past to help her. Maybe it’s time to start believing in some things, after all.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Queermisia discussed
  • Racism & gentrification mentioned
  • Hate crimes, including the UpStairs Lounge fire, recounted (chp. 11)
  • Anxiety
  • Hurricane Katrina discussed
  • Alcohol consumption & recreational drug use
  • Minor mention of blood
  • Death of a grandparent mentioned (chps. 11 & 16)
  • Car accident mentioned (chp. 16)
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To Night Owl from Dogfish by Holly Goldberg Sloan and Meg Wolitzer

To Night Owl from Dogfish by Holly Goldberg Sloan & Meg Wolitzer

Avery Bloom, who’s bookish, intense, and afraid of many things, particularly deep water, lives in New York City. Bett Devlin, who’s fearless, outgoing, and loves all animals as well as the ocean, lives in California. What they have in common is that they are both twelve years old, and are both being raised by single, gay dads.

When their dads fall in love, Bett and Avery are sent, against their will, to the same sleepaway camp. Their dads hope that they will find common ground and become friends–and possibly, one day, even sisters… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Anxiety
  • Boating accident
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The Million Pieces of Neena Gill by Emma Smith-Barton

The Million Pieces of Neena Gill by Emma Smith-Barton

Neena’s always been a good girl – great grades, parent-approved friends and absolutely no boyfriends. But ever since her brother Akash left her, she’s been slowly falling apart – and uncovering a new version of herself who is freer, but altogether more dangerous.

As her wild behaviour spirals more and more out of control, Neena’s grip on her sanity begins to weaken too. And when her parents announce not one but two life-changing bombshells, she finally reaches breaking point. But as Neena is about to discover, when your life falls apart, only love can piece you back together.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Anxiety
  • Panic attacks
  • Psychosis & psychotic episode
  • Depression
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Suicide discussed
  • Disappearance of a loved one
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The Rest of the Story by Sarah Dessen

The Rest of the Story by Sarah Dessen

Emma Saylor doesn’t remember a lot about her mother, who died when she was ten. But she does remember the stories her mom told her about the big lake that went on forever, with cold, clear water and mossy trees at the edges.

Now it’s just Emma and her dad, and life is good, if a little predictable…until Emma is unexpectedly sent to spend the summer with her mother’s family—her grandmother and cousins she hasn’t seen since she was a little girl… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Anxiety
  • Alcoholism
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug abuse mentioned
  • Death of a mother by heroine overdose recounted
  • Shipwreck & boating accident recounted
  • Hurricane
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The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

Fifteen years ago, summer camper Emma Davis watched sleepily as her three cabin mates snuck out of their cabin in the dead of night. The last she–and anyone–saw of them was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips.

Now a rising star in the NYC art scene, Emma turns her past into paintings.. They catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the socialite and wealthy owner of the very same Camp Nightingale–and when Francesca implores Emma to return to the camp as a painting counselor, Emma sees an opportunity to find closure and move on… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language
  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Slut shaming
  • Statutory rape
  • Nonconsensual voyeurism
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Substance addiction
  • Anxiety attacks
  • Schizophreniform Disorder
  • Blood & physical depiction
  • Dead bodies
  • Hospital & forced institutionalization
  • Terminal cancer
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a sister recounted
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Drowning
  • Car accident recounted
  • Disappearance of a loved one
  • Graphic animal death recounted
  • Bullying
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Adequate Yearly Progress by Roxanna Elden

Adequate Yearly Progress by Roxanna Elden

Adaquate Yearly Progress by Roxanna Elden book cover

Each new school year brings familiar challenges to Brae Hill Valley, a struggling high school in one the biggest cities in Texas. But the teachers also face plenty of personal challenges and this year, they may finally spill over into the classroom.

English teacher Lena Wright, a spoken-word poet, can never seem to truly connect with her students. Hernan D. Hernandez is confident in front of his biology classes, but tongue-tied around the woman he most wants to impress. Down the hall, math teacher Maybelline Galang focuses on the numbers as she struggles to parent her daughter, while Coach Ray hustles his troubled football team toward another winning season. Recording it all is idealistic second-year history teacher Kaytee Mahoney, whose anonymous blog gains new readers by the day as it drifts ever further from her in-class reality. And this year, a new superintendent is determined to leave his own mark on the school—even if that means shutting the whole place down.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny and sexism
  • Classim
  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Slut-shaming
  • Body-shaming
  • Victim blaming
  • Child sexual assault
  • Statutory rape
  • Adult-minor relationship
  • Verbal abuse
  • Workplace harassment
  • Estrangement
  • Anxiety attacks
  • Depression
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Abortion
  • Physical injuries
  • Poverty themes
  • White supremacy
  • Blackmail
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The Cost of Knowing by Brittney Morris

The Cost of Knowing by Brittney Morris

The Cost of Knowing by Brittney Morris book cover

Sixteen-year-old Alex Rufus is trying his best. He tries to be the best employee he can be at the local ice cream shop; the best boyfriend he can be to his amazing girlfriend, Talia; the best protector he can be over his little brother, Isaiah. But as much as Alex tries, he often comes up short.

It’s hard to for him to be present when every time he touches an object or person, Alex sees into its future. When he touches a scoop, he has a vision of him using it to scoop ice cream. When he touches his car, he sees it years from now, totaled and underwater. When he touches Talia, he sees them at the precipice of breaking up, and that terrifies him. Alex feels these visions are a curse, distracting him, making him anxious and unable to live an ordinary life.

And when Alex touches a photo that gives him a vision of his brother’s imminent death, everything changes.

With Alex now in a race against time, death, and circumstances, he and Isaiah must grapple with their past, their future, and what it means to be a young Black man in America in the present.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Self-harm
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a sibling
  • Anti-black violence
  • Slavery
  • Inter-generational trauma
  • Poverty
  • Police brutality
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