Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again. But 18-year-old Iris Winnow just wants to hold her family together. Her mother is suffering from addiction and her brother is missing from the front lines. Her best bet is to win the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette. To combat her worries, Iris writes letters to her brother and slips them beneath her wardrobe door, where they vanish—into the hands of Roman Kitt, her cold and handsome rival at the paper. When he anonymously writes Iris back, the two of them forge a connection that will follow Iris all the way to the front lines of battle: for her brother, the fate of mankind, and love.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Parent with alcoholism
  • Panic attack
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Cigarette & cigar smoking mentioned
  • Medical treatment including needles
  • Blood, gore and physical injury
  • Emesis
  • Death of a sister from drowning recounted
  • Death of a mother from being hit by a train
  • Military service discussed
  • Graphic war themes & battle scenes including bombings and chemical gassing, on-page
  • Poverty

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Set at a boys boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their world.

GoodreadsThe Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Military PTSD, implied
  • Physical injury (broken leg)
  • Hospitalisation

Sherwood by Sierra Simone

Sherwood by Sierra Simone

Lox came back to Sherwood on a Thursday—the same Thursday that I knelt on a polished concrete floor and kissed the hand-stitched toebox of Rafe de Lacy’s shoe. I suppose it wouldn’t have made a difference if I’d known she was back. It had been five years, after all, and she’d been the one to leave Sherwood in the first place. And I was many, many things—young, submissive, obsessive—but the one thing I’d never been, not even as a smitten teenage girl, was foolish. And I had no interest in chasing heartbreak with humiliation. After all, no thief is good enough to steal the same heart twice, right?

GoodreadsThe Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Military service mentioned

Hush by Cathleen Cole and Frank Jensen

Hush by Cathleen Cole & Frank Jensen

Hush: I had love once and lost it. Never again. That’s why I told myself she’s off limits—forbidden. It doesn’t matter that she’s as sexy and courageous as she is unexpected. Or that I can’t get her out of my mind. I’m not her happily ever after. So, I’ll help her investigate why people are going missing in the desert. But I’ll keep my hands—and my heart—to myself. That’s the plan, anyway. Seek: My dogs and my career in Search and Rescue are all I need to be happy. Or so I thought. Turns out, I need him, too. But while he’s willing to give me his… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Age-gap relationship*
  • Death of a wife recounted
  • Military service recounted
  • Murder
  • Gun violence

*Context : The hero is 52-years-old and the heroine is 27-years-old.

Ricochet by Cathleen Cole and Frank Jensen

Ricochet by Cathleen Cole & Frank Jensen

Ricochet: All it takes is one glance and I know Jordan is going to be mine. Her sweet smile and infectious energy make me feel alive again. She chases away the shadows, giving me a reason to continue on. But just as I’m beginning to win the elusive beauty over trouble comes for my family. I may be a veteran with PTSD and a member of a notorious motorcycle club, but both have given me skills that allow me to address any threat and win.
I refuse to let my past dictate my future, and convincing Jordan to trust me is a… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Abusive relationship recounted
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) & flashbacks
  • Military service recounted

Falling Fast by Aurora Rose Reynolds

Falling Fast by Aurora Rose Reynolds

Colton Allyster is relieved to be back home. After a year of rehabilitation, losing his career as a Marine along with his fiancé, he’s had to learn quickly what’s really important. Colton grew up wanting to serve his country. Managing his parents’ biker bar was never part of his plan, but after meeting Gia Caro, he’s beginning to think that’s exactly where he’s meant to be. Ever since Gia Caro arrived in the small, sleepy town of Ruby Falls, Tennessee, her life has spiralled out of control. Between losing her grandmother a little more each day to dementia, and her hot boss’s constant… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Grandparent with dementia
  • Death of parents
  • House fire
  • Blackmail
  • Military service recounted

Black Mad Wheel by Josh Malerman

Black Mad Wheel by Josh Malerman

The Danes—the band known as the “Darlings of Detroit”—are washed up and desperate for inspiration, eager to once again have a number one hit. That is, until an agent from the US Army approaches them. Will they travel to an African desert and track down the source of a mysterious and malevolent sound? Under the guidance of their frontman, Philip Tonka, the Danes embark on a harrowing journey through the scorching desert—a trip that takes Tonka into the heart of an ominous and twisted conspiracy. Meanwhile, in a nondescript Midwestern hospital, a nurse… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Drugging
  • Graphic needles & syringes
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Dead bodies
  • Graphic emesis
  • Nonconsensual medical treatment & procedures
  • Medical experimentation
  • Military service & deployment

Be Still My Heart by Emily McIntire & Sav Miller

Be Still My Heart by Emily McIntire & Sav R. Miller

Skelm Island, Maine has always been known for two things: lobsters and its broken lighthouse. But when corpses start showing up in the water, the isolated town becomes the face of a cryptic investigation. At the heart of which stands Lincoln Porter, a grumpy ex-SEAL whose lobstering business seems to attract more dead bodies than fish. When homicide expert Detective Sloane is called in to assist with the case, she begins digging up skeletons; ones that Lincoln would rather stay buried. Forced to work together, Sloane’s suspicious attitude and optimistic… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child sexual abuse mentioned
  • Blood & gore depiction including dead bodies
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping
  • Naval service recounted (Navy SEAL)

Captain America: The Ghost Army by Alan Gratz

Captain America: The Ghost Army by Alan Gratz and illustrated by Brent Schoonover

In this thrilling historical adventure, 18-year-old Steve Rogers (AKA Captain America) and his young sidekick, Bucky Barnes are fighting in WWII when they encounter a threat like none they’ve ever seen — a Ghost Army. The dead of this war and wars past are coming back to life, impervious to bullets, flames, or anything else the Allies can throw at them. The armies rise from the ground in the night and seem to disappear without a trace. How can Cap and Buck fight something that’s already dead? And just what does the mysterious Baron Mordo, sitting in his castle atop nearby Wundagore Mountain have to do with this?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Nazism
  • Death from a head injury (sc)
  • Military deployment during War World Two (theme)

Allies by Alan Gratz

Allies by Alan Gratz

Welcome to D-Day. Dee, a young U.S. soldier, is on a boat racing toward the French coast. And Dee — along with his brothers-in-arms — is terrified. He feels the weight of World War II on his shoulders. But Dee is not alone. Behind enemy lines in France, a girl named Samira works as a spy, trying to sabotage the German army. Meanwhile, paratrooper James leaps from his plane to join a daring midnight raid. And in the thick of battle, Henry, a medic, searches for lives to save.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Antisemitism
  • Medical procedures
  • Gun violence
  • Explosions
  • Military deployment during War World Two (theme)
  • Train accident
  • Bullying