Tag Archives: Abusive Relationship

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.

The Trees Grew Because I Bled There: Collected Stories by Eric LaRocca

Eight stories of literary dark fiction from a master storyteller. Exploring the shadow side of love, these are tales of grief, obsession, control. Intricate examinations of trauma and tragedy in raw, poetic prose. In these narratives, a woman imagines horrific scenarios whilst caring for her infant niece; on-line posts chronicle a cancer diagnosis; a couple in the park with their small child encounter a stranger with horrific consequences; a toxic relationship reaches a terrifying resolution…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Abusive relationship
  • Elder abuse
  • Incest
  • Cheating
  • Miscarriage
  • Cancer & terminal illness
  • Death of a parent & spouse
  • Murder & torture
  • Kidnapping

Catch and Cradle by Katia Rose

The UNS Women’s Lacrosse team doesn’t have an official policy against inter-teammate relationships, but those words might as well be carved into stone tablets in the middle of the field. After witnessing way too much drama in the past, Captain Becca Moore is intent on keeping her players’ love lives out of the locker room. Becca has no time or tolerance for any distractions from the game. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Hope Hastings has been since the day she showed up for tryouts: one walking, talking, charismatically dorky and way-too-kissable distraction. Hope knew… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Emotionally abusive relationship recounted
  • Forced outing mentioned
  • Abortion discussed & recounted

Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn

Meg Mackworth’s hand-lettering skill has made her famous as the Planner of Park Slope, designing beautiful custom journals for New York City’s elite. She has another skill too: reading signs that other people miss. Like the time she sat across from Reid Sutherland and his gorgeous fiancée, and knew their upcoming marriage was doomed to fail. Weaving a secret word into their wedding program was a little unprofessional, but she was sure no one else would spot it. She hadn’t counted on sharp-eyed, pattern-obsessed… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Emotionally abusive relationship (secondary character)
  • Parental divorce recounted
  • Psoriasis (protagonist)
  • Bullying recounted

Christmas Is All Around by Martha Waters

Charlotte hates the holidays. As a former child actress, she starred in a modern classic of a holiday movie, and its fans won’t let her move on. When a piece revealing that her reluctance nixed plans for a reboot, she flees to London to spend the five-week countdown to the holidays with her sister. But the ghosts of Christmas past follow her there when she ends up at Eden Priory, a filming location for the movie she has never visited. There, after being recognized by a fan while viewing the extraordinary holiday decorations, she’s accidently left behind, forcing her to accept a ride back to London by Graham, the son of the owners. Their… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental infidelity mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Emesis
  • Death of a father from cancer mentioned

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter

Meet Maggie Chase and Ethan Wyatt: She’s the new Queen of the Cozy Mystery. He’s Mr. Big-Time Thriller Guy. She hates his guts. He thinks her name is Marcie (no matter how many times she’s told him otherwise.) But when they both accept a cryptic invitation to attend a Christmas house party at the English estate of a reclusive fan, neither is expecting their host to be the most powerful author in the world: Eleanor Ashley, the Duchess of Death herself. That night, the weather turns, and the next morning Eleanor is gone. She vanished from a locked room, and Maggie has… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment recounted
  • Anxiety & anxiety attacks
  • Infidelity recounted (protagonist’s ex-partner cheated with her best friend)
  • Emotional intimate partner abuse & gaslighting recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of parents in a car accident recounted
  • Attempted murder by an intimate partner by beating (secondary character)
  • Near-death experience from falling off a cliff & long-term recovery from a serious shoulder injury recounted (protagonist
  • Poisoning
  • Arson
  • Kidnapping

Wedding Dashers by Heather McBreen

Ada’s little sister is getting married. Which should be a happy thought, right? But the once close sisters have been in a year long fight, the wedding is all the way in Ireland, and Ada is so broke that she just barely managed to get a ticket on a budget airline. And as if things couldn’t get worse, said airline just cancelled her connection. Which means Ada is stuck in London with no way to make it to the wedding. Surely she’s hit rock bottom? So, there’s no reason for her not to spill her heart out about the over-the-top wedding, her sister’s worryingly quick engagement, and the womanizing best man she’s dreading meeting to a… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Emotionally abusive relationship mentioned (off-page)
  • Divorce
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a parent mentioned

The Christmas Tree Farm by Laurie Gilmore

Kira North hates Christmas. Which is unfortunate since she just bought a Christmas tree farm in a town that’s too cute for its own good. Bennett Ellis is on vacation in Dream Harbor taking a break from his life in California. And most importantly, taking a break from his latest run of disastrous dates. After a run in with Kira in her fields, Ben has no intention of offering to help the grumpy owner set up her tree farm, despite the fact she’s clearly got no idea what she’s doing. Kira knows she should stop being so stubborn, but her farm is not all cute and cozy like people always show… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Abandonment
  • Toxic relationship recounted
  • Sexual harassment
  • Alcohol consumption

The Wren in the Holly Library by K.A. Linde

Can you love the dark when you know what it hides? Some things aren’t supposed to exist outside of our imagination. Thirteen years ago, monsters emerged from the shadows and plunged Kierse’s world into a cataclysmic war of near-total destruction. The New York City she knew so well collapsed practically overnight. In the wake of that carnage, the Monster Treaty was created. A truce…of sorts. But tonight, Kierse―a gifted and fearless thief―will break that treaty. She’ll enter the Holly Library…not knowing it’s the home of a monster. He’s charming. Quietly alluring. Terrifying… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Abusive ex-mentor relationship recounted
  • Non-consensual drugging
  • Murder

The Restless Dark by Erica Waters

The Cloudkiss Killer is dead. Now a true-crime podcast is hosting a contest to find his bones. Lucy was almost the serial killer’s final victim. Carolina is a true-crime fan who fears her own rage. Maggie is a psychology student with a little too much to hide. All of them are looking for answers, for a new identity, for a place to bury their secrets. But there are more than bones hiding in the shadows…sometimes the darkness inside is more frightening than anything the dead leave behind.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Fatphobia & body-shaming
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) including violent intrusive thoughts
  • Abusive relationship
  • Suicide
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood and gore depiction, emesis & body horror
  • Murder & attempted murder (theme)
  • Strangulation
  • Knife violence
  • Mugging recounted
  • Kidnapping recounted
  • Arson (off-page)

The Lost Ticket by Freya Sampson

When Libby Nicholls arrives in London, brokenhearted and with her life in tatters, the first person she meets on the bus is elderly Frank. He tells her about the time in 1962 that he met a girl on the number 88 bus with beautiful red hair just like hers. They made plans for a date at the National Gallery art museum, but Frank lost the bus ticket with her number on it. For the past sixty years, he’s ridden the same bus trying to find her, but with no luck. Libby is inspired to action and, with the help of an unlikely companion, she papers the bus route with posters advertising their search. Libby begins to open her guarded heart to new friendship… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity mentioned (secondary character)
  • Emotionally abusive relationship recounted
  • Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Drug withdrawal mentioned
  • Infertility mentioned (secondary character)
  • Unplanned pregnancy & childbirth (on-page) as well as mentions of pregnancy complications
  • Injury and hospitalisation from physical assault
  • Financial & house insecurity