Tag Archives: Child Abuse & Neglect

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of child abuse and neglect, including emotional, verbal, psychological and physical abuse, and gaslighting.

For child sexual abuse, see Paedophilia & CSA.

The Roommate Risk by Talia Hibbert

Jasmine Allen believes in bad luck, great wine, and the seductive power of a stiletto heel. What she doesn’t believe in is love. Her life is perfect without all that romance rubbish—until a plumbing disaster screws everything up and leaves Jas homeless. Luckily, she has someone to turn to: her best friend Rahul. For seven years, Rahul Khan has followed three simple rules: 1) Don’t touch Jasmine if you can help it; 2) Don’t look at her arse in that skirt.; and, 3) And don’t ever—ever—tell her you love her. He should’ve added another rule: Do not, under any circumstances, let Jas… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment recounted
  • Emotional child abuse recounted
  • Alcohol consumption & dependency
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Emesis mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Hospitalisation
  • Scars from a knife injury

Damaged Goods by Talia Hibbert

Laura Burne‘s husband is a monster, her diamond ring is a trap, and her pregnancy is the push she needs to finally escape. She runs away seeking safety… and finds Samir Bianchi, her long-lost teenage sweetheart. With his kind eyes and dirty smile, Samir’s still hot as hell—and he still treats Laura like a goddess, baby bump and all. The wild boy she spent one magical summer with is every inch a man, and he’s more than ready to care for her tiny family. But Laura’s been keeping a secret Samir might never forgive. When she finally confesses, will he remain by her side? Or is this fairytale end… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Fatmisia
  • Emotional abuse & gaslighting
  • Intimate partner abuse & violence
  • Child & parental abuse recounted
  • Cheating
  • Alcoholism mentioned
  • Pregnancy, including doctors visits & sonograms
  • Childbirth
  • Emesis mentioned
  • Death of a father mentioned

Shadow’s Messenger by TA White

Shadow’s Messenger by T.A. White

Coming home from Afghanistan was supposed to be something great. That ended when I met tall, dark and handsome in a bar and wound up in a dumpster sporting a nice set of fangs and my life flipped on its head. Now I’m a messenger for Hermes Courier Service trying to make enough to support my ice cream habit while staying below vampire radar. When this newest job of mine goes disastrously awry, it puts me on the hook to be indentured to a sorcerer for the next fifty years unless I can find a way to fix things.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Kidnapping

The Dark Club Pact by Alison Goodman

The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman

London, April 1812. On the eve of eighteen-year-old Lady Helen Wrexhall’s presentation to the queen, one of her family’s housemaids disappears-and Helen is drawn into the shadows of Regency London. There, she meets Lord Carlston, one of the few who can stop the perpetrators: a cabal of demons infiltrating every level of society. Dare she ask for his help, when his reputation is almost as black as his lingering eyes? And will her intelligence and headstrong curiosity wind up leading them into a death trap?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Misogyny (theme)
  • Slut-shaming
  • Sexual assault
  • Domestic & child abuse
  • Suicide
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use
  • Blood, gore and injury depiction including graphic dead bodies
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother recounted
  • Murder
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)
  • Drowning

Nightingale by Amy Lukavics

Nightingale by Amy Lukavics

At seventeen, June Hardie is everything a young woman in 1951 shouldn’t be–independent, rebellious, a dreamer. June longs to travel, to attend college and to write the dark science fiction stories that consume her waking hours. But her parents only care about making June a better young woman. Her mother grooms her to be a perfect little homemaker while her father pushes her to marry his business partner’s domineering son. When June resists, her whole world is shattered–suburbia isn’t the only prison for different women. June’s parents commit her to Burrow Place Asylum, aka the Institution. With its sickening cond… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Sexism
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Domestic violence
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Psychiatric hospital

Ride Dirty by Laura Kaye

Ride Dirty by Laura Kaye

Caine McKannon is all about rules. As the Raven Riders Sergeant-at-Arms, he prizes loyalty to his brothers and protection of his club. As a man, he takes pleasure wherever he can get it but allows no one close—because distance is the only way to ensure people can’t hurt you. And he’s had enough pain for a lifetime. And then he rescues a beautiful woman from an attack. Kids and school are kindergarten teacher Emma Kerry’s whole life, so she’s stunned to realize she has an enemy—and even more surprised to find a protector in the intimidating man who saved her. Tall, dark, and tattooed, Caine is unlike any man Emma’s… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sex work recounted
  • Child abuse & neglect mentioned
  • Fire

Hard to Let Go by Laura Kaye

Hard to Let Go by Laura Kaye

Beckett Murda hates to dwell on the past. But his investigation into the ambush that killed half his Special Forces team and ended his Army career gives him little choice. Just when his team learns how powerful their enemies are, hard-ass Beckett encounters the biggest complication yet—seductive, feisty Katherine Rixey. A tough, stubborn prosecutor, Kat visits her brothers’ Hard Ink Tattoo following a bad break-up—and finds herself staring down the barrel of a stranger’s gun. Beckett is hard-bodied and sexy as hell, but he’s also the most infuriating man ever. Worse, Kat… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Human trafficking
  • Sex slavery
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Nightmares
  • Kidnapping
  • Gang violence

Fighting the Fire by Laura Kaye

Fighting for Fire by Laura Kaye

For firefighter Sean Riddick, Warrior Fight Club keeps the demons of his past at bay, even though it means seeing Daniela England. Her ball-busting sarcasm drives him nuts, and he knows he’s damaged goods anyway, but he can’t help but remember how good they were together that one time. Now he wants to take her to the mats no matter how much they go toe to toe. ER nurse Daniela England has lost so much that she’s vowed never to need anyone again. Fight club helps her beat back her survivor’s guilt, but it means dealing with Riddick. The hot-but-infuriating firefighter… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse recounted
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a husband recounted
  • Motorcycle accident, on-page

East of Ecstasy by Laura Kaye

East of Ecstasy by Laura Kaye

Annalise Fallston made peace with postponing her big-city dreams to care for her ill father, but lately she’s been filled with a restlessness not even her beloved painting dispels. Worse, the colors don’t speak to her as they always have, and all her efforts produce dark, foreboding images of a dangerous man and a terrifying future. Devlin Eston, black-souled son of the evil Anemoi Eurus, is the only one who can thwart his father’s plan to overthrow the Supreme God of Wind and Storms. But first, Dev must master the unstable powers he’s been given. Distrusted and… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse recounted
  • Parent with Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Pregnancy & childbirth mentioned*

*Context : Megan, Owen’s wife, goes into labour early due to stress and an emergency c-section is needed. Both mother and child die before being bought back to life.

A Spell of Rowans by Byrd Nash

A Spell of Rowans by Byrd Nash

Raised by a narcissistic mother, the Rowan children’s magical talents were twisted to fit her needs. When Rachel dies, her children must confront the past to have a future. Rachel Rowan could sniff out secrets and her antique shop, Rosemary Thyme, was a front to torment the residents of Grimsby. When she dies, her children are faced with the deadly fallout of blackmail, murder, and magic. Victoria, whose empathic talent knows everyone’s hidden feelings; Philippa, whose glamour can bewitch; and Liam, the brother who touches objects to reveal their secrets, all find themselves… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Suicide
  • Drowning