Tag Archives: Mental Illness

On the Same Page by Penelope Janu

By day Miles Franklin, named after the famous author, is a successful lawyer. By night, in secret, she writes historical romance novels under the pen name Emma Browning. When ‘Emma’s’ novels win one of Australia’s biggest literary awards, Miles’s perfectly ordered life begins to unthread at the bindings. Especially when Lars Kristensen, CEO of the publishing company contracted to publish the prize-winning books, insists on meeting the author. Besides mutual antipathy and sexual attraction, socially anxious Miles and supremely confident Lars have nothing in common. Nothing. But the more time they spend together, the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Anxiety
  • Bullying recounted

Wish You Weren’t Here by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch

The Rook family run a little business: ghost hunting. And things has picked up recently. Something’s wrong. It’s been getting noticeably worse since, ooh, 2016? Bad spirits are abroad, and right now they’re particularly around Coldbay Island, which isn’t even abroad, it’s only 20 miles from Skegness. The Rooks’ ‘quick call out’ to the island picks loose a thread that begins to unravel the whole place, and the world beyond. Is this the apocalypse? This might be the apocalypse. Who knew it would kick off in an off-season seaside resort off the Lincolnshire coast? I’ll tell you who knew… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcoholism
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Miscarriage
  • Immolation

The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza by Shaun David Hutchinson

Sixteen-year-old Elena Mendoza is the product of a virgin birth. This can be scientifically explained (it’s called parthenogenesis), but what can’t be explained is how Elena is able to heal Freddie, the girl she’s had a crush on for years, from a gunshot wound in a Starbucks parking lot. Or why the boy who shot Freddie, David Combs, disappeared from the same parking lot minutes later after getting sucked up into the clouds. What also can’t be explained are the talking girl on the front of a tampon box, or the reasons that David Combs shot Freddie in the first place. As more… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Depression
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Death of a parent from suicide mentioned

At the Edge of the Universe by Shaun David Hutchinson

Tommy and Ozzie have been best friends since the second grade, and boyfriends since eighth. They spent countless days dreaming of escaping their small town—and then Tommy vanished. More accurately, he ceased to exist, erased from the minds and memories of everyone who knew him. Everyone except Ozzie. Ozzie doesn’t know how to navigate life without Tommy, and soon he suspects that something else is going on: that the universe is shrinking. When Ozzie is paired up with the reclusive and secretive Calvin for a physics project, it’s hard for him to deny the feelings developing between them, even if he still loves… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Child abuse
  • Statutory rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Self-harm
  • Depression
  • Explosion
  • Plane crash

We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson

Henry Denton has spent years being periodically abducted by aliens. Then the aliens give him an ultimatum: The world will end in 144 days, and all Henry has to do to stop it is push a big red button. Only he isn’t sure he wants to. After all, life hasn’t been great for Henry. His mom is a struggling waitress held together by a thin layer of cigarette smoke. His brother is a jobless dropout who just knocked someone up. His grandmother is slowly losing herself to Alzheimer’s. And Henry is still dealing with the grief of his boyfriend’s suicide last year…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homomisia & slurs
  • Outing
  • Sexual assault & attempted rape
  • Alcoholism
  • Grandparent with Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Self-harm mentioned
  • Smoking mentioned
  • Miscarriage
  • Nonconsensual medical procedures and experimentation
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a boyfriend from suicide recounted
  • Bullying & cyberbullying

The No-Show by Beth O’Leary

Siobhan is a quick-tempered life coach with way too much on her plate. Miranda is a tree surgeon used to being treated as just one of the guys on the job. Jane is a soft-spoken volunteer for the local charity shop with zero sense of self-worth. These three women are strangers who have only one thing in common: They’ve all been stood up on the same day, the very worst day to be stood up–Valentine’s Day. And, unbeknownst to them, they’ve all been stood up by the same man. Once they’ve each forgiven him for standing them up, they let him back into their lives and are in serious… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual harassment
  • Cheating
  • Dementia
  • Panic attacks
  • Self-harm
  • Pregnancy
  • Miscarriage
  • Stalking

The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary

Addie and her sister are about to embark on an epic road trip to a friend’s wedding in the north of Scotland. The playlist is all planned and the snacks are packed. But, not long after setting off, a car slams into the back of theirs. The driver is none other than Addie’s ex, Dylan, who she’s avoided since their traumatic break-up two years earlier. Dylan and his best mate are heading to the wedding too, and they’ve totalled their car, so Addie has no choice but to offer them a ride. The car is soon jam-packed full of luggage and secrets, and with three hundred miles ahead of them… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Slut-shaming
  • Sexual assault
  • Emotional parental abuse
  • Depression
  • Alcohol & drug abuse
  • Minor physical injury (sprained wrist)
  • Emesis
  • Car accident
  • Stalking

Colters’ Woman by Maya Banks

Adam, Ethan and Ryan aren’t looking for women. They’re looking for a woman. One woman to share their lives and their beds. They don’t want a casual romp in the hay, they want the woman who will complete them and they’re losing hope of finding her. That is until Adam finds Holly lying in the snow just yards from their cabin. He knows she’s different the minute he holds her in his arms. But before Adam gets his hopes up, he knows he has to gauge his brothers’ reactions. Soon it’s evident that she’s the one. There are a few problems, however, like convincing her she belongs with them and keeping her safe from the man who wants her dead.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Dubious consent scene (nonconsensual somnophilia)
  • Military Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from torture as a prisoner of war
  • Illness from exposure to the cold and dehydration
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Gun violence

Sweet Dandelion by Micalea Smeltzer

Dandelion Meadows is cursed. Horrible name. Horrible luck. At eighteen she should be headed off to college, all smiles and naivety. Instead, a victim of a school shooting, she’s starting her senior year in a new city and living with her brother. Nightmares of that terrible day haunt her, affecting her daily life and the relationships around her. Forced to meet with the school counsellor, Dani finds him chipping away at the walls she’s built around herself, and even her heart. Lachlan Taylor doesn’t know what to make at first of the broken student he’s tasked with helping. She’s survived a trauma he’s not sure he can save her… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Adult-minor relationship between a patient and counsellor
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from a school shooting
  • Death of a mother

The Confidence of Wildflowers by Micalea Smeltzer

My future is a big ‘what if’ at the moment and I’m fine with that. For the most part. When Thayer Holmes moves in next door, the grumpy landscaper both fascinates and amuses me. When he asks me to nanny his kid, it’s a great way to make some extra money. It’s impossible not to fall in love with Thayer and his adorable son. There’s a big problem though. I’m eighteen. He’s thirty-one. Falling for someone almost fifteen years older than me wasn’t part of my plans, but sometimes things happen when you least expect them.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault of a child mentioned
  • Cheating
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Anxiety, panic attacks & night terrors
  • Emesis
  • Death of a parent from cancer recounted
  • Death of a child