Involuntary Adoption – Trigger Warning Database

Body and Soul Food by Abby Collette

Body and Soul Food by Abby Collette

When Koby Hill and Keaton Rutledge were orphaned at age two, they were separated, but their unbreakable connection lingered. Years later, they reunite and decide to make up for lost time and capitalize on their shared interests by opening up a well-stocked bookstore and cozy soul-food café in the quaint Pacific Northwest town of Timber Lake. But this new chapter of their lives could end on a cliffhanger after Koby’s foster brother is found murdered. The murder, which occurred in public between light-rail stops, seems impossible for the police to solve. But as Keaton & Koby… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Adoption & foster care experiences recounted
Murder of a foster brother by poisoning

Empress of All Seasons by Holly Miller

Empress of All Seasons by Holly Miller

Each generation, a competition is held to find the next empress of Honoku. The rules are simple. Survive the palace’s enchanted seasonal rooms. Conquer Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Marry the prince. All are eligible to compete—all except yōkai, supernatural monsters and spirits whom the human emperor is determined to enslave and destroy. Mari has spent a lifetime training to become empress. Winning should be easy. And it would be, if she weren’t hiding a dangerous secret. Mari is a yōkai with the ability to transform into a terrifying monster. If discovered, her life… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Slavery
Rape
Child abuse
Parental abandonment
Self-injury
Childbirth
Forced adoption
Exile
Death by starvation
Murder
Poisoning
Explosions
Fire
Cyclones
Animal attack
Animal cruelty & death
Bullying

Black Knight by Rina Kent

Dark Deception by Rina Kent

Being born a leader taught me one thing. I take what I want. Including the lone rose who’s struggling to survive on the streets. Only I’m no knight and I won’t do any saving. If anything, I’m the nightmare she can’t wake up from. The monster she can’t escape. The devil she can’t fight. I’m the blood that’ll be coating her pure petals.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Sexual assault
Alcoholism
Nonconsensual adoption
Gun violence
Kidnapping
Homelessness

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell

Edinburgh in the 1930s. The Lennox family is having trouble with its youngest daughter. Esme is outspoken, unconventional, and repeatedly embarrasses them in polite society. Something will have to be done.

Years later, a young woman named Iris Lockhart receives a letter informing her that she has a great-aunt in a psychiatric unit who is about to be released.

Iris has never heard of Esme Lennox and the one person who should know more, her grandmother Kitty, seems unable to answer Iris’s questions. What could Esme have done to warrant a lifetime in an institution? And how is it possible for a person to be so completely erased from a family’s history?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Familial abandonment
Cheating
Incest (step-siblings)
Rape
Pregnancy from rape
Forced adoption
Death of a baby
Murder by suffocation

Little Gods by Jenny Ackland

Little Gods by Jenny Ackland

Olive Lovelock has just turned twelve. She is smart, fanciful and brave and on the cusp of something darker than the small world she has known her entire life. When she learns that she once had a baby sister who died — a child unacknowledged by her close but challenging family — Olive becomes convinced it was murder. Her obsession with the mystery and relentless quest to find out what happened have seismic repercussions for the rest of her family and their community. As everything starts to change it is Olive herself who has the most to lose as the secrets she unearths multiply and take on complicated lives of their own.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Suicide
Death of a baby sister
Nonconsensual adoption

Deadly Little Scandals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Deadly Little Scandals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Reluctant debutante Sawyer Taft joined Southern high society for one reason and one reason alone: to identify and locate her biological father. But the answers Sawyer found during her debutante year only left her with more questions and one potentially life-ruining secret. When her cousin Lily ropes her into pledging a mysterious, elite, and all-female secret society called the White Gloves, Sawyer soon discovers that someone in the group’s ranks may have the answers she’s looking for. Things are looking up… until Sawyer and the White Gloves make a disturbing discover near the family’s summer home–and uncover a twisted secret, decades in the making.

No one is quite who they seem to be.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Illegal adoption of a baby
Dead body
Death of a daughter
Attempted murder
Car accident

Will You Be Mine? by Rilzy Adams

Will You Be Mine? by Rilzy Adams

JT Johnson has been in love with his best friend for as long as he can remember. Hallie, however, seems clueless or deliberately obtuse. When she asks him to pretend to be her boyfriend for her ex-best friend’s wedding, JT hesitantly agrees. Will their escape to the Caribbean be Heaven or Hell in Paradise?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Teen pregnancy
Forced adoption

Son by Lois Lowry

Son by Lois Lowry

They called her Water Claire. When she washed up on their shore, no one knew that she came from a society where emotions and colors didn’t exist. That she had become a Vessel at age thirteen. That she had carried a Product at age fourteen. That it had been stolen from her body. Claire had a son. But what became of him she never knew. What was his name? Was he even alive? She was supposed to forget him, but that was impossible. Now Claire will stop at nothing to find her child, even if it means making an unimaginable sacrifice.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Nonconsensual child pregnancy
Caesarian childbirth
Forced adoption
Shipwreck
Animal attack

Stars Above by Marissa Meyer

Stars Above by Marissa Meyer

The enchantment continues . . .

The universe of the Lunar Chronicles holds stories—and secrets—that are wondrous, vicious, and romantic. How did Cinder first arrive in New Beijing? How did the brooding soldier Wolf transform from young man to killer? When did Princess Winter and the palace guard Jacin realize their destinies?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Forced sex work mentioned
Hallucinations
Suicide of a pregnant woman mentioned
Forced adoption mentioned
Alcohol consumption
Global pandemic
Blood depiction
Surgery and body modifications with & without consent
Nonconsensual medical treatment
Death of a father from gun violence mentioned
Murder
Near-drowning incident
Loss of autonomy (mind control)
Fire recounted

Cress by Marissa Meyer

Cress by Marissa Meyer

Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army. Their best hope lies with Cress, who has been trapped on a satellite since childhood with only her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker; unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing stop her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only ones who can.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Hallucinations
Alcohol consumption
Forced adoption recounted
Pandemic
Blood & physical injury depiction
Loss of vision
Near-death from dehydration
Medical experimentation
Torture
Gun violence
Plane crash
Kidnapping
War themes