Finding Yvonne by Brandy Colbert

Finding Yvonne by Brandy Colbert

Since she was seven years old, Yvonne has had her trusted violin to keep her company, especially in those lonely days after her mother walked out on their family. But with graduation just around the corner, she is forced to face the hard truth that she just might not be good enough to attend a conservatory after high school.

Full of doubt about her future, and increasingly frustrated by her strained relationship with her successful but emotionally closed-off father… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racist microaggressions discussed
  • Adult-minor relationship*
  • Parental abandonment & child neglect (theme)
  • Cheating
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Unplanned teen pregnancy
  • Abortion discussed, off-page
  • Homelessness mentioned
  • Financial struggles & poverty mentioned

* Note : Yvonne, the main character, turns eighteen during the story and her love interests are both adult men; one is a 21-year-old man and the sous chef at her father’s restaurant. She does not have penetrative sex with either of them until after her birthday but she was dating one of them when she was seventeen at the beginning of the book.

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The Not-Outcast by Tijan

The Not-Outcast by Tijan

Cutler Ryder was everything I wasn’t. He was the hockey star. I was an outcast. He was best friends with my stepbrother, that same stepbrother who hated me. His two parents loved him. My mom was a junkie. My dad barely knew me.

Years passed. I got my life together. Cut went onto NHL stardom. Then there was a text. I was drinking. There was a party. Cut was there… I loved Cutler Ryder since the first moment I saw him. The only problem? He never knew I existed. 

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parent with substance addiction
  • Death of a mother recounted
  • Homelessness

Wild Ones by Kristine Wyllys 

Wild Ones by Kristine Wyllys

Bri Martin likes her skirts too short, her heels too high, and trouble close at hand. So when big, brooding underground boxer Luke Turner comes into the bar where she works and starts a fight before she brings his first drink, she can’t help being intrigued. Luke is everything she never wanted and everything she can’t resist. Soon, Luke is showing up everywhere Bri is, and she can’t break free of his hold on her, nor does she want to. When her best friend turns on her, it’s Luke who is there. When Luke’s opponent comes after her to send Luke a message, it’s he who comes… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child sexual abuse, on-page
  • Incest (father-daughter), on-page
  • Child physical abuse mentioned
  • Intimate partner violence mentioned
  • Coerced sex work mentioned
  • Parent with alcoholism mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking
  • Overdose mentioned
  • Physical injuries, including broken bones & concussion
  • Scars
  • Death of a brother by suicide mentioned
  • Police raid
  • Gun violence
  • Mugging
  • Homelessness
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Suicide Watch by Kelley York

Suicide Watch by Kelley York

18-year-old Vincent Hazelwood has spent his entire life being shuffled from one foster home to the next. His grades sucked. Making friends? Out of the question thanks to his nervous breakdowns and unpredictable moods. Still, Vince thought when Maggie Atkins took him in, he might’ve finally found a place to get his life—and his issues—in order. But then Maggie keels over from a heart attack. Vince is homeless, alone, and the inheritance money isn’t going to last long. A year ago, Vince watched a girl leap to her death off a bridge, and now he’s starting to think she had the… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Foster care system
  • Suicidal ideation (theme)
  • Suicide by jumping off a bridge recounted
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Heart attack
  • Homelessness
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A Christmas Hex by Jordan Hawk

A Christmas Hex by Jordan L. Hawk

Roland knows he will never find love. Everyone views wolf familiars like himself as dangerous beasts, unable to rein in their savage impulses. He’s resigned himself to his fate—or so he thinks, until he meets the dashing Augustus Cao. His witch.

Gus is on the trail of a gang of thieves, and Roland holds an important clue. Even though they can never bond, Roland can’t pass up the opportunity to spend a night with his witch.

Can Roland conceal his secret, while helping Gus catch the thieves? Or will the handsome detective be the one to steal his heart?

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Blood depiction
  • Attempted knife violence
  • Homelessness
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At the End of Everything by Marieke Nijkamp 

At the End of Everything by Marieke Nijkamp

The Hope Juvenile Treatment Center is ironically named. No one has hope for the delinquent teenagers who have been exiled there; the world barely acknowledges that they exist. Then the guards at Hope start acting strange. And one day…they don’t show up. But when the teens band together to make a break from the facility, they encounter soldiers outside the gates. There’s a rapidly spreading infectious disease outside, and no one can leave their houses or travel without a permit. Which means that they’re stuck at Hope. And this time, no one is watching out for them at all.

As supplies quickly dwindle and a deadly plague tears through their ranks, the group has to decide whom among them they can trust and figure out how they can survive in a world that has never wanted them in the first place

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racial profiling
  • Transmisia
  • Deadnaming
  • Ableism
  • Blood depiction
  • Gun violence
  • Imprisonment
  • Homelessness
  • Foster care system
  • Animal hunting
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The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds

The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds

Just when seventeen-year-old Matt thinks he can’t handle one more piece of terrible news, he meets a girl who’s dealt with a lot more—and who just might be able to clue him in on how to rise up when life keeps knocking him down—in this wry, gritty novel from the author of When I Was the Greatest. Matt wears a black suit every day. No, not because his mom died—although she did, and it sucks. But he wears the suit for his gig at the local funeral home, which pays way better than the Cluck Bucket, and he needs the income since his dad can’t handle the bills (or anything, really) on his own. So while Dad’s snagging bottles of whiskey… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parent with alcoholism
  • Drug use mentioned (smoking)
  • Death from cancer mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Intimate partner murder by gunshot (on-page)
  • Physical assault recounted (fistfight resulting in bloodied lip)
  • Death from gang violence mentioned
  • Homelessness

Into the Crooked Place by Alexandra Christo

Into the Crooked Place by Alexandra Christo

Magic rules the city of Creije Capital and Tavia Syn knows just how many tricks she needs up her sleeve to survive. Selling dark magic on the streets for her kingpin, she keeps clear of other crooks, counting the days until her debt is paid and she can flee her criminal life.

But then, one day, with her freedom in sight, Tavia uncovers a sinister plot that threatens to destroy the realm she calls home. Desperate to put an end to her kingpin’s plan, Tavia forms an unlikely alliance with three crooks even more deadly than her: Wesley, the kingpin’s prodigy and most renewed criminal in the realm… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Indentured servitutde
  • Sexual assault (nonconsensual kiss)
  • Child abuse
  • Estrangement
  • Hallucinations
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drugging
  • Blood depiction
  • Physical injuries
  • Dead bodies
  • Plague mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother & father recounted
  • Death of a brother recounted
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Gang violence
  • Strangulation
  • Physical assault, on-page (fight ring)
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Imprisonment
  • Disappearance of a loved one
  • Loss of autonomy
  • War themes & battle scenes recounted
  • Poverty discussed
  • Homelessness recounted

A Dog’s Way Home by W. Bruce Cameron

A Dog’s Way Home by W. Bruce Cameron

Lucas Ray is shocked when an adorable puppy jumps out of an abandoned building and into his arms. Though the apartment he shares with his mother, a disabled veteran, doesn’t allow dogs, Lucas can’t resist taking Bella home. Bella is inexplicably drawn to Lucas, even if she doesn’t understand the necessity of games like No Barks. As it becomes more difficult to hide her from the neighbours, Lucas begins to sneak Bella into the VA where he works. There, Bella brings joy and comfort where it is needed most.

After Bella is picked up by Animal Control because pit bulls are banned in Denver, Lucas has no choice but to send her to a foster home until he can figure out what to do. But Bella, distraught at the separation, doesn’t plan to wait. With four hundred miles of dangerous Colorado wilderness between her and her person, Bella sets off on a seemingly impossible and completely unforgettable adventure home.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Hospital
  • Seizures
  • Gun violence
  • Car accident
  • Animal death & hunting
  • Animal abuse
  • Animal injury
  • Homelessness
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A Dog’s Journey by W. Bruce Cameron

A Dog’s Journey by W. Bruce Cameron

Buddy is a good dog.

After searching for his purpose through several eventful lives, Buddy is sure that he has found and fulfilled it. Yet as he watches curious baby Clarity get into dangerous mischief, he is certain that this little girl is very much in need of a dog of her own.

When Buddy is reborn, he realizes that he has a new destiny. He’s overjoyed when he is adopted by Clarity, now a vibrant but troubled teenager. When they are suddenly separated, Buddy despairs―who will take care of his girl?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Domestic abuse & violence
  • Alcoholism & alcohol abuse
  • Recreational drug use & abuse
  • Hospital
  • Needles
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Death of a father mentioned
  • Car accident
  • Stalking
  • Homelessness
  • Animal death, including the death of a pet dog
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