Tag Archives: Death of a Partner & Spouse

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of death of a spouse and partner.

See also Death of a husband, Death of a wife, and Grief & loss depiction.

Passion Project by London Sperry

If your twenties are supposed to be the best years of your life, Bennet Taylor is failing miserably . . . with a big emphasis on the miserable. Where’s that zest she keeps hearing about? She’s a temp worker in New York City with no direction, no future, and no social life. And at the painful center of this listlessness is grief over the death of her first love. When Bennet runs into Henry Adams just hours after standing him up for a first date, she makes an alcohol-fueled confession: She’s not ready to date. In fact, it’s been years since she felt passion for something. Not even pottery, or organized sports—not anything. Rather than leaving… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Depression (protagonist)
  • Parent with Alzheimer’s’ Disease mentioned (secondary character)
  • Death of a boyfriend mentioned

Between Now and Forever by Adriana Locke

When Gabrielle Solomon falls, she falls hard. Even if that means literally toppling over a porch railing in nothing but a flimsy towel—right in front of her sexy new neighbor. .Jay Stetson is 100 percent hero material with those arms, that chest, and his deliciously oh-so-sexy smirk. The chiseled hunk in flannel has an irresistible off-limits attitude while plucking Gabrielle out of the bushes and saving her from a snake. Unfortunately, he’s not indulging in what Gabrielle is offering—not with his emotional train wreck of a past. Just neighbors. Just friends. Or so he says. Secretly, he’s… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a partner

In Which Matilda Halifax Learns the Value of Restraint by Alexandra Vasti

For seven years, Matilda Halifax and her twin have been the most scandalous ladies in London. But when Matilda accidentally sells erotic drawings of the brooding, reclusive Marquess of Ashford, she has—perhaps—gone a bit too far. Christian de Bord, Lord Ashford, knows what it’s like to be notorious. Ever since he was accused of murdering his wife, prurient gossip has kept him isolated from society, alone and determined to protect his adolescent sister Bea. But when Matilda Halifax’s salacious pamphlet appears—featuring his own damned face!—he’s thrust back into the storm of… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted sexual assault recounted
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of parents recounted
  • Death of a spouse recounted

The Family Inside by Katie Garner

It takes a special family to turn a home into a nightmare. Since her husband’s unsolved murder three years ago, Iris Blodgett’s life has unraveled. Awash in grief and buried in debt, she can’t pay her mortgage—and now that she’s lost her job, she has no idea how she’ll provide for her unruly teenage daughter, Ellory. Facing eviction, Iris turns to her new beau, prominent architect Hugh Smoll, for a shoulder to cry on. But the seemingly perfect Hugh offers her something more in an invitation to move into his mother’s centuries-old mansion while he renovates the property. It seems like… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Heart disease & heart attack mentioned
  • Childbirth
  • Death of a husband

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Sixty-year-old self-proclaimed tea expert Vera Wong enjoys nothing more than sipping a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy ‘detective’ work on the internet (AKA checking up on her son to see if he’s dating anybody yet). But when Vera wakes up one morning to find a dead man in the middle of her tea shop, it’s going to take more than a strong Longjing to fix things. Knowing she’ll do a better job than the police possibly could – because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands – Vera decides it’s down to her to catch… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Spousal emotional, verbal & financial abuse recounted
  • Dead bodies
  • Hospitalisation
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a sibling
  • Death of a spouse
  • Murder

Meant to Be by Jennifer Probst

It’s been two years since Chiara Kennedy lost her dearest friend, Rory. Chiara misses everything about her. Rory’s widowed husband is another story. Sebastian Ryder is a man Chiara had secretly wanted, let slip away, and hoped to never see again. Then fate throws them together for an unexpected one-night stand and a morning after of new challenges. Sebastian had a soul mate in Rory. Shutting down after his tragic loss, he kept a cool distance from everyone—including Chiara, with whom he once shared a deep if fleeting affection. That was over and done with a… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Dubious consent scenario*
  • Drugging
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a wife

*Context : The protagonists have sex while the male protagonist is drugged (he intercepts a roofied drink intended for her) and the female protagonist believes she is having a dream. She becomes pregnant.

The First Mistake by Sandie Jones

THE WIFE: For Alice, life has never been better. With her second husband, she has a successful business, two children, and a beautiful house. HER HUSBAND: Alice knows that life could have been different if her first husband had lived, but Nathan’s arrival into her life gave her back the happiness she craved. HER BEST FRIEND: Through the ups and downs of life, from celebratory nights out to comforting each other through loss, Alice knows that with her best friend Beth by her side, they can survive anything together. So when Nathan starts acting strangely, Alice… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Abandonment
  • Depression
  • Death of a spouse

Kiss the Villain by Rina Kent

I’m a golden boy. A genius law student, the heir to the Carson empire, and the dutiful son. Or, at least, that’s what it looks like from the outside. Deep inside, I have the urge to set the world on fire. I keep these impulses in check, rarely indulging in mayhem. Until one night of debauchery backfires, and I’m caught by a villain. I bury the entire ordeal with the rest of my skeletons. That is, until that night walks into my classroom in the form of my new professor. Kayden Lockwood. A criminal who’s teaching criminal law. I can’t expose what he’s done without unmasking my secret life. What I can do, however, is force him to taste the poison… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape (protagonist) including dubious consent scenarios, consensual non-consent (cnc), mentions of the protagonist’s wife being gang-raped and murdered, and mentions of the rape of the protagonist’s high school girlfriend by her father
  • Intimate partner abuse including one partner shooting the other with an arrow (twice)
  • Teacher-student relationship
  • Self-harm
  • Drugging
  • Murder of a wife recounted
  • Torture
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Kidnapping

You Deserve to Know by Aggie Blum Thompson

Neighbors Gwen, Aimee, and Lisa share more than playdates and coffee mornings on their tranquil street in East Bethesda. They confide their deepest secrets, navigate the challenges of motherhood together, and provide a support system that seems unbreakable. Then Gwen’s husband is found murdered after one of their weekly Friday night dinners, and the peaceful quiet of their cul-de-sac shatters. The seemingly idyllic world of the three close-knit friends becomes a web of deception, betrayal, and revenge.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Death of a spouse
  • Blackmail

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty of life here, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; nine-year-old Orly, obsessed… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Adult-minor relationship
  • Infidelity
  • Death of a spouse from cancer
  • Drowning
  • Wildfire
  • Animal cruelty recounted