The Rom-Com Agenda by Jayne Denker

The Rom-Com Agenda by Jayne Denker

Leah Keegan is used to being alone, especially after taking care of her sick foster mother for the past year. But now there’s nothing keeping her in the sweet town of Willow Cove. It’s time to move on. Again. Eli Masterson thought he and Victoria were meant to be together until she decided to jet off to Rome for a year. Eli is determined to win her back. But how? Changing Eli’s physical appearance is easy, but to turn Eli into the sophisticated-yet-vulnerable ideal man, his girl pals force him to watch classic rom-coms. And take notes. Inadvertently drawn into the makeover scheme, Leah ends up being Eli’s guide through the wild… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment mentioned
  • Foster care
  • Heart attack
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent from cancer mentioned

Sanctuary by Caryn Lix

Sanctuary by Caryn Lix

Kenzie holds one truth above all: the company is everything. As a citizen of Omnistellar Concepts, the most powerful corporation in the solar system, Kenzie has trained her entire life for one goal: to become an elite guard on Sanctuary, Omnistellar’s space prison for superpowered teens too dangerous for Earth. As a junior guard, she’s excited to prove herself to her company—and that means sacrificing anything that won’t propel her forward. But then a routine drill goes sideways and Kenzie is taken hostage by rioting prisoners… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Abandonment
  • Medical treatment
  • Blood depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Gun violence
  • Imprisonment

Good Girls Don’t by Victoria Dahl

Good Girls Don’t by Victoria Dahl

With her long ponytail and sparkling green eyes, Tessa Donovan looks more like the girl next door than a businesswoman – or a heartbreaker. Which may explain why Detective Luke Asher barely notices her when he arrives to investigate a break-in at her family’s brewery. He’s got his own problems – starting with the fact that his partner, Simone, is pregnant and everyone thinks he’s the father. Tessa has her hands full, too. Her brother’s playboy ways may be threatening the business, and the tension could tear her tight-knit family apart. In fact, the only thing that could unite the Donovan boys is seeing a man come after… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Cheating mentioned
  • Pregnancy mentioned
  • Ex-wife with breast cancer
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of parents in a car accident recounted
  • Gun & knife violence mentioned

No Rest for the Wicked by Kresley Cole

No Rest for the Wicked by Kresley Cole

Centuries ago, Sebastian Wroth was turned into a vampire—a nightmare in his mind—against his will. Burdened with hatred and alone for ages, he sees little reason to live. Until an exquisite, fey creature comes to kill him, inadvertently saving him instead. When Kaderin the Cold Hearted lost her two beloved sisters to a vampire attack long ago, a benevolent force deadened her sorrow—accidentally extinguishing all of her emotions. Yet whenever she encounters Sebastian, her feelings—particularly lust—emerge multiplied. For the first time, she’s unable to complete a kill… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Dubious consent scenario
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of parents & siblings

Destructive King by Rachel Van Dyken

Destructive King by Rachel Van Dyken

‘I’m sorry for your loss.’ I would rather be tortured for eternity than hear those damn words from one more person, as if Claire, my dead fiancé, was a cell phone or car keys. How about, I’m sorry your life is over. I’m sorry you want to die too. I’m sorry you see her in your dreams and wake up only to relive the nightmare. I’m supposed to be the strongest of them all. Ash Abandonato, ruler, assassin, made man, brother, friend—instead, I hurt everyone I touch in hopes that they’ll feel even a sliver of the pain that bears down on my shoulders. I didn’t lose. It was taken from me. And it’s all her fault, Annie Smith. I daydream about… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse recounted
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a fiancé in a car accident

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

Beginning in 2030, a grieving archeologist arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue the work of his recently deceased daughter at the Batagaika crater, where researchers are studying long-buried secrets now revealed in melting permafrost, including the perfectly preserved remains of a girl who appears to have died of an ancient virus. Once unleashed, the Arctic Plague will reshape life on earth for generations to come, quickly traversing the globe, forcing humanity to devise a myriad of moving and inventive ways to embrace possibility in the face of tragedy. In a theme park designed for terminally ill children… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Suicide
  • COVID-19 pandemic
  • Cancer & terminal illness
  • Hospitalisation
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Gun violence mentioned
  • Animal death & cruelty
  • Animal experimentation

Scorpio Hates Virgo by Anyta Sunday

Scorpio Hates Virgo by Anyta Sunday

Percy Freedman is not grieving. Absolutely not, take that back at once. No, he’s entirely sure that selling his dead aunt’s home and leaving the neighbours he’s known for years is the sane thing to do. Who in their right mind would keep the house that smells like all the hugs he’ll never have again? Nobody, that’s who. Well, except his cul-de-sac neighbours. They all seem to think some paint and new furniture will clean the emotional slate. They all want him to stay. Even his nemesis, Callaghan Glover. Especially his nemesis, Callaghan Glover. Lured into a game of Sherlock Gnomes, Percy finds himself hanging… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Parental abandonment
  • Alcoholism
  • Heat stroke mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a relative
  • Near-drowning incident
  • Fire (minor kitchen fire)

Something is Killing the Children, Volume 2 by James Tynion and Werther Dell’Edera

Something is Killing the Children, Vol. 2 by James Tynion IV & Werther Dell’Edera

Erica Slaughter may have slain the monster terrorizing the small Wisconsin town of Archer’s Peak, but the horror is far from over. As her mysterious handler arrives in town to clean up her mess and quarantine the townsfolk, Erica sets off deeper into the woods — because the monster she killed was a mother… and now she needs to kill its children.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homomisia mentioned
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Murder

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell

When Elsie married handsome young heir Rupert Bainbridge, she believed she was destined for a life of luxury. But with her husband dead just weeks after their marriage, her new servants resentful, and the local villagers actively hostile, Elsie has only her husband’s awkward cousin for company. Or so she thinks. Inside her new home lies a locked door, beyond which is a painted wooden figure —a silent companion —-that bears a striking resemblance to Elsie herself. The residents of The Bridge are terrified of the figure, but Elsie tries to shrug this off as simple superstition–that is, until she notices the figure’s eyes following her.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Sexual assault
  • Child abuse
  • Suicide
  • Miscarriage
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Fire
  • Animal death

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

Angela Carter was a storytelling sorceress, the literary godmother of other contemporary masters of supernatural fiction. In her masterpiece, The Bloody Chamber—which includes the story that is the basis of Neil Jordan’s 1984 movie The Company of Wolves—she spins subversively dark and sensual versions of familiar fairy tales and legends like “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Bluebeard,” “Puss in Boots,” and “Beauty and the Beast,” giving them exhilarating new life in a style steeped in the romantic trappings of the gothic tradition.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape, martial rape & rape by coercion
  • Paedophilia
  • Bestiality
  • Necrophilia
  • Blood & gore depiction, including dead bodies
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping