Military Violence & War Themes – Page 24

At Love’s Command by Karen Witemeyer

At Love’s Command by Karen Witemeyer

Haunted by the horrors of war, ex-cavalry officer Matthew Hanger leads a band of mercenaries known as Hanger’s Horsemen who have become legends in 1890s Texas. They defend the innocent and obtain justice for the oppressed. But when a rustler’s bullet leaves one of them at death’s door, they’re the ones in need of saving. Dr Josephine Burkett is used to men taking one look at her skirts and discounting her medical skills. What she’s not used to is having a man change his mind in a heartbeat and offer to assist her in surgery. Matthew Hanger’s dedication to his friend during recovery earns Josephine’s respect, and when she heart… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Sexual harassment
Gun violence
Kidnapping
Battle of Wounded Knee, on-page

Rule by Ellen Goodlett

Rule by Ellen Goodlett

The king is dying, his heir has just been murdered, and rebellion brews in the east. But the kingdom of Kolonya and the outer Reaches has one last option before it descends into leaderless chaos. Or rather, three unexpected options. Zofi has spent her entire life trekking through the outer Reaches with her band of Travelers. She would do anything to protect the band, her family. But no one can ever find out how far she’s already gone. Akeylah was raised in the Eastern Reach, surrounded by whispers of rebellion and abused by her father. Desperate to escape, she makes….. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Physical & verbal child abuse
Suicide
Self-harm
Famine
Death of a parent
Murder
Kidnapping
War themes

Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The Forgotten Kingdom by Signe Pike

AD 573. Imprisoned in her chamber, Languoreth awaits news in torment. Her husband and son have ridden off to wage war against her brother, Lailoken. She doesn’t yet know that her young daughter, Angharad, who was training with Lailoken to become a Wisdom Keeper, has been lost in the chaos. As one of the bloodiest battles of early medieval Scottish history scatters its survivors to the wind, Lailoken and his men must flee to exile in the mountains of the Lowlands, while nine-year-old Angharad must summon all Lailoken has taught her and follow her own destiny through the…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Rape recounted
Domestic violence
Cheating mentioned
Sexual assault
Death of a son
Imprisonment
War themes & battle scenes

Hexarchate Stories by Yoon Ha Lee

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

In Regency London, Zacharias Wythe is England’s first African Sorcerer Royal. And that’s only the first of his problems. He must juggle the conflicting demands of a wayward Royal Society of Unnatural Philosophers, where a faction schemes to remove him from his position by fair means or foul. He must cope with the Fairy Court refusing to grant Britain the magical resources it needs. And now the British Government is avid to deploy this increasingly scare magic in its war with France. He must also contend with rumours that he murdered his predecessor and guardian… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism & racial slurs
Colourism
Misogyny
Classism
Slavery & indentured servitude
Hallucinations mentioned
Suicide recounted
Alcohol consumption
Burns
Dead bodies
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a husband
Death of a father
Murder discussed
Fire
Death by drowning recounted
War & colonialism themes
Workplace bullying

The Valiant by Lesley Livingston

The Valiant by Lesley Livingston

Fallon is the daughter of a proud Celtic king, the sister of the legendary warrior Sorcha, and the sworn enemy of Julius Caesar. When Fallon was a child, Caesar’s armies invaded her homeland, and her beloved sister was killed in battle. Now, on the eve of her seventeenth birthday, Fallon is eager to follow in her sister’s footsteps and earn her place in the fearsome Cantii war band. She never gets the chance. Fallon is captured and sold to an elite training school for female gladiators—owned by none other than Julius Caesar. In a cruel twist of fate, the man who destroyed Fallon’s… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Slavery
Child neglect
Attempted rape & sexual assault
Death of a friend
Death of a baby brother from fever mentioned
Death of a sister recounted
Murder
Sword violence
Kidnapping
Colonialism & military violence

Witchmark by CL Polk

Witchmark by C.L. Polk

Magic marked Miles Singer for suffering the day he was born, doomed either to be enslaved to his family’s interest or to be committed to a witches’ asylum. He went to war to escape his destiny and came home a different man, but he couldn’t leave his past behind. The war between Aeland and Laneer leaves men changed, strangers to their friends and family, but even after faking his own death and reinventing himself as a doctor at a cash-strapped veterans’ hospital, Miles can’t hide what he truly is. When a fatally poisoned patient exposes Miles’ healing gift and his witch… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Slavery
Homophobia
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Dissociation & depersonalisation
Alcohol consumption
Blood depiction
Medical experimentation
Cancer
Death of a spouse
Poisoning
Strangulation
Torture
War themes

Sistersong by Lucy Holland

Sistersong by Lucy Holland

In the ancient kingdom of Dumnonia, there is old magic to be found in the whisper of the wind, the roots of the trees, and the curl of the grass. King Cador knew this once, but now the land has turned from him, calling instead to his three children. Riva can cure others, but can’t seem to heal her own deep scars. Keyne battles to be accepted for who he truly is—the king’s son. And Sinne dreams of seeing the world, of finding adventure. All three fear a life of confinement within the walls of the hold, their people’s last bastion of strength against the invading Saxons. However, change… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Misogyny
Transmisia
Misgendering
Deadnaming
Religious persecution
Pregnancy
Chronic leg & hand injury
Physical injury & illness including death from blood poisoning, head injury, and graphic burn scars
Dead body & mutilation
Death of a father, on-page
Death of a sister
Murder & attempted murder
Death from a fall, on-page
Knife & sword violence
Arrow violence
Whipping, off-page
Fire recounted
Loss of autonomy (glamour magic)
War themes & battle scenes

The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld

The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld

Three years ago, Madison Culver disappeared when her family was choosing a Christmas tree in Oregon’s Skookum National Forest. She would be eight years old now—if she has survived. Desperate to find their beloved daughter, certain someone took her, the Culvers turn to Naomi, a private investigator with an uncanny talent for locating the lost and missing. Known to the police and a select group of parents as “the Child Finder,” Naomi is their last hope. Naomi’s methodical search takes her deep into the icy, mysterious forest in the Pacific Northwest, and into her own fragmented past. She understands children like… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Antiziganism (g slur)
Incest (foster siblings)
Paedophilia, child sexual assault and rape (theme)
Child abuse and neglect
Foster care system experiences recounted
Amnesia and memory loss
Dissociation
Blood and gore depiction
Physical injuries mentioned, including the loss of an arm in an explosion while deployed
Death of a foster mother, off-page and discussed
Death of a wife from cancer mentioned
Death of a wife from suicide mentioned
Accidental infanticide
Murder by stabbing, on-page
Physical assault
Kidnapping and captivity of a child
Incarceration
Graphic animal death and hunting
Animal dead bodies and butchery, on-page

Context : The story follows a private investigator trying to find a missing child. The book is told from her POV, the missing child, and the predator who kidnapped and held the child captive. While there are no on-page scenes of sexual violence, it is clear that the captor sexually abuses and rapes the child. It is vaguely mentioned through metaphors and lyrical writing from the child’s perspective; as well as mentions of pain and blood on her legs. The predator was also raped by his captor as a child. Again, there are no on-page scenes of this.

A secondary character leaves her baby in their stroller on a bus that is parked in storage. It is unclear how the baby dies but the protagonist finds his body (off-page, no descriptions).

Across a Field of Starlight by Blue Delliquanti

Across a Field of Starlight by Blue Delliquanti

When they were kids, Fassen’s fighter spaceship crash-landed on a planet that Lu’s survey force was exploring. It was a forbidden meeting between a kid from a war-focused resistance movement and a kid whose community and planet are dedicated to peace and secrecy. Lu and Fassen are from different worlds and separate solar systems. But their friendship keeps them in each other’s orbit as they grow up. They stay in contact in secret as their communities are increasingly threatened by the omnipresent, ever-expanding empire. As the empire begins a new attack against… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Blood depiction
Emesis
Death of a parent, off-page
Gun violence
Car accident
War themes & colonialization
Animal death

Decoy Training by Caridad Piñeiro

Decoy Training by Caridad Piñeiro

Former marine Shane Adler’s used to perilous situations. But he’s stunned to find danger in the peaceful Idaho mountains—especially swirling around his beautiful dog trainer. After tragically losing her hero husband, Piper Lambert’s rebuilt her life. Now it’s up to Shane—and his loyal K-9 in training, Decoy—to make sure a mysterious enemy won’t derail her new beginning…or his.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Chronic injury sustained from a car bomb
Death of a husband recounted
Military service