Tag Archives: Child Abuse & Neglect

You Don’t Have a Shot by Racquel Marie

You Don’t Have a Shot by Racquel Marie

Valentina “Vale” Castillo-Green’s life revolves around soccer. Her friends, her future, and her father’s intense expectations are all wrapped up in the beautiful game. But after she incites a fight during playoffs with her long-time rival, Leticia Ortiz, everything she’s been working toward seems to disappear. Embarrassed and desperate to be anywhere but home, Vale escapes to her beloved childhood soccer camp for a summer of relaxation and redemption…only to find out that she and the endlessly aggravating Leticia will be co-captaining a team that could play in front of college scouts. But the competition might be… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Emotional child abuse
  • Anxiety & anxiety attacks
  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Physical injuries (minor sports injury)
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother from breast cancer
  • Bullying

The Killing Lessons by Saul Black

The Killing Lessons by Saul Black

When the two strangers turn up at Rowena Cooper’s isolated Colorado farmhouse, she knows instantly that it’s the end of everything. For the two haunted and driven men, on the other hand, it’s just another stop on a long and bloody journey. And they still have many miles to go, and victims to sacrifice, before their work is done. For San Francisco homicide detective Valerie Hart, their trail of victims–women abducted, tortured and left with a seemingly random series of objects inside them–has brought her from obsession to the edge of physical and psychological… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Slut-shaming
  • Sexism
  • Rape
  • Child abuse
  • Alcoholism
  • Miscarriage
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Kidnapping
  • Stalking

Jagged by Lauren Dane

Jagged by Lauren Dane

Vicktor Orlov took one look at the wary gaze and slow-to-trust personality of the deliciously sexy and fascinating Rachel Dolan and knew he wanted more than just a casual friendship. But as a natural protector, he also knew bossiness and overprotective maneuvering would push her away rather than draw her close. He’ll use every tool in his easygoing arsenal to convince her to take a chance on them. Rachel’s flourishing new career as a tattoo artist has brought color back into a life previously damaged by a series of bad choices and violence. She knows she… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Victim blaming
  • Child sexual abuse recounted
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Stalking
  • Deportation
  • Torture recounted
  • Kidnapping recounted

Mirror Girls by Kelly McWilliams

Mirror Girls by Kelly McWilliams

As infants, twin sisters Charlie Yates and Magnolia Heathwood were secretly separated after the brutal lynching of their parents, who died for loving across the color line. Now, at the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement, Charlie is a young Black organizer in Harlem, while white-passing Magnolia is the heiress to a cotton plantation in rural Georgia. Magnolia knows nothing of her racial heritage, but secrets are hard to keep in a town haunted by the ghosts of its slave-holding past. When Magnolia finally learns the truth, her reflection mysteriously disappears from… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Klu Klux Klan
  • Hate crimes mentioned
  • Child abuse
  • Forced institutionalisation mentioned
  • Starvation
  • Police violence mentioned
  • Lynching, off-page
  • Mass drowning mentioned
  • Animal sacrifice (snake)

Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre

Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre

On an Earth scarred by nuclear war, Snake harnesses the power of venom to cure illnesses and vaccinate against disease. The healer can even ease patients into death with the power of her dreamsnake. But she is not respected and trusted by all, and when she tries to help a sick nomad child, the frightened clan kills her dreamsnake. Ashamed of being misjudged and grieving the loss of her dreamsnake, Snake has one choice to maintain her livelihood: she must travel to the city, which jealously guards its knowledge. And before she faces the prejudices and arrogance…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Paedophilia
  • Child abuse
  • Substance addiction
  • Medical procedures
  • Torture
  • Animal cruelty

Supplicant by Sierra Simone

Supplicant by Sierra Simone

After being left at the altar by her cold and brilliant professor, Church Cason, Charlotte Tenpenny had to leave school to take care of her younger brother. But a fateful night brings Church—and his delicious, drugging kisses—back into Charlotte’s life. And it stirs up a reckoning years in the making . . .

Goodreads • The Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Child abuse & neglect recounted
  • Parent with alcoholism
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse

A Lesson in Thorns by Sierra Simone

A Lesson in Thorns by Sierra Simone

When librarian Poe Markham takes the job at Thornchapel, she only wants two things: to stay away from Thornchapel’s tortured owner, Auden Guest, and to find out what happened to her mother twelve years ago. It should be easy enough—keep her head down while she works in the house’s crumbling private library and while she hunts down any information as to why this remote manor tucked into the fog-shrouded moors would be the last place her mother was seen alive. But Thornchapel has other plans for her… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape & attempted gang rape recounted
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Blood drinking
  • Death of a mother & father
  • Disappearance of a parent

Feast of Sparks by Sierra Simone

Feast of Sparks by Sierra Simone

I’m an outcast and a loner, named for death itself. Fate wasn’t supposed to have plans for me. But then she came back—the girl I once kissed in a thorn-covered chapel in the woods. She came back, and I could no more resist her than I could pry out my own heart. And by some trick of fate, she wants me as much as I want her. The only problem? She also wants the man who owns Thornchapel, Auden Guest. And so do I. Eight years ago, I did something to Auden, something terrible. He hurt me back the only way he knew how, and so here we are: our hatred seasoned with pain… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Grap

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Coming out mentioned
  • Rape & attempted gang rape recounted
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Blood drinking
  • Hospitalisation mentioned
  • Death of a mother & father recounted

Tattered Stars by Catherine Cowles

Tattered Stars by Catherine Cowles

Be brave. Just for sixty seconds. Twenty breaths. It took every ounce of my courage to return to the small town I fled all those years ago. But I should’ve known he’d hate me. How could he not when my father’s blood still runs through my veins? Yet here I am, desperate for a chance to make things right. Even if it means facing the family my father almost destroyed and the boy with the dark eyes—now grown—who still haunts my dreams. I never expected just how explosive things would turn between us. He’s the last person I should want. Yet, somehow, I keep drawing closer—so close I know I’ll… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse recounted
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Attempted murder
  • Gun violence
  • Physical assault
  • Stalking
  • Arson
  • Kidnapping & attempted kidnapping
  • Animal cruelty & injury, on-page (dog)

Hidden Waters by Catherine Cowles

Hidden Waters by Catherine Cowles

My family tried to break me. But, somehow, I made it out alive, even though the wounds from that survival are forever carved into my bones. Now, my only wish is for…normal. To know what it’s like to have friends, a job, a home. The last thing I want is for my new roommate to see the scars I’m so desperate to keep hidden, especially not the ruggedly handsome man who steals my breath and sends my heart into overdrive. But something tells me that Beckett has demons, too. I see it in the shadows haunting his gorgeous eyes and the way he looks at me with gentle under… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Domestic abuse
  • Child abuse
  • Sexual assault & groping
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping