Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier

Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier

Marin had the perfect life. Married to her college sweetheart, she owns a chain of upscale hair salons, and Derek runs his own company. They’re admired in their community and are a loving family—until their world falls apart the day their son Sebastian is taken.

A year later, Marin is a shadow of herself. The FBI search has gone cold. The publicity has faded. She and her husband rarely speak. She hires a P.I. to pick up where the police left off, but instead of finding Sebastian, she learns that Derek is having an affair with a younger woman. This discovery sparks Marin back to life. She’s lost her son; she’s not about to lose her husband, too. Kenzie is an enemy with a face, which means this is a problem Marin can fix. Permanently.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Suicidal ideation
  • Drug abuse
  • Overdose
  • Kidnapping of a child
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The Hidden Memory of Objects by Danielle Mages Amato

The Hidden Memory of Objects by Danielle Mages Amato

Megan Brown’s brother, Tyler, is dead, but the cops are killing him all over again. They say he died of a drug overdose, potentially suicide—something Megan cannot accept. Determined to figure out what happened in the months before Tyler’s death, Megan turns to the things he left behind. After all, she understands the stories objects can tell—at fifteen, she is a gifted collage artist with a flair for creating found-object pieces. However, she now realizes that her artistic talent has developed into something more: she can see memories attached to some of Tyler’s belongings—and those memories reveal a brother she never knew.

Enlisting the help of an artifact detective who shares her ability and specializes in murderabilia—objects tainted by violence or the deaths of their owners… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a brother to suicide by drug overdose (theme)
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Danced Close by Annabeth Albert

Danced Close by Annabeth Albert

Newly clean and sober, Todd’s taken a shine to his job at Portland’s most talked about bakery. It’s not just the delicious desserts they sell, but the tasty treats who keep walking through the door. That certainly includes Kendall Rose, a wedding planner. Todd doesn’t try to hide his attraction to Kendall’s elegant confidence, even as he worries about exposing the secrets of his past.

For Kendall, the attention is just part of the anything-goes Portland he’s grown to love. But he’s still looking for that special someone who will embrace all of him—including his gender fluidity. So he takes a chance and asks Todd to be his partner in a dance class leading to a fundraiser. When the music starts and he takes Todd in his arms, Kendall is shocked at how good it feels.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Transmisia
  • Addiction recovery (theme)
  • Drug abuse
  • Death of a friend from an overdose
  • Homelessness mentioned
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Baked Fresh by Annabeth Albert

Baked Fresh by Annabeth Albert

Vic Degrassi is a baker on the rise, and it’s all thanks to his rare ability to make—and keep—his New Year’s resolutions. Whether it’s losing weight, giving up smoking, or graduating from culinary school, Vic goes after what he wants—and gets it. This year? He wants Robin Dawson, the sweet-hearted hottie who volunteers with him at the local homeless shelter.

When he learns that Robin is suddenly single after being unceremoniously dumped, Vic is more than happy to offer a shoulder to cry on. But it’s been a long time since Vic’s gone on a date, and he’s nervous about risking his friendship with Robin. So when their flirtation turns into a steamy night together, Vic and Robin have to figure out if they’re friends with benefits or lovers in the making, and if Robin is ready for something more than just a rebound, there’s only one way to find out…

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Body image issues
  • Weight loss & dietary restriction discussed
  • Lap band surgery recounted
  • Drug abuse
  • Death from a drug overdose, on-page
  • Homelessness
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The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Gifty is a fifth-year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star glass and cedar palace on an island in British Columbia. Jonathan Alkaitis works in finance and owns the hotel. When he passes Vincent his card with a tip, it’s the beginning of their life together. That same day, Vincent’s half-brother, Paul, scrawls a note on the windowed wall of the hotel: “Why don’t you swallow broken glass.” Leon Prevant, a shipping executive for a company called Neptune Logistics, sees the note from the hotel bar and is shaken to his core. Thirteen years later Vincent mysteriously disappears from the deck of the Neptune Cumberland. 

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Heroin addiction
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drug use
  • Overdose
  • Drowning
  • Imprisonment
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Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

Gifty is a fifth-year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after a knee injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her.

But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family’s loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Attempted suicide
  • Depression
  • Heroin addiction
  • Death by overdose
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The Secret Bridesmaid by Katy Birchall

The Secret Bridesmaid by Katy Birchall

Sophie Breeze is a brilliant bridesmaid. So brilliant, in fact, that she’s made it her full-time job.

As a professional bridesmaid, Sophie is hired by London brides to be their right-hand woman, posing as a friend but working behind the scenes to help plan the perfect wedding and ensure their big day goes off without a hitch. When she’s hired by Lady Victoria Swann––a former model and “It Girl” of 1970’s London; now the Marchioness of Meade––for the society wedding of the year, it should be a chance for Sophie to prove just how talented she is… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Drug overdose
  • Bullying
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Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

Welcome to Elsewhere. It is warm, with a breeze, and the beaches are marvelous. It’s quiet and peaceful. You can’t get sick or any older. Curious to see new paintings by Picasso? Swing by one of Elsewhere’s museums. Need to talk to someone about your problems? Stop by Marilyn Monroe’s psychiatric practice.

Elsewhere is where fifteen-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she has died. It is a place so like Earth, yet completely different. Here Liz will age backward from the day of her death until she becomes a baby again and returns to Earth. But Liz wants to turn sixteen, not fourteen again. She wants to get her driver’s license. She wants to graduate from high school and go to college… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Overdose mentioned
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Death of a child
  • Plane crash mentioned
  • Car accident mentioned
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The Rest of the Story by Sarah Dessen

The Rest of the Story by Sarah Dessen

Emma Saylor doesn’t remember a lot about her mother, who died when she was ten. But she does remember the stories her mom told her about the big lake that went on forever, with cold, clear water and mossy trees at the edges.

Now it’s just Emma and her dad, and life is good, if a little predictable…until Emma is unexpectedly sent to spend the summer with her mother’s family—her grandmother and cousins she hasn’t seen since she was a little girl… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Anxiety
  • Alcoholism
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug abuse mentioned
  • Death of a mother by heroine overdose recounted
  • Shipwreck & boating accident recounted
  • Hurricane
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Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs all its members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone in feeling discontent, harbouring an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations, where the old, imperfect life still continues, may be the cure for his distress…

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Queermisia
  • Misogyny
  • Eugenics
  • Cheating
  • Suicide
  • Self harm, including self-flagellation
  • Domestic abuse & violence
  • Child abuse
  • Recreational drug use & abuse
  • Overdose mentioned
  • Emesis
  • Death of a parent
  • Hanging
  • Electrocution
  • Animal neglect
  • Animal death & dead bodies
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