Death of a Parent & Guardian – Page 170

A Curse of Ash and Embers by Jo Spurrier

A Curse of Ash & Embers by Jo Spurrier

Some people knit socks by the fire at night. Gyssha Blackbone made monsters. But the old witch is dead now, and somehow it’s Elodie’s job to clean up the mess. When she was hired at Black Oak Cottage, Elodie had no idea she’d find herself working for a witch; and her acid-tongued new mistress, Aleida, was not expecting a housemaid to turn up on her doorstep.

Gyssha’s final curse left Aleida practically dead on her feet, and now, with huge monsters roaming the woods, a demonic tree lurking in the orchard and an angry warlock demanding repayment of a debt, Aleida needs Elodie’s help, whether she likes it or not. And no matter what the old witch throws at her, to Elodie it’s still better than going back home.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Graphic verbal & emotional child abuse
Physical child abuse mentioned
Domestic violence mentioned
Misogyny
Dissociation
Suicide
Blood depiction
Physical injuries
Emesis
Death of a father
Death of a child mentioned
Death of a friend recounted
Murder mentioned
Kidnapping mentioned
Strangulation
Poisoning
Loss of autonomy (possession)

Nameless by Lili St Crow

Nameless by Lili St. Crow

When Camille was six years old, she was discovered alone in the snow by Enrico Vultusino, godfather of the Seven—the powerful Families that rule magic-ridden New Haven. Papa Vultusino adopted the mute, scarred child, naming her after his dead wife and raising her in luxury on Haven Hill alongside his own son, Nico.

Now Cami is turning sixteen. She’s no longer mute, though she keeps her faded scars hidden under her school uniform, and though she opens up only to her two best friends, Ruby and Ellie, and to Nico, who has become more than a brother to her. But even though Cami is a pampered Vultusino heiress, she knows that she is not really Family. Unlike them, she is a mortal with a past that lies buried in trauma. And it’s not until she meets the mysterious Tor, who reveals scars of his own, that Cami begins to uncover the secrets of her birth… to find out where she comes from and why her past is threatening her now.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Parental abuse
Death of a parent
Scars

Hot Response by Shannon Stacey

Hot Response by Shannon Stacey

Gavin Boudreau lives for the job, but he also believes in “work hard, play harder.” As the youngest guy in Ladder 37, he figures he’s got plenty of time before settling down becomes a priority. Soft, pretty women who aren’t looking for promises are exactly his type, and he’s comfortable with that. Working with a gorgeous EMT isn’t going to change who he is.

The last thing Cait Tasker needs in her personal life is a firefighter whose challenges on-scene have been a thorn in her side from minute one. Her plate’s too full for a man anyway. Back in her childhood home to help her family cope with an unexpected tragedy, she’s got enough to handle without throwing a hot, testosterone-laden fireman into the mix.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Grief & loss depiction
Death of a step-parent recounted

One Italian Summer by Keris Stainton

One Italian Summer by Keris Stainton

It’s been a year since Milly, Elyse and Leonie’s dad died, and a year since their last trip to Rome. Summer’s here again, and once again they are heading with their mum to Italy – but what’s it going to be like going without Dad? Rome still holds its familiar charms but nothing is quite as it once was …

With grief still raw for all of them, Milly is facing the additional awfulness of having to see Luke again, who she had a fling with last year, and who she made a total fool of herself with – or so she thinks. What’s going to happen this time? What’s more, things between Milly, her sisters and their mum are rocky – Leonie is being tempestuous and unpredictable, Elyse is caught up with her new boyfriend, and Milly feels like she just doesn’t know how she fits in any more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Alcohol abuse
Emesis
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a father from a heart attack recounted

Past Perfect by Danielle Steel

Past Perfect by Danielle Steel

Sybil and Blake Gregory live a predictable Manhattan life — she as a cutting-edge design authority and museum consultant, he in high-tech investments — raising their teenagers Andrew and Caroline and six-year-old Charlie. But when Blake is offered a dream job as CEO of a start-up in San Francisco, he accepts it, without consulting his wife, and buys a magnificent, historic mansion as their new home in Pacific Heights.

Past and present collide at their elegant mansion, when they meet the large and lively family who lived there a century ago. All long dead but very much alive in spirit—visible to the Gregorys and no one else. Have the Gregorys been given a perfect gift; beloved friends, a chance to relive the past and the wisdom and grace to shape the future?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Misogyny
Death of a child
Death of a parent

When My Heart Joins the Thousand by AJ Steiger

When My Heart Joins the Thousand by A.J. Steiger

Alvie Fitz doesn’t fit in, and she doesn’t care. She’s spent years swallowing meds and bad advice from doctors and social workers. Adjust, adapt. Pretend to be normal. It sounds so easy. If she can make it to her eighteenth birthday without any major mishaps, she’ll be legally emancipated. Free. But if she fails, she’ll become a ward of the state and be sent back to the group home.

All she wants is to be left alone to spend time with her friend, Chance, the one-winged hawk at the zoo where she works. She can bide her time with him until her emancipation. Humans are overrated anyway… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism & ableist slurs
Homomisia & homomisic slurs
Parental abuse
Anxiety & panic attacks
Depression
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Suicide mentioned & recounted
Suicidal ideation
Alcohol consumption
Blood depiction & physical injuries
Surgery
Emesis
Hospitalisation
Cancer mentioned
Death of a parent mentioned
Police brutality
Drowning recounted
Bullying
Attempted murder of an autistic child by a parent
Poverty themes & homelessness

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California.

Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Domestic & child physical abuse
Stillbirth
Starvation
Death of a parent
Death of a child mentioned
Murder
Imprisonment
Graphic animal death

Manhattan by Kandi Steiner

Manhattan by Kandi Steiner

Everyone knows not to fall in love with your best friend. But when your best friend is Michael Becker, it’s impossible not to.

He’s everything our town knows a Becker brother to be: devastatingly handsome, charming as a thief, and the icing on the cake — a sentimental musician who’s never without his guitar. And he was mine. At least, that’s what I’d convinced myself… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Grief & loss depiction
Death of a parent

Neat by Kandi Steiner

Neat by Kandi Steiner

My life is over.

I swore I would never work at the whiskey distillery with my last name on it, that I would never be a part of my father’s legacy. But when I graduated with my art degree and realized there were no jobs, the devil appeared, and I sold my soul, agreeing to work in the family business if he’d give me the art studio I’d always dreamed of… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Homomisia
Sexism
Sexual assault of a minor recounted
Death of a parent

The Exact Opposite of Okay by Laura Steven

The Exact Opposite of Okay by Robin Steven

Izzy O’Neill is an aspiring comic, an impoverished orphan, and a Slut Extraordinaire. Or at least, that’s what the malicious website flying round the school says. Izzy can try all she wants to laugh it off – after all, her sex life, her terms – but when pictures emerge of her doing the dirty with a politician’s son, her life suddenly becomes the centre of a national scandal. Izzy’s never been ashamed of herself before, and she’s not going to start now. But keeping her head up will take everything she has…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Slut shaming
Outing
Revenge porn
Death of a parent recounted
Cyberbullying