Tag Archives: Abandonment

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of abandonment, including spousal and parental abandonment.

I Bet You by Ilsa Madden-Mills

I Bet You by Ilsa Madden-Mills

Sexy Athlete: I bet you. Penelope Graham: Burn in hell, quarterback. The text is random but Penelope figures out exactly who “Sexy Athlete” is. And why she shouldn’t take his wager. Ryker Voss. Football star. Walks on water and God’s gift to women. Just ask him. His bet? He promises Penelope he’ll win her the heart of the guy she’s been crushing on. His plan—good old-fashioned jealousy. Once her crush sees her kissing Ryker, he’ll realize what he’s missing. Sounds legit, right? The only question is . . . why is Ryker being so nice to her?… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment recounted
  • Death of a parent, off-page

Nightingale Point by Luan Goldie

Nightingale Point by Luan Goldie

One ordinary day. One extraordinary event. Their lives changed forever. On an ordinary Saturday morning in 1996, the residents of Nightingale Point wake up to their normal lives and worries. Mary has a secret life that no one knows about, not even Malachi and Tristan, the brothers she vowed to look after. Malachi had to grow up too quickly. Between looking after Tristan and nursing a broken heart, he feels older than his twenty-one years. Tristan wishes Malachi would stop pining for Pamela. No wonder he’s falling in with the wrong crowd, without Malachi to keep him straight. Elvis… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Racism
  • Sexism
  • Abandonment
  • Cheating
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Drug abuse
  • Bullying

This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub

This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub

On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice’s life isn’t terrible. She likes her job, even if it isn’t exactly the one she expected. She’s happy with her apartment, her romantic status, and she adores her lifelong best friend. But her father is ailing, and it feels to her as if something is missing. When she wakes up the next morning she finds herself back in 1996, reliving her 16th birthday. But it isn’t just her adolescent body that shocks her, it’s her dad: the vital, 40-something version of her father with whom she is reunited. Now armed with a new perspective on her own life… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Miscarriage mentioned
  • Abortion mentioned
  • Parent with terminal cancer
  • Death of a parent

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago. Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors–until he forms a remarkable friendship with… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Drug use, off-page
  • Death of a spouse from cancer
  • Death of a child from drowning

Dominate Me by Eve Healy

Dominate Me by Eve Healy

Liam is a dominant alpha. He’s earned himself a great job at a great company, and alongside his recessive alpha buddy Nathan, things can’t get much better. That is until after a night of drinking games with Nathan. Liam wins himself a fully paid evening at the nearby omega brothel known as the Omega House. Liam’s never been fond of brothels or omegas, but at Nathan’s insistence, he gives it a shot. He has no intentions of actually participating with whatever omega he chooses. Still, upon meeting the mysterious and alluring Raven, a recessive omega, he finds himself inexplicably drawn back to the Omega House. While Raven… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abandonment
  • Sex work
  • Pregnancy
  • Abortion
  • Miscarriage

If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

Kyuri is a beautiful woman with a hard-won job at a “room salon,” an exclusive bar where she entertains businessmen while they drink. Though she prides herself on her cold, clear-eyed approach to life, an impulsive mistake with a client may come to threaten her livelihood. Her roommate, Miho, is a talented artist who grew up in an orphanage but won a scholarship to study art in New York. Returning to Korea after college, she finds herself in a precarious relationship with the super-wealthy heir to one of Korea’s biggest companies. Down the hall in their apartment building… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Cheating*
  • Parental abandonment
  • Body dysmorphia
  • Suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Alcoholism
  • Mutism
  • Pregnancy
  • Miscarriage
  • Cancer
  • Emesis
  • Surgery recounted & discussed
  • Murder of sex workers discussed
  • Physical assault, on- & off-page

*Context : Miho’s boyfriend is engaged to another woman and cheats on her with a sex worker.

The Rom-Com Agenda by Jayne Denker

The Rom-Com Agenda by Jayne Denker

Leah Keegan is used to being alone, especially after taking care of her sick foster mother for the past year. But now there’s nothing keeping her in the sweet town of Willow Cove. It’s time to move on. Again. Eli Masterson thought he and Victoria were meant to be together until she decided to jet off to Rome for a year. Eli is determined to win her back. But how? Changing Eli’s physical appearance is easy, but to turn Eli into the sophisticated-yet-vulnerable ideal man, his girl pals force him to watch classic rom-coms. And take notes. Inadvertently drawn into the makeover scheme, Leah ends up being Eli’s guide through the wild… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment mentioned
  • Foster care
  • Heart attack
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent from cancer mentioned

Sanctuary by Caryn Lix

Sanctuary by Caryn Lix

Kenzie holds one truth above all: the company is everything. As a citizen of Omnistellar Concepts, the most powerful corporation in the solar system, Kenzie has trained her entire life for one goal: to become an elite guard on Sanctuary, Omnistellar’s space prison for superpowered teens too dangerous for Earth. As a junior guard, she’s excited to prove herself to her company—and that means sacrificing anything that won’t propel her forward. But then a routine drill goes sideways and Kenzie is taken hostage by rioting prisoners… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Abandonment
  • Medical treatment
  • Blood depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Gun violence
  • Imprisonment

Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez

Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez

After a wild bet, gourmet grilled-cheese sandwich, and cuddle with a baby goat, Alexis Montgomery has had her world turned upside down. The cause: Daniel Grant, a ridiculously hot carpenter who’s ten years younger than her and as casual as they come—the complete opposite of sophisticated city-girl Alexis. And yet their chemistry is undeniable. While her ultra-wealthy parents want her to carry on the family legacy of world-renowned surgeons, Alexis doesn’t need glory or fame. She’s fine with being a “mere” ER doctor. And every minute she spends with Daniel and the tight-knit town where he lives, she’s discovering just what’s really important. Yet letting their relationship… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Child abuse, including emotional abuse & gaslighting, on-page
  • Intimate partner violence & abuse, on-page
  • Cheating recounted
  • Suicidal ideation recounted
  • Depression & depressive episodes
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking mentioned
  • Childbirth, on-page
  • Death of a grandfather from a heart attack recounted
  • Death of a grandmother
  • Death of a great-aunt
  • Death of a child mentioned
  • Drowning mentioned

Only For Tonight by Kendall Ryan

Only For Tonight by Kendall Ryan

Spotting a hooker on a city street corner is not an abnormal thing. Me bringing one home? Well, that’s a first. But this girl . . . She’s in trouble. And this asshole is not a guy she wants to go home with. So I do the exact thing I shouldn’t—I offer to bring her home with me instead. She says this is the first time she’s ever done this, which is adorably ironic. Then proceeds to tell me a sob story about needing money to care for the baby who was left on her doorstep. That’s when my stomach starts to clench. I think she might be telling the truth. So I do what any respectable man would do—I take her home, stopping to pick up diapers and… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sex work
  • Child abandonment, on-page
  • Terminal cancer (sc)
  • Poverty
  • Homelessness