Tag Archives: Death of a Parent & Guardian

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of death of a parent or guardian.

See also Death of a mother, Death of a father, and Grief & loss depiction.

The Duke Gets Even by Joanna Shupe

The Duke Gets Even by Joanna Shupe

To escape the shackles of marriage, Nellie Young purposely ruined her reputation a long time ago. Now she dedicates herself to hedonistic pleasures only, like kissing a handsome stranger in the ocean under the moonlight. To save his estate, the proper Duke of Lockwood must marry the perfect bride–wealthy, with an unblemished reputation. While in New York he’s the perfect gentleman, and no one knows he’s suppressing his darkest desires. The last thing he needs is another scandal. Except Nellie sees through Lockwood’s charade, straight to the real man under… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Period-typical misogyny & slut-shaming
  • Domestic violence, off-page (sc)
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Police corruption
  • Imprisonment

Sweet Sacrifice by Sav Miller

Sweet Sacrifice by Sav R. Miller

Fiona Ivers has been in love with her brother’s best friend since she was a kid. He’s older and oblivious to her existence—which only makes her want him more. She’s always believed he was disinterested until a charity gala pushes them together. There, she realizes maybe he pays more attention than he’s ever let on. Broody, tattooed loner Boyd Kelly has a low tolerance for distractions and has no issues letting those around him know. His best friend’s younger sister doesn’t seem to care, though. Each time the high-strung… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Human & sex trafficking
  • Parental infidelity
  • Sexual assault
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Drug abuse
  • Hospitalisation for anaphylaxis (deliberate self-exposure)
  • Parent with chronic illness
  • Death of a mother
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Organised crime

Sweet Solitude by Sav Miller

Sweet Solitude by Sav R. Miller

In the wake of her father’s death, lonely Juliet Harrison struggles with the guilt over her loss. She deals with it the way she deals with everything: by burying her feelings beneath impulsive decisions and desecrating the local graveyard. But Juliet isn’t as invisible as she believes. Hiding out from the ghosts of his past, Kieran Ivers is known in King’s Trace as a homicidal hermit. But the rumours don’t stop him from visiting the cemetery to taunt his late brother’s remains. It’s there he first spots a woman engaging in lascivious acts on her father’s grave and becomes enraptured by… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Human trafficking
  • Sexual assault, voyeurism & dubious consent scenario
  • Parental abandonment recounted
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Emesis
  • Death of a father recounted
  • Torture
  • Organised crime
  • Erotic asphyxiation

Vipers and Virtuosos by Sav Miller

Vipers and Virtuosos by Sav R. Miller

Aiden. From the second I saw her, I knew she’d be my ruin. Sitting all alone at the bar, she looked like an angel. Eurydice in human form; her beauty eclipsed by demons. Now, I’m one of them. The ghost she’s tried for years to escape. Thinking I wouldn’t be able to find her. But I never stopped trying, and now that I have, Her past sins should be the least of her worries. Riley. From the moment he saw me, I knew I’d ruin his life. Alone at the bar, I dared the monster to come and play. Orpheus in the flesh, with his sad songs and strange obsessions. I became one of them. The siren who calls… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Human trafficking mentioned
  • Adult-minor relationship*
  • Sexual assault & dubious consent scenarios
  • Physical, psychological & sexual child abuse mentioned
  • Suicide & attempted suicide mentioned
  • Self-harm discussed
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Murder mentioned
  • Stalking

*Context : The heroine is an eighteen-year-old high school student and the hero is a twenty-two-year-old man.

My Darling Duke by Stacy Reid

My Darling Duke by Stacy Reid

Miss Katherine Danvers is a desperate wallflower. Her family is on the brink of financial ruin, and it is up her to save her mother and sisters from a life of indignities. So she transforms herself into the incomparable Kitty Danvers, the fiancée of the enigmatic and reclusive Alexander Masters, Duke of Thornton—once dubbed the mad, bad, and dangerous catch of the Season. Ten years ago, society and the woman Alexander Masters loved called him a monster, after a traffic accident left him scarred and confined to a wheelchair. His… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Attempted sexual assault mentioned
  • Burn scars
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Fire recounted, off-page

Tiger’s Curse by Colleen Houck

Tiger’s Curse by Colleen Houck

Passion. Fate. Loyalty. Would you risk it all to change your destiny? The last thing Kelsey Hayes thought she’d be doing this summer was trying to break a 300-year-old Indian curse. With a mysterious white tiger named Ren. Halfway around the world. But that’s exactly what happened. Face-to-face with dark forces, spellbinding magic, and mystical worlds where nothing is what it seems, Kelsey risks everything to piece together an ancient prophecy that could break the curse forever.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Death of parents in a car accident recounted
  • Animal death (antelope)

The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard

The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard

At the age of twelve, Eve Black was the only member of her family to survive an encounter with serial attacker the Nothing Man. Now an adult, she is obsessed with identifying the man who destroyed her life. Supermarket security guard Jim Doyle has just started reading The Nothing Man–the true-crime memoir Eve has written about her efforts to track down her family’s killer. As he turns each page, his rage grows. Because Jim’s not just interested in reading about the Nothing Man. He is the Nothing Man. Jim soon beings to realize how dangerously close Eve is getting to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Murder of parents & sister recounted

Stars and Smoke by Marie Lu

Stars and Smoke by Marie Lu

Meet Winter Young – International pop sensation, with a voice like velvet and looks that could kill. His star power has smashed records, selling out stadiums from LA to London. His rabid fans would move heaven and earth for even a glimpse of him – just imagine what they’d do to become his latest fling. Meet Sydney Cossette – Part of an elite covert ops group, Sydney joined their ranks as their youngest spy with plans to become the best agent they’ve ever had. An ice queen with moves as dangerous as her comebacks, Sydney picks up languages just as quickly as she breaks… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Physical child abuse
  • Parent with alcoholism
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Dismemberment
  • Murder
  • Death of a mother recounted
  • Graphic death from poisoning
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Kidnapping

Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee

Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee

Gyen Jebi isn’t a fighter or a subversive. They just want to paint. One day they’re jobless and desperate; the next, Jebi finds themself recruited by the Ministry of Armor to paint the mystical sigils that animate the occupying government’s automaton soldiers. But when Jebi discovers the depths of the Razanei government’s horrifying crimes—and the awful source of the magical pigments they use—they find they can no longer stay out of politics. What they can do is steal Arazi, the ministry’s mighty dragon automaton, and find a way to fight…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Familial disownment
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Death of a spouse mentioned
  • Physical assault
  • Torture
  • Imprisonment
  • Blackmail
  • Earthquake
  • Colonialism

Daring and the Duke by Sarah MacLean

Daring and the Duke by Sarah MacLean

Grace Condry has spent a lifetime running from her past. Betrayed as a child by her only love and raised on the streets, she now hides in plain sight as queen of London’s darkest corners. Grace has a sharp mind and a powerful right hook and has never met an enemy she could not best, until the man she once loved returns. Single-minded and ruthless, Ewan, Duke of Marwick, has spent a decade searching for the woman he never stopped loving. A long-ago gamble may have lost her forever, but Ewan will go to any lengths to win Grace back… and make her his duchess… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse recounted
  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Explosion
  • Fire