Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This is one meme I can get on board with - I LOVE lists! I'll show you mine if you show me yours!

Top Ten Books Dealing With Tough Subjects

This is going to be a great big new adult love fest this week, because, let's face it. Tough subjects and NA go hand-in-hand, don't they?

1. If You Stay (Beautifully Broken #1), by Courtney Cole - I just finished If You Stay today. It was a fantastic book, but dealt with a really tough topic - namely, substance abuse. Some parts were hard to read, especially the beginning. But, it really brought the difficulties with drug and alcohol abuse to light. 

2. Off Limits (Off Series #2), by Sawyer Bennett - In Off Limits, the main character, Nix, is dealing with the aftereffects of two tours of duty as a Marine in Afghanistan. It's clear that, even a few years after coming home. he still hasn't fully recovered from the physical and emotional trauma of war. 

3. Real (Real, Raw & Ripped #1), by Katy Evans - You get the impression from the beginning that something isn't entirely right about Remy. Very early in the book, you can see evidence that he's bi-polar and trying to hide it from the woman that he's coming to care for very much. 

4. Never Too Far (Too Far #2), by Abbi Glines - I can't say exactly what the tough subject is that Never Too Far touches upon without giving away a major spoiler in the book. Those who've read it know what I'm talking about. For those who haven't - READ IT. It's a great book that deals with something that can be pretty difficult. 

5. The Midnight Spell, by Rhiannon Frater and Kody Boye and Breathless (Elementals #2.5), by Brigid Kemmerer - The Midnight Spell and novella Breathless both deal about how difficult it can be to be a gay teenager in high school. I can't imagine what it's like, but from reading these two books, it seems like it would be really hard. 

6. The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden (The Coincidence #1), by Jessica Sorensen - This book packs a double-whammy - a girl with an eating disorder and a guy with a self-mutilation disorder. I know - it's rough. A very good book (if you discount the MAJOR cliffhanger), and a story I'm looking forward to continuing when the next book comes out this summer. I'm really hoping for a HEA for these two. They deserve it. 

7. Slammed (Slammed #1) by Colleen Hoover and Gabriel's Inferno (Gabriel's Inferno #1) by Sylvain Reynard - These two books are all about being hot for teacher and the problems that can arise because of it. Even if you didn't have prior knowledge of the other person's status prior to hooking up, it spells nothing but disaster later. Then again, maybe it can make a relationship stronger. Who knows? All my teachers were old, so this was never an issue for me. 

8. Easy, by Tammara Webber - Rape is nasty, nasty business. It ruins lives and damages souls. Easy talks a lot about how it can affect a person and just how difficult it is to move on with your life. I just can't even imagine, but my heart goes out to anyone who has ever been touched by this subject. 

9. Spark (Elementals #2), by Brigid Kemmerer - There isn't any one particular "issue" in Spark to talk about. It's more a general impression of being so misunderstood that you feel unloved and unwanted by even those who should love you unconditionally, and how utterly horrible that makes you feel. I know - it sounds like feelings most teenagers have at one point or another, but Brigid's writing made me feel it all over again right in the gut. 

10. Warm Bodies, by Issac Marion - I don't know about you, but I'd say that dating a dead guy is a pretty touchy subject. If a zombie had showed up to take me to prom, my parents would have flipped right the heck out. So, don't date the undead. Those are words to live by.