Tag Archives: Drug Use & Abuse

Wild Card by Elsie Silver

Sebastian Rousseau is a grumpy, hot as hell fire pilot who is too damn good with his hands. It’s the perfect combination. But unfortunately for me, he’s also my ex-boyfriend’s dad. A chance meeting brought us together and a missed connection has kept us apart. One year later, a stroke of fate has us living under the same roof—which makes everything between us downright messy. Because even after all this time, he’s still the man I think about when I fall asleep. The one I can’t get over no matter how hard I try. He’s working on mending a fragile relationship with his son and we both… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Fatphobia & body-shaming mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use
  • Hospitalisation for surgery

Off to the Races by Elsie Silver

Keeping things professional with my employees has never been an issue… until Billie waltzes onto my property. She’s talented, feisty and so damn tempting. We clash from the moment we meet, and I can’t stop thinking about all the ways I could take her down a peg. I can’t stop thinking about her, period. And in a small town, on an even smaller farm, it’s hard to keep my distance. Billie is the whole package: whip-smart with a body I fantasise about, and quite possibly the only woman who can save this business – and me. She drives me crazy, but the more time we spend… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment & neglect
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Parental drug abuse recounted
  • Boss-employee relationship
  • Death of a grandparent recounted

Good Girl by Aria Aber

In Berlin’s artistic underground, where techno and drugs fill warehouses still pockmarked from the wars of the twentieth century, nineteen-year-old Nila at last finds her tribe. Born in Germany to Afghan parents, raised in public housing graffitied with swastikas, drawn to philosophy, photography, and sex, Nila has spent her adolescence disappointing her family while searching for her voice as a young woman and artist. Then in the haze of Berlin’s legendary nightlife, Nila meets Marlowe, an American writer whose fading literary… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Domestic abuse
  • Drug use

Murder on the Marlow Belle by Robert Thorogood

Verity Beresford is worried about her husband. Oliver didn’t come home last night so of course Verity goes straight to Judith Potts, Marlow’s resident amateur sleuth, for help. Oliver, founder of the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society, had hired The Marlow Belle, a private pleasure cruiser, for an exclusive party with the MADS committee but no one remembers seeing him disembark. And then Oliver’s body washes up on the Thames with two bullet holes in him – it’s time for the Marlow Murder Club to leap into action… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Adult-minor relationship
  • Parent with substance addiction
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use including overdose
  • Cancer
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Animal death

Kills Well with Others by Deanna Raybourn

After more than a year of laying low, Billie, Helen, Mary Alice, and Natalie are called back into action. They have enjoyed their rest, but the lack of excitement is starting to chafe: a professional killer can only take so many watercolor classes and yoga sessions before she gets the itch to get back in the game. When they receive a call from Naomi Ndiaye, the head of the elite assassin organization known as the Museum, they are ready to tackle the greatest challenge of their careers. Someone on the inside has compiled a list of important kills committed by Museum agents, all of… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism mentioned
  • Sexual harassment
  • Child abuse mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drug use mentioned
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Physical assault
  • Animal death mentioned

Rebellion 1776 by Laurie Halse Anderson

In the spring of 1776, thirteen-year-old Elsbeth Culpepper wakes to the sound of cannons. It’s the Siege of Boston, the Patriots’ massive drive to push the Loyalists out that turns the city into a chaotic war zone. Elsbeth’s father—her only living relative—has gone missing, leaving her alone and adrift in a broken town while desperately seeking employment to avoid the orphanage. Just when things couldn’t feel worse, the smallpox epidemic sweeps across Boston. Now, Bostonians must fight for their lives against an invisible enemy in addition to the visible one… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slavery mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption & smoking mentioned (secondary characters)
  • Hospital scene with multiple injured & ill secondary characters
  • Knife violence (protagonist is threatened with a knife & cut on their throat)
  • Siege (theme) including cannon fire, building collapse & explosions

The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig

A group of friends investigates the mystery of a strange staircase in the woods. While on a camping trip, five high-schoolers bound by an oath to always protect one another discover something in the middle of the forest: a mysterious staircase to nowhere. One friend climbs up but does not come back down. Then the staircase disappears. Twenty years later it reappears, and the friends return to find the lost boy—and what lies beyond the staircase.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Anxiety & depression
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Self-harm & suicidal ideation
  • Drug use
  • Body horror
  • Emesis
  • Animal abuse

How to Seal Your Own Fate by Kristen Perrin

Present day: Annie Adams is just settling into life in Castle Knoll when local fortune-teller Peony Lane shares a cryptic message only hours before being found dead inside the locked Gravesdown estate. Annie has no choice but to delve into the dark secrets of her new countryside home in order to find out just what Peony Lane was trying to warn her about, before her brand-new life comes crashing down around her. 1967: Teenage Frances Adams, Annie’s great aunt, finds herself caught between two men. Ford Gravesdown is one of the only remaining members of a… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault mentioned
  • Drug use
  • Murder
  • Knife violence mentioned
  • Fatal car accident

People Watching by Hannah Bonam-Young

Prudence Welch has always valued her introverted lifestyle in the small town of Baysville, Ontario. She is content with working at her father’s gas station, writing her beloved poetry, and caring for her mother who has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers. Despite her father’s continuous remarks that she should venture out of the town to have a more fulfilling life, Prue just can’t leave it behind. Milo Kablukov is a free spirit, who has had his fair share of worldwide adventures and wild nights. But when he… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parent with Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Alcohol consumption & smoking mentioned
  • High-risk pregnancy & childbirth mentioned
  • Cancer

High Times in the Low Parliament by Kelly Robson

Lana Baker is Aldgate’s finest scribe, with a sharp pen and an even sharper wit. Gregarious, charming, and ever so eager to please, she agrees to deliver a message for another lovely scribe in exchange for kisses and ends up getting sent to Low Parliament by a temperamental fairy as a result. As Lana transcribes the endless circular arguments of Parliament, the debates grow tenser and more desperate. Due to long-standing tradition, a hung vote will cause Parliament to flood and a return to endless war. Lana must rely on an unlikely pair of comrades—Bugbite, the… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Drug use & abuse (on-page)
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Gun & knife violence