Tag Archives: Mental Illness

Do Not Disturb by Claire Douglas

After what happened in London, Kirsty needs a fresh start with her family. And running a guesthouse in the Welsh mountains sounds idyllic. But then their first guest arrives. Selena is the last person Kirsty wants to see. It’s 17 years since she tore everything apart. Why has she chosen now to walk back into Kirsty’s life? Is Selena running from something too? Or is there an even darker reason for her visit?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Infidelity mentioned
  • Attempted suicide & mentions of depression
  • Chronic illness
  • Blackmail mentioned

The Couple at No. 9 by Claire Douglas

When pregnant Saffron Cutler moves into 9 Skelton Place with boyfriend Tom and sets about renovations, the last thing she expects is builders uncovering human remains. The remains of two bodies, in fact. Forensics indicate the bodies have been buried at least thirty years. Saffy has nothing to worry about–until the police launch a murder inquiry and ask to speak to the cottage’s former owner. Her grandmother, Rose. Rose is in a nursing home and Alzheimer’s means her memory is increasingly confused. She can’t help the police, but its’ clear she remembers something. As… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Grandparent with Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Pregnancy (protagonist)
  • Dead bodies
  • Murder recounted

Fire Colour One by Jenny Valentine

Sixteen-year-old Iris itches constantly for the strike of a match. But when she’s caught setting one too many fires, she’s whisked away to London before she can get arrested—at least that’s the story her mother tells. Mounting debt actually drove them out of LA, and it’s greed that brings them to a home Iris doesn’t recognize, where her millionaire father—a man she’s never met—lives. Though not for much longer. Iris’s father is dying, and her mother is determined to claim his life’s fortune, including his priceless art collection. Forced to live with him as part of an exploitive scheme, Iris soon realizes her father is far different… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted rape (on-page)
  • Pyromania & fire (theme, protagonist)
  • Parent with terminal ilness

Children of Fallen Gods by Carissa Broadbent

No war can be fought with clean hands. Not even the ones waged for the right reasons. Not even the ones you win. Tisaanah bargained away her own freedom to save those she left behind in slavery. Now, bound by her blood pact, she must fight the Orders’ war — and Max is determined to protect her at all costs. But when a betrayal tears apart Ara, Max and Tisaanah are pushed into an even bloodier conflict. Tisaanah must gamble with Reshaye’s power to claim an impossible victory. And Max, forced into leadership, must confront everything he hoped to forget: his past… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape mentioned
  • Trauma & nightmares
  • Blood, gore & injury depiction
  • Emesis
  • Medical experimentation
  • Murder
  • Sword violence
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)
  • Kidnapping
  • War themes & mentions of genocide

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

The Fourth Monkey by J.D. Barker

For over five years, the Four Monkey Killer has terrorized the residents of Chicago. When his body is found, the police quickly realize he was on his way to deliver one final message, one which proves he has taken another victim who may still be alive. As the lead investigator on the 4MK task force, Detective Sam Porter knows even in death, the killer is far from finished. When he discovers a personal diary in the jacket pocket of the body, Porter finds himself caught up in the mind of a psychopath, unraveling a twisted history in hopes of finding one last girl, all while struggling with personal demons of his own.… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Rape
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Domestic violence
  • Substance addiction & alcoholism
  • Drug use
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Gun violence
  • Animal death & cruelty

Desire and the Deep Blue Sea by Olivia Dade

Thomas McKinney has never wanted a woman the way he wants Callie Adesso. Since she started working alongside him at the Colonial Marysburg Research Library, he’s spent his desk shifts fumbling pencils, tripping over his own feet, and struggling to remember both the Dewey Decimal System and the existence of her inconvenient boyfriend. Now, however, Callie is suddenly single–and in need of a last-minute faux-boyfriend for an episode of HATV’s Island Match. Thomas is more than happy to play the part…and in the process, convince Callie that a week together isn’t nearly long enough. Callie has never… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Anxiety
  • Alcohol consumption

What Have We Done by Alex Finlay

Twenty five years ago, Jenna, Donnie, and Nico were the best of friends, having forged a bond through the abuse and neglect they endured as residents of Savior House, a group home for parentless teens. When the home was shut down―after the disappearance of several kids―the three were split up. Though the trauma of their childhood has never left them, each went on to live accomplished―if troubled―lives. They haven’t seen one another since they were teens but now are reunited for a single haunting reason: someone is trying to kill them. To survive, the group will have to… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment and child abuse & neglect in the foster care system recounted
  • Attempted rape of a minor mentioned
  • Gambling addiction & alcoholism
  • Drug & alcohol abuse
  • Death of parents recounted
  • Murder
  • Gun violence

Trashed by Mia Hopkins

My name is Eddie Rosas, but everyone calls me Trouble. Since I got out of prison six months ago, I’ve had one goal: find my father, whatever the cost. My older brother says I need to move on. He also wants me to leave our gang, East Side Hollenbeck, and go straight, but I can’t–not until I uncover the truth about our family and its missing piece. One problem? I’m distracted. My distraction’s name is Carmen Centeno. Smart, passionate, and tough as hell, Carmen is a woman from the neighbourhood who’s… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence recounted
  • Alcoholism
  • Substance addiction & recovery
  • Drug use
  • Gang violence
  • Gun violence
  • Car accident mentioned

Deep Down by Mia Hopkins

Resilient and disciplined, tsunami survivor Eve Ono moves to California from Japan looking for a position as a sushi chef. When she’s suddenly fired from her restaurant job, desperation drives her to find work on a fishing boat despite her fears of the ocean. To make matters worse, she’s stuck in close quarters with her new captain—a man whose raw physicality drives her out of her mind with lust. Free-spirited and roguish, Sam Lamont is a commercial fisherman aboard his own dive boat, the Bravado. When he makes a bad deal with a deadly loan shark who threatens to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Hospitalisation
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) & trauma
  • Panic attacks (on-page)
  • Death of grandparents in a tsunami recounted
  • Shark attack (on-page)