I Could Never by Penelope Ward

It all started with an unexpected phone call. Two years after my fiancé passed away in an accident, his father died suddenly, leaving Brad’s adult, special-needs brother with no one to care for him. The next thing I knew, I was on a cross-country drive to New Hampshire where I’d be moving in to look after Scottie until I could get him into a group home. The last thing I ever expected? I wouldn’t be taking care of him alone. Josh Mathers, my fiancé’s best friend—who also happened to be my sworn enemy—insisted he was the better person for the job. He told me to go back to California, and I told him where he could stick that…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child neglect & abandonment
  • Parental infidelity, off-page
  • Death of a fiancé in a car accident
  • Death of a father-in-law

Starlings by Amanda Linsmeier

Kit’s father had always told her he had no family, but four months ago his sudden death revealed the truth. Now she has a grandmother she never knew she had–Agatha Starling–and an invitation to visit her father’s hometown, Rosemont.

And Rosemont… it’s picture perfect: the famed eternal roses bloom year-round, downtown is straight out of the 1950s… there’s even a cute guy to show Kit around… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Anxiety
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Drugging
  • Emesis, on-page
  • Starvation & cannibalism recounted
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father recounted
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Drowning

Congratulations, the Best is Over! by R. Eric Thomas

After going viral “reading” the chaotic political news, having one-too-many awkward social encounters, and coming to terms with his intersecting identities, R. Eric Thomas is ready to live his best life–or, if not, at least his best-ish life.

Now, in this collection of insightful and hilarious essays, Thomas finds himself doing things completely out of character, starting with moving back to his perpetually misunderstood hometown of Baltimore. They say you can’t go home again, but what if you and home have changed beyond recognition?.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Depression & anxiety
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Death of grandparents from a stroke
  • Death of a father-in-law from a heart attack

Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood

Mallory Greenleaf is done with chess. Every move counts nowadays; after the sport led to the destruction of her family four years earlier, Mallory’s focus is on her mom, her sisters, and the dead-end job that keeps the lights on. That is, until she begrudgingly agrees to play in one last charity tournament and inadvertently wipes the board with notorious “Kingkiller” Nolan Sawyer: current world champion and reigning Bad Boy of chess.

Nolan’s loss to an unknown rook-ie shocks everyone. What’s even more confusing?.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental infidelity
  • Sexual harassment
  • Parent with rheumatoid arthritis
  • Hospitalisation mentioned
  • Death of a father in a drunk-driving accident recounted

The Only One Left by Riley Sager

Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred.

It’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Cheating
  • Suicide by hanging
  • Overdose
  • Abortion mentioned
  • Childbirth
  • Teenage accidental pregnancy
  • Blood depiction
  • Terminal illness
  • Death of an infant discussed
  • Death of parents recounted
  • Death of a sister recounted
  • Death from a fall recounted
  • Death of a father
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Knife violence

The Murders of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson

The rule is simple: don’t bleed.

For as long as Molly Southbourne can remember, she’s been watching herself die. Whenever she bleeds, another molly is born, identical to her in every way and intent on her destruction.

Molly knows every way to kill herself, but she also knows that as long as she survives she’ll be hunted. No matter how well she follows the rules, eventually the mollys will find her. Can Molly find a way to stop the tide of blood, or will she meet her end at the hand of a girl who looks just like her?.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Incest*
  • Necrophilia mentioned
  • Delusions, including a diagnosis of Capgras Syndrome
  • Suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Self-harm including cutting and self-inflicted wounds
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction (theme)
  • Body horror
  • Medical procedures including autopsies
  • Dismemberment
  • Hospital
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother and father, off-page
  • Death of a child
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Strangulation
  • Gun violence
  • Graphic knife violence & stabbing
  • Graphic physical assault
  • Captivity
  • Fire
  • Death of a pet dog
  • Animal death & dead bodies including butchery

Context: a) there is a scene where the protagonist is interrupted having sex with her boyfriend by her doppelgänger and they let her join in and b) it is mentioned that the protagonist’s father caught her touching her doppelgänger’s genitals when she was a kid.

Sink or Swim by Tessa Bailey

Andrew Prince wakes up before everyone else. He schedules the bar shifts, demands perfection from Long Beach’s lifeguards—most of all himself—and makes sure the family debts are paid. His unfaltering work ethic might leave him exhausted, but it comes with one advantage. It distracts him from the love he’s been harbouring since childhood for the girl next door—who he cannot have. Jiya Dalal has dreams. To fly a plane, see the world below…and prove irresistible to her best friend, Andrew. But she needs to be a good daughter first, which is becoming an increasingly difficult task, since her parents expect a good marriage… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse recounted
  • Parent with alcoholism recounted
  • Murder of a father recounted
  • Physical assault
  • Police violence & corruption

Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb

Fitz has survived his first hazardous mission as king’s assassin, but is left little more than a cripple. Battered and bitter, he vows to abandon his oath to King Shrewd, remaining in the distant mountains. But love and events of terrible urgency draw him back to the court at Buckkeep, and into the deadly intrigues of the royal family. Renewing their vicious attacks on the coast, the Red-Ship Raiders leave burned-out villages and demented victims in their wake. The kingdom is also under assault from within, as treachery threatens the throne of the ailing king. In this time of great danger, the fate of the kingdom may rest in Fitz’s hands—and his role in its salvation may require the ultimate sacrifice.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexism & classism
  • Elder abuse
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Infidelity mentioned
  • Forced political marriage
  • Depressive episode recounted
  • Suicidal ideation mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use
  • Pregnancy & miscarriage discussed
  • Graphic blood & injury depiction, including dead bodies, emesis, seizures, and chronic illness
  • Death of a father from medical complications due to chronic alcoholism recounted
  • Murder & attempted murder and infanticide
  • Poisoning
  • Physical assault
  • Knife, arrow and axe violence
  • Imprisonment
  • Loss of autonomy (mind control & invasion)
  • War themes & battle scenes and naval warfare
  • Regicide
  • Animal abuse (wolf)
  • Animal death mentioned, including the death of a pet dog

The Stonekeeper’s Curse by Kazu Kibuishi

Emily and Navin’s mother is still in a coma from the arachnopod’s poison, and there’s only one place to find help: Kanalis, the bustling, beautiful city of waterfalls. But when Em, her brother, and Miskit and the rest of the robotic crew aboard the walking house reach the city, they quickly realize that seeking help is looking for trouble…dangerous trouble.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Blood & physical injury depiction
  • Coma
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father recounted
  • Attempted murder
  • Explosion
  • Physical assault
  • Fire

Fire and Ice by Shannon Hale

Strange things are happening at the frozen edge of the world. Conor, Abeke, Meilin, and Rollan have crisscrossed Erdas in their quest to stop the ruthless Conquerors. Only the four of them, supported by the gifts of their legendary spirit animals, have the power to defeat an evil takeover. While chasing down a lead in the cold north, the heroes arrive at a quiet village where not everything is as it seems. Rooting the truth out of this deceptively beautiful place won’t be easy – and the team is already out of time. The Conquerors are right behind them.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Grandparent with alcoholism mentioned
  • Physical injury & illness including frostbite
  • Death of a father recounted
  • Death from a fall
  • Knife, sword and arrow violence
  • Fire
  • Animal attack
  • Animal death & hunting (seal)