Shallow River

De: H. D. Carlton

Narrado por: Jacob Morgan, Michelle Sparks

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. 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 and possessiveness, but 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....

©2020 H. D. Carlton (P)2023 H. D. Carlton

Well written, amazing narrators

I'd like to start by saying that there's nothing wrong with the book as far as writing or story flow. It was written very well, and extremely powerful.
That being said, I almost quit reading this about half way through. I HATED Ryan. which is kind of the point. you are supposed to hate him. But I hated him so ridiculously much that I almost couldn't continue. The majority of the story was about him and how horrible he was.

The female isn't my favorite, but she gave a great performance overall. Just a bit dramatic in weird spots. Jacob Morgan did a FANTASTIC job. He was literally perfect.

**Spoilers ahead.**

the relationship between Mako and River was a bit ridiculous to me. They hardly spent any time together and suddenly he was in love with her? There was hardly any build up. Way too much time spent on pages about Ryan instead of interactions that could have strengthened the bond between Mako and River.

Wow

It was wild hearing a first person POV of a survival of DA, SA, etc.
It is unfortunate how often people go through abusive relationships and hearing it this way was tragic to say the least. It was extremely frustrating how often River went back, despite what was waiting for her, but that is often the case.
I can't say that I "enjoyed" listening to this book, but it was fascinating and enlightening. This book helped me remember to not take for granted the great relationship that I am in.
Definitely read the trigger warnings before picking this one up. It was tough.

The pain she endured,

I loved everything! It was the right length, the suspense-:). The hotness between Maco & River, spot on!

I loved it!

I absolutely love mako! I need more!!!! just when I thought I couldn't love anyone but zade freaking meadows mako pops in!

HD Carlton can really write it all

“Was it deranged and out of pocket? Maybe…. But was it real as fck? ABSOLUTELY”

Literally HD Carlton has a way with writing about TOUGH TO STOMACH subjects. The things she writes about are so real and I think that’s why a lot of people can’t stomach it. This sh!t was absolutely hard to read but real as fck nonetheless.

At times I couldn’t get passed how submissive River was being with Ryan. You were dealt the sh!t stick since birth but are blind to your boyfriend doing the same thing to you??? But I had to remind myself….. if you put a frog in boiling water it’ll immediately jump out, if you put it in room temp water and slowly let the water boil it’ll end up dying in the boiling water. Same goes for DV.

READ YOUR TRIGGER WARNINGS!!!! No one else is responsible for what YOU get triggered by!