Emotional Abuse & Gaslighting – Page 23

The Same Breath by Gregory Ashe

The Same Breath by Gregory Ashe

Teancum Leon, who goes by Tean, is a wildlife veterinarian. His life has settled into a holding pattern: he loves his job, he hates first dates, and he only occasionally has to deal with his neighbor Mrs. Wish’s cat-related disasters.

All of that changes, though, when a man appears in his office, asking for help to find his brother. Jem is convinced that something bad has happened to Benny, and he thinks Tean might be able to help. Tean isn’t sure, but he’s willing to try. After all, Jem is charming and sweet and surprisingly vulnerable. Oh. And hot… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Ableism
Fatmisia
Racism
Homomisia
Rape mentioned
Emotional abuse & gaslighting
Child abuse mentioned
Attempted suicide mentioned
Animal death

City of Strife by Claudie Arseneault

City of Strife by Claudie Arseneault

A hundred and thirty years have passed since Arathiel last set foot in his home city. Isandor hasn’t changed—bickering merchant families still vie for power through eccentric shows of wealth—but he has. His family is long dead, a magical trap has dulled his senses, and he returns seeking a sense of belonging now long lost.

Arathiel hides in the Lower City, piecing together a new life among in a shelter dedicated to the homeless and the poor, befriending an uncommon trio: the Shelter’s rageful owner, Larryn, his dark elven friend Hasryan, and Cal the cheese-loving halfling. When Hasryan is accused of Isandor’s most infamous assassination of the last decade, what little… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism
Parental abandonment
Physical & emotional abuse
Memory loss
Torture
Police brutality
Hanging
Death by fire mentioned
Homelessness

Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade

Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade

Marcus Caster-Rupp has a secret. While the world knows him as Aeneas, the star of the biggest show on TV, Gods of the Gates, he’s known to fanfiction readers as Book!AeneasWouldNever, an anonymous and popular poster. Marcus is able to get out his own frustrations with his character through his stories, especially the ones that feature the internet’s favorite couple to ship, Aeneas and Lavinia. But if anyone ever found out about his online persona, he’d be fired. Immediately.

April Whittier has secrets of her own. A hardcore Lavinia fan, she’s hidden her fanfiction and cosplay hobby from her “real life” for years—but not anymore. When she decides to post her latest Lavinia creation on Twitter, her photo goes viral…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Fatmisia & body shaming
Emotional parental abuse

Rafe by Rebekah Weatherspoon

Rafe by Rebekah Weatherspoon

After a nasty divorce and a thousand mile move, Dr. Sloan Copeland and her twin daughters are finally getting the hang of their new life in Los Angeles. When their live-in nanny bails with no warning, Sloan is left scrambling to find a competent caretaker to wrangle her smart, sensitive girls. Nothing less will do.

Enter Rafe Whitcomb. He’s all of those things, not to mention good-natured and one heck of a whiz in the kitchen. He’s also tall, and handsome, and bearded, and ripped, and tatted, wrist to neck.

It doesn’t take long for the Copelands to invite Rafe into their home. Just as quickly, both Sloan and Rafe find themselves succumbing to a heady mutual attraction, neither of them wants to deny.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Emotionally abusive relationship recounted
Boss-employee relationship
Death of a family member from cancer mentioned
Physical assault
Incarceration recounted

Cheer Up by Crystal Frasier

Cheer Up: Love and Pompoms by Crystal Frasier and illustrated by Val Wise

Annie is a smart, antisocial lesbian starting her senior year of high school who’s under pressure to join the cheerleader squad to make friends and round out her college applications. Her former friend BeeBee is a people-pleaser—a trans girl who must keep her parents happy with her grades and social life to keep their support of her transition. Through the rigors of squad training and amped up social pressures (not to mention micro aggressions and other queer youth problems), the two girls rekindle a friendship they thought they’d lost and discover there may be other, sweeter feelings springing up between them.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Transmisia
Fatmisia
Sexual assault
Sexual harassment
Emotional abuse

The Sailor in Polynesia by Liz Alden

The Sailor in Polynesia by Liz Alden

After fighting to keep her sailboat in a bitter divorce, Mia embraces her dream to sail the South Pacific alone. Until handsome stranger Jonas drops anchor beside her. Everything was fine; maybe my boat was a little more tired than I thought, and maybe it’s a touch lonely this far from my family. But that’s just part of sailing. Then, on a remote tropical atoll, another boat drops anchor next to me. It’s gorgeous, and so is the captain.

Jonas shows me everything that this sailing life could be—watching sunsets, snorkeling reefs, and enjoying camaraderie with his crew. A sizzling kiss sparks two blissful weeks of passion, but he’s heading to New Zealand, and my little sailboat has to stay in the gentle waters of Tahiti. There’s no way I’d give up my boat—she’s everything I’ve ever wanted. But can I give up Jonas?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Emotionally & verbally abusive relationship recounted

The Match by Sarah Adams

The Match by Sarah Adams

Having worked for Southern Service Paws for a few years now, I like to think I’m prepared for just about any client meeting under the sun. I am dead wrong.

The day I meet with single dad, Jacob Broaden, about potentially matching his daughter with one of our service dogs, I learn a few valuable lessons.

1) Always set my alarm clock.
2) Single dads are way hotter than I previously thought.
3) It is possible to go from fantasizing about kissing someone to wishing they would be run over by a truck in a matter of two minutes… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Emotional & verbal parental abuse
Epilepsy & epileptic seizures

The Places I’ve Cried in Public by Holly Bourne

The Places I’ve Cried in Public by Holly Bourne

Amelie loved Reese. And she thought he loved her. But she’s starting to realise love isn’t supposed to hurt like this. So now she’s retracing their story and untangling what happened by revisiting all the places he made her cry.

Because if she works out what went wrong, perhaps she can finally learn to get over him.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Emotional & verbal abuse
Rape
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Down Comes the Night by Allison Saft

Down Comes the Night by Allison Saft

Wren Southerland’s reckless use of magic has cost her everything: she’s been dismissed from the Queen’s Guard and separated from her best friend—the girl she loves. So when a letter arrives from a reclusive lord, asking Wren to come to his estate, Colwick Hall, to cure his servant from a mysterious illness, she seizes her chance to redeem herself.

The mansion is crumbling, icy winds haunt the caved-in halls, and her eccentric host forbids her from leaving her room after dark. Worse, Wren’s patient isn’t a servant at all but Hal Cavendish, the infamous Reaper of Vesria and her kingdom’s sworn enemy. Hal also came to Colwick Hall for redemption, but the secrets in the estate may lead to both of their deaths… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Emotional & physical abuse
Blood & gore depiction
Medical treatment & surgery
Chronic illness
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a parent
Murder
Torture
Poisoning
Kidnapping

A Touch of Ruin by Scarlett St. Clair

A Touch of Ruin by Scarlett St. Clair

Persephone’s relationship with Hades has gone public and the resulting media storm disrupts her normal life and threatens to expose her as the Goddess of Spring.

Hades, God of the Dead, is burdened by a hellish past that everyone’s eager to expose in an effort to warn Persephone away.

Things only get worse when a horrible tragedy leaves Persephone’s heart in ruin and Hades refusing to help. Desperate, she takes matters into her own hands, striking bargains with severe consequences. Faced with a side of Hades she never knew and crushing loss, Persephone wonders if she can truly become Hades’ queen.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Attempted sexual assault
Emotional abuse
Suicide
Torture
Kidnapping