Tag Archives: Domestic Abuse & Violence

Beautiful Oblivion by Jamie McGuire

Beautiful Oblivion by Jamie McGuire

Fiercely independent Camille “Cami” Camlin gladly moved on from her childhood before it was over. She has held down a job since before she could drive, and moved into her own apartment after her freshman year of college. Now tending bar at The Red Door, Cami doesn’t have time for much else besides work and classes, until a trip to see her boyfriend is cancelled, leaving her with a first weekend off in almost a year.

Trenton Maddox was the king of Eastern State University, dating co-eds before he even graduated high school. His friends wanted to be him, and women wanted to tame him, but after a tragic accident turned his world upside down, Trenton leaves campus to come to grips with the crushing guilt… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Cheating
  • Domestic violence discussed
  • Death of a girlfriend in a car accident recounted

Be My Valentine by Sean Young

Be My Valentine by Sean D. Young

Now that Patrice McClendon is at the helm of her mother’s aromatherapy company, she has ideas to propel Good Scents to the next level. Starting with developing a signature scent for Valentine’s Day.

She’s sure she’s found a perfumer with the training and artistry to assure the smell of success will be sweet. There’s just one problem. The best in the business is a temperamental perfectionist.

Jacques Germain is intrigued with the opportunity to work with a small-market company like Good Scents, but from his first tumultuous meeting with Patrice, her aggressive business sense overpowers the subtler notes of their underlying attraction… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence

You Had One Job by Cari Z and LA Witt

You Had One Job by Cari Z. and L.A. Witt

Nikita Ravenov. It was supposed to be a simple job—tail the Italian for an evening, see if he was up to anything shady, and report back to the Bratva. But I didn’t expect him to go into gay bars. Is someone trying to out me to the Bratva? Am I being set up? And what the hell do I do now that my mark knows I’m following him?

Lorenzo Ferrari. It’s insulting, really. My organization wants to do business with the Russians, but they’re putting tails on me? That’s just bad manners. But when that tail get a beating from his own for failing to tell them everything he knows about me, I know something is up. Now we’re both in way over our heads. Our only hope is working together. And even then, I’m not so sure we’re getting out of this.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Domestic abuse
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Drug use, on-page

The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds

The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds

Just when seventeen-year-old Matt thinks he can’t handle one more piece of terrible news, he meets a girl who’s dealt with a lot more—and who just might be able to clue him in on how to rise up when life keeps knocking him down—in this wry, gritty novel from the author of When I Was the Greatest. Matt wears a black suit every day. No, not because his mom died—although she did, and it sucks. But he wears the suit for his gig at the local funeral home, which pays way better than the Cluck Bucket, and he needs the income since his dad can’t handle the bills (or anything, really) on his own. So while Dad’s snagging bottles of whiskey… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parent with alcoholism
  • Drug use mentioned (smoking)
  • Death from cancer mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Intimate partner murder by gunshot (on-page)
  • Physical assault recounted (fistfight resulting in bloodied lip)
  • Death from gang violence mentioned
  • Homelessness

Pretty Reckless by LJ Shen

Pretty Reckless by L.J. Shen

I’d had four years to stew on what Daria Followhill did to me, and now my heart was completely iced. I took her first kiss. She took the only thing I loved. I was poor. She was rich. The good thing about circumstances? They can change. Fast. Now, I’m her parents’ latest shiny project. Her housemate. Her tormentor. The captain of the rival football team she hates so much. Yeah, baby girl, say it—I’m your foster brother. There’s a price to pay for ruining the only good thing in my life, and she’s about to shell out some serious tears. Daria thinks she is the queen. I’m about to prove to her that she’s nothing but a spoiled princess.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slur
  • Fatphobia & body-shaming
  • Grey-area cheating
  • Statutory rape recounted
  • Principal-student relationship
  • Domestic violence
  • Substance addiction
  • Alcohol consumption & overdose mentioned

The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht 

The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht

In a Balkan country mending from years of conflict, Natalia, a young doctor, arrives on a mission of mercy at an orphanage by the sea. By the time she and her lifelong friend Zóra begin to inoculate the children there, she feels age-old superstitions and secrets gathering everywhere around her. Secrets her outwardly cheerful hosts have chosen not to tell her. Secrets involving the strange family digging for something in the surrounding vineyards. Secrets hidden in the landscape itself.

But Natalia is also confronting a private, hurtful mystery of her own: the inexplicable circumstances surrounding her beloved grandfather’s recent death. After telling her grandmother that he was on his way to meet Natalia… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Domestic abuse & violence
  • Suicide

The End of Her by Shari Lapena

The End of Her by Shari Lapena

In upstate New York, Stephanie and Patrick are adjusting to life with their colicky twin babies. The girls are a handful, but Stephanie doesn’t mind being a stay-at-home mom, taking care of them while Patrick does the nine to five to pay the bills. When a woman from Patrick’s past drops in on them unexpectedly, raising questions about his late first wife, Stephanie supports her husband wholeheartedly. She knows the car accident all those many years ago was just that–an accident. But Erica is persistent, and now she’s threatening to go to the police… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic abuse
  • Alcohol consumption & drug abuse

A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena

A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena

Karen and Tom Krupp are happy—they’ve got a lovely home in upstate New York, they’re practically newlyweds, and they have no kids to interrupt their comfortable life together. But one day, Tom returns home to find Karen has vanished—her car’s gone and it seems she left in a rush. She even left her purse—complete with phone and ID—behind. There’s a knock on the door—the police are there to take Tom to the hospital where his wife has been admitted. She had a car accident, and lost control as she sped through the worst part of town… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape by coercion*
  • Cheating recounted
  • Domestic abuse recounted
  • Amnesia & memory loss (theme)
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drug abuse discussed
  • Infertility
  • Blood, gore & injury depiction including dead bodies and hospitalisation
  • Death of an ex-husband
  • Murder (off-page)
  • Gun violence (off-page)
  • Car accident
  • Disappearance of a spouse
  • Incarceration
  • Home invasion
  • Blackmail
  • Stalking

American Sweethearts by Various

He’s Come Undone: A Romance Anthology by Emma Barry, Olivia Dade, Adrianna Herrera, Ruby Lang, and Cat Sebastian

For him, control is everything…until it shatters, and now he’s come undone.

Collects Appasionata by Emma Barry, Unraveled by Olivia Dade, Caught Looking by Adrianna Herrera, Yes, and…. by Ruby Lang, and Tommy Cabot Was Here by Cat Sebastian.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Appassionata by Emma Barry– Workplace sexism mentioned
– Parental estrangement
– Anxiety
– Depression
Unraveled by Olivia Dade– Domestic violence recounted
Caught Looking by Adriana Herrera– Homomisia mentioned
Yes, And… by Ruby Lang– Parent with Early-Onset Dementia
– Panic attack, on-page
Tommy Cabot Was Here by Cat Sebastian– Homomisia
– Familial disownment
– Smoking

American Fairytale by Adriana Herrera

American Fairytale by Adriana Herrera

New York City social worker Camilo Santiago Briggs grew up surrounded by survivors who taught him to never rely on anything you didn’t earn yourself. He’s always dreamed of his own happily-ever-after, but he lives in the real world. Men who seem too good to be true…usually are. And Milo never ever mixes business with pleasure…until the mysterious man he had an unforgettable hookup with turns out to be the wealthy donor behind his agency’s new, next-level funding.

Thomas Hughes built a billion-dollar business from nothing: he knows what he wants and isn’t shy about going after it. When the enthralling stranger… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Cheating recounted
  • Domestic violence & abuse (theme)
  • Suicide joke
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Parent with depression
  • Murder of an aunt by intimate partner violence recounted
  • Death of a father from cancer recounted