Tag Archives: Grief & Loss Depiction

Too Hot to Handle by Tessa Bailey

Too Hot to Handle by Tessa Bailey

The road trip was definitely a bad idea. Having already flambéed her culinary career beyond recognition, Rita Clarkson is now stranded in God-Knows-Where, New Mexico, with a busted car and her three temperamental siblings, who she hasn’t seen in years. When rescue shows up—six-feet-plus of charming hotness on a motorcycle—Rita’s pretty certain she’s gone from the frying pan right into the fire. Jasper Ellis has a bad boy reputation in this town, and he loathes it. The moment he sees Rita, though, Jasper knows he’s… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Anxiety attacks
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Physical assault
  • Arson

Secretly Yours by Tessa Bailey

Secretly Yours by Tessa Bailey

Hallie Welch fell hard for Julian Vos at fourteen, after they almost kissed in the dark vineyards of his family’s winery. Now the prodigal hottie has returned to their small town. When Hallie is hired to revamp the gardens on the Vos estate, she wonders if she’ll finally get that smooch. But the grumpy professor isn’t the teenager she remembers and their polar opposite personalities clash spectacularly. One wine-fueled girls’ night later, Hallie can’t shake the sense that she did something reckless–and then she remembers the drunken secret admirer letter she left for Julian. Oh shit… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Panic attacks recounted, off-page
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of grandmother, off-page
  • Wildfire and the related property damage and financial difficulties for a sibling recounted

Speed Grieving by Allison Ellis

Speed Grieving by Allison Ellis

When Allison Ellis’s husband died of an unexpected heart attack, there was no playbook for a thirty-three-year-old widow with a breastfeeding infant. In her grief, she devised a practical strategy: find a new husband within twelve months. What transpired was a year of mourning, manic dating, and breaking hearts across Seattle on a deadline mission to heal her own.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction (theme)
  • Death of a husband from a heart attack

The Season by Sarah MacLean

The Season by Sarah MacLean

Seventeen year old Lady Alexandra is strong-willed and sharp-tongued; in a house full of older brothers and their friends, she had to learn to hold her own. Not the best makings for an aristocratic lady in Regency London. Yet her mother still dreams of marrying Alex off to someone safe, respectable, and wealthy. But between ball gown fittings, dances, and dinner parties, Alex, along with her two best friends, Ella and Vivi, manages to get herself into what may be her biggest scrape yet. When the Earl of Blackmoor is… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Threats of murder

Six Goodbyes We Never Said by Candace Ganger

Six Goodbyes We Never Said by Candace Ganger

Naima Rodriguez doesn’t want your patronizing sympathy as she grieves her father, her hero—a fallen Marine. She’ll hate you forever if you ask her to open up and remember him “as he was,” though that’s all her loving family wants her to do in order to manage her complex OCD and GAD. She’d rather everyone back the-eff off while she separates her Lucky Charms marshmallows into six, always six, Ziploc bags, while she avoids friends and people and living the life her father so desperately wanted for her. Dew respectfully requests a little more time to process the… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Racism
  • Fatmisia
  • Depression
  • Social anxiety
  • Panic attacks, on-page
  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
  • Intrusive thoughts
  • Attempted suicide recounted
  • Suicidal ideation recounted
  • Death during childbirth mentioned
  • Anaphylaxis mentioned
  • Hospitalisation recounted
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother & father
  • Car accident recounted

The Duke Gets Even by Joanna Shupe

The Duke Gets Even by Joanna Shupe

To escape the shackles of marriage, Nellie Young purposely ruined her reputation a long time ago. Now she dedicates herself to hedonistic pleasures only, like kissing a handsome stranger in the ocean under the moonlight. To save his estate, the proper Duke of Lockwood must marry the perfect bride–wealthy, with an unblemished reputation. While in New York he’s the perfect gentleman, and no one knows he’s suppressing his darkest desires. The last thing he needs is another scandal. Except Nellie sees through Lockwood’s charade, straight to the real man under… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Period-typical misogyny & slut-shaming
  • Domestic violence, off-page (sc)
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Police corruption
  • Imprisonment

Beautiful Mess by Claire Christian

Beautiful Mess by Claire Christian

Since Ava lost Kelly, things haven’t been going so well. Even before she gets thrown out of school for shouting at the principal, there’s the simmering rage and all the weird destructive choices. The only thing going right for Ava is her job at Magic Kebab. Which is where she meets Gideon. Skinny, shy, anxious Gideon. A mad poet and collector of vinyl records with an aversion to social media. He lives in his head. She lives in her grief. The only people who can help them move on with their lives are each other.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Suicide & attempted suicide
  • Self-harm recounted
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a friend recounted

Frizzy by Claribel A. Ortega

Frizzy by Claribel A. Ortega and illustrated by Rose Bousamra

Marlene loves three things: books, her cool Tía Ruby and hanging out with her best friend Camila. But according to her mother, Paola, the only thing she needs to focus on is school and “growing up.” That means straightening her hair every weekend so she could have “presentable, good hair”. But Marlene hates being in the salon and doesn’t understand why her curls are not considered pretty by those around her. With a few hiccups, a dash of embarrassment, and the much-needed help of Camila and Tia Ruby—she slowly starts a journey to learn to appreciate and proudly wear her curly hair.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Racism & colourism
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Bullying

Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega

Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega

For Lucely Luna, ghosts are more than just the family business. Shortly before Halloween, Lucely and her best friend, Syd, cast a spell that accidentally awakens malicious spirits, wreaking havoc throughout St. Augustine. Together, they must join forces with Syd’s witch grandmother, Babette, and her tubby tabby, Chunk, to fight the haunting head-on and reverse the curse to save the town and Lucely’s firefly spirits before it’s too late.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Physical injury
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother recounted
  • Bullying mentioned

The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried by Shaun David Hutchinson

The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried by Shaun David Hutchinson

Dino doesn’t mind spending time with the dead. His parents own a funeral home, and death is literally the family business. He’s just not used to them talking back. Until Dino’s ex-best friend July dies suddenly—and then comes back to life. Except not exactly. Somehow July is not quite alive, and not quite dead. As Dino and July attempt to figure out what’s happening, they must also confront why and how their friendship ended so badly, and what they have left to understand about themselves, each other, and all those grand mysteries of life.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Transmisia
  • Depression
  • Suicide & attempted suicide
  • Dead bodies
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Car accident