Parachutes by Kelly Yang

Parachutes by Kelly Yang

They’re called parachutes: teenagers dropped off to live in private homes and study in the US while their wealthy parents remain in Asia. Claire Wang never thought she’d be one of them, until her parents pluck her from her privileged life in Shanghai and enroll her at a high school in California. Suddenly she finds herself living in a stranger’s house, with no one to tell her what to do for the first time in her life. She soon embraces her newfound freedom, especially when the hottest and most eligible parachute, Jay, asks her out.

Dani De La Cruz, Claire’s new host sister, couldn’t be less thrilled that her mom rented out a room to Claire. An academic and debate-team star… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Sexual harassment
  • Cheating
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Bullying
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A New Kind of Everything by Richard Yaxley

A New Kind of Everything by Richard Yaxley

After their father’s reckless death, the Gallagher family must find new directions. Dinny’s mum finds a new form of freedom, but the paths the boys are choosing are pointing them in dangerous directions.

Fourteen-year-old Dinny is in danger of repeating his father’s behaviour, and his older brother Carl sees an opportunity for independence. But when Carl becomes involved in the aggressive agenda of an anti-immigration group, a different crisis develops—leading the family to tragedy, insight, and rebirth.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Domestic abuse recounted
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Suicide
  • Recreational drug use
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father
  • Car accident
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A Taste for Love by Jennifer Yen

A Taste for Love by Jennifer Yen

To her friends, high school senior Liza Yang is nearly perfect. Smart, kind, and pretty, she dreams big and never shies away from a challenge. But to her mom, Liza is anything but. Compared to her older sister Jeannie, Liza is stubborn, rebellious, and worst of all, determined to push back against all of Mrs. Yang’s traditional values, especially when it comes to dating.

The one thing mother and daughter do agree on is their love of baking. Mrs. Yang is the owner of Houston’s popular Yin & Yang Bakery. With college just around the corner, Liza agrees to help out at the bakery’s annual junior competition… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Racism
  • Sexual assault mentioned
  • Cheating
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The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed

The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed

Los Angeles, 1992

Ashley Bennett and her friends are living the charmed life. It’s the end of senior year and they’re spending more time at the beach than in the classroom. They can already feel the sunny days and endless possibilities of summer.

Everything changes one afternoon in April, when four LAPD officers are acquitted after beating a black man named Rodney King half to death. Suddenly, Ashley’s not just one of the girls. She’s one of the black kids… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Lesbomisia
  • Homomisia
  • Racism & racist slurs
  • Colourism
  • Parental abse
  • Domestic abuse
  • Cheating
  • Sexual harassment
  • Attempted suicide mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Recreational drug use & abuse
  • Blood depiction & physical injuries
  • AIDS mentioned
  • Riots
  • Police brutality & racial profiling
  • Gun violence
  • Lynching
  • Physical assault
  • Wildfires

Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q Sutanto

Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto

When Meddelin Chan ends up accidentally killing her blind date, her meddlesome mother calls for her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body. Unfortunately, a dead body proves to be a lot more challenging to dispose of than one might anticipate, especially when it is accidentally shipped in a cake cooler to the over-the-top billionaire wedding Meddy, her Ma, and aunties are working, at an island resort on the California coastline. It’s the biggest job yet for their family wedding business—“Don’t leave your big day to chance, leave it to the Chans!”—and nothing, not even an unsavory corpse, will get in the way of her auntie’s perfect buttercream cake flowers… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Threats of sexual assault
  • Dead bodies
  • Murder
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Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin

Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin

Sales are slow at Three Sisters Biryani Poutine, the only halal restaurant in the close-knit Golden Crescent neighbourhood. Hana waitresses there part time, but what she really wants is to tell stories on the radio. If she can just outshine her fellow intern at the city radio station, she may have a chance at landing a job. In the meantime, Hana pours her thoughts and dreams into a podcast, where she forms a lively relationship with one of her listeners. But soon she’ll need all the support she can get: a new competing restaurant, a more upscale halal place, is about to open in the Golden Crescent, threatening Three Sisters… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Racism
  • Islamophobia
  • Gentrification
  • Hate crimes
  • Pregnancy
  • Chronic illness
  • Bullying
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Majesty by Katharine McGee

Majesty by Katharine McGee

Power is intoxicating. Like first love, it can leave you breathless. Princess Beatrice was born with it. Princess Samantha was born with less. Some, like Nina Gonzalez, are pulled into it. And a few will claw their way in. Ahem, we’re looking at you Daphne Deighton.

As America adjusts to the idea of a queen on the throne, Beatrice grapples with everything she lost when she gained the ultimate crown. Samantha is busy living up to her “party princess” persona…and maybe adding a party prince by her side. Nina is trying to avoid the palace–and Prince Jefferson–at all costs. And a dangerous secret threatens to undo all of Daphne’s carefully laid “marry Prince Jefferson” plans.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Misogyny
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Bullying
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American Royals by Katharine McGee

American Royals by Katharine McGee

When America won the Revolutionary War, its people offered General George Washington a crown. Two and a half centuries later, the House of Washington still sits on the throne.

As Princess Beatrice gets closer to becoming America’s first queen regnant, the duty she has embraced her entire life suddenly feels stifling.

Nobody cares about the spare except when she’s breaking the rules, so Princess Samantha doesn’t care much about anything, either . . . except the one boy who is distinctly off-limits to her… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Racism
  • Cheating
  • Nonconsensual drugging
  • Death of a parent
  • Hospitalization
  • Lung cancer
  • Cyberbullying
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A Match Made in Mehendi by Nandini Bajpai

A Match Made in Mehendi by Nandini Bajpai

Fifteen-year-old Simran “Simi” Sangha comes from a long line of Indian vichole-matchmakers-with a rich history for helping parents find good matches for their grown children. When Simi accidentally sets up her cousin and a soon-to-be lawyer, her family is thrilled that she has the “gift.”

But Simi is an artist, and she doesn’t want to have anything to do with relationships, helicopter parents, and family drama. That is, until she realizes this might be just the thing to improve her and her best friend Noah’s social status. Armed with her family’s ancient guide to finding love, Simi starts a matchmaking service-via an app, of course… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Public outing
  • Bullying
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