This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of abusive relationships, and domestic and intimate partner abuse & violence. This includes all kinds of emotional, verbal, psychological, and physical abuse perpetrated by a spouse or intimate partner.
Brandon is a hopeless romantic. So when a handsome stranger named Jon checks in at the hotel he works at and invites Brandon to his room, Brandon ignores the advice of his crew—a group of loveable and messy queer twenty—somethings—and accepts. What follows is a tale as old as time: they hook up, Jon promises to text, Brandon falls in love, and Jon ghosts. Case closed—or is it? When Jon checks out early, leaving behind a bag of belongings and his cellphone, Brandon takes the phone and sets out to find him, thinking that this must at last be his Cinderella story. But he gets more… Read more.
When the notorious Black Daniel is carried, badly injured, into Hester Wyatt’s home, there is no question that he will be cared for and protected. Once a slave herself, Hester regularly gives shelter to runaways, yet the man of mysteries she now harbours brings greater danger than she’s ever known. He is Galen Vachon, a member of a unique elite class of pre-Civil War blacks. Handsome, arrogant, and accustomed to lavish living, he fears he’s been betrayed in his work with the underground and wants to move on quickly. Yet the magic healing caresses that flow from Hester’s lovely indigo-stained hands tear at his heart… Read more.
Death during childbirth mentioned (secondary character’s daughter)
Minor physical injury & illness including broken bones, gunshot wounds, & fever
Death of an aunt & grandmother mentioned
Death of a father from wasting disease mentioned
Death of parents & grandfather in a boating accident recounted
Murder
Gun violence (secondary character shoots her abusive partner)
Kidnapping
Imprisonment recounted
Death from snakebite mentioned
*Context : The female protagonist was enslaved until she was nine-years-old. The male protagonist had sex with a 28-year-old woman when he was 17-years-old. The male protagonist kisses the female protagonist when she is engaged to someone else; however, it’s intended to be a celibate marriage of convenience and the fiancé turns out to be married. A secondary character’s wife is cheating on him. The male protagonist’s grandfather left his grandmother for his mistress.
Stuck in a Production Assistant job and living at home with her parents after a painful breakup, thirty-one-year-old Chloe Fairway isn’t where she wants to be in life. The last thing she needs is to face the people who once voted her “most likely to succeed” at her upcoming ten-year college reunion. And she definitely doesn’t want to see her former best friend, Sean Adler, who is now a hotshot film director living the life Chloe dreamed of. Desperate to make a splash—and to save face in front of the man who might be the one that got away—she turns to a mysterious dating… Read more.
My new neighbor, Waylon Stryker is Jepsen’s most eligible bachelor – gorgeous, built, and kindhearted. I stick out like an LA-shaped thumb in this small town after inheriting a dilapidated house and tiny dog. But when I need my ex to back off and he needs his family to stop pressuring him to settle down, Waylon comes up with the perfect solution — a fake relationship. It would have been perfectly transactional if I hadn’t drunkenly told him about my spicy bucket list. I prayed he’d forget about it. Instead, he vows to help me check off each task. Turns out the kind veterinarian who… Read more.
Rakel, once feared and exiled for possessing magic, is now hailed a hero. Leading resistance forces against the Chosen—an army of magic users that invaded her homeland—she is granted everything she has longed for: acceptance, a home, and the love of her friends. But the battle for her country has just begun. The Chosen’s powerful leader, Tenebris Malus, has come north to aid his army. His troops pillage the villages and cities they cannot hold, and Rakel’s brother—the King—refuses to rule. Most troubling of all, Rakel—who has…. Read more.
Once a promising alchemist, Helena Marino is now a prisoner—of war and of her own mind. Her Resistance friends and allies have been brutally murdered, her abilities suppressed, and the world she knew destroyed. In the aftermath of a long war, Paladia’s new ruling class of corrupt guild families and depraved necromancers, whose vile undead creatures helped bring about their victory, holds Helena captive. According to Resistance records, she was a healer of little importance within their ranks. But Helena has inexplicable memory loss of the months leading up to her capture… Read more.
Amnesia & memory loss, including non-consensual memory alteration
Nightmares
Suicidal ideation & self-harm
Alcohol consumption (on-page) & mentions of smoking
Forced pregnancy & childbirth*
Miscarriage & abortion mentioned
Blood & injury depiction, including eye trauma/ loss of eye, seizures, broken bones, emesis, traumatic brain injury, weight loss & gain due to malnutrition, disembowelment & amputation
Medical procedures, human experimentation. needles & surgery, including forced sterilization of a child
Cannibalism mentioned (secondary characters)
Murder & attempted murder
Physical assault
Attempted kidnapping
Arson & bombing
Imprisonment & captivity
Torture, including sensory deprivation and solitary confinement
War themes including war crimes & eugenics
Animal death & cruelty (experimentation)
Poverty
*Context: The female protagonist is raped by the male protagonist as part of a breeding program. The male protagonist cheats on his wife, who he was forced to marry and is also cheating on him, with the female protagonist.
My high school bully is now my fake boyfriend. Cash Wall has been messing with me since junior high. Nuisance stuff, mostly. Name calling. Pranks. Honestly, he’s nowhere near the worst of my problems. Back in school, I had bigger fish to fry, and now, I’ve got a “scarlet letter” situation going on. The whole town hates me. For some reason, Cash offers himself up as my knight in shining armor. So now my former bully is my fake boyfriend. What could possibly go wrong? Cash: Glenna Dobbs thinks I’m an idiot, and she’s mostly right. I hunt. Fish. Go mudding. I’m not a… Read more.
In her dazzling Abandon Me, Febos captures the intense bonds of love and the need for connection–with family, lovers, and oneself. First, her birth father, who left her with only an inheritance of addiction and Native American blood, its meaning a mystery. As Febos tentatively reconnects, she sees how both these lineages manifest in her own life, marked by compulsion and an instinct for self-erasure. Meanwhile, she remains closely tied to the sea captain who raised her, his parenting ardent but intermittent as his work took him away for months at a time. Woven… Read more.
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.
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,