Blended by Sharon M. Draper

“You’re so exotic!” “You look so unusual.” “But what are you really?” Eleven-year-old Isabella is used to these kinds of comments – her father is black, her mother is white – but that doesn’t mean she likes them. And now that her parents are divorced (and getting along WORSE than ever), Isabella feels more like a push-me-pull-me toy. One week she’s Isabella with her dad, his girlfriend Anastasia, and her son Darren living in a fancy house where they are one of the only black families in the neighbourhood. The next week she’s Izzy with her mom and her boyfriend John-Mark in a…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism and colourism discussed
  • Racial microaggressions (on-page)
  • Hate crime
  • Parental divorce (theme)
  • Panic attack & trauma (secondary character)
  • Lynching discussed
  • Police brutality & violence
  • Hospitalisation for a gunshot wound with minor blood & injury depiction
  • Minor bullying

Context : The protagonist’s best friend finds a noose in her school locker. It’s implied a white student put it there after their class learned about historical lynching. Later, she has a panic attack when a noose appears on the TV during a sleepover. The protagonist’s teenage step-brother is pulled over by the police and tackled to the ground by three officers. They suspect him of robbing a bank and question him. They force the protagonist, an 11-year-old Black girl, out of his car. A female officer shoots her when she reaches into her pocket to call their parents.

Adelaide by Genevieve Wheeler

For twenty-six-year-old Adelaide Williams, an American living in dreamy London, meeting Rory Hughes was like a lightning bolt out of the blue: this charming Englishman was The One she wasn’t even looking for. Is it enough? Does he respond to texts? Honour his commitments? Make advance plans? Sometimes, rarely, and no, not at all. But when he shines his light on her, the world makes sense, and Adelaide is convinced that, in his heart, he’s fallen just as deeply as she has. Then, when Rory is rocked by an unexpected tragedy, Adelaide does everything in her power to hold him together—even if it means losing herself… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Bipolar Disorder
  • Depression
  • Anxiety & panic attack
  • Attempted suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Miscarriage
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent in a car accident

Mile High by Liz Tomforde

Zanders: Chicago hockey isn’t complete without me – everyone’s favourite player to hate. I know my role, and I play it well. In fact, I thoroughly enjoy spending the majority of my game time in the penalty box before leaving the arena with a new girl on my arm each night. What I don’t like is the new flight attendant on our team’s private plane. She works for me, not the other way around. But I’ll be sure to remind her of that, and I can guarantee, by the end of the season, she’ll be begging to quit her job. But every road trip blurs the lines, and I can’t quite figure out if I keep pushing that flight attendant call button in order to… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Fatphobia & body-shaming discussed including internalised body-shaming and dysmorphia
  • Panic attacks
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Emesis
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use

Beneath the Hood by Emily McIntire

My life is a stage. Followed by millions, and loved by none. And me, the captain of control, steering my image through choppy waters. Making sure I stay on top. No one ever sees me. No one ever looks. Until him. But he’s everything impossible, and a thousand shades of wrong. Falling for him would ruin everything I’ve worked for. So why can’t I stay away? My life is a back-up plan.
Surrounded by friends, and loved by none. And me, the king of heartbreak, gluing my pieces back together. Making sure they stick. No one ever sees me. No one ever looks. Until her. But she’s everything off limits, and a thousand shades of sin. Falling for… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Eating disorder

Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree

Viv’s career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam’s Ravens isn’t going as planned. Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she’s packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk—so far from the action that she worries she’ll never be able to return to it. What’s a thwarted soldier of fortune to do? Spending her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn’t possibly imagine. Still, adventure isn’t all that far away… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Anxiety & nightmares
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Physical injury recovery (leg)
  • Murder (off-page)
  • Stalking
  • Animal injury & death (sheep)

Business Casual by B.K. Borison

Nova Porter isn’t looking for love, and she certainly has no explanation for her attraction to buttoned-up, three-piece-suit-wearing investment banker Charlie Milford. Maybe it’s his charm? Or maybe it’s his determination to help her fledgling business however he can. Either way, she’s distracted every time he’s around. With her new tattoo studio set to open in her hometown of Inglewild, she doesn’t have time for frivolous flirtations. In an effort to get Charlie out of her system once and for all, Nova offers a proposition. One night. No strings. They’ll kick their uncomfortable attraction to the curb and return to their respective responsibi… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment mentioned
  • Chronic migraines (protagonist)

Mixed Signals by B.K. Borison

Layla Dupree has given up on love. She’s waded through all of the fish in the sea, each one more disappointing than the last. Apparently owning the bakery at Inglewild’s most romantic destination does not help one’s love life-despite her best efforts. All she wants is a partner who gives her butterflies, not someone who ghosts her at dinner and leaves her with the check. Good thing Caleb Alvarez has the perfect solution. After saving Layla from another date gone bad, he has a simple One month of no-strings dating. He’ll do his best to renew her faith in men while she rates his dating game. It’s a win-win… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Familial estrangement
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Alcohol consumption

Done and Dusted by Lyla Sage

For the first time in her life, Clementine “Emmy” Ryder has no idea what she’s doing. She’s accomplished everything on her to-do list. She left her small hometown of Meadowlark, Wyoming; went to college; and made a career for herself by doing her favoourite thing: riding horses. But after an accident makes it impossible for her to get back into the saddle, she has no choice but to return to the hometown she always wanted to escape. Luke Brooks is Meadowlark’s most notorious bad boy, bar owner, and bachelor. He’s also the unofficial fifth member of the Ryder family. As Emmy’s older brother’s best friend, Luke… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment & child neglect mentioned
  • Anxiety & panic attacks (on-page)
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a parent recounted (off-page)

Swift and Saddled by Lyla Sage

She’s the city girl that refuses to give him the time of day. He’s the cowboy that wants her anyway. The last thing Ada Hart needs is a man to take care of her. Not anymore. After failing out of her interior design program and the disaster that was her short-lived marriage, Ada clawed her way up from her rock bottom. Now, the only person she trusts is herself, and that has gotten her further than other people ever did. She has her own business, and one of the largest ranches in Wyoming just hired her for the most important project of her career. When Ada arrives in Meadowlark, she finds herself in a dive bar where she can’t.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Emotionally abusive relationship recounted
  • Depression & panic attacks
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a parent recounted (off-page)

The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson

London, 1944: Clara Button is no ordinary librarian. While war ravages the city above her, Clara has risked everything she holds dear to turn the Bethnal Green tube station into the country’s only underground library. Down here, a secret community thrives with thousands of bunk beds, a nursery, a café, and a theatre—offering shelter, solace, and escape from the bombs that fall upon their city. Along with her glamorous best friend and assistant Ruby Munroe, Clara ensures the library is the beating heart of life underground. But as the war drags on, the women’s determination to remain strong in the face of adversity is tested to… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical sexism
  • Domestic violence
  • Panic attacks & Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Miscarriage
  • World War II