Tag Archives: Death of a Partner & Spouse

Harbor by Rebekah Weatherspoon

Harbor by Rebekah Weatherspoon

Months before she’s set to walk down the aisle, assistant district attorney Brooklyn Lewis suffers an unthinkable loss. It’s bad enough her fiancé is violently taken from her, but along with her grief she must also process the fact that the man of her dreams was unfaithful. Friends and family want to see her heal, but Brooklyn doesn’t know how to move on from trauma and deception until she discovers she’s not the only one broken by this tragedy. Attorney Vaughn Coleman and his partner Chris Shaw have also lost the love of their lives, who was found lifeless in the same bed as Brooklyn’s fiancé, taken from them by the same killer… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Disownment recounted
  • Cheating (scs)
  • Child abuse mentioned
  • Sexual assault mentioned
  • Suicide, off-page
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a partner recounted
  • Murder mentioned
  • Stalking recounted

Beautifully Cruel by JT Geissinger

Beautifully Cruel by J.T. Geissinger

Alpha (noun): 1) Having the highest rank in a dominance hierarchy, 2) The most powerful man in a group, or 3) Liam Black. He was a stranger to me, a dark and dangerous presence who materialized from the shadows one rainy night to save me from a vicious attack. I didn’t know his name or where he was from. All I knew was that the only place I’d ever felt safe was in his arms. But safety is an illusion. And not every saviour is a hero. And—as I’d soon find out—having an alpha save your life comes with a price. Liam Black wanted something from me in return.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Cheating recounted*
  • Death of a girlfriend recounted
  • Murder, on-page
  • Kidnapping

*Context : The heroine’s boyfriend cheated on her in the past.

Hush by Cathleen Cole and Frank Jensen

Hush by Cathleen Cole & Frank Jensen

Hush: I had love once and lost it. Never again. That’s why I told myself she’s off limits—forbidden. It doesn’t matter that she’s as sexy and courageous as she is unexpected. Or that I can’t get her out of my mind. I’m not her happily ever after. So, I’ll help her investigate why people are going missing in the desert. But I’ll keep my hands—and my heart—to myself. That’s the plan, anyway. Seek: My dogs and my career in Search and Rescue are all I need to be happy. Or so I thought. Turns out, I need him, too. But while he’s willing to give me his… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Age-gap relationship*
  • Death of a wife recounted
  • Military service recounted
  • Murder
  • Gun violence

*Context : The hero is 52-years-old and the heroine is 27-years-old.

The Widow by Valerie Keogh

The Widow by Valerie Keogh

Grieving or guilty? When Allison’s wealthy and charming husband Peter is found dead, she appears distraught, devastated… delighted? Because despite an apparently picture-perfect marriage, Allison knows it was all built on a bed of lies. And as the truth regarding Peter’s life and death are revealed, Alison must try to keep her own dark past buried. Because if Peter was keeping secrets, then his widow is too…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Death of a husband

Speed Grieving by Allison Ellis

Speed Grieving by Allison Ellis

When Allison Ellis’s husband died of an unexpected heart attack, there was no playbook for a thirty-three-year-old widow with a breastfeeding infant. In her grief, she devised a practical strategy: find a new husband within twelve months. What transpired was a year of mourning, manic dating, and breaking hearts across Seattle on a deadline mission to heal her own.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction (theme)
  • Death of a husband from a heart attack

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

Midsummer Moon by Laura Kinsale

Midsummer Moon by Laura Kinsale

Ransom Falconer, Duke of Damerell, is sent to see if Merlin Lambourne, the famous inventor, has created a truly magnificent innovation that can be used in the war against Napoleon. What Ransom doesn’t realize is that Merlin is a woman, and not everyone wants to see her invention become a reality. Merlin Lambourne is a brilliant yet slightly eccentric scientist whose dream is to build a flying machine. Nothing can distract her from her goals, and Ransom offers her refuge at his estate-a safe haven to work on her invention undisturbed. But when Merlin’s dream puts them both at risk, Ransom must overcome his own fears and realize… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Antiziganism
  • Amnesia
  • Gambling addiction
  • Drugging
  • Concussion
  • Stillbirth recounted
  • Death of a wife recounted
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping
  • Arson

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago. Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors–until he forms a remarkable friendship with… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Drug use, off-page
  • Death of a spouse from cancer
  • Death of a child from drowning

Destructive King by Rachel Van Dyken

Destructive King by Rachel Van Dyken

‘I’m sorry for your loss.’ I would rather be tortured for eternity than hear those damn words from one more person, as if Claire, my dead fiancé, was a cell phone or car keys. How about, I’m sorry your life is over. I’m sorry you want to die too. I’m sorry you see her in your dreams and wake up only to relive the nightmare. I’m supposed to be the strongest of them all. Ash Abandonato, ruler, assassin, made man, brother, friend—instead, I hurt everyone I touch in hopes that they’ll feel even a sliver of the pain that bears down on my shoulders. I didn’t lose. It was taken from me. And it’s all her fault, Annie Smith. I daydream about… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse recounted
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a fiancé in a car accident

Nine Lives by Peter Swanson

Nine Lives by Peter Swanson

Nine strangers receive a list with their names on it in the mail. Nothing else, just a list of names on a single sheet of paper. None of the nine people know or have ever met the others on the list. They dismiss it as junk mail, a fluke – until very, very bad things begin happening to people on the list. First, a well-liked old man is drowned on a beach in the small town of Kennewick, Maine. Then, a father is shot in the back while running through his quiet neighbourhood in suburban Massachusetts. A frightening pattern is emerging, but what do these nine people have in common? Their professions range from… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Racism mentioned
  • Ableism (r slur), on-page
  • Sexual assault mentioned (groping)
  • Child abuse and neglect recounted including a mention of child sexual assault
  • Spousal abandonment
  • Abusive relationship (scs)
  • Cheating
  • Sex work, on-page
  • Familial estrangement mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption, on-page
  • Alcohol abuse (implied)
  • Recreational drug use, on-page
  • Chronic leg injury
  • Grief and loss depiction
  • Death of a girlfriend from an oxycontin overdose mentioned
  • Death of a husband and a pet dog in a car accident recounted
  • Death of a sister from drowning recounted
  • Murder by drowning
  • Murder by gun violence
  • Murder by poisoning
  • Stalking
  • Animal dead body mentioned (seagull)