Second Chance by Audra North

Wilford town librarian Marnie Thomas has had too much loss to risk her heart ever again. She buries her hurt in books and finds her friends in stories, even though she longs for love and a family of her own. Real estate developer Collin Morgan is back in town on Halloween to help his sister, but the last person he expected to see at his niece’s story hour is Marnie Thomas. The shy, awkward girl he remembered from high school has turned into a beautiful—but still shy—woman, and Collin can’t help the desire that rises up when he sees her.
But this year, the magic of Halloween conjures a wisecracking, cigar-smoking ghost name… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental & spousal abandonment
  • Verbal child abuse
  • Smoking
  • Death from a heart attack mentioned
  • Death of a mother from cancer recounted

We Can Be Heroes by Kyrie McCauley

Beck and Vivian never could stand each other, but they always tried their best for their mutual friend, Cassie. After the town moves on from Cassie’s murder too fast, Beck and Vivian finally find common ground: vengeance. They memorialize Cassie by secretly painting murals of her around town, a message to the world that Cassie won’t be forgotten. But Beck and Vivian are keeping secrets, like the third passenger riding in Beck’s VW bus with them—Cassie’s ghost. When their murals catch the attention of a podcaster covering Cassie’s case, they become the catalyst,,, Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Statutory rape mentioned
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Domestic abuse
  • Parent with alcoholism
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Lung cancer
  • Gun violence
  • School shooting
  • Car accident mentioned

Finders Keepers by Stephen King

The genius is John Rothstein, an iconic author who created a famous character, Jimmy Gold, but who hasn’t published a book for decades. Morris Bellamy is livid, not just because Rothstein has stopped providing books, but because the nonconformist Jimmy Gold has sold out for a career in advertising. Morris kills Rothstein and empties his safe of cash, yes, but the real treasure is a trove of notebooks containing at least one more Gold novel. Morris hides the money and the notebooks, and then he is locked away for another crime. Decades later, a boy named Pete Saubers finds the treasure, and now it is Pete and his family that Bill Hodges, Holly Gibney, and Jerome Robin… Read more,

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Fatphobia & body-shaming
  • Homophobia
  • Rape
  • Suicide
  • Cancer
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife, sword & axe violence

Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time by Angela Brown

A woman has no choice left but to enjoy the adventure of life—and its surprises—in a funny and emotionally moving comedy of errors about the gifts of growing older. Olivia Strauss is turning thirty-nine. No major milestone. She still considers herself young. At least young enough to assume she has decades (emphasis on the plural) to check the unchecked boxes of her life’s to-do list. Ballerina? Too late. But not too late for poet. Or for reigniting the romantic spark in her marriage, spending more quality time with her son, switching careers, learning to cook, or even dyeing her hair a bright bohemian pink. She’ll get to that one. There’s time—until Olivia’s best friend, Marian… Read more,

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Miscarriage
  • Cancer

The Matchmaker by Catherine Walsh

Katie Collins has barely ever left her tiny Irish village of Ennisbawn. Why would she? With its tightknit community, friendly local pub, surrounded by rolling hills and perfectly mysterious forests, it’s a place of peaceful beauty. Or it was peaceful. Until Callum Dempsey turned up. A hot-shot (and, Katie has to admit, hot is annoyingly apt for him…) developer with zero eye for beauty or charm, in spite of his chiselled jaw. He’s not only building some hideous hotel just outside the village, but now he’s also planning to knock down Ennisbawn’s only remaining pub, to make way for a good view from the golf course. It’s the… Read more,

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Death of a loved one from cancer

Final Offer by Lauren Asher

Callahan. I’m the Kane brother everyone gossips about behind closed doors. Trust fund brat. Washed-up athlete. High-functioning alcoholic. No one knows the real me but her. Lana Castillo—my childhood best friend and the only woman I ever loved. When I broke her heart six years ago, I promised to never return to Lake Wisteria. I kept my word until my grandfather’s will changed everything. To receive my inheritance, I was tasked with spending a summer at the family lake house before selling it. The request was simple in theory until my entire plan blew up on the very first day. Turns out Lana doesn’t just live at the house, but… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Emotional & verbal child abuse
  • Substance addiction & alcoholism
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Drug use (smoking)
  • Overdose recounted
  • Infertility
  • Cancer
  • Death of a grandfather
  • Animal abuse

XOXO by Axie Oh

Cello prodigy Jenny has one goal: to get into a prestigious music conservatory. When she meets mysterious, handsome Jaewoo in her uncle’s Los Angeles karaoke bar, it’s clear he’s the kind of boy who would uproot her careful plans. But in a moment of spontaneity, she allows him to pull her out of her comfort zone for one unforgettable night of adventure…before he disappears without a word. Three months later, when Jenny and her mother arrive in South Korea to take care of her ailing grandmother, she’s shocked to discover that Jaewoo is a student at the same elite arts academy where she’s.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Cancer
  • Chronic illness
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Bullying

The Midnight Club by Christopher Pike

Rotterham Home was a hospice for young people—a place where teenagers with terminal illnesses went to die. Nobody who checked in ever checked out. It was a place of pain and sorrow, but also, remarkably, a place of humor and adventure. Every night at twelve, a group of young guys and girls at the hospice came together to tell stories. They called themselves the Midnight Club, and their stories could be true or false, inspiring or depressing, or somewhere in-between. One night, in the middle of a particularly scary story, the teenagers make a secret pact with each other, which says… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicide
  • Alcohol & drug abuse
  • Overdose
  • Cancer, AIDs & terminal illness
  • Amputation
  • Paralysis
  • Emesis
  • Death of a child
  • Mass shooting & gun violence

Black Hearts by Karina Halle

For Vicente Bernal, truth is all he’s known. The son of an infamous drug lord, Vicente was born to help run the family business, which means he’s been raised on a throne of sordid pasts and dirty laundry, violence and pride. But when Vicente stumbles across someone he’s not supposed to know about – a woman from his father’s checkered past – he sets out to California to find her behind his father’s back. What Vicente doesn’t expect to find in San Francisco is Violet McQueen, the woman’s twenty-year-old daughter. Beautiful and edgy with vulnerability he can’t resist, Violet…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Infidelity recounted
  • Nightmares
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use (cigarettes)
  • Death of a grandfather from cancer
  • Death of an aunt from a car bomb recounted
  • Murder
  • Physical assault
  • Organised crime
  • Attempted kidnapping

Titan by Shantel Tessier

I know I have a black soul. Bloodshed and danger are what I live for. A King is supposed to rule his Kingdom using any means necessary to demand respect. I’m not a weak man. A King kneels to no one. I’ve only ever cared about one other person in my life, but the thing is, she never belonged to me. And before I could tell her how I felt, she left. Now she’s returned, needing someone to save her. Emilee York was always meant to be mine, and I’ll see to it that happens. I always get what I want, even if that means I have to take it. And she’s no different. She’ll be my queen, on…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Misogyny & slut-shaming
  • Sex work & sex work shaming
  • Rape by coercion*
  • Sexual harassment
  • Intimate partner violence
  • Infidelity*
  • Parental divorce recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Involuntary body modifications (forced branding)
  • Death of a mother from cancer (lymphoma), on-page
  • Death of a grandparent in a car accident
  • Faked death of a father from a heart attack
  • Murder
  • Torture including waterboarding and strangulation
  • Arson
  • Physical assault
  • Kidnapping*
  • Plane crash recounted

*Context : A secondary character kidnaps the female protagonist (FMC)’s mother and withdraws her medical care until she has sex with him. There are multiple mentions of secondary characters having affair or their infidelity.