Facing the Dawn by Cynthia Ruchti

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Mara Jacobs does her best to hold everything together, despite three detention-prone kids, an unrewarding job, never-ending chores, and a husband thousands of miles away. After a shocking loss, she must lean on those around her to find her way to healing and renewed faith.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Physical child abuse
  • Substance addiction recovery
  • Suicide by overdose and by gun violence
  • Teen pregnancy mentioned
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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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After Care by L.B. Dunbar

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Breast cancer survivor Edie Williams is ready to live. Divorced. Mother of two. She’s planned the vacation of a lifetime for a reboot, only to encounter an awakening adventure—Tommy Carrigan. Manager of the band Collision, Tommy Carrigan has his plate full. Independent. Carefree. He’s on an annual holiday with his band family, when the unexpected happens—Edie Williams. Love might be just what the doctor prescribed, but can it survive the world of rock-n-roll?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Spousal infidelity recounted
  • Adult-minor relationship mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption (on-page)
  • Spouse with alcoholism recounted
  • Protagonist in remission for breast cancer
  • Death of a relative from suicide by overdose mentioned

*Context: : Mentions of a adult-minor relationship involving an eighteen-year-old high school student and a 22-year-old man.

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Adrift by Will Dean

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Peggy and Drew, both aspiring writers, move to an isolated canal boat with their fourteen-year-old son. Peggy is the glue that holds their family together, even as their son is bullied relentlessly for his physique and his family’s lack of money. But when Drew becomes frustrated by his wife’s sudden writing success, he moves their boat further and further from civilization. With their increasing isolation, personal challenges become harder to ignore, even as they desperately try to break toxic generational patterns. But when Drew’s gaslighting becomes too much for Peggy to take, it sets off a catastrophic series of events.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Domestic abuse & gaslighting
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Forced institutionalisation
  • Drug overdose
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Animal death
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Words on Bathroom Walls by Julia Walton

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Labor and delivery nurse Penelope is an expert at her job but a complete mess when it comes to her personal life. After her boyfriend dumps her in favor of saving his marriage, Penelope discovers she’s pregnant. Now Penelope must face motherhood, her greatest fear, or consider the alternatives. Jesenia, a first-generation American, made her mark as a model then quit the business in favor of a nine-to-five and wedded bliss. After three years of fertility treatments and pressure from her family, trying to become a mother is her full-time job. But when her past mistakes… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abandonment
  • Schizophrenia
  • Self-harm & suicidal ideation
  • Drug use & overdose
  • School shooting mentioned
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Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors

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The three Blue sisters are exceptional—and exceptionally different. Avery, the eldest and a recovering heroin addict turned strait-laced lawyer, lives with her wife in London; Bonnie, a former boxer, works as a bouncer in Los Angeles following a devastating defeat; and Lucky, the youngest, models in Paris while trying to outrun her hard-partying ways. They also had a fourth sister, Nicky, whose unexpected death left Avery, Bonnie, and Lucky reeling. A year later, as they each navigate grief, addiction, and ambition, they find they must return to New York to… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Death of a sister from suicide by overdose
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The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

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A refugee of the Great War, Poirot has settled in England near Styles Court, the country estate of his wealthy benefactor, the elderly Emily Inglethorp. When Emily is poisoned and the authorities are baffled, Poirot puts his prodigious sleuthing skills to work. Suspects are plentiful, including the victim’s much younger husband, her resentful stepsons, her longtime hired companion, a young family friend working as a nurse, and a London specialist on poisons who just happens to be visiting the nearby village.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical sexism
  • Period-typical racism & racial slurs including antisemitism, antiziganism (g slur) and mentions of blackface
  • Drugging
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Seizures (on-page)
  • Death of a mother from accidental overdose mentioned
  • Murder of a mother/mother-in-law and wife by poisoning (which was first diagnosed as death from heart failure)
  • Incarceration pending trial
  • Military service mentioned
  • Mentions of euthanising a dog
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Murder on the Marlow Belle by Robert Thorogood

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Verity Beresford is worried about her husband. Oliver didn’t come home last night so of course Verity goes straight to Judith Potts, Marlow’s resident amateur sleuth, for help. Oliver, founder of the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society, had hired The Marlow Belle, a private pleasure cruiser, for an exclusive party with the MADS committee but no one remembers seeing him disembark. And then Oliver’s body washes up on the Thames with two bullet holes in him – it’s time for the Marlow Murder Club to leap into action… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Adult-minor relationship
  • Parent with substance addiction
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use including overdose
  • Cancer
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Animal death
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HappyHead by Josh Silver

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We are in an epidemic. An epidemic of unhappiness. Friends, here is the good news: HappyHead has the answer. When Seb is offered a place on a radical retreat designed to solve the national crisis of teenage unhappiness, he is determined to change how people see him and make his parents proud. But as he finds himself drawn to the enigmatic Finn, Seb starts to question the true nature of the challenges they must undergo. The deeper into the programme the boys get, the more disturbing the assessments become, until it’s clear there may be no escape…

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & outing mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use mentioned
  • Overdose mentioned
  • Emesis
  • Animal death

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The New Neighbours by Claire Douglas

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When Lena helps her teenage son gather sounds for his media studies project, she doesn’t expect her boom-microphone to pick up a conversation between her neighbours, the Morgans. And she’s certain they are planning a crime. Her family and friends tell her that she must have misheard. After all, the Morgans are a well-respected, upstanding couple in their early sixties. They’ve never been in trouble with the law. Yet Lena can’t stop thinking about it. Because what if she hasn’t misheard? What if she can prevent something awful happening? After all, stopping it could help ease her conscience about her own dark past…

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Divorce mentioned
  • Drug use & mentions of an overdose
  • Infertility
  • Knife violence
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Blackmail

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