Death of a Parent & Guardian – Page 177

A Heart of Blood and Ashes by Milla Vane

A Heart of Blood & Ashes by Milla Vane

A generation past, the western realms were embroiled in endless war. Then the Destroyer came. From the blood and ashes he left behind, a tenuous alliance rose between the barbarian riders of Parsathe and the walled kingdoms of the south. That alliance is all that stands against the return of an ancient evil–until the barbarian king and queen are slain in an act of bloody betrayal.

Though forbidden by the alliance council to kill the corrupt king responsible for his parents’ murders, Maddek vows to avenge them, even if it costs him the Parsathean crown. But when he learns it was the king’s daughter who lured his parents to their deaths, the barbarian warrior is determined to make her pay.

Yet the woman Maddek captures is not what he expected. Though the last in a line of legendary warrior-queens, Yvenne is small and weak, and the sharpest weapons she wields are her mind and her tongue. Even more surprising is the marriage she proposes to unite them in their goals and to claim their thrones–because her desire for vengeance against her father burns even hotter than his own…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Slavery
Rape
Graphic blood & gore depiction
Dismemberment
Torture
Death of a parent

Descendant of the Crane by Joan He

Descendant of the Crane by Joan He

Tyrants cut out hearts. Rulers sacrifice their own.

Princess Hesina of Yan has always been eager to shirk the responsibilities of the crown, but when her beloved father is murdered, she’s thrust into power, suddenly the queen of an unstable kingdom. Determined to find her father’s killer, Hesina does something desperate: she engages the aid of a soothsayer—a treasonous act, punishable by death… because in Yan, magic was outlawed centuries ago.

Using the information illicitly provided by the sooth, and uncertain if she can trust even her family, Hesina turns to Akira—a brilliant investigator who’s also a convicted criminal with secrets of his own. With the future of her kingdom at stake, can Hesina find justice for her father? Or will the cost be too high?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism
Slavery
Emotional parental abuse
Suicide & attempted suicide
Self-harm
Blood & gore depiction
Death of a father
Murder
Torture
Hanging
Fire

The Ones We’re Meant to Find by Joan He

The Ones We’re Meant to Find by Joan He

Cee has been trapped on an abandoned island for three years without any recollection of how she arrived, or memories from her life prior. All she knows is that somewhere out there, beyond the horizon, she has a sister named Kay.

In a world apart, 16-year-old STEM prodigy Kasey Mizuhara is also living a life of isolation. The eco-city she calls home is one of eight levitating around the world, built for people who protected the planet―and now need protecting from it. While Kasey, an introvert and loner, doesn’t mind the lifestyle, her sister Celia hated it. Popular and lovable, Celia much preferred the outside world. But no one could have predicted that Celia would take a boat out to sea, never to return.

Now it’s been three months since Celia’s disappearance, and Kasey has given up hope. Logic says that her sister must be dead. But as the public decries her stance, she starts to second guess herself and decides to retrace Celia’s last steps. Where they’ll lead her, she does not know. Her sister was full of secrets. But Kasey has a secret of her own.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Suicide
Suicidal ideation
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a parent (off-page)
Terminal illness
Blood & gore depiction
Emesis
Attempted murder
Drowning
Asphyxiation
Natural disasters

Unnatural Causes by Richard Shepherd

Unnatural Causes by Richard Shepherd

As the UK’s top forensic pathologist, Dr Richard Shepherd has spent a lifetime uncovering the secrets of the dead. When death is sudden or unexplained, it falls to Shepherd to establish the cause. Each post-mortem is a detective story in its own right – and Shepherd has performed over 23,000 of them. Through his skill, dedication and insight, Dr Shepherd solves the puzzle to answer our most pressing question: how did this person die?

From serial killer to natural disaster, ‘perfect murder’ to freak accident, Shepherd takes nothing for granted in pursuit of truth. And while he’s been involved in some of the most high-profile cases of recent times, it’s often the less well known encounters that prove the most perplexing, intriguing and even bizarre. In or out of the public eye, his evidence has put killers behind bars, freed the innocent and turned open-and-shut cases on their heads.

But a life in death, bearing witness to some of humanity’s darkest corners, exacts a price and Shepherd doesn’t flinch from counting the cost to him and his family.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Rape
Graphic descriptions of autopsies
Graphic descriptions of dead bodies
Death of a parent
Death of a child
Murder
Knife violence and stabbing
Car accidents
Terrorist attacks
Deaths in custody

Sleepless, Volume 2 by Sarah Vaughan

Sleepless, Vol. 2 by Sarah Vaughn and illustrated by Leila del Duca & Alissa Sallah

Nearly a year later in the court of Harbeny, Lady Poppy and Sir Cyrenic must forge ahead without each other. Cyrenic adjusts to life after being released from the Sleepless Vow. And though Poppy has allies old and new, she buckles under the pressure to marry Lord Helder. The future looks bleak, but both Poppy and Cyrenic are fighters. Either they will claw their way out of the darkness, or take as many enemies with them as they can.

Collects SLEEPLESS #7-11

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Forced marriage
Blood depiction

Sleepless, Volume 1 by Sarah Vaughan

Sleepless, Vol. 1 by Sarah Vaughn and illustrated by Leila del Duca

Lady “Poppy” Pyppenia is guarded by the Sleepless Knight Cyrenic, but becomes endangered when an assassin threatens her life in the new king’s reign. As Poppy and Cyrenic try to discover who wants her dead, they must navigate the dangerous waters of life at court, and of their growing feelings for one another.

Collects issues 1-6.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Blood depiction
Death of a parent
Poisoning

100 Hours by Rachel Vincent

100 Hours by Rachel Vincent

Maddie is beyond done with her cousin Genesis’s entitled and shallow entourage. Genesis is so over Miami’s predictable social scene with its velvet ropes, petty power plays, and backstabbing boyfriends. While Maddie craves family time for spring break, Genesis seeks novelty—like a last-minute getaway to an untouched beach in Colombia. And when Genesis wants something, it happens. But paradise has its price. Dragged from their tents under the cover of dark, Genesis, Maddie, and their friends are kidnapped and held for ransom deep inside the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Slut-shaming
Fatphobia & body-shaming
Statutory sexual assault
Abusive relationship
Substance addiction recovery
Attempted suicide & suicidal ideation
Alcohol consumption
Blood & injury depiction including emesis & needles
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a parent, brother & cousin
Murder
Gun violence
Kidnapping & hostage situation
Explosions
Psychological torture

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, ambitious wizard, known only as the Dragon, to keep the wood’s powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman must be handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as being lost to the wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows – everyone knows – that the Dragon will take beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, her dearest friend in the world. There is no way to save her. But no one can predict how or why the Dragon chooses a girl and when he comes, it is not Kasia he will take with him…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Misogyny
Attempted rape (on-page, detailed)
Cheating recounted
Adult-minor relationship*
Alcohol consumption
Pregnancy mentioned
Body horror
Minor physical injuries (burns)
Death of a brother
Death of a mother & father mentioned
Murder
Knife violence
Kidnapping
Fire
War themes & military violence
Graphic animal death
Animal attack

*Note: The main romance is between a seventeen-year-old girl and an immortal 100-(plus)-year-old man.

This Golden Flame by Emily Victoria

This Golden Flame by Emily Victoria

Orphaned and forced to serve her country’s ruling group of scribes, Karis wants nothing more than to find her brother, long ago shipped away. But family bonds don’t matter to the Scriptorium, whose sole focus is unlocking the magic of an ancient automaton army.

In her search for her brother, Karis does the seemingly impossible—she awakens a hidden automaton. Intelligent, with a conscience of his own, Alix has no idea why he was made… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Amnesia
Nightmares
Nonconsensual branding & scars
Medical experimentation
Death of a mother & father recounted
Murder
Knife & sword violence
Explosion
Disappearance of a sibling
Kidnapping

Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb

In a faraway land where members of the royal family are named for the virtues they embody, one young boy will become a walking enigma. Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals – the old art known as the Wit – gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism
Misogyny
Adult-minor relationship discussed
Parental abandonment
Domestic abuse
Child abuse & neglect
Suicide, attempted suicide & suicidal ideation
Depression
Alcoholism
Alcohol consumption & abuse
Recreational drug use & abuse
Infertility mentioned
Emesis
Physical injuries
Death of a father & husband
Murder & attempted murder
Poisoning
Torture
Whipping
War themes
Graphic animal death, including multiple death of pet dogs
Animal cruelty & abuse
Hunting
Animal attack mentioned