Lions and Liars by Cassie Beasley

Lions and Liars by Cassie Beasley

Frederick Frederickson has a food-chain theory about life. There are lions, like the school bully. Gazelles, like the bullied kids. There are meerkats, and the fleas that live on the butts of meerkats. Frederick’s a flea.

Fifth grade is off to a terrible start when Frederick is sent to a disciplinary camp for troublesome boys. His fellow troop mates—Nosebleed, Specs, The Professor, and little-yet-lethal Ant Bite—are terrifying. But in between trust-building exercises and midnight escape attempts, a tenuous friendship grows between them. Which is lucky, because a Category 5 hurricane is coming and everyone will have to work together—lions and fleas alike—to survive!

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Physical injury (broken nose)
  • Boating accident
  • Animal death

Gertie’s Leap to Greatness by Kate Beasley

Gertie’s Leap to Greatness by Kate Beasley

Gertie Reece Foy is 100% Not-From-Concentrate awesome. She has a daddy who works on an oil rig, a great-aunt who always finds the lowest prices at the Piggly Wiggly, and two loyal best friends. So when her absent mother decides to move away from their small town, Gertie sets out on her greatest mission yet: becoming the best fifth grader in the universe to show her mother exactly what she’ll be leaving behind. There’s just one problem: Seat-stealing new girl Mary Sue Spivey wants to be the best fifth grader, too. And there is simply not enough room at the top for the two of them. 

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Physical injury (broken bone) mentioned
  • Bullying

King’s Captive by Amber Bardan

King’s Captive by Amber A. Bardan 

Some people would think being stuck on a private island is heaven, but this is my hell. Because I’m not here as a guest. Not even close. I’m a prisoner. I’m his. Julius King. Powerful. Wealthy. Dangerous. 

There are parts of me he wants that I can’t give him. When he looks at me, there are times I swear he sees someone else. And the scary part is that sometimes, when he touches me, I think he may be someone else, too. 

Though my body might be tempted, and he might control everything else, I can’t let him have any piece of my heart. I won’t. But every day, the fight gets harder, and Julius manages to slip past my defenses in the most unexpected ways. I have to find out the truth about Julius King. Even if it destroys me.  

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Amnesia
  • Physical injury, including brain injury & gunshot wounds
  • Hospitalisation
  • Scar & burn scars
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a spouse, perceived
  • Death of a father from gun violence
  • Death of a mother in a car accident mentioned
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Kidnapping
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The Demon Prince by Ann Aguirre

The Demon Prince by Ann Aguirre

Alastor Vega is the sole challenger in a brutal battle for succession. Against all odds, he must stop his power-mad brother, Tycho, before he destroys the Numina. Though he never wanted to rule, he must claim the throne and liberate his people, or the consequences will be calamitous. Yet only the surprising support of a beautiful Animari doctor gives him the fortitude to fight.

Dr. Sheyla Halek has always been more interested in research than personal contact, but family ties—and the needs of her pride—keep her in Ash Valley, deferring her dreams. Brusque and abrasive at the best of times, she never expected to bond with anyone, let alone Golgoth royalty. Strangely, Alastor seems to need her as no one has before, and not only for her medical skills.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Suicidal ideation
  • Physical injury
  • Chronic illness
  • Hospitalisation
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Poisoning
  • Kidnapping
  • War themes
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Go Deep by Rilzy Adams

Go Deep by Rilzy Adams

Navaya Howard is an erotic writer in a rut. Her readers are fed up of her stale plots and Navaya can’t blame them. She’s been celibate for over a year and a half since finding her now ex-boyfriend’s side chick’s positive pregnancy test on her bathroom counter. How can she write steamy romances if she can barely remember which body parts go into the other?

Navaya enlists the help of her best friend, Xander, to revive the inspiration. What happens when the sex hits deeper than either of them expected and the tender emotions can no longer be denied? Navaya and Xander’s arrangement has gone far deeper than intended. Will their friendship and their hearts survive the fall? 

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableist language
  • Slut shaming
  • Domestic violence mentioned
  • Cheating recounted
  • Pregnancy mentioned
  • Recreational drug use
  • Death of a father from kidney failure recounted
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The Worst Class Trip Ever by Dave Barry

The Worst Class Trip Ever by Dave Barry

In this hilarious novel, written in the voice of eighth-grader Wyatt Palmer, Dave Barry takes us on a class trip to Washington, DC. Wyatt, his best friend, Matt, and a few kids from Culver Middle School find themselves in a heap of trouble-not just with their teachers, who have long lost patience with them — but from several mysterious men they first meet on their flight to the nation’s capital. In a fast-paced adventure with the monuments as a backdrop, the kids try to stay out of danger and out of the doghouse while trying to save the president from attack-or maybe not.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racist stereotypes
  • Physical injury, including broken bones
  • Kidnapping
  • Gun violence
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The Lovely and the Lost by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Kira Bennett’s earliest memories are of living alone and wild in the woods. She has no idea how long she was on her own or what she had to do to survive, but she remembers the moment that Cady Bennett and one of her search-and-rescue dogs found her perfectly. Adopted into the Bennett family, Kira still struggles with human interaction years later, but she excels at the family business: search-and-rescue. Along with Cady’s son, Jude, and their neighbor, Free, Kira works alongside Cady to train the world’s most elite search-and-rescue dogs. Someday, all three… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Physical child abuse in the past, implied
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) & night terrors
  • Minor physical injuries depiction
  • Disappearance of a child & friend (theme)
  • Kidnapping (a teenaged secondary character is charged with kidnapping for removing his sister from an abusive home)
  • Death of a pet dog from old age & mentions of animal cruelty & hunting

Killer Instinct by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Seventeen-year-old Cassie Hobbes has a gift for profiling people. Her talent has landed her a spot in an elite FBI program for teens with innate crime-solving abilities, and into some harrowing situations. After barely escaping a confrontation with an unbalanced killer obsessed with her mother’s murder, Cassie hopes she and the rest of the team can stick to solving cold cases from a distance. But when victims of a brutal new serial killer start turning up, the Naturals are pulled into an active case that strikes too close to home: the killer is a perfect copycat of Dean’s incarcerat… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment & child physical and verbal abuse recounted
  • Student-teacher relationship mentioned (secondary character)
  • Physical injury (concussion)
  • Graphic murder & kidnapping
  • Gun violence

Finding Serendipity by Angelica Banks

Finding Serendipity by Angelica Banks

When Tuesday McGillycuddy and her beloved dog, Baxterr, discover that Tuesday’s mother ― the famous author Serendipity Smith ― has gone missing, they set out on a magical adventure. In their quest to find Serendipity, they discover the mysterious and unpredictable place that stories come from. Here, Tuesday befriends the fearless Vivienne Small, learns to sail an enchanted boat, tangles with an evil pirate, and discovers the truth about her remarkable dog. Along the way, she learns what it means to be a writer and how difficult it can sometimes be to get all the way to The End.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Needles
  • Physical injuries
  • Battle violence
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What I Lost by Alexandra Ballard

What sixteen-year-old Elizabeth has lost so far: forty pounds, four jean sizes, a boyfriend, and her peace of mind. As a result, she’s finally a size zero. She’s also the newest resident at Wallingfield, a treatment center for girls like her—girls with eating disorders. Elizabeth is determined to endure the program so she can go back home, where she plans to start restricting her food intake again.She’s pretty sure her mom, who has her own size-zero obsession, needs treatment as much as she does. Maybe even more. Then Elizabeth begins receiving mysterious packages. Are they… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Protagonist admitted to an in-patient treatment program at an eating disorder clinic for recovery & related medical issues (theme)
  • Anxiety & self-harm
  • Bullying