Mobility Mom Book Shelf: Shallow River by H.D. Carlton

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I discovered Shallow River through a web search looking fro cark romances.

Book Description

Shallow Hill is where souls suffer slow and miserable deaths.

When River McAllister escaped from Shallow Hill, she left her innocence behind--and some of her sanity, too. Now she’s rebuilding her life with her dream man and life couldn’t be better.

Ryan Fitzgerald is everything you’d want in a man. Attractive, rich, an aspiring lawyer, and would do anything to keep River. But that’s not the only thing that attracts her. It’s his attentiveness, his possessiveness... maybe not so much his temper.

When her relationship takes a dark turn, Ryan’s estranged brother, Mako, is the only one who sees it. He knows exactly what Ryan is capable of, and it’s not the first time he had to be a knight in shining armor.

River came from Shallow Hill, though. She’s never needed saving before. What Mako doesn’t see, is that River is perfectly capable of taking care of herself.

The only one who should be scared is Ryan

About H.D Carlton

H. D. Carlton is an International Bestselling Author. She lives in Ohio with her partner, two dogs, and cat. When she's not bathing in the tears of her readers, she's watching paranormal shows and wishing she was a mermaid. Her favorite characters are of the morally gray variety and believes that everyone should check their sanity at the door before diving into her stories.

My Thoughts

Let me start by saying this book is dark. If you have any trigger warnings this book will most likely hot them so be careful diving in. Now if you are just someone like myself that gets sucked into books that are dark with morally gray characters then I say grab this book.

When I grabbed this book off Audible because let's face it who doesn't want to hear Jacob Morgan talking in your ear while you are snuggled in bed I wasn't sure what I was getting into. This book is dark like really dark. There is abuse, rape, drugs and so much more. However, it is deliciously good.

River is a strong woman. She is smart, beautiful, and determined she does not need saving. She isn't a princess but a woman bruised and scared from growing up in Shallow River a part of town no one gets out from but she did or she thinks she has.

Ryan is handsome, smart, and a lawyer to boot but he has a darker side. A side that can hurt others, especially women. The more River defies him the darker he gets till one night Ryan goes missing.

Mako is the opposite of Ryan though smart and handsome Mako believes in saving people especially River who has made it clear she doesn't need saving til she does.

I was completely captivated by this story. Though dark it had an underlying theme of hope, love, and survival. Watching River fight and survive was rather inspiring and to see her learn what true love is was beautiful. Though there were lots of twists and turns that happened as the truth was brought to light it kept me turning the page. It was complex, soul-shattering and I have never wanted so much to protect a character like I did River. Between her birth parents, the life she was dealt, and later the twist her life took by loving the wrong person it made me want to wrap River in my arms and protect her.

The author did a fabulous job writing a story that was gritty, dirty, tortuous yet inspiring, uplifting, and hopeful. I loved this story.