The Family Experiment by John Marrs

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The world’s population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, the breaking point has arrived. A growing number of people can no longer afford to start families, let alone raise them. But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative. For a monthly subscription fee, clients can create a virtual child from scratch who they can access via the metaverse and a VR headset. To launch this new initiative, the company behind Virtual Children has created a reality TV show called The Substitute. It will follow ten… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity mentioned
  • Gambling addiction mentioned
  • Drug use mentioned
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Death of a child
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Faking Ms. Right by Claire Kingsley

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Everly Dalton is a walking, talking, martini-drinking dating disaster. Forget kissing frogs. She can’t even get past the first date. But at work, she’s a badass—the longest-running assistant billionaire Shepherd Calloway has ever had. Her coworkers wonder how she handles the big bad wolf—and never gets bit. Shepherd Calloway isn’t interested in being anyone’s sugar daddy. Tired of women who only want him for his money, he swears off dating, determined to focus on running his empire. Until his gold-digging ex hits him where it hurts, putting him in a difficult position. His solution-to have… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental infidelity recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Parent with cancer
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The Fake Out by Stephanie Archer

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The best way to get back at my horrible ex? Fake date Rory Miller–my ex’s rival, the top scorer in pro hockey, and the arrogant, flirtatious hockey player I tutored in high school. Faking it is fun and addictive, though, and beneath the bad boy swagger, Rory’s sweet, funny, and protective. He teaches me to skate and spends way too much money on me. He sleeps in my bed and convinces me to break my just-one-time hookup rule. He kisses me like it’s real. And now I wonder if Rory was ever faking it to begin with.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Emotional child abuse (off-page)
  • Parental abandonment & divorce recounted
  • Cheating recounted (ex-partner)
  • Parent with body dysmorphia & mention of her disordered eating
  • Alcohol consumption
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Just the Tipsy by Audrey Vaughn

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My new neighbor, Waylon Stryker is Jepsen’s most eligible bachelor – gorgeous, built, and kindhearted. I stick out like an LA-shaped thumb in this small town after inheriting a dilapidated house and tiny dog. But when I need my ex to back off and he needs his family to stop pressuring him to settle down, Waylon comes up with the perfect solution — a fake relationship. It would have been perfectly transactional if I hadn’t drunkenly told him about my spicy bucket list. I prayed he’d forget about it. Instead, he vows to help me check off each task. Turns out the kind veterinarian who… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Toxic relationship recounted
  • Cheating recounted (secondary characters)
  • Alcohol consumption
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Fake Boyfriend Breakaways by Eden Finley

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Breakaways is a collection of short stories from Eden Finley’s Fake Boyfriend universe. They all feature side characters from the series but do not contain fake boyfriend tropes.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault (forced kiss)
  • Boss-employee relationship
  • Cheating mentioned
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Saving Meghan by D.J. Palmer

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Can you love someone to death? Some would say Becky Gerard is a devoted mother and would do anything for her only child. Others claim she’s obsessed and can’t stop the vicious circle of finding a cure at her daughter’s expense. Fifteen-year-old Meghan has been in and out of hospitals with a plague of unexplained illnesses. But when the ailments take a sharp turn, doctors intervene and immediately suspect Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a rare behavioural disorder where the primary caretaker, typically the mother, seeks… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Domestic violence & child abuse
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Hospitalisation for medical treatment
  • Child with a terminal illness
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Santa’s Helper by Shae Sanders

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A chance encounter at the mall sets off sparks between Felina and Julian. He’s Santa, and he needs a Mrs. Claus…

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Divorce due to infidelity (ex-partner)
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father recounted
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Salt Magic by Hope Larson and Rebecca Mock

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When Vonceil’s older brother, Elber, comes home to their family’s Oklahoma farm after serving on the front lines of World War I, things aren’t what she expects. His experiences have changed him into a serious and responsible man who doesn’t have time for Vonceil anymore. He even marries the girl he had left behind. Then a mysterious and captivating woman shows up at the farm and confronts Elber for leaving her in France. When he refuses to leave his wife, she puts a curse on the family well, turning the entire town’s water supply into saltwater. Who is this lady dressed all… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Cheating mentioned
  • Body horror (characters magically turned into gems)
  • Imprisonment
  • Threats of gun violence to a child
  • Animal attack (snake), including death from snakebite
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Saint Iggy by K.L. Going

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When Iggy Corso gets kicked out of high school, there’s no one for him to tell. His mother has gone off, his father is stoned on the couch, and the phone’s been disconnected, so even the social worker can’t get through. Leaving his public housing behind, Iggy ventures into the world to make something of his life. It’s not easy when you’re sixteen, have no skills, and your only friend is mixed up with the dealer who got your mom hooked. But Iggy is . . . Iggy, and he has the kind of wisdom that lets him see what no one else can.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment & neglect
  • Infidelity
  • Parent with substance addiction
  • Alcohol consumption and recreational drug use & abuse
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Police brutality
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Some Kind of Famous by Ava Wilder

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It’s been a decade since Merritt Valentine’s peak as a celebrated singer-songwriter… and her subsequent career-ending mental breakdown. Since then, she’s abandoned the glitz of Los Angeles to move in with her sister, Olivia, in the sleepy Colorado ski town of Crested Peak, hoping to heal her lingering emotional wounds of the spotlight. Life in Crested Peak would be uncomplicated if not for Merritt’s inconvenient crush on the local contractor and handyman, Nikolaos Petrakis. Niko is disarmingly handsome and too kind-hearted to ever be right for the complex and prickly… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slut-shaming & mentions of homophobia (secondary characters)
  • Minor fatphobia & mention of weight gain
  • Parental abandonment & familial estrangement
  • Statutory rape recounted (protagonist was 14-years-old and her sibling’s brother was ~roughly~ 19-years-old)
  • Workplace sexual harassment of a teen mentioned
  • Divorce & infidelity recounted (the protagonist’s ex-husband cheated on her, and she cheated in previous relationships)
  • Panic attacks recounted
  • Dissociation, Borderline Personality Disorder & Complex PTSD (protqagonist)
  • Protagonist in recovery for substance and alcohol addictions after an attempted suicide by overdose in the past, including on-page & recounted drug use & abuse and alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Unplanned teen pregnancy recounted & mentions of a pregnant secondary character
  • Emesis
  • Death of a father mentioned
  • Animal death mentioned (pet cat)
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