Tag Archives: Exile & Estrangement

The Songbird & the Heart of Stone by Carissa Broadbent

Mische lost everything when she was forcibly Turned into a vampire – her home, her humanity, and most devastating of all, the love of the sun god to whom she had devoted her life. Now, sentenced to death for murdering the vampire prince who Turned her, redemption feels impossible. But when Mische is saved by Asar, the bastard prince of the House of Shadow with a past as brutal as his scars, she’s forced into a mission worse than execution: a journey to the underworld to resurrect the god of death himself. Yet, Mische’s punishment may be the key to her… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Statutory rape & child sexual abuse recounted
  • Sex work recounted (secondary character)
  • Exile recounted
  • Nightmares
  • Dementia (secondary character)
  • Blood & injury depiction (scars, burns, broken leg, etc) & blood-drinking, including protagonist with facial and body scars and vision impairment (loss of left eye)
  • Emesis
  • Death of a father recounted
  • Murder of sister & friend recounted
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Infanticide recounted
  • Physical assault
  • Loss of autonomy (mind invasion)
  • Imprisonment
  • Murder of a pet dog recounted

Make the Season Bright by Ashley Herring Blake

It’s been five years since Charlotte Donovan was ditched at the altar by her ex-fiancée, and she’s doing more than okay. Sure, her single mother never checks in, but she has her strings ensemble, the Rosalind Quartet, and her life in New York is a dream come true. As the holidays draw near, her ensemble mate Sloane persuades Charlotte and the rest of the quartet to spend Christmas with her family in Colorado—it is much cozier and quieter than Manhattan, and it would guarantee more practice time for the quartet’s upcoming tour. But when Charlotte arrives, she discovers that Sloane’s sister Adele also… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia mentioned
  • Parental estrangement & neglect
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Panic attacks
  • Emesis

Get Over It, April Evans by Ashley Herring Blake

April Evans’ life is in shambles. She’s had to close her tattoo shop in Clover Lake and she’s subletting her house just to make rent. And her love life? Nonexistent ever since Elena, her ex-fiancée, left her for a younger woman three years ago. When she is asked to teach a summer art class at the town’s new resort called Cloverwild, April jumps at the opportunity, especially since the job comes with boarding. She’s sure that this is the silver lining she needs . . . until she meets her Daphne Love, the woman who stole her ex-fiancée. And even worse, it’s clear Daphne has no idea… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Familial estrangement
  • Infidelity by ex-partner mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a parent mentioned

Braving the Storm by Elliott Rose

I’m not supposed to feel this way… I never wanted to disappear more than while around my family. Briar Lane, the girl only useful for one thing: my surname. A business handshake and pawn to be traded. My father’s chess piece shuffled between empires. That was my life back in L.A. but all it took was finding the dirty secret stuffed in a jacket pocket, and my entire world unraveled. So, I fled to the one place I knew they could never find me. Crimson Ridge. Arriving in this snowy, harsh world, I thought I’d be starting over on my own, but it turns out I couldn’t have been… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Statutory assault & rape, child prostitution & grooming mentioned (secondary characters)
  • Internalised victim-blaming by a rape survivor mentioned (secondary character)
  • Child abandonment & foster care system experiences mentioned (secondary character)
  • Verbal & emotional intimate partner abuse & gaslighting by ex-partner mentioned
  • Forced arranged marriage mentioned
  • Threats of disownment recounted
  • Infidelity by ex-partner discussed
  • Anxiety (protagonist) & nightmares recounted
  • Restrictive eating mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption & mentions of alcoholism
  • Suicide of a pregnant side character by overdose mentioned
  • Infertility
  • Physical head injury (on-page) & mentions of past bull-riding injuries
  • Death of parents mentioned including death during childbirth (off-page)
  • Home invasion (off-page)
  • Blackmail & nonconsensual surveillance
  • Animal abuse mentioned

*Context : A romance between an adopted uncle and his estranged niece.

First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison

Aiden Valentine has a secret: he’s fallen out of love with love. And as the host of Baltimore’s romance hotline, that’s a bit of a problem. But when a young girl calls in to the station asking for dating advice for her mom, the interview goes viral, thrusting Aiden and Heartstrings into the limelight. Lucie Stone thought she was doing just fine. She has a good job; an incredible family; and a smart, slightly devious kid. But when all of Baltimore is suddenly scrutinizing her love life-or lack thereof—she begins to question if she’s as happy as she thought. Maybe a little more romance wouldn’t be… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment & estrangement recounted
  • Parent in remission for cancer

Polaris Rising by Jessie Mihalik

In the far distant future, the universe is officially ruled by the Royal Consortium, but the High Councillors, the heads of the three High Houses, wield the true power. As the fifth of six children, Ada von Hasenberg has no authority; her only value to her High House is as a pawn in a political marriage. When her father arranges for her to wed a noble from House Rockhurst, a man she neither wants nor loves, Ada seizes control of her own destiny. The spirited princess flees before the betrothal ceremony and disappears among the stars. Ada eluded her father’s forces for two years, but now… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual harassment
  • Exile & familial disownment
  • Intimate partner violence
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Dieting & mentions of a secondary character’s stress-related weight loss
  • Physical illness & injury including knife wounds, broken bones & hypothermia
  • Murder & physical assault
  • Torture (off-page)
  • Kidnapping & imprisonment

Missing Christmas by Kate Clayborn

It’s all work and no play for long-time friends-turned-business-partners Kristen and Jasper—until an unexpected kiss turns things personal. Will it mean the end of something, or the beginning? With a major contract in the balance, Christmas around the corner, and a lot of unspoken feelings, it may take an unpredictable blizzard in New England to seal the deal…

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Emotional & physical parent abuse recounted
  • Disownment
  • Blizzard

You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian

The 1960 baseball season is shaping up to be the worst year of Eddie O’Leary’s life. He can’t manage to hit the ball, his new teammates hate him, he’s living out of a suitcase, and he’s homesick. When the team’s owner orders him to give a bunch of interviews to some snobby reporter, he’s ready to call it quits. He can barely manage to behave himself for the length of a game, let alone an entire season. But he’s already on thin ice, so he has no choice but to agree. Mark Bailey is not sports reporter. He writes for the arts page, and these days he’s barely even managing to… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical homophobia, racism & antisemitism including mentions of the gay protagonist being disowned and kicked out of home as a teenager
  • Infidelity mentioned (secondary characters)
  • Alcohol consumption & mentions of smoking, tobacco and drug use
  • Hospitalisation (secondary character)
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of an abusive parent with alcoholism in a drunk-driving accident recounted
  • Death of a partner from a heart attack discussed
  • Death of a grandparent from a heart attack recounted

Skater Boy by Anthony Nerada

Stonebridge High’s resident bad boy, Wesley “Big Mac” Mackenzie, is failing senior year—thanks to his unchecked anger, rowdy friends, and a tendency to ditch his homework for skateboarding and a secret photography obsession. So when his mom drags him to a production of The Nutcracker, Wes isn’t interested at all . . . until he sees Tristan Monroe. Mr. Nutcracker himself. Wes knows he shouldn’t like Tristan; after all, he’s a ballet dancer, and Wes is as closeted as they come. But when they start spending time together, Wes can’t seem to get Tristan out of his head… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Internalised homophobia & mentions of disownment by homophobic parents
  • Domestic violence & child abuse recounted
  • Alcoholism & alcohol abuse
  • Attempted murder

Undone by the Ex-Con by Talia Hibbert

To protect her brother, Lizzie must seduce the man she despises… Isaac Montgomery is a killer. A savage. He doesn’t belong in the glittering world of high-society, but somehow, that’s where he’s ended up. After all he’s been through, it should take more than a prima ballerina with a cut-glass accent to get under his skin. But when Isaac meets Lizzie Olusegun-Keynes, he doesn’t just lose his cool. He f$*king melts. Lizzie is losing control of her body, her life—and her desires. She shouldn’t want a man like Isaac, a man who’s rough and coarse and forceful, but the lust that sparks between them is impossible to ignore. When a… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & parental disownment
  • Internalised ableism
  • Sexual harassment
  • Diabetes
  • Blackmail

*Context : The protagonist’s employer blackmails her and threatens to out her brother.