The Golden Hour by Niki Smith

The Golden Hour by Niki Smith

Struggling with anxiety after witnessing a harrowing instance of gun violence, Manuel Soto copes through photography, using his cellphone camera to find anchors that keep him grounded. His days are a lonely, latchkey monotony until he’s teamed with his classmates, Sebastian and Caysha, for a group project. Sebastian lives on a grass-fed cattle farm outside of town, and Manuel finds solace in the open fields and in the antics of the newborn calf Sebastian is hand-raising. As Manuel aides his new friends in their preparations for the local county fair, he learns to open up, confronts his deepest fears, and even finds first love.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • PTSD & trauma
  • Panic attacks
  • Gun violence recounted

Tell Me When You Feel Something by Vicki Grant

Tell Me When You Feel Something by Vicki Grant

It seemed like a cool part-time program — being a simulated patient for med school students to practice on. But now vivacious, charismatic Viv lies in a very real coma. Cellphone footage just leads to more questions. What really happened? Other kids suspect it was not an intentional overdose — but each has a reason why they can’t tell the truth. Through intertwining and conflicting narratives, a twisted story unfolds of trust betrayed as we sift through the seemingly innocent events leading up to the tragic night. Perhaps simulated patients aren’t the only people pretending to be something they’re not.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Date rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Suicide
  • Bulimia mentioned
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Alcoholism
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Drug abuse
  • Drugging
  • Emesis
  • Animal death

Neon Hearts by Stefanie Simpson

Neon Hearts by Stefanie Simpson

Bea strikes up an online friendship with Josh, the mod of her disability support group, as she adapts to her new disabled reality after a serious accident. When the danger that’s dogged her for months closes in, she flees to Josh’s home during a terrible snowstorm, knowing he’s the only one she can go to. Josh needed to cut ties with his security job and life in Chadford, to seek solace in the hills and valleys of home. His intense connection and friendship with Bea made him second-guess his isolated life. He could protect her, but it would take him back to a dark place. Yet letting her go… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Panic attack
  • Memory loss
  • Physical injury, including brain trauma & nerve damage
  • Burn scars
  • Eyeball trauma
  • Chronic illness, including vertigo
  • Coma recounted
  • Heart attack & stroke mentioned
  • Physical assault recounted
  • Stalking
  • Car accident recounted
  • Fire recounted
  • Homelessness recounted

Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade

Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade

Maria’s one-night-stand–the thick-thighed, sexy Viking of a man she left without a word or a note–just reappeared. Apparently, Peter’s her surly Gods of the Gates co-star, and they’re about to spend the next six years filming on a desolate Irish island together. She still wants him…but he now wants nothing to do with her. Peter knows this role could finally transform him from a forgettable character actor into a leading man. He also knows a failed relationship with Maria could poison the set, and he won’t sabotage his career for a woman who’s already walked away from him once. Given time, maybe they can be cooper… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Fatmisia
  • Sexism
  • Parental abandonment
  • Cheating mentioned
  • Experiences in the foster care system recounted
  • Depression
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Death of a parent

Body Double by Tess Gerritsen

The Last Goodbye by Fiona Lucas

Spencer was the love of Anna’s life: her husband, her best friend, her rock. She thought their love would last forever. But three years ago, Spencer was tragically killed in an accident and Anna’s world was shattered. How can she ever move on, when she’s lost her soulmate? On New Year’s Eve Anna calls Spencer’s phone number, just to hear his old voicemail greeting. But to her shock, someone answers… Brody has inherited Spencer’s old number and is the first person who truly understands what Anna’s going through. As her and Brody’s phone calls become… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Agoraphobia
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Social anxiety
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a husband

Wretched by Emily McIntire

Wretched by Emily McIntire

Evelina Westerly has always been the bad guy. As the brains, brawn, and botanist behind her family’s drug empire, she’s her father’s ruthless secret weapon. With her days divided between perfecting her greenhouse, seeking revenge for her sister’s murder, and putting a gun to the head of anyone in her way, Evelina doesn’t have time for anything else. Especially not for love. After a one-night stand with a gorgeous man at a nightclub, she’s sated her urges and is back to her criminal ways. That is, until that same man shows up as the new Westerly lackey under a totally… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Emotional child & sibling abuse recounted
  • Panic attack recounted
  • Drug use
  • Overdose mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a sibling recounted
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Murder
  • Graphic torture
  • Gun violence
  • Physical assault

Nine Liars by Maureen Johnson

Nine Liars by Maureen Johnson

Senior year at Ellingham Academy for Stevie Bell isn’t going well. Her boyfriend, David, is studying in London. Her friends are obsessed with college applications. With the cold case of the century solved, Stevie is adrift. There is nothing to distract her from the questions pinging around her brain—questions about college, love, and life in general. Relief comes when David invites Stevie and her friends to join him for study abroad, and his new friend Izzy introduces her to a double-murder cold case. In 1995, nine friends from Cambridge University went to a country house and… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Panic Disorder
  • Alcoholism mentioned
  • Drug abuse mentioned
  • Death of a child
  • Murder

Stolen Trophy by KA Knight and Kendra Moreno

Stolen Trophy by K.A. Knight and Kendra Moreno

My life was perfect. I had an amazing fiance, a business I love, parties and balls every week, everything was wonderful… until that night. The night where everything changed. My world is crashing down around me. Everything I knew is a lie and the men, the men in the masks, tell me that as they steal me away into the night. I wake chained, scared, and alone with four criminals. Criminals who tell me I’m theirs now, theirs to steal, theirs to kill. But there is something they don’t know about me, my past shrouded in darkness. They thought they had got themselves a pretty jewel… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Cheating*
  • PTSD & trauma
  • Panic attacks
  • Starvation mentioned
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Childhood poverty

*Context : The protagonist’s fiance cheated on her.

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

When violinist Anna Sun accidentally achieves career success with a viral YouTube video, she finds herself incapacitated and burned out from her attempts to replicate that moment. And when her longtime boyfriend announces he wants an open relationship before making a final commitment, a hurt and angry Anna decides that if he wants an open relationship, then she does, too. Translation: She’s going to embark on a string of one-night stands. The more unacceptable the men, the better.. That’s where tattooed, motorcycle-riding Quan Diep comes in. Their first attempt at a one-night stand fails, as does their second, and their third, because being with Quan is more than… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Classism
  • Infidelity
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Depression
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Infertility
  • Cancer
  • Death of a parent

Southern Storms by Brittainy C. Cherry

Southern Storms by Brittainy C. Cherry

All I wanted to do was run away, I never expected to crash into his arms… After leaving the city life behind to escape my loveless marriage, I moved to small town Havenbarrow for a fresh start. What I didn’t expect was to find myself drawn to the town’s black sheep. They called him troubled. Cold. A man with a dark past. What everyone seemed to miss about Jax was the splashes of light in his eyes. The random acts of kindness he performed when no one was watching. The way he made me smile and laugh. Jax helped unpack the baggage I’d been carrying around with me… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexual harassment
  • Child abuse
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Depression
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a parent
  • Gun violence
  • Bullying