Catch and Release, by Isabel Murray

This is all Erin@TheSmutReport’s fault: she wrote this review, and I had no choice but to read a sample, get hooked (sad pun not intended), buy it, and start reading it on the spot.

Beware: explicit sex on page; swearing; near death by exposure; parents being assholes about mental health; a fantastic grandfather.

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde, by Tia Williams

While I had a vague impression I’d heard the author’s name somewhere, what I really fell for is the cover, and was happy to get an ARC. Mind you, what’s inside is not what it says on the tin.

Beware: alcoholic parent; 1920s Southern racism (lynching is described); miscarriages; terminal cancer; mental health issues; suicide.

When Grumpy Met Sunshine, by Charlotte Stein

In the interest of full disclosure: I requested this ARC exclusively because of the author’s Twitter presence; I had not read anything else by her before, and we did not follow each other, but I enjoyed our interactions there.

Heed thee the author’s warnings: references to parental abuse, childhood poverty, alcoholism, fatphobia; explicit sex. Also, swearing.

Why Does Everything Have to be About Race? by Keith Boykin

I do not remember how this book came to my attention–it’s been half a year since I downloaded it, after all–but I’m grateful it did; having it in the ARC TBR mountain chain provided the impetus to read is, even as other non-fiction books languish in the other TBR cordilleras.

Beware: racial slurs as part of historical political quotes; graphic descriptions of historical and contemporaneous racist violence, including murder by cop (and I do mean graphic).