Abusive Relationship – Trigger Warning Database

Bad Romance by Heather Demetrios

Grace wants out. Out of her house, where her stepfather wields fear like a weapon and her mother makes her scrub imaginary dirt off the floors. Out of her California town, too small to contain her big city dreams. Out of her life, and into the role of Parisian artist, New York director—anything but scared and alone. Enter Gavin: charming, talented, adored. Controlling. Dangerous. When Grace and Gavin fall in love, Grace is sure it’s too good to be true. She has no idea their relationship will become a prison she’s unable to escape.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Fatphobia & slut-shaming
Physical, emotional psychological & verbal child abuse
Abusive relationship (theme)
Rape
Graphic attempted suicide & suicidal ideation
Self-harm

Bodyguard by C.D. Reiss

Emily enjoys all the perks of fame—the parties, the glamour, the tours—but they’ve brought her back to the attention of a dangerous ex-boyfriend hell bent on getting her back. Enter Carter Kincaid, a bodyguard so crushingly sexy he takes her breath away. Carter’s the best in the business and Emily is—professionally speaking—off-limits. But when it comes to stirring his desires, she’s hitting all the right notes. What’s happening between them is so hot it could get both of them burned. As Emily’s past gets closer, Carter is willing to break every rule of the job to… Read more,

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Abusive relationship recounted
Stalking mentioned

Seven Dirty Secrets by Natalie D. Richards

I know seven secrets: One caused the fall. One did nothing. One saw it all. One didn’t care. One used their head. One played the hero. One was left for dead. On her eighteenth birthday, Cleo receives a mysterious invitation to a scavenger hunt. She’s sure her best friend Hope or her brother Connor is behind it, but no one confesses. And as Cleo and Hope embark on the hunt, the seemingly random locations and clues begin to feel familiar. In fact, all of the clues seem to be about Cleo’s dead boyfriend, Cyrus, who drowned on a group rafting trip exactly a year ago. A bracelet… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Homophobia
Abusive relationship
Strangulation
Drowning

Gouda Friends by Cathy Yardley

Tam Doan dumped her boyfriend after he threw away her gourmet cheese. Sure, it’s a little more complicated than that, but the point is, he had it coming. Newly single and unemployed, Tam calls up her best friend from high school and utters the emergency code word—goldfish. Next thing she knows, she’s on a plane back home. Josh O’Malley was a troubled, unconfident teenager. Now he’s the successful owner of a multimillion-dollar ghost kitchen. Tam, his high school BFF and fellow member of the Nerd … Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Fatphobia
Cheating*
Emotionally abusive relationship
False allegations of sexual harassment

* Context : The protagonist witnesses her boyfriend having sex with another woman.

All the Feels by Olivia Dade

Alexander Woodroe has it all. Charm. Sex appeal. Wealth. Fame. A starring role as Cupid on TV’s biggest show, God of the Gates. But the showrunners have wrecked his character, he’s dogged by old demons, and his post-show future remains uncertain. When all that reckless emotion explodes into a bar fight, the tabloids and public agree: his star is falling. Enter Lauren Clegg, the former ER therapist hired to keep him in line. Compared to her previous work, watching over handsome but impulsive Alex shouldn’t be especially difficult. But the more time they spend together, the harder it gets to keep her professional… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Fatphobia
Domestic violence discussed (off-page, secondary character)

The Countess Conspiracy by Courtney Milan

Sebastian Malheur is the most dangerous sort of rake: an educated one. When he’s not scandalizing ladies in the bedchamber, he’s outraging proper society with his scientific theories. He’s desired, reviled, acclaimed, and despised—and he laughs through it all. Violet Waterfield, the widowed Countess of Cambury, on the other hand, is entirely respectable, and she’d like to stay that way. But Violet has a secret that is beyond ruinous, one that ties her irrevocably to England’s most infamous scoundrel: Sebastian’s theories aren’t his. They’re hers. So when Sebastian threatens to dissolve… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Domestic abuse recounted
Martial rape recounted*
Alcohol consumption
Miscarriages recounted*
Sibling with a heart condition
Murder of a husband by being pushed down a staircase
Death of a father from suicide recounted
Imprisonment

* Context : The heroine had nineteen miscarriages in her previous marriage in attempt to sire an heir for her husband. Her husband forced and coerced her to have sex with him despite medical advice. She almost dies from the toll it places on her body.

The Master by Kresley Cole

Rich, irresistible politician/Mafya boss Maksimilian Sevastyan prefers tall, obedient blondes to fulfill his… complicated desires. That is, until the icy Russian encounters a disobedient brunette whose exquisite little body threatens his legendary restraint. Catarina Marín was a well-off young wife until her world fell apart. Now she’s hiding out, forced to start working as an escort in Miami. Her very first client is beyond gorgeous, but when he tells her what he plans to do to her, Cat almost walks out of the door… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Rape mentioned & dubious consent (‘dubcon’)
Sex work (protagonist, on-page)
Intimate partner violence & attempted murder
Infidelity (by husband)
Alcohol consumption
Death of parents in a car accident
Murder
Death of a mother from murder
Whipping & resulting scars discussed
Organised crime (mafia)

Context : The heroine’s husband is a serial killer & con man who marries women for their money and then murders them. He is also cheating on her with his real partner. When the heroine accidentally kills his partner, he tries to kill her in revenge.

Euphoria by Lily King

In 1933 three young, gifted anthropologists are thrown together in the jungle of New Guinea. They are Nell Stone, fascinating, magnetic and famous for her controversial work studying South Pacific tribes, her intelligent and aggressive husband Fen, and Andrew Bankson, who stumbles into the lives of this strange couple and becomes totally enthralled. Within months the trio are producing their best ever work, but soon a firestorm of fierce love and jealousy begins to burn out of control, threatening their bonds, their careers, and, ultimately, their lives…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Infidelity
Miscarriage discussed (protagonist), due to intimate partner assault
Emotionally & psychologically abusive relationship
Cannibalism & starvation discussed
Physical illness depiction (malarial fever)

The Winners by Fredrik Backman

Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures. Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Homophobic slurs
Child abuse & neglect mentioned
Infidelity mentioned
Abusive relationship recounted
Rape mentioned & recounted
Suicide, suicidal ideation & self-harm mentioned
Anxiety & panic attacks
Alcohol consumption & drug use including overdose
Death of a child (off-page)
Murder by gun violence
Fatal car acciedne tmentioned
Animal death (dog)

Braving the Storm by Elliott Rose

I’m not supposed to feel this way… I never wanted to disappear more than while around my family. Briar Lane, the girl only useful for one thing: my surname. A business handshake and pawn to be traded. My father’s chess piece shuffled between empires. That was my life back in L.A. but all it took was finding the dirty secret stuffed in a jacket pocket, and my entire world unraveled. So, I fled to the one place I knew they could never find me. Crimson Ridge. Arriving in this snowy, harsh world, I thought I’d be starting over on my own, but it turns out I couldn’t have been… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Statutory assault & rape, child prostitution & grooming mentioned (secondary characters)
Internalised victim-blaming by a rape survivor mentioned (secondary character)
Child abandonment & foster care system experiences mentioned (secondary character)
Verbal & emotional intimate partner abuse & gaslighting by ex-partner mentioned
Forced arranged marriage mentioned
Threats of disownment recounted
Infidelity by ex-partner discussed
Anxiety (protagonist) & nightmares recounted
Restrictive eating mentioned
Alcohol consumption & mentions of alcoholism
Suicide of a pregnant side character by overdose mentioned
Infertility
Physical head injury (on-page) & mentions of past bull-riding injuries
Death of parents mentioned including death during childbirth (off-page)
Home invasion (off-page)
Blackmail & nonconsensual surveillance
Animal abuse mentioned

*Context : A romance between an adopted uncle and his estranged niece.