The Love Coupon by Ainslie Paton

Flick Dalgetty knows what she wants and how to get it, which is why she’s about to start her dream job in Washington. Until then, she needs somewhere to crash, and Tom O’Connell’s place is her sole option. He’s a repressed, antisocial ogre…but man can he kiss. For Tom, being around Flick is like being too close to the sun. Her untamed energy is overwhelming, and he’d spontaneously combust if he had to live with her long-term. Housemates with benefits—and an expiration date—suits him just fine. Then Flick gives Tom thirty coupons, each entitling him to one… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Cancer
  • Death of a parent recounted

Pretty Dead Things by Kelsey Cox

2000: Isabelle Whitmore vanishes at Sherman Ranch in Anhalt, Texas, without a trace. 2025: The annual Lone Star Princess Pageant looms, bringing long-standing grudges to the surface. Ingrid fled Anhalt in the wake of her sister Isabelle’s disappearance and has now returned, just in time for a construction crew to start digging up Sherman Ranch; the pageant brings up past traumas that Melanie can’t forget; Cat, newly sober, starts to feel threatened in ways that bring back old demons; and Sarah Lynn, who comes from a long line of pageant winners, knows that losing is… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape of a minor discussed
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Alcoholism & prescription pill abuse
  • Cancer
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Disappearance & murder of a daughter/sister (theme)
  • Bullying & hazing

The Conjoined by Jen Sookfong Lee

On a sunny May morning, social worker Jessica Campbell sorts through her mother’s belongings after her recent funeral. In the basement, she makes a shocking discovery — two dead girls curled into the bottom of her mother’s chest freezers. She remembers a pair of foster children who lived with the family in 1988: Casey and Jamie Cheng — troubled, beautiful, and wild teenaged sisters from Vancouver’s Chinatown. After six weeks, they disappeared; social workers, police officers, and Jessica herself assumed they had run away. As Jessica learns more about Casey… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Adult-minor relationship (a forty-year-old man and a teenage girl)
  • Domestic violence
  • Miscarriage
  • Terminal cancer
  • Death of a parent

Love at First Psych by Cara Bastone

This Psych 312 assignment just might send me off the deep end. Determining whether love at first sight really exists with Robbie Moravian as my project partner of all people? He’s the sappiest man alive, so upbeat I could scream, and clearly rooting for happy endings at every turn. How does he not learn from experience considering our own meet-cute last semester almost got us expelled? But we both need to pass… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Divorce (secondary characters)
  • Parent in cancer remission mentioned

Seatmate by Cara Bastone

I have exactly 5 hours and 10 minutes to get from Boston to New York City or the professional opportunity of a lifetime disappears. My only travel option? The second to last seat on a discount bus. Across from the bathroom. Wearing last night’s clothes (don’t ask). All worth it if I can make it in time. My nerves almost get the best of me, but then there he is, sitting down in the seat next to me. Tall. Friendly smile. Bright indigo streak in his brown hair. The perfect distraction. Turns out he’s on his way to reconnect with an old flame. The one who got away. We can both make it on time… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Death of a parent from cancer (off-page)

Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone

Lenny’s a bit of a mess at the moment. Her best friend, Lou, recently passed away after a battle with cancer, and her death has left Lenny feeling completely lost. She’s avoiding her concerned parents, the apartment she shared with Lou, and the list of things she’s supposed to do to help her live again. The only thing she can do is temporary babysitting gigs, and luckily, she just landed a great one, helping overworked, single mom Reese and her precocious daughter, Ainsley. It’s not perfect: Ainsley’s uncle, Miles, always seems to be around, and is kind of… a huge jerk. But if Lenny acts like she has it all together, maybe no… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental infidelity
  • Stroke
  • Death of a parent from cancer recounted

Sweet Talk by Cara Bastone

It’s officially booty o’clock, I’m alone again in my kitchen choking down a slice of terrible chocolate cake…and I’m pretty sure I just got drunk texted by the man I have a ginormous crush on. I’ve been daydreaming about Eliot Hoffman’s dimples for two months, and even though I’m sure this was a mistake on his end, it doesn’t mean it’s not an opportunity on mine. It’s the middle of the night, and I just wanna talk to him. So I text him back. And then somehow we keep talking…ALL NIGHT. We’re both insomniacs, so talking all night soon turns into talking EVERY night. And talking.. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment recounted
  • Secondary character with alcoholism
  • Anxiety & panic attack
  • Parent with terminal cancer
  • Home invasion & threats of gun violence (protagonist)

A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson

In Life After Life Ursula Todd lived through the turbulent events of the last century again and again. In A God in Ruins, Atkinson turns her focus on Ursula’s beloved younger brother Teddy – would-be poet, RAF bomber pilot, husband and father – as he navigates the perils and progress of the 20th century. For all Teddy endures in battle, his greatest challenge will be to face living in a future he never expected to have.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Drug use
  • Cancer
  • Genocide
  • Animal death

The Vacation by John Marrs

Venice Beach, Los Angeles. A paradise on earth. Tourists flock to the golden coast and the promise of Hollywood. But for eight strangers at a beach-front hostel, there is far more on their minds than an extended vacation. All of them are running from something. And they all have secrets they’d kill to keep…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Child abuse
  • Rape & voyeurism
  • Drug use, overdose & drugging
  • Cancer & terminal stroke
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder by stabbing
  • Stalking
  • Car accident

Single Malt by Layla Reyne

FBI agent Aidan “Irish” Talley had it all until a harrowing car crash left him with a heap of survivor’s guilt and a hole in his heart where his happily ever after used to be. Aiming to fill the void, he returns to work—and to a new partner. Charming, smart, and athletic, Jamie is the last thing Aidan’s bruised heart needs. Cyber agent Jameson “Whiskey” Walker joined the Bureau three years ago and has pined for Aidan ever since. Working with the Irish expat is a fantasy and a challenge, one Jamie intends to win by earning the surly older agent’s trust and respect. Except there’s no time… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Child physical & sexual abuse and stalking by a foster parent mentioned (secondary character)
  • Infidelity mentioned (secondary character)
  • Child trafficking mentioned
  • Early On-Set Alzheimer’s Disease mentioned (secondary character)
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Spouse with terminal cancer mentioned (secondary character)
  • Death of a brother in an Irish Republican Army (IRA) car bombing recounted
  • Death of a father in a factory fire recounted
  • Graphic hit-and-run car accident as attempted murder, resulting in hospitalisation for coma & head injuries and death of the protagonist’s husband & working partner
  • Bioterrorism discussed