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.

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!

Trauma Bonding (in a good way)

Hails did it again!! This has to be my all time favorite book she’s written. I connected so deeply with River. I’m currently on my “healing journey” and it’s rough. Being able to see so many traits and attributes of myself within her… was indescribable. This story, these characters have become incredibly important to me and I can honestly say, have helped me.
Mako is something special, very special. PERFECT performances! Duet narration just hits all the right spots.

HD did it again!!!!!!!!!

Omg Jacob Morgan didn’t have to go so hard! I clipped so many passages in this book!!!!!! A new favorite read! Not as much spice as I expected but man the plot was AMAZING!!

Dark but great

I loved HD Carlton & wasn’t sure what this book was about. I just saw reviews that it was dark lol I am so glad I read this book. Such a great, sad, depressing, dark read..but also a great love story. Loved the twists it had & the little bit of spice. Will recommend

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!

Had me shaking my head

Letting a man treat you like that had me shaking my head.

Loved the steamy scenes with the brother though.

huge tw but I finished in 2 days

First things first because I'm seeing tw but not seeing what they are for (this doesn't ruin the plot) so - TW: SA AND DV
It's hard to not love a story that's performed by these voice actors! I mean they're just incredible and it's so hard going from these two to a book recorded with awful audio quality and no personality. Carlton does an amazing job with her fem lead (per usual) and it's always refreshing to deviate from the classic clueless woman trope to something more modern that showcases strength as well as faults.
As far as the story line and writing goes, Carlton does a fair job of expressing what unfortunately so many people experience through the main character "River". She goes through a lot of dirty small details that abuse encompasses and how anyone can become a victim. The plot is pretty predictable but definitely not overly simple. If you like a dark (and I really mean dark) romance then anything from H.D Carlton is a must!

Overall amazing

It was perfectly written and was tastefully executed given the sensitive topic. HD Carlton really did an incredible job with the twists and turns, and the gut wrenching backstories. It's definitely one I'll read/listen too again!