Tag Archives: Child Abuse & Neglect

Rebel Witch by Kristen Ciccarelli

Rune Winters is on the run. Ever since the boy she loved, Gideon Sharpe, revealed who she was and delivered her into enemy hands, everyone wants her dead. If Rune hopes to survive, she must ally herself with the cruel and dangerous Cressida Roseblood, who’s planning to take back the Republic and reinstate a Reign of Witches—something Cressida needs Rune to accomplish. Apparently it wasn’t enough for Rune to deceive Gideon; she’s now betrayed him by allying herself with the witch who made his life a living hell. Gideon won’t allow the Republic to fall to the witches and be plunged back into the nightmare… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault
  • Blood & injury depiction including mentions of a secondary character getting their ear removed without consent (on-page)
  • Execution of a grandmother recounted
  • Murder of a brother from gun violence
  • Gun & cannon violence
  • Physical assault & strangulation
  • Kidnapping of an infant mentioned
  • Near-fatal whipping
  • Alcohol consumption (on-page)

Glimmers of You by Catherine Cowles

He hadn’t always just been my brother’s best friend. There was a time when he was mine, too. Until he disappeared from our small town when I needed him the most. Now, Caden’s back. With his cocky smirk and infuriating nicknames. And I’m struggling to ignore his presence. When my ex refuses to leave me alone, Caden steps in, suggesting that it will get my ex and Caden’s calculating father off both our backs if we just pretend to be madly in love. There’s just one problem… Nothing I feel for Caden Shaw is fake—even when I thought I hated him. And there’s no denying how the touch of his lips sparks a flame I’ll never be able to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted sexual assault
  • Toxic parental relationship
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a sister from cancer recounted
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping & stalking
  • Arson

Fractured Sky by Catherine Cowles

Damaged. Broken. Destroyed. I’ve heard it all. A single moment of trusting the wrong person shattered my life into pieces, and my family has never looked at me the same. It’s impossible to convince them that I’m anything more than the broken girl they rescued all those years ago. Until I meet him. Ramsey’s surly demeanor and menacing scowl scare most of the world away. But not me. Not when I’ve seen his gentle hands soothe an abused colt or comfort a terrified mare. And when I finally get up the courage to strike out on my own, Ramsey’s there. Roommates felt.. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abuse discussed
  • Domestic violence mentioned
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder & anxiety
  • Kidnapping
  • Threat of murder & attempted murder
  • Knife violence
  • Physical assault
  • Stalking
  • Animal cruelty

The Alias by Lena Hendrix

The moment I kissed my wife, I knew I was in trouble. A stoic, dangerous man with ties to the Mafia has no business keeping a gorgeous ray of sunshine like her, but she was scared and I was desperate. On the run, we land at a secluded ranch designed to protect federal witnesses. As long as everyone believes we’re married, she won’t have to testify against me for killing the man who put his hands on her. But the longer we pretend, the lines between fact and fiction begin to blur. My eyes linger a second too long. My hands soften on her skin. My kiss, a little too demanding. But I…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted rape (on-page
  • Child neglect (off-page)
  • Drug abuse mentioned

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened. Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Traumatic pregnancy & childbirth (theme)

To Catch A Suitor by Sarah Adams

She needs to move on. He wants to let her go. Will they finally be able to go their separate ways even though their hearts seem to have other plans? Elizabeth Ashburn is madly, deeply, irrefutably in love with her best friend. They know each other better than their own minds. There is only one problem: To him, she is Little Lizzie, and nothing she does seems to replace the idea in his mind. No matter. It is her first Season and she is determined to make a match with a gentleman—any gentleman—who will help her steal her heart back from Oliver Turner and… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse recounted
  • Childbirth
  • Miscarriage mentioned (secondary character)
  • Death of a parent

Ward D by Freida McFadden

Medical student Amy Brenner is spending the night on a locked psychiatric ward. Amy has been dreading her evening working on Ward D, the hospital’s inpatient mental health unit. There are very specific reasons why she never wanted to do this required overnight rotation. Reasons nobody can ever find out. And as the hours tick by, Amy grows increasingly convinced something terrible is happening within these tightly secured walls. When patients and staff start to vanish without a trace, it becomes clear that everyone on the unit is in grave danger. Amy’s worst nightmare was spending the night on Ward D. And now she might never escape...

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child Abuse
  • Infidelity mentioned
  • Toxic friendship
  • Hallucinations
  • Drug use & abuse mentioned
  • Drugging
  • Murder

The Crash by Freida McFadden

Tegan is eight months pregnant, alone, and desperately wants to put her crumbling life in the rearview mirror. So she hits the road, planning to stay with her brother until she can figure out her next move. But she doesn’t realize she’s heading straight into a blizzard. She never arrives at her destination. Stranded in rural Maine with a dead car and broken ankle, Tegan worries she’s made a terrible mistake. Then a miracle she is rescued by a couple who offers her a room in their warm cabin until the snow clears. But something isn’t right. Tegan believed she was waiting out the storm, but as time ticks by, she comes to realize she is.… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault
  • Child abuse
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Drugging
  • Pregnancy (protagonist)
  • Infertility & miscarriage mentioned
  • Blood & injury depiction and hospitalisation
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Car accident

Lights Out by Navessa Allen

Trauma nurse Aly Cappellucci doesn’t need any more kinks. She likes the one she’s landed on just fine. To her, nothing could top the masked men she follows online. Unless one of those men was shirtless, heavily tattooed, and waiting for her in her bedroom. She dreams about being hunted by one in particular, of him chasing her down and doing deliciously dark things to her willing body. She never could have guessed that by sending one drunken text, those dreams would become her new reality. I want things most people don’t, craving darkness and depravity instead of light and love. Josh Hammond has spent his life avoiding the…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape mentioned (off-page)
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Cannibalism recounted (unintentional)
  • Death of a parent
  • Mass shooting
  • Knife & gun play
  • Car accident recounted
  • Stalking & invasion of privacy

Watch Over Me by Nina LaCour

Eighteen-year-old Mila has been in the foster system since her mother abandoned her. Now that she’s graduating high school, she has nothing to do and nowhere to call home. So when she gets an offer to work as an intern on the Farm, she readily accepts. Her main job is to take care of eight-year-old Lee. At first the Farm seems like an idyllic paradise, a remote place on the cliffs with view of the sea far below. But Mila soon realises there’s something more sinister going on. Lee’s recent trauma causes Mila’s own frightening memories to bubble to the surface…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse & neglect (theme)
  • Parental abandonment recounted
  • Emotional, psychological & financial domestic abuse
  • Gaslighting
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Needles & medical treatment mentioned
  • Car accident mentioned
  • Death of grandmother & grandfather mentioned
  • Fire & death from fire
  • Near-drowning incident