A Very Bad Thing by J.T. Ellison

A great writer knows when to deliver a juicy plot twist. But for one author, the biggest twist of all is her own murder. With a number of hit titles and a highly anticipated movie tie-in, celebrated novelist Columbia Jones is at the top of her game. Fans around the world adore her. But on the final night of her latest book tour, one face in the crowd makes the author collapse. And by the next morning, she’s lying dead in a pool of blood. Columbia’s death shocks the world and leaves Darian, her daughter and publicist, reeling. The police have nothing to go on–at first, but then details… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape mentioned
  • Domestic violence
  • Pregnancy
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Home invasion mentioned
  • Hostage situation
  • Blackmail & stalking

Wings of Ebony by J. Elle

“Make a way out of no way” is just the way of life for Rue. But when her mother is shot dead on her doorstep, life for her and her younger sister changes forever. Rue’s taken from her neighborhood by the father she never knew, forced to leave her little sister behind, and whisked away to Ghizon—a hidden island of magic wielders. Rue is the only half-god, half-human there, where leaders protect their magical powers at all costs and thrive on human suffering. Miserable and desperate to see her sister on the anniversary of their mother’s death, Rue breaks Ghizon’s sacred Do… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Hate crime
  • Physical child abuse
  • Blood & gore depiction and emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Police brutality

Breaking His Ice by Klastella

I have one rule: I don’t do relationships. Hookups? Sure. Love? Hell no. Love doesn’t fix anything—it just screws you up. I know. I watched it ruin my family. As captain of the Ridgewater Warriors, my game plan is simple: keep it casual, stay focused, win games. Repeat. And it’s been working just fine—until Samantha Westbrook showed up. My best friend’s pesky little sister. The girl who’s had a crush on me since she was ten. Now she’s a freshman at Ridgewater U, and she’s everywhere I go, cockblocking every girl who so much as breathes near me. I spent years brushing her off, telling her to stay… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment & neglect
  • Parental infidelity
  • Parent with alcoholism, gambling issues & depression
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Drug use & smoking
  • Sports injury
  • Death of a parent from cancer (acute myeloid leukemia)
  • Animal death mentioned (pet)

The Burning Season by Caroline Starr Rose

Twelve-year-old Opal is deathly afraid of fire. Still Opal is preparing to become a fourth-generation lookout on Wolf Mountain, deep in the New Mexico wilderness. She, Mom, and Gran live at ten thousand feet in a single room at the top of a fire tower. They are responsible for spotting any hint of smoke before it becomes an uncontrollable blaze. Instead of training for the lonely life of a lookout, Opal wishes she could be starting seventh grade in Silver City, attending real classes with kids her own age and even going to afterschool clubs like FFA. But Wolf Mountain has other ideas. When Mom makes the long trek to town for supplies… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Death of a father recounted
  • Hospitalisation for injury
  • Smoke spotting (theme) with discussions of wildfires

Some of Us Are Brave by Saadia Faruqi

It’s a humid summer in Houston, Texas, and Yasir is dreaming of being soccer team captain—if only he could get the team bully, Cody, off his back, and maybe impress his sort-of-crush, Mona. Meanwhile, Mona is turning her nightmares into art, and Cody’s home life feels as tense as the storm literally brewing down the coast. When Hurricane Harvey makes landfall, the three kids could hardly be called friends. But as their regular lives fall apart and rising floodwaters pull them together, Mona, Cody, and Yasir will need to work as a team if they want to survive. The… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Classism & racism
  • Parental abandonment, child abuse & domestic violence
  • Night terrors
  • Parent with anger management issues after being injured during military service
  • Death of a father recounted
  • Death of a grandmother mentioned
  • Hurricane Harvey & floods (theme)
  • Near-drowning incident recounted
  • Bullying

The Lions’ Run by Sara Pennypacker

Petit éclair. That’s what the other boys at the orphanage call Lucas DuBois. Lucas is tired of his cowardly reputation, just as he’s tired of the war and the Nazi occupation of his French village. He longs to show how brave he can be. He gets the chance when he saves a litter of kittens from cruel boys and brings them to an abandoned stable to care for them. There he comes upon a stranger who is none too happy to see Alice, the daughter of a horse trainer, who is hiding her filly from German soldiers. Soon Lucas begins to… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Discussions of Lebensborn hospitals (where unmarried pregnant women were forced to adopt out their children as part of a Nazi-German eugenics program)
  • Death of parents recounted
  • World War II (theme)
  • Bullying
  • Animal cruelty & death mentioned (bullies attempt to drowning a litter of kittens but the protagonist is able to save the majority of them)

Bound by Firelight by Dana Swift

After a magical eruption devastates the kingdom of Belwar, royal heir Adraa is falsely accused of masterminding the destruction and forced to stand trial in front of her people, who see her as a monster. Adraa’s punishment? Imprisonment in the Dome, an impenetrable, magic-infused fortress filled with Belwar’s nastiest criminals—many of whom Adraa put there herself. And they want her to pay. Jatin, the royal heir to Naupure, has been Adraa’s betrothed, nemesis, and fellow masked vigilante… but now he’s just a boy waiting to ask her the biggest question… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Torture
  • False imprisonment (on-page, protagonist)
  • War themes & mass death

Wild Sweet Love by Beverly Jenkins

Teresa July has led a hard life, but now she has a chance to put her train robbing past behind her. Armed with a new job as a cook to one of Philadelphia’s elite families, Teresa is determined to start her life anew, and nothing––not even her boss’s stuck–up (and far too handsome) son––is going to stand in her way. Madison Nance is sick of his mother taking in women from the wrong side of the tracks, just to see them turn on her generosity. That’s why it’s up to him to keep a close eye on Teresa’s every move. At least, that’s the only logical explanation for why he can’t get the… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infertility & miscarriage mentioned
  • Death of a parent
  • Gun violence
  • Incarceration
  • Kidnapping

The Taming of Jessi Rose by Beverly Jenkins

Jessi Rose Clayton would do anything to keep the family ranch from falling into the wrong hands-even agree to take on a rough-and-tumble outlaw as her protector. With his rugged, handsome face and muscular bronze body, Griffin Blake can draw a sigh from a lady’s lips almost as fast as his strong, sculpted arm can draw a gun from its holster. But Jessi Rose has no intentions of falling for his charms. No, her relationship with him is strictly business. Until He Came Along Robbing the railroad is Griffin Blake’s game, but he has no choice. Either he agrees to help Jessi Rose or he gets sent back to jail-so he arrives… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slut-shaming
  • Rape mentioned (off-page)
  • Infertility mentioned
  • Death of parents mentioned
  • Murder by gun violence (on-page)

Indigo by Beverly Jenkins

When the notorious Black Daniel is carried, badly injured, into Hester Wyatt’s home, there is no question that he will be cared for and protected. Once a slave herself, Hester regularly gives shelter to runaways, yet the man of mysteries she now harbours brings greater danger than she’s ever known. He is Galen Vachon, a member of a unique elite class of pre-Civil War blacks. Handsome, arrogant, and accustomed to lavish living, he fears he’s been betrayed in his work with the underground and wants to move on quickly. Yet the magic healing caresses that flow from Hester’s lovely indigo-stained hands tear at his heart… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism, colourism & racial slurs, including discussions of slavery & forced conscription
  • Misogyny & slut-shaming
  • Infidelity*
  • Emotional, verbal & physical child abuse recounted
  • Threats of rape
  • Statutory rape recounted*
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death during childbirth mentioned (secondary character’s daughter)
  • Minor physical injury & illness including broken bones, gunshot wounds, & fever
  • Death of an aunt & grandmother mentioned
  • Death of a father from wasting disease mentioned
  • Death of parents & grandfather in a boating accident recounted
  • Murder
  • Gun violence (secondary character shoots her abusive partner)
  • Kidnapping
  • Imprisonment recounted
  • Death from snakebite mentioned

*Context : The female protagonist was enslaved until she was nine-years-old. The male protagonist had sex with a 28-year-old woman when he was 17-years-old. The male protagonist kisses the female protagonist when she is engaged to someone else; however, it’s intended to be a celibate marriage of convenience and the fiancé turns out to be married. A secondary character’s wife is cheating on him. The male protagonist’s grandfather left his grandmother for his mistress.