Cheating – Trigger Warning Database

Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone

Lenny’s a bit of a mess at the moment. Her best friend, Lou, recently passed away after a battle with cancer, and her death has left Lenny feeling completely lost. She’s avoiding her concerned parents, the apartment she shared with Lou, and the list of things she’s supposed to do to help her live again. The only thing she can do is temporary babysitting gigs, and luckily, she just landed a great one, helping overworked, single mom Reese and her precocious daughter, Ainsley. It’s not perfect: Ainsley’s uncle, Miles, always seems to be around, and is kind of… a huge jerk. But if Lenny acts like she has it all together, maybe no… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Parental infidelity
Stroke
Death of a parent from cancer recounted

Salt Slow by Julia Armfield

In her brilliantly inventive and haunting debut collection of stories, Julia Armfield explores bodies and the bodily, mapping the skin and bones of her characters through their experiences of isolation, obsession, love and revenge.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Homophobia (Cassandra After)
Body-shaming (Mantis)
Infidelity (Cassandra After)
Divorce (Formally Feral, Smack)
Depression (Smack, Cassandra After)
Suicide mentioned (The Collectables)
Self-harm mentioned (Cassandra After)
Alcohol consumption & smoking (The Collectables)
Pregnancy & mention of miscarriage/pregnancy loss (Salt Slow)
Blood & injury depiction (Mantis, Formally Feral, Stop Your Women’s Ears with Wax, Granite, Salt Slow)
Heart attack mentioned (The Collectables)
Weight loss, dieting & starvation mentioned (Mantis, Salt Slow)
Emesis (Stop Your Women’s Ears with Wax)
Death of a parent recounted (Smack)
Death of a partner (Cassandra After)
Car accident mentioned (Stop Your Women’s Ears with Wax)
Fire (The Collectables)
Drowning (Salt Slow)
Bullying (Formally Feral)

Private Rites by Julia Armfield

It’s been raining for a long time now, so long that the land has reshaped itself and arcane rituals and religions are creeping back into practice. Sisters Isla, Irene, and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their father dies. An architect as cruel as he was revered, his death offers an opportunity for the sisters to come together in a new way. In the grand glass house they grew up in, their father’s most famous creation, the sisters sort through the secrets and memories he left behind, until their fragile bond is shattered by a revel.. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Child abuse recounted
Parental infidelity mentioned
Anxiety & panic attacks
Nightmares & sleep issues mentioned
Pica mentioned (recovery)
Attempted suicide & self-harm recounted
Alcohol consumption & smoking
Emesis
Death of a father from a stroke & heart attack mentioned
Death of a mother recounted
Drowning
Cults discussed
Animal injury (fish

Love Letters for Other People by Shaylin Gandhi

When mathematician Aubrey MacLean’s career implodes, she has no choice but to return to her rural Indiana hometown, at least temporarily. But small towns have long memories, and so does she, especially when it comes to Nick Thacker, the boy who broke her heart. Nick’s life is routine: long shifts at the steel mill, plus a side business writing love letters for other people. It’s enough to numb his regrets—until his first love returns, stirring up a past he thought he’d buried. Aubrey is focused on rebuilding her career, until she falls for a new man whose love letters feel… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Child neglet
Parental infidelity
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a parent
Financial difficulties & food insecurity

The Extra by Megan Walker and Janci Patterson

Gabby Mays wishes she had her future figured out, like her gorgeous roommate Anna-Marie, who has just landed a role on the hit soap opera Passion Medical. Gabby would give anything to find a career she’s half as passionate about as Anna-Marie is about acting—and a love life that isn’t comprised of nights with a party-sized bag of Doritos and her Netflix account. When Gabby becomes a recurring extra on Passion Medical, she finds a job she’s surprisingly great at. Even better, her old crush and ex-boss—the sexy, sweet Will Bowen—is writing the scripts, allowing Gabby lots… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Cheating
Substance addiction
Bullying

Skyshade by Alex Aster

Back in Grim’s castle on Nightshade, Isla is reeling in the wake of a brutal battle and the devastating truths it exposed. Her future—and the fate of the world—now hinge on a heart split in two. Past Isla, who fell in love with the ruler of Nightshade, fights to resist feelings she considers treasonous. The Isla of the present, who has seen the ruin her powers can cause, will do anything to save Lightlark and its king. As the line between enemy and friend is tested, Isla is more desperate than ever to understand the oracle’s final prophecy… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Infidelity
Self-injury for magic & scars
Alcohol consumption
Blood & gore depiction, including removal of the heart, decapitation & dead bodies
Murder
Near-drowning incident (in blood)
Knife, sword & weapon violence

The Last Invitation by Darby Kane

They meet the second Tuesday of every month and vote…and then someone dies. Over the last few years, prominent people—a retired diplomat, beloved basketball coach, the CEO of an empire—have died in a series of fluke accidents and shocking suicides. There’s no apparent connection, no signs of foul play. Behind it all is a powerful group of women, the Sophie Foundation, who meet over wine and cheese to review files of men who behave very, very badly, and then mete out justice. Jessa Hall jumped at the mysterious, exclusive invitation to this secret club… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Grooming & child sexual abuse mentioned
Sexual assault mentioned
Domestic abuse
Divorce discussed
Infidelity
Death of a parent

Single Malt by Layla Reyne

FBI agent Aidan “Irish” Talley had it all until a harrowing car crash left him with a heap of survivor’s guilt and a hole in his heart where his happily ever after used to be. Aiming to fill the void, he returns to work—and to a new partner. Charming, smart, and athletic, Jamie is the last thing Aidan’s bruised heart needs. Cyber agent Jameson “Whiskey” Walker joined the Bureau three years ago and has pined for Aidan ever since. Working with the Irish expat is a fantasy and a challenge, one Jamie intends to win by earning the surly older agent’s trust and respect. Except there’s no time… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism
Child physical & sexual abuse and stalking by a foster parent mentioned (secondary character)
Infidelity mentioned (secondary character)
Child trafficking mentioned
Early On-Set Alzheimer’s Disease mentioned (secondary character)
Alcohol consumption & abuse
Spouse with terminal cancer mentioned (secondary character)
Death of a brother in an Irish Republican Army (IRA) car bombing recounted
Death of a father in a factory fire recounted
Graphic hit-and-run car accident as attempted murder, resulting in hospitalisation for coma & head injuries and death of the protagonist’s husband & working partner
Bioterrorism discussed

Amen Maxine by Faith Gardner

Welcome to Silicon Valley, where the weather is perfect, the income is high … and Rowena Snyder is miserable. A transplant from New York, Rowena moved into her husband Jacob’s idyllic childhood home with their new baby. But suburbia isn’t Rowena’s cup of Starbucks. And she’s got serious anxiety and depression to boot. Jacob, worried about their marriage, scores a new product currently in beta testing from his tech job: Maxine, a “digital friend” that bonds with an individual by continually gathering their personal data. Along with functioning like an upscale digital assist… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Infidelity
Domestic emotional abuse & gaslighting
Postpartum anxiety & depression (protagonist, on-page)

See You at the Summit by Jordyn Taylor

Simone Whittaker has spent the first three decades of her life pretending to be straight. But when the girl she never dared call her girlfriend walks away, she decides she’s done living in fear. Her uptight parents don’t take the news well, but a viral coming-out post and a new job at Toronto’s Rainbow Museum offer a fresh start—and a crash course in queer adulthood. That is, until her first day of work, when Simone ruins a project designed by Ryan Foley—the museum’s gruff and annoyingly hot carpenter—earning her the top spot on his enemies list. When they’re forced to take a work trip to the Whistler Pride and Ski Festival together, Simone… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Biphobia & homophobia
Infidelity recounted (secondary characters)
Suicidal ideation mentioned