Tag Archives: Domestic Abuse & Violence

Necropolis by Jordan Hawk

Necropolis by Jordan L. Hawk

Introverted scholar Percival Endicott Whyborne has spent the last few months watching his lover, Griffin Flaherty, come to terms with the rejection of his adoptive family. So when an urgent telegram from Christine summons them to Egypt, Whyborne is reluctant to risk the fragile peace they’ve established. Until, that is, a man who seems as much animal as human tries to murder Whyborne in the museum.

Amidst the ancient ruins of the pharaohs, they must join Christine and face betrayal, murder, and a legendary sorceress risen from the dead. In the forge of the desert heat, the trio will either face their fears and stand together—or shatter the bonds between them forever.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Ableism
  • Misogyny
  • Homomisia
  • Nonconsensual kiss
  • Domestic abuse
  • Parent with alcoholism
  • Self-harm
  • Cannibalism
  • Murder
  • Physical assault
  • Kidnapping
  • Animal death
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The Righteous by Renée Ahdieh

The Righteous by Renée Ahdieh

The Court of the Lions have done everything they can to save her but have failed. A healer from the Sylvan Vale could help her, but only Arjun Desai, as a half fey, can cross the boundary between realms. The Sylvan Vale is a world Arjun despises, and in return, it despises him. But knowing it could save Odette, he returns to the Vale with all haste, leaving the mirrored tare between the two worlds open and unwittingly setting the stage for both love and war.

It’s mere days until Pippa Montrose is to wed Phoebus Devereux and become a member of his well-heeled family, offering salvation to her own. But Celine is missing. Pippa has no idea where her best friend has gone, but she’s certain it’s in the company of vampire Sébastien… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Domestic abuse recounted
  • Child abuse recounted
  • War themes
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The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison 

The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison

When the young half-goblin emperor Maia sought to learn who had set the bombs that killed his father and half-brothers, he turned to an obscure resident of his father’s Court, a Prelate of Ulis and a Witness for the Dead. Thara Celehar found the truth, though it did him no good to discover it. He lost his place as a retainer of his cousin the former Empress, and made far too many enemies among the many factions vying for power in the new Court. The favor of the Emperor is a dangerous coin.

Now Celehar lives in the city of Amalo, far from the Court though not exactly in exile. He has not escaped from politics, but his position gives him the ability to serve the common people of the city, which is his preference. He lives modestly, but his decency and fundamental honestly will not permit him to live quietly. As a Witness for the Dead… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape mentioned
  • Domestic violence
  • Suicide
  • Infanticide mentioned
  • Fire

Five Strangers by EV Adamson

Five Strangers by E.V. Adamson

With its grassy hills and breathtaking city views, London’s Hampstead Heath is the perfect place to spend an afternoon with friends and loved ones—and on an unseasonably warm Valentine’s Day, the lawns are especially full. So when an aggressive lovers’ quarrel breaks out, there’s an audience of park goers nearby to hear the shouts traded back and forth, and to watch as the violence escalates suddenly to murder, then suicide. 

For the five strangers who observed the gruesome act, the memory of the gore is unshakable. But one of them—disgraced journalist Jen Hunter—is compelled to question the truth of what she thought she saw. Are the facts of the case plain as day, or were they obscured, in the moment, by the glaring sunlight?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Domestic abuse
  • Murder-suicide

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

Set on the Korean island of Jeju, The Island of Sea Women follows Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls from very different backgrounds, as they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective. Over many decades—through the Japanese colonialism of the 1930s and 1940s, World War II, the Korean War, and the era of cellphones and wet suits for the women divers—Mi-ja and Young-sook develop the closest of bonds. Nevertheless, their differences are impossible to ignore: Mi-ja is the daughter of a Japanese collaborator, forever marking her, and Young-sook was born into a long line of haenyeo and will inherit her mother’s position leading the divers… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault
  • Domestic abuse
  • Breast mutilation
  • Jeju April 3 incident

Under Currents by Nora Roberts

Under Currents by Nora Roberts

Zane Bigelow grew up in a beautiful, perfectly kept house in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Strangers―and even Zane’s own aunt across the lake―see his parents as a successful surgeon and his stylish wife, making appearances at their children’s ballet recitals and baseball games. Only Zane and his sister know the truth, until one brutal night finally reveals cracks in the facade, and Zane escapes for college without a thought of looking back…

Years later, Zane returns to his hometown determined to reconnect with the place and people that mean so much to him, despite the painful memories. As he resumes life in the colorful town, he meets a gifted landscape artist named Darby, who is on the run from ghosts of her own.

.Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse recounted
  • Domestic violence recounted

The Next Always by Nora Roberts

The Next Always by Nora Roberts

The historic hotel in Boonsboro has endured war and peace, changing hands, even rumoured hauntings. Now it’s getting a major facelift from the Montgomery brothers and their eccentric mother. Beckett is the architect of the family, and his social life consists mostly of talking shop over pizza and beer. But there’s another project he’s got his eye on: the girl he’s been waiting to kiss since he was fifteen.

After losing her husband and returning to her hometown, Clare Brewster soon settles into her life as the mother of three young sons while running the town’s bookstore. Busy, with little time for romance, Clare is drawn across the street by Beckett’s transformation of the old inn, wanting to take a closer look . . . at the building and the man behind it… Read more.

.Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Domestic violence mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Stalking

This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

Kate Harker and August Flynn are the heirs to a divided city—a city where the violence has begun to breed actual monsters. All Kate wants is to be as ruthless as her father, who lets the monsters roam free and makes the humans pay for his protection. All August wants is to be human, as good-hearted as his own father, to play a bigger role in protecting the innocent—but he’s one of the monsters. One who can steal a soul with a simple strain of music. When the chance arises to keep an eye on Kate, who’s just been kicked out of her sixth boarding school and returned home, August jumps at it. But Kate discovers August’s secret, and after a failed assassination attempt the pair must flee for their lives.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence
  • Suicide & attempted suicide
  • Blood depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Mass shooting
  • Torture
  • Physical assault
  • Car accident
  • Arson

The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré

The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré

Despite the seemingly insurmountable obstacles in her path, Adunni never loses sight of her goal of escaping the life of poverty she was born into so that she can build the future she chooses for herself – and help other girls like her do the same.

Her spirited determination to find joy and hope in even the most difficult circumstances imaginable will “break your heart and then put it back together again” (Jenna Bush Hager on The Today Show) even as Adunni shows us how one courageous young girl can inspire us all to reach for our dreams…and maybe even change the world. 

.Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape of a minor
  • Sexual assault
  • Domestic violence

The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule

The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule

Utterly unique in its astonishing intimacy, as jarringly frightening as when it first appeared, Ann Rule’s The Stranger Beside Me defies our expectation that we would surely know if a monster lived among us, worked alongside of us, appeared as one of us. With a slow chill that intensifies with each heart-pounding page, Rule describes her dawning awareness that Ted Bundy, her sensitive coworker on a crisis hotline, was one of the most prolific serial killers in America. He would confess to killing at least thirty-six young women from coast to coast, and was eventually executed for three of those cases

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Rape
  • Necrophilia
  • Suicide
  • Domestic violence mentioned
  • Graphic murder
  • Physical assault
  • Kidnapping
  • Home invasion