Emotional Abuse & Gaslighting – Page 21

Girl Gone Viral by Alisha Rai

Girl Gone Viral by Alisha Rai

One minute, Katrina King’s enjoying an innocent conversation with a hot guy at a coffee shop; the next, a stranger has live-tweeted the entire episode with a romantic meet-cute spin and #CafeBae is the new hashtag-du-jour. The problem? Katrina craves a low-profile life, and going viral threatens the peaceful world she’s painstakingly built. Besides, #CafeBae isn’t the man she’s hungry for…

With the internet on the hunt for the identity of #CuteCafeGirl, Jas Singh, bodyguard, friend, and possessor of the most beautiful eyebrows Katrina’s ever seen, comes to the rescue and whisks her away to his family’s home. Alone in a remote setting with the object of her affections? It’s a recipe for romance. But after a long dating dry spell, Katrina isn’t sure she can trust her instincts when it comes to love—even if Jas’ every look says he wants to be more than just her bodyguard…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Misogyny
Sexual assault (groping) recounted
Emotional parental abuse
Anxiety
Panic attack, on-page
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Nightmares
Dissociation
Alcohol consumption
Death of a parent
Torture recounted
Explosion recounted
Kidnapping recounted
Blackmail
Military service recounted
Doxing

The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai

The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai

Rhiannon Hunter may have revolutionized romance in the digital world, but in real life she only swipes right on her career—and the occasional hookup. The cynical dating app creator controls her love life with a few key rules: Nude pics are by invitation only, if someone stands you up, block them with extreme prejudice, and protect your heart.

Only there aren’t any rules to govern her attraction to her newest match, former pro-football player Samson Lima. The sexy and seemingly sweet hunk woos her one magical night… and disappears.

Rhi thought she’d buried her hurt over Samson ghosting her, until he suddenly surfaces months later… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Sexual harassment
Cyberbullying & harassment
Emotionally abuse relationship recounted
Chronic illness discussed
Grief & loss depiction

Hate to Want You by Alisha Rai

Hate to Want You by Alisha Rai

One night. No one will know. That was the deal. Every year, Livvy Kane and Nicholas Chandler would share one perfect night of illicit pleasure. The forbidden hours let them forget the tragedy that haunted their pasts—and the last names that made them enemies. Until the night she didn’t show up.

Now Nicholas has an empire to run. He doesn’t have time for distractions and Livvy’s sudden reappearance in town is a major distraction. She’s the one woman he shouldn’t want… so why can’t he forget how right she feels in his bed?

Livvy didn’t come home for Nicholas, but fate seems determined to remind her of his presence—and their past. Although the passion between them might have once run hot and deep, not even love can overcome the scandal that divided their families. Being together might be against all the rules . . . but being apart is impossible.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Emotional parental abuse
Depression
Anxiety
Panic attack
Suicidal ideation
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a parent recounted
Death of a sibling recounted
Car accident recounted
Japanese internment camps mentioned

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

For a thousand years the ash fell. For a thousand years, the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years, the Lord Ruler reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Every attempted revolt has failed miserably.

Yet somehow hope survives. A new kind of uprising is being planned, one that depends on the cunning of a brilliant criminal mastermind and the courage of an unlikely heroine, a Skaa street urchin, who must learn to master Allomancy, the power of a mistborn.

What if the prophesied hero had failed to defeat the Dark Lord?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Slavery
Physical & emotional abuse
Death of a child
Blood & gore depiction
Graphic murder
Torture

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church’s double standards and their own needs and passions

Goodreads • The Sto r y Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Homomisia
Body shaming
Racism
Misogyny
Infidelity
Domestic abuse
Child abuse mentioned
Paedophilia mentioned
Emotional and physical abuse
Adult-minor relationship
Dementia
Abortion
Religious bigotry
Death of a child
Death of a parent

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

It is 1981. Glasgow is dying and good families must grift to survive. Agnes Bain has always expected more from life. She dreams of greater things: a house with its own front door and a life bought and paid for outright (like her perfect, but false, teeth). But Agnes is abandoned by her philandering husband, and soon she and her three children find themselves trapped in a decimated mining town. As she descends deeper into drink, the children try their best to save her, yet one by one they must abandon her to save themselves. It is her son Shuggie who holds out hope the longest… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

Homophobia
Rape, paedophilia & child sexual abuse
Physical & emotional child abuse
Domestic abuse
Alcoholism
Infidelity
Death of a parent

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

This is Britain as you’ve never seen it.
This is Britain as it has never been told.

From Newcastle to Cornwall, from the birth of the twentieth century to the teens of the twenty-first, Girl Woman Other follows a cast of twelve characters on their personal journeys through this country and the last hundred years. They’re each looking for something – a shared past, an unexpected future, a place to call home, somewhere to fit in, a lover, a missed mother, a lost father, even just a touch of hope . . .

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism & racial slurs
Misogyny
Homomisia
Transmisia
Misgendering
Deadnaming
Rape
Sexual assault
Domestic abuse
Emotional & physical abuse
Cheating
Drug use

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher.

2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager—and who professed to worship only her—may be far different from what she has always believed? … Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Slut-shaming
Fatmisia & body shaming
Adult-minor relationship
Student-teacher relationship
Paedophilia, grooming & child sexual abuse
Rape, including statutory rape
Sexual assault
Child pornography
Emotional abuse & gaslighting
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Dissociation
Suicide
Substance addiction
Alcoholism
Alcohol consumption & abuse
Recreational drug use
Disordered eating
Death of a dog

Iron Gold by Pierce Brown

Iron Gold by Pierce Brown

A decade ago, Darrow was the hero of the revolution he believed would break the chains of the Society. But the Rising has shattered everything: Instead of peace and freedom, it has brought endless war. Now he must risk everything he has fought for on one last desperate mission. Darrow still believes he can save everyone, but can he save himself? And throughout the worlds, other destinies entwine with Darrow’s to change his fate forever:

A young Red girl flees tragedy in her refugee camp and achieves for herself a new life she could never have imagined. An ex-soldier broken by grief is forced to steal the most valuable thing in the galaxy—or pay with his life. And Lysander au Lune, the heir in exile to the sovereign, wanders the stars with his mentor, Cassius, haunted by the loss of the world that Darrow transformed, and dreaming of what will rise from its ashes.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Emotional & physical abuse
Drug abuse
Blood & gore depiction
Murder
Torture
War themes

The Deal by Elle Kennedy

The Deal by Elle Kennedy

Hannah Wells has finally found someone who turns her on. But while she might be confident in every other area of her life, she’s carting around a full set of baggage when it comes to sex and seduction. If she wants to get her crush’s attention, she’ll have to step out of her comfort zone and make him take notice… even if it means tutoring the annoying, childish, cocky captain of the hockey team in exchange for a pretend date.

All Garrett Graham has ever wanted is to play professional hockey after graduation, but his plummeting GPA is threatening everything he’s worked so hard for. If helping a sarcastic brunette make another guy jealous will help him secure his position on the team, he’s all for it. But when one unexpected kiss leads to the wildest sex of both their lives, it doesn’t take long for Garrett to realize that pretend isn’t going to cut it. Now he just has to convince Hannah that the man she wants looks a lot like him.

Goo d reads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Misogyny
Slut-shaming
Date rape of a teenager recounted
Domestic violence
Physical & emotional child abuse
Alcohol consumption
Death of a parent from cancer, off-page
Blackmail